Processing of novel sounds and frequency changes in the human auditory cortex: Magnetoencephalographic recordings

Author(s): Winkler, I., Escera, C., Huotilainen, M., Virtanen, J., Jaaskelainen, I. P., Pekkonen, E., Ilmoniemi, R. J.

Journal/Book: Psychophysiology. 1998; 35: 40 West 20TH Street, New York, NY 10011-4211. Cambridge Univ Press. 211-224.

Abstract: Whole-head magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses to repeating standard tones and to infrequent slightly higher deviant tones and complex novel sounds were recorded together with event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Deviant tones and novel sounds elicited the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the ERP and its MEG counterpart (MMNm) both when the auditory stimuli were attended to and when they were ignored. MMNm generators were located bilateral to the superior planes of the temporal lobes where preattentive auditory discrimination appears to occur. A subsequent positive P3a component was elicited by deviant tones and with a larger amplitude by novel sounds even when the sounds were to be ignored. Source localization for the MEG counterpart of P3a (P3am) suggested that the auditory cortex in the superior temporal plane is involved in the neural network of involuntary attention switching to changes in the acoustic environment.

Note: Article Alho K, Univ Helsinki, Dept Psychol, Cognit Brain Res Unit, POB 13, FIN-00014 Helsinki, FINLAND

Keyword(s): auditory cortex; attention; MEG; novel sounds; mismatch negativity; P3a; EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS; DIPOLE-MODEL ANALYSIS; MISMATCH NEGATIVITY; SELECTIVE-ATTENTION; VISUAL-STIMULI; SENSORY MEMORY; INTRACEREBRAL POTENTIALS; RARE TARGET; SOURCE LOCALIZATION; TEMPORAL LOBECTOMY

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