Responses of the human auditory cortex to changes in one versus two stimulus features

Exp Brain Res. 1993;97(1):177-83. doi: 10.1007/BF00228828.

Abstract

Neuromagnetic responses were recorded with a 24-SQUID magnetometer in two "oddball" experiments to determine whether mismatch responses to changes in single stimulus features are additive. In experiment 1, the one-feature deviants differed from standards in interstimulus interval (ISI) or frequency, and the two-feature deviants in both ISI and frequency. In experiment 2, deviants differed in duration, frequency, or both. All deviants evoked a mismatch field (MMF) with sources close to each other in the supratemporal auditory cortex. Except for the ISI deviants, the MMF sources were about 1 cm anterior to the source of the 100-ms response, N100m, to the standards. In the two experiments, MMFs obtained in response to the two-feature deviants resembled closely the sum of MMFs in response to one-feature deviants. The results suggest that the standards leave a multiple neuronal representation in the human auditory cortex. The particular neuronal traces of the representation react independently to changes in different features of sound stimuli.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Adult
  • Auditory Cortex / physiology*
  • Evoked Potentials, Auditory / physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetoencephalography
  • Male
  • Orientation / physiology
  • Reaction Time / physiology