The hemodynamics of oddball processing during single-tone and two-tone target detection tasks

Abstract

Event-related potential (ERP) studies have shown that the neural systems engaged during performance of oddball tasks are sensitive to contextual manipulations, such as the number of stimulus classes. Some ERP components (i.e., N1) are modulated by the number of stimulus types, while others (i.e., P3) are not greatly affected. However, little is known about how these contextual manipulations affect the hemodynamics underlying oddball processing. The purpose of this study was to examine the hemodynamic correlates of target stimulus processing in singletone (targets alone) and two-tone (targets and standard tones) auditory oddball tasks. The primary hypothesis was that processing of salient stimuli in both contextual conditions would engage the same spatially distributed cortical and subcortical networks observed in previous oddball fMRI studies. Results were consistent with this hypothesis and suggest that the brain engages many potentially useful brain regions during salient stimulus processing despite the low probability that said regions are necessary for task performance, which likely reflects a form of "adaptive reflexive processing." Results also were consistent with ERP data that shows the N1 is larger for single-tone tasks by showing greater amplitude of hemodynamic response for singletone targets, relative to two tone targets, in bilateral temporal cortex and bilateral inferior lateral frontal cortex. The results are discussed as they relate to the understanding of neurocognitive function pertaining to contextual manipulations in general, and orienting processes in particular. Keywords ORIENTING; MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING; BRAIN; PSYCHOLOGY; COGNITIONThe neural systems underlying processing of low probability target stimuli have been studied for over four decades. The impact of salient stimulus processing on brain electrical activity was first described by Sutton et al. (1965), who demonstrated that infrequently-presented taskrelevant stimuli ("oddballs") produce a sequence of time-locked electrical components, the NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript most prominent of which is a large positive potential that peaks approximately 300 milliseconds following the stimulus onset. This late event-related potential (ERP), termed the P300 or P3, is thought to reflect stimulus evaluation/categorization, and cognitive processes necessary to update mental models of context within working memory (Donchin & Coles, 1988). Since Sutton et al's seminal study, numerous reports have been published that detail how contextual manipulations in the oddball paradigm (e.g., manipulations of stimulus probability, inter-trial interval, sensory modality, etc.) modulate the latency, amplitude or topographic distribution of the P3 .One contextual manipulation to the oddball task is to alter the number of stimulus classes presented within the task. Researchers most commonly use oddball tasks having either twostimulus classes (low probability targets juxtaposed with frequent standards) or ...

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