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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2001

KIMMO ALHO ,
ISTVÁN WINKLER ,
CARLES ESCERA ,
MINNA HUOTILAINEN ,
JUHA VIRTANEN ,
IIRO P. JÄÄSKELÄINEN ,
EERO PEKKONEN  and
RISTO J. ILMONIEMI
KIMMO ALHO
Affiliation:
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland Neurodynamics Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Spain
ISTVÁN WINKLER
Affiliation:
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
CARLES ESCERA
Affiliation:
Neurodynamics Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Spain
MINNA HUOTILAINEN
Affiliation:
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland BioMag Laboratory, Medical Engineering Centre, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland
JUHA VIRTANEN
Affiliation:
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland BioMag Laboratory, Medical Engineering Centre, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland Department of Radiology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland
IIRO P. JÄÄSKELÄINEN
Affiliation:
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland BioMag Laboratory, Medical Engineering Centre, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland
EERO PEKKONEN
Affiliation:
Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Finland BioMag Laboratory, Medical Engineering Centre, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland Department of Neurology, University of Helsinki, Finland
RISTO J. ILMONIEMI
Affiliation:
BioMag Laboratory, Medical Engineering Centre, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland
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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.

Keywords

Auditory cortexAttentionMEGNovel soundsMismatch negativityP3a
Type
Research Article
Information
Psychophysiology , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , March 1998 , pp. 211 - 224
Copyright
1998 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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