Spatial location is accurately tracked by human auditory sensory memory: evidence from the mismatch negativity

Abstract

The nature of spatial representation in human auditory cortex remains elusive. In particular, although humans can discriminate the locations of sounds as close as 1-10 degrees apart, such resolution has not been shown in auditory cortex of humans or animals. We used the mismatch negativity (MMN) event related brain potential to measure the neural response to spatial change in humans in narrow 10 degree spatial steps. Twelve participants were tested using a dense array EEG setup while watching a silent movie and ignoring the sounds. The MMN was reliably elicited by infrequent changes of spatial location of sounds in free field. The MMN amplitude was linearly related to the degree of spatial change with a resolution of at least 10 degrees. These electrophysiological responses occurred within a window of 100-200 milliseconds from stimulus onset, and were localized to the posterior superior temporal gyrus. We conclude that azimuthal spatial displacement is rapidly, accurately and automatically represented in auditory sensory memory in humans, at the level of the auditory cortex.

Detecting violations of sensory expectancies following cerebellar degeneration: A mismatch negativity study

“…As can be seen in Figure 3, the MMN to location deviants had a clear double peak, consistent with previous reports (Tata & Ward, 2005;Deouell et al, 2006). The first peak reached maximum amplitude around 120 ms and the second around 195 ms.…”

“…Moreover, the amplitude and latency of the MMN has been shown to be related to the magnitude of deviation along a variety of dimensions (e.g. Tiitinen et al, 1994;Yago et al, 2001;Amenedo & Escera, 2000;Deouell et al, 2006), and can thus provide objective measures of the representation of a specific dimension in sensory memory. This makes the MMN a promising tool for investigating the integrity of sensory processing and prediction in clinical groups (Näätänen, 2003).…”

Learning-Induced Plasticity in Auditory Spatial Representations Revealed by Electrical Neuroimaging

“…5). Parietal and posterior temporal cortices have been shown to be implicated in auditory spatial functions in man (Griffiths et al, 1998;Bushara et al, 1999;Maeder et al, 2001;Weeks et al, 2001;Ducommun et al, 2002;Deouell et al, 2006;Sonnadara et al, 2006;Tardif et al, 2006;De Santis et al, 2007) and nonhuman primate (Stricane et al, 1996;Schlack et al, 2005). Previous studies on ITD processing have shown that left hemisphere responds more specifically to stimuli lateralized in the right hemispace whereas right hemisphere respond to stimuli in the left or right hemispace (Kuwada and Yin, 1983;Caird and Klinke, 1987).…”

Processing of Auditory Location Changes after Horizontal Head Rotation

“…However, human electroencephalography (EEG) in principle allows head movements, and it provides a well studied and reliable electrophysiological marker for auditory spatial processing: the mismatch negativity (MMN) which is elicited by infrequent changes of sound location after repetitive stimulation from the same location (Paavilainen et al, 1989;Schröger and Wolff, 1996;Winkler et al, 1998;Kaiser et al, 2000). EEG and fMRI studies have shown that the MMN to spatial changes is modulated by the extent of spatial deviation and that it might be generated in the planum temporale (Deouell et al, 2006(Deouell et al, , 2007. Possibly, these MMN generators are part of the dorsal wherepathway which has been proposed based on neurophysiological studies in nonhuman primates suggesting that cortical processing of auditory sound localization occurs along a dorsal stream including the caudal parts of the auditory belt, posterior parietal, and dorsal prefrontal cortex (Rauschecker, 1998;Romanski et al, 1999).…”