Preattentive Memory-Based Comparison of Sound Intensity

Abstract

Changes in the intensity of repeated, ignored sounds elicit the mismatch negativity (MMN) brain response which reflects preattentive detection of the change. It is generally assumed that the MMN in response to intensity changes reflects a memory-based comparison mechanism rather than being due to differential states of refractoriness of intensity-specific cortical neurons. In the present study, an experimental protocol consisting of 4 oddball blocks and 1 control block was used in order to separate memory-comparison-related effects from refractoriness-related ones. This design allowed an assessment of intensity MMN using physically identical stimuli with equal probability of occurrence in separate blocks, while avoiding contamination by refractoriness. Results were consistent with an MMN in response to intensity change that reflects genuine memory-based comparison.

Enhancement of brain event-related potentials to speech sounds is associated with compensated reading skills in dyslexic children with familial risk for dyslexia

“…Several studies controlling for the MMN-N1 overlap in adults exists (e.g., Campbell, Winkler, & Kujala, 2007;Horváth, Czigler, Jacobsen, Maess, Schröger, & Winkler, 2008;Jacobsen, Horenkamp, & Schröger, 2003;Jacobsen & Schröger, 2001;Schröger, 2007;Schröger & Wolff, 1996). In children, however, there is only one study using a control condition and it concerns maturation of N1 rather than separation of MMN from N1 .…”

Structural integration in language and music: Evidence for a shared system

“…Finally, the auditory-anomaly conditions were created using the recordings of the critical region of the inkey conditions. In particular, we used the audio manipulation program Audacity (available at audacity.sourceforge.net) to increase the loudness of the last word in the RC by 10 dB, a value chosen on the basis of neuroimaging research indicating that this amount of change in an auditory sequence elicits a mismatch negativity (Jacobsen, Horenkamp, & Schröger, 2003;Näätänen, Pakarinen, Rinne, & Takegata, 2004).…”

Neurophysiological evidence for context-dependent encoding of sensory input in human auditory cortex

“…That is, the probe tone and comparison tone were physically identical. This type of comparison, which leaves only the response related to the role the stimulus played in the sequence (e.g., deviant or standard), results in a reasonable estimation of the intensity MMN (i.e., not derived from refractoriness of the neurons) based upon the memory comparison of intensity within the context that the sounds occur (Jacobsen et al, 2003).…”

“…Additionally, Sussman et al (2005a) found no significant difference in the amplitude of the MMN elicited in conditions of highly focused attention to a visual task compared to a low load visual task (watching a video) (see also Winkler et al, 2005). Thirdly, Näätänen and his coworkers established that the process generating the MMN component is based on an auditory sensorymemory representation of the standard and not by differences in the refractory state of the neural elements activated by the standard and the deviant stimuli (Näätänen, 1992;Näätänen and Alho, 1997;Näätänen and Winkler, 1999); see also Jacobsen et al, 2003). Finally, the MMN shows good correspondence with the perception of the same sounds in performance of active tasks, including, but not limited to, the ability to index the amount of change (Tiitinen et al, 1994), to index the distinction between one and two auditory streams , and to index learning effects (Näätänen et al, 1993).…”