Occasional changes in sound location enhance middle latency evoked responses

Brain Res. 2006 Mar 3;1076(1):187-92. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2005.12.093. Epub 2006 Feb 17.

Abstract

Rapid processing of sound location is critical for orienting attention. The present study investigated whether contextually sensitive early neural responses elicited by occasional changes in sound location could be measured. Using an oddball paradigm with stimuli consisting of brief noise bursts whose location was occasionally varied using head-related transfer functions, we found significant enhanced negativities in the event-related potentials elicited by deviant stimuli as early as 25 ms after stimulus onset, in addition to the differences around 125 ms which have previously been reported. Recent research suggests that occasional changes in auditory location information are processed in areas beyond primary auditory cortex. Our data suggest that any such processing is in fact preceded by activation in primary auditory cortex.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation / methods
  • Adult
  • Attention / physiology*
  • Auditory Cortex / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping
  • Contingent Negative Variation
  • Evoked Potentials, Auditory / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Reaction Time / physiology*
  • Sound Localization / physiology*
  • Time Factors