Magnetoencephalographic Correlates of Perceptual State During Auditory Bistability

Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 17;8(1):976. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-19287-0.

Abstract

Bistability occurs when two alternative percepts can be derived from the same physical stimulus. To identify the neural correlates of specific subjective experiences we used a bistable auditory stimulus and determined whether the two perceptual states could be distinguished electrophysiologically. Fourteen participants underwent magnetoencephalography while reporting their perceptual experience while listening to a continuous bistable stream of auditory tones. Participants reported bistability with a similar overall proportion of the two alternative percepts (52% vs 48%). At the individual level, sensor space electrophysiological discrimination between the percepts was possible in 9/14 participants with canonical variate analysis (CVA) or linear support vector machine (SVM) analysis over space and time dimensions. Classification was possible in 14/14 subjects with non-linear SVM. Similar effects were noted in an unconstrained source space CVA analysis (classifying 10/14 participants), linear SVM (classifying 9/14 subjects) and non-linear SVM (classifiying 13/14 participants). Source space analysis restricted to a priori ROIs showed discrimination was possible in the right and left auditory cortex with each classification approach but in the right intraparietal sulcus this was only apparent with non-linear SVM and only in a minority of particpants. Magnetoencephalography can be used to objectively classify auditory experiences from individual subjects.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation / methods
  • Adult
  • Auditory Cortex / physiology*
  • Auditory Perception / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping / methods
  • Evoked Potentials, Auditory / physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetoencephalography / methods
  • Male
  • Support Vector Machine
  • Young Adult