Auditory evoked transient and sustained magnetic fields of the human brain. Localization of neural generators

Dissociation of human and computer voices in the brain: evidence for a preattentive gestalt-like perception

We investigated the early ("preattentive") cortical processing of voice information, using the so-called "mismatch response". This brain potential allows inferences to be made about the sensory short-term store. Most importantly, the mismatch potential also provides information about the organization of long-term memory traces in the auditory system. Such traces have reliably been reported for phonemes. However, it is unclear whether they also exist for human voice information. To explore this issue, 10 healthy subjects were presented with a single word stimulus uttered by voices of different prototypicality (natural, manipulated, synthetic) in a mismatch experiment (stimulus duration 380 msec, onset-to-onset interval 900 msec). The event-related magnetic fields were recorded by a 148-channel whole-head magnetometer and a source current density modeling of the magnetic field data was performed using a minimum-norm estimate. Each deviating voice signal in a series of standard-voice stimuli evoked a mismatch response that was localized in temporal brain regions bilaterally. Increased mismatch related magnetic flux was observed in response to decreased prototypicality of a presented voice signal, but did not correspond to the acoustic similarity of standard voice and deviant voices. We, therefore, conclude that the mismatch activation predominantly reflects the ecological validity of the voice signals. We further demonstrate that the findings cannot be explained by mere acoustic feature processing, but rather point towards a holistic mapping of the incoming voice signal onto long-term representations in the auditory memory.

N100m in children possessing absolute pitch

We recorded the auditory evoked magnetic fields from children with and without absolute pitch under the following conditions: (a) hearing 1000 Hz pure tones inattentively, (b) hearing eight random tones inattentively and (c) listening to eight random tones and identifying each tone. We calculated the appearance rate of N100m as the ratio of the subjects who had N100m. There was a significant positive correlation between the appearance rate of N100m and age in both groups. There was also a significant positive correlation between the appearance rate of N100m and the kinds of the task only in children without absolute pitch. These results suggest that, in the children with absolute pitch, N100m was elicited equally in every session because of their automatically driven auditory attention. No significant correlation was found between the appearance rate of N100m and the possession of absolute pitch.

Evidence for disturbed cortical signal processing and altered serotonergic neurotransmission in generalized anxiety disorder

BACKGROUND

Current pathophysiological concepts of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) assume a disturbed exteroceptive sensory system. Furthermore, central serotonergic neurotransmission has been shown to play an important role in anxiety disorder. Cortical signal processing as measured by auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) may reflect the integrity of the exteroceptive sensory system. Because a special aspect of AEP, the loudness dependence of the N1/P2-component (LD), has been related to central serotonergic activity, the LD may be useful for investigating serotonergic dysfunctions in GAD.

METHODS

The LD was recorded in 31 medication-free patients with GAD without any psychiatric co-morbidity and in 31 matched control subjects. Dipole source analysis was performed to separate the LD of regions including the primary (LD-tangential dipole) and regions including the secondary auditory cortex (LD-radial dipole).

RESULTS

A shallower LD-tangential was observed in patients with GAD as compared to healthy control subjects [F(1,60) = 6.727, p =.012; one-way analysis of variance]. The LD-radial showed no differences between groups. Severity of the anxiety symptoms was not related to the LDs.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate an altered exteroceptive sensory system in GAD occurring at the level of the primary but not secondary auditory cortex. Because a shallow LD of the primary auditory cortex was related to a high firing rate of neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus, the results may support evidence for an enhanced serotonergic activity in GAD.

Dopamine modulates involuntary attention shifting and reorienting: an electromagnetic study

OBJECTIVE

Dopaminergic function has been closely associated with attentional performance, but its precise role has remained elusive.

METHODS

Electrophysiological and behavioral methods were used to assess the effects of dopamine D2-receptor antagonist haloperidol on involuntary attention shifting using a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over design. Eleven subjects were instructed to discriminate equiprobable 200 and 400ms tones in a forced-choice reaction-time (RT) task during simultaneous measurement of whole-head magnetoencephalography and high-resolution electroencephalography.

RESULTS

Occasional changes in task-irrelevant tone frequency (10% increase or decrease) caused marked distraction on behavioral performance, as shown by significant RT increases to deviant stimuli and subsequent standard tones. Furthermore, while the standard tones elicited distinct P1-N1-P2-N2-P3 waveforms, deviant tones elicited additional mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a, and reorienting negativity (RON) responses, indexing brain events associated with involuntary attention shifting. While haloperidol did not affect the source loci of the responses of magnetic N1 and MMN, the amplitude of the electric P3a and that of RON were significantly reduced and the latency of magnetic RON were delayed following haloperidol administration.

CONCLUSIONS

The present results suggest that dopamine modulates involuntary attention shifting to task-irrelevant deviant events. It appears that dopamine may disrupt the subsequent re-orienting efforts to the relevant task after distraction.

Modulation of the auditory cortex during speech: an MEG study

Several behavioral and brain imaging studies have demonstrated a significant interaction between speech perception and speech production. In this study, auditory cortical responses to speech were examined during self-production and feedback alteration. Magnetic field recordings were obtained from both hemispheres in subjects who spoke while hearing controlled acoustic versions of their speech feedback via earphones. These responses were compared to recordings made while subjects listened to a tape playback of their production. The amplitude of tape playback was adjusted to match the amplitude of self-produced speech. Recordings of evoked responses to both self-produced and tape-recorded speech were obtained free of movement-related artifacts. Responses to self-produced speech were weaker than were responses to tape-recorded speech. Responses to tones were also weaker during speech production, when compared with responses to tones recorded in the presence of speech from tape playback. However, responses evoked by gated noise stimuli did not differ for recordings made during self-produced speech versus recordings made during tape-recorded speech playback. These data suggest that during speech production, the auditory cortex (1) attenuates its sensitivity and (2) modulates its activity as a function of the expected acoustic feedback.

Human cortical dynamics determined by speech fundamental frequency

Evidence for speech-specific brain processes has been searched for through the manipulation of formant frequencies which mediate phonetic content and which are, in evolutionary terms, relatively "new" aspects of speech. Here we used whole-head magnetoencephalography and advanced stimulus reproduction methodology to examine the contribution of the fundamental frequency F0 and its harmonic integer multiples in cortical processing. The subjects were presented with a vowel, a frequency-matched counterpart of the vowel lacking in phonetic contents, and a pure tone. The F0 of the stimuli was set at that of a typical male (i.e., 100 Hz), female (200 Hz), or infant (270 Hz) speaker. We found that speech sounds, both with and without phonetic content, elicited the N1m response in human auditory cortex at a constant latency of 120 ms, whereas pure tones matching the speech sounds in frequency, intensity, and duration gave rise to N1m responses whose latency varied between 120 and 160 ms. Thus, it seems that the fundamental frequency F0 and its harmonics determine the temporal dynamics of speech processing in human auditory cortex and that speech specificity arises out of cortical sensitivity to the complex acoustic structure determined by the human sound production apparatus.

Early parallel processing of auditory word and voice information

The present study investigates the relationship of linguistic (phonetic) and extralinguistic (voice) information in preattentive auditory processing. We provide neurophysiological data, which show for the first time that both kinds of information are processed in parallel at an early preattentive stage. In order to establish the temporal and spatial organization of the underlying neuronal processes, we studied the conjunction of voice and word deviations in a mismatch negativity experiment, whereby the listener's brain responses were collected using magnetoencephalography. The stimuli consisted of single spoken words, whereby the deviants manifested a change of the word, of the voice, or both word and voice simultaneously (combined). First, we identified the N100m (overlain by mismatch field, MMF) and localized its generators, analyzing N100 m/MMF latency, dipole localization, and dipole strength. While the responses evoked by deviant stimuli were more anterior than the standard, localization differences between the deviants could not be shown. The dipole strength was larger for deviants than the standard stimulus, but again, no differences between the deviants could be established. There was no difference in the hemispheric lateralization of the responses. However, a difference between the deviants was observed in the latencies. The N100 m/MMF revealed a significantly shorter and less variant latency for the combined stimulus compared to all other experimental conditions. The data suggest an integral parallel processing model, which describes the early extraction of phonetic and voice information from the speech signal as parallel and contingent processes.

Evidence of auditory processing during postoperative propofol sedation

OBJECTIVES

Our aim was to characterize cerebral event-related responses, which index the detection of auditory stimuli during postoperative sedation.

METHODS

We monitored auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) before and after elective cardiac operation in 29 patients. Sedation levels, induced with propofol, were evaluated clinically with Ramsay score (RS).

RESULTS

During deep sedation (RS 6), patients could be categorized into 3 groups according to ERP responses evoked by a standard 'oddball' paradigm. In one group, there were no cortical responses indexing the detection of a sound (N100), another group showed clear responses, and the third group was characterized by a later P300a component which was taken to reflect orienting to a novel stimulus in adults who were awake. However, in deep sedation, P300a did not show behaviour characteristic to an orienting reaction. In moderate sedation (RS 4), all the patients showed a visible N100. Total sedative propofol dose, hemodynamics and the spontaneous electroencephalography (EEG) were not connected to the category of an individual's responses.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of our study suggest that the detection and automatic auditory information processing function during postoperative sedation, and may signal the individual stages of awakening in a sensitive way. In addition, the findings suggest a deficit in sensory memory function during sedation.

Auditory cortical responses to speech-like stimuli in dyslexic adults

Auditory cortical processing of speech-like sounds was studied in 9 dyslexic and 11 normal-reading adults. Noise/square-wave sequences, mimicking transitions from a fricative consonant to a vowel, were presented binaurally once every 1.1 sec and the cortical responses were recorded with a whole-scalp neuromagnetometer. The auditory cortices of both hemispheres were less reactive to acoustical changes in dyslexics than in controls, as was evident from the weaker responses to the noise/square-wave transitions. The results demonstrate that dyslexic adults are deficient in processing acoustic changes presented in rapid succession within tens to hundreds of milliseconds. The observed differences could be related to insufficient triggering of automatic auditory attention, resulting, for instance, from a general deficiency of the magnocellular system.

Maturation of cortical sound processing as indexed by event-related potentials

OBJECTIVES

Children's auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) are dominated by the P1 and N2 peaks, while the N1 wave emerges between 3 and 4 years of age. The neural substrates and the behavioral correlates of the protracted N1 maturation, as well as of the 10-year long predominance of the N2 are unclear. The present study utilized high-resolution electroencephalography to study the maturation of auditory ERPs from age 4 to adulthood and to compare the sources of the N1 and the N2 peaks in 9-year-old children and adults.

METHODS

Three partial harmonic tones were delivered with short (700 ms) and long (mean of 5s) stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), with only 700 ms SOA used with 4-year-olds.

RESULTS

With a short SOA, 4- and 9-year-old children displayed P1 and N2 peaks, whereas adults showed P1, N1, P2, and N2 waves. With a long SOA, 9-year-olds also displayed an N1 peak, which was frontal in scalp distribution to that in adults who showed P1, N1, and P2 peaks. After filtering out the slow N2 activity, the N1 wave was also revealed in the short-SOA data in 9-year-old but not in 4-year-old children. In adults and in 9-year-olds, the neural sources of the N2 and N1 mapped onto the superior aspects of the temporal lobes, the sources of the N2 being anterior to those of the N1.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicated that children's N1 is composed of differently weighted components as that in adults, and that in both children and adults the N1 and N2 are generated by anatomically distinct generators. A protracted ontogeny of the N1 could be linked with that of auditory sensitivity and orienting, whereas the P1 and N2 peaks are suggested to reflect auditory sensory processes.

Auditory adaptation is differentially impaired in familial and sporadic Alzheimer's disease

Neurophysiologic measures are particularly sensitive to alterations in attention and arousal. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the auditory adaptation of normal and mildly demented elderly people. We compared the automatic behavior of an auditory evoked potential (N100) in three age-matched groups of elderly subjects, one with familial Alzheimer's disease (AD), one with sporadic AD and one healthy group. All AD subjects corresponded clinically and neuropsychologically with the early stage of dementia. The dynamic range of auditory adaptation is known to be related to age, and normal auditory adaptation for the age was observed in our healthy aged and sporadic AD subjects, whereas the familial AD subjects lacked normal adaptation. The familial AD subjects also showed statistically significantly smaller peak amplitudes and shorter latencies of the N100 throughout the habituation test. This persistent difference in automatic habituation of sensory responses supports the view that different subtypes of AD are differentially affected. The observed differences give an objective measure of the impaired involuntary adaptive functions of neuronal networks involved in auditory processing in subtypes of AD. Since habituation reflects the most primitive stage of learning and short-term memory, altered habituation may predict faster deterioration of clinical status in the familial group of AD subjects.

Sustained magnetic fields reveal separate sites for sound level and temporal regularity in human auditory cortex

Magnetoencephalography was used to investigate the relationship between the sustained magnetic field in auditory cortex and the perception of periodic sounds. The response to regular and irregular click trains was measured at three sound intensities. Two separate sources were isolated adjacent to primary auditory cortex: One, located in lateral Heschl's gyrus, was particularly sensitive to regularity and largely insensitive to sound level. The second, located just posterior to the first in planum temporale, was particularly sensitive to sound level and largely insensitive to regularity. This double dissociation to the same stimuli indicates that the two sources represent separate mechanisms; the first would appear to be involved with pitch perception and the second with loudness. The delay of the offset of the sustained field was found to increase with interclick interval up to 200 ms at least, which suggests that the sustained field offset represents a sophisticated offset-monitoring mechanism rather than simply the cessation of stimulation.

Event-related potential correlates of sound duration: similar pattern from birth to adulthood

The effects of sound duration on event-related potentials (ERP) were studied in newborns and adults. Increasing tone duration from 200 to 300 ms led to the enhancement of the N2 peak amplitude, whereas two peaks became distinguishable in the N2 response elicited by 400 ms long tones. The sound-duration related ERP changes most likely reflect contribution from the sustained potential, although the observed results can also be explained by assuming the elicitation of a sound-duration sensitive frontocentrally negative ERP component (duration-sensitive N2; DN2). The pattern of duration-related changes observed in newborn infants was very similar to that in adults, regardless of the structural differences between adult and infant ERPs. The results suggest that sound duration is processed already at birth in a similar way as in adulthood.

Auditory sensory memory and the cholinergic system: implications for Alzheimer's disease

Auditory sensory memory represents one of the simplest types of short-term memory that can be studied electrophysiologically with mismatch negativity (MMN); a specific auditory event-related potential indexing automatic comparison of incoming stimuli to an existing memory trace. Previous results suggest that auditory sensory memory deteriorates in aging and especially in Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has remained unsettled, however, whether MMN is regulated by the cholinergic system, which is deteriorated in AD contributing to cognitive impairments. We recorded cortical auditory responses with a magnetometer from 13 healthy subjects after intravenous injection of scopolamine, centrally acting cholinergic antagonist, or glycopyrrolate, a drug with a peripheral anticholinergic properties without penetrating the blood-brain barrier, using a double-blind protocol. Scopolamine reduced MMNm amplitude in response to frequency, but not duration, change, increased P50m amplitude, and delayed N100m latency. These findings suggest that the cholinergic system regulates the frequency-specific comparison of incoming stimuli to existing memory trace and modulates the preattentive processing related to stimulus detection. Further, neural mechanisms responsible for cortical frequency- and duration-specific discrimination appear to have different sensitivities to cholinergic modulation. Auditory evoked potentials might be suitable to monitor cholinergic activity in AD.

Musical syntax is processed in Broca's area: an MEG study

The present experiment was designed to localize the neural substrates that process music-syntactic incongruities, using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Electrically, such processing has been proposed to be indicated by early right-anterior negativity (ERAN), which is elicited by harmonically inappropriate chords occurring within a major-minor tonal context. In the present experiment, such chords elicited an early effect, taken as the magnetic equivalent of the ERAN (termed mERAN). The source of mERAN activity was localized in Broca's area and its right-hemisphere homologue, areas involved in syntactic analysis during auditory language comprehension. We find that these areas are also responsible for an analysis of incoming harmonic sequences, indicating that these regions process syntactic information that is less language-specific than previously believed.

Prepulse effects as a function of cortical projection system

A putative gating mechanism reduces startle blink, midline scalp potentials beginning with P50, and perceived loudness of startling stimuli. Tactile prestimuli were paired with auditory startle stimuli to determine if: (1) P50 inhibition is due to an extrinsic mechanism, (2) pairing differentially affects potentials reflecting modality specific and nonspecific system activity, and (3) crossmodal pairing modifies perceptual magnitudes of both pair members. Stimuli were presented alone and in pairs separated by 60 or 360 ms. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from midline and lateral sites; EMG was recorded from several facial and scalp muscles. Pairing reduced blink, and midline P50, N100 and P200 amplitudes; reductions were greater at the longer interval. P30 was largely unaffected by pairing. Pairing also differentially affected lateral N100 components reflecting later activity in specific and nonspecific systems. Results show that prestimulus inhibition of ERPs is not due to intrinsic refractoriness and that pairing differentially affects ERPs associated with modality specific and nonspecific projection systems.

Central auditory plasticity: changes in the N1-P2 complex after speech-sound training

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether the N1-P2 complex reflects training-induced changes in neural activity associated with improved voice-onset-time (VOT) perception.

DESIGN

Auditory cortical evoked potentials N1 and P2 were obtained from 10 normal-hearing young adults in response to two synthetic speech variants of the syllable /ba/. Using a repeated measures design, subjects were tested before and after training both behaviorally and neurophysiologically to determine whether there were training-related changes. In between pre- and post-testing sessions, subjects were trained to distinguish the -20 and -10 msec VOT /ba/ syllables as being different from each other. Two stimulus presentation rates were used during electrophysiologic testing (390 msec and 910 msec interstimulus interval).

RESULTS

Before training, subjects perceived both the -20 msec and -10 msec VOT stimuli as /ba/. Through training, subjects learned to identify the -20 msec VOT stimulus as "mba" and -10 msec VOT stimulus as "ba." As subjects learned to correctly identify the difference between the -20 msec and -10 msec VOT syllabi, an increase in N1-P2 peak-to-peak amplitude was observed. The effects of training were most obvious at the slower stimulus presentation rate.

CONCLUSIONS

As perception improved, N1-P2 amplitude increased. These changes in waveform morphology are thought to reflect increases in neural synchrony as well as strengthened neural connections associated with improved speech perception. These findings suggest that the N1-P2 complex may have clinical applications as an objective physiologic correlate of speech-sound representation associated with speech-sound training.

Magnetoencephalography and magnetic source imaging in children

Magnetoencephalography is a technique that detects the magnetic fields associated with the intracellular current flow within neurons, unlike electroencephalography, which measures extracellular volume currents. Superconducting quantum interference devices are used to amplify these very small magnetic field signals. Magnetic source imaging is the combination of functional data derived from magnetoencephalographic recordings coregistered with structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The utility of magnetic source imaging lies in the combination of the submillisecond temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography with the precise anatomic images provided by magnetic resonance imaging. As such, magnetic source imaging is a useful tool for noninvasive localization of the epileptogenic zone in children who are candidates for epilepsy surgery. Similarly, using magnetoencephalographic recordings with evoked and event-related potentials, magnetic source imaging holds great promise as a noninvasive method for precise localization of somatosensory, motor, language, visual, and auditory cortex. Finally, magnetic source imaging is proving a valuable research tool in the investigation of epilepsy, head trauma, brain plasticity, and disorders of language, memory, cognition, and executive function in children.

Near-DC magnetic fields following a periodic presentation of long-duration tonebursts

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to determine the time course of low-frequency (<0.1 Hz) magnetic field components evoked by long-duration tonebursts. The following two questions were of central interest. Does the sustained field (SF) show adaptation as described before for the sustained potential (SP)? How does the field amplitude return to the pre-stimulus baseline after stimulus offset?

METHODS

Neuromagnetic measurements were done with a 37-channel first-order gradiometer system. The stimulus was a 1 kHz toneburst of 10 s duration presented at fixed 20 s intervals. The averaged data (high-pass filtered, 0.03 Hz cut-off) were analyzed using the model of an equivalent current dipole with time-invariant location and orientation (fixed dipole).

RESULTS

In the grand average of the subjects with the best signal-to-noise ratio, the SF exhibited adaptation with a time constant of 3.6 s. After stimulus offset, the amplitude of the dipole moment dropped to a lower level within 300 ms and decayed exponentially to the baseline thereafter (time constant 2.7 s).

CONCLUSIONS

A two-component model is proposed: One component roughly follows the envelope of the stimulus, the other behaves like a leaky integrator. A better understanding of near-DC fields appears to be crucial for the understanding of the relationship between magnetoencephalography and other functional imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography.

Sustained activation of the human SII cortices by stimulus trains

To compare the functional properties of neurons in the human primary (SI) and secondary (SII) cortices, we recorded somatosensory-evoked fields (SEFs) from seven healthy subjects to single electric stimuli and stimulus trains delivered to the median nerve at 8--12 Hz. The SI and SII cortices responded strikingly differently to stimulus trains: whereas SI followed each stimulus with a sharp transient response up to at least 12 Hz, the transient responses were much less prominent at SII, which mainly responded with a sustained field that returned to base level at 800--1000 ms. The different response patterns of SI and SII suggest that the inhibition, following the early excitatory responses, is weaker at SII than SI, or that inhibitory responses of these two areas differ in their relative timing.

Auditory event-related potentials differentiate patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus and patients with concomitant Alzheimer's disease verified by brain biopsy

We studied 51 patients with clinical symptoms and CT findings suggesting normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Tests included head MRI, auditory event-related potentials (ERPs), thorough neuropsychological testing and intraventricular intracranial 24 h pressure recording and infusion testing. A brain biopsy was also obtained to verify a concomitant dementing process (Alzheimer's disease; AD). Patients were divided into subgroups according to the need of shunt and the biopsy findings, and their ERPs were analysed blindly. The present results suggest that non-invasive ERPs aid in the differentiation of pure NPH from NPH with concomitant AD.

The development of auditory evoked dipole source activity from childhood to adulthood

OBJECTIVE

Multi-channel recordings show that observed developmental changes of late auditory evoked potentials (LAEP) depend on the location of the scalp electrode. These findings suggest that different LAEP generators have a distinct developmental course. The goal of this study was to investigate the maturational process of cortical LAEP generators.

METHODS

Eighty-seven healthy children and adolescents with normal hearing, ages 5-16 years, and 21 adults, ages 20-30 years, participated in the study. Pure tone LAEP were recorded from 21 derivations. Dipole source analysis was performed by means of brain electric source analysis (BESA). Peak latencies and amplitudes of dipole source activity were estimated.

RESULTS

While the number, location, and direction of dipole sources were similar in children and adults, the course of their activity differed greatly. The latencies shortened and the amplitudes decreased during development. In adolescence a new component appeared in the activity of the tangential dipole, which reflects the generators in the supra-temporal plane. The variability of parameters was greater in children than in adults.

CONCLUSIONS

Since the dipole source activity of LAEP in childhood differs considerably from that in adulthood, dipole source analysis could be a useful tool for studying both normal and disturbed maturation of the auditory perceptual function.

Middle and long latency peak sources in auditory evoked magnetic fields for tone bursts in humans

The relative position of the P50m and the N100m sources of the auditory evoked magnetic field remains unclear. Magnetoencephalography was performed in 24 normal subjects. Contralateral P50m to left and right ear stimulus was observed in 21 and 19hemispheres, respectively. Ipsilateral P50m to left and right ear stimulus was observed in 17 and 16hemispheres, respectively. N100m was observed in all subjects for all stimuli. Relative position of the equivalent current dipole of the P50m was 1.0+/-7.6 (mean+/-SD) mm posterior, 2.0+/-5.8mm inferior and 1.8+/-8.0mm medial to the N100m dipole position considering all observations. We suggest that the P50m and N100m sources are colocated in an extended area of the cortex.

Conscious and preconscious adaptation to rhythmic auditory stimuli: a magnetoencephalographic study of human brain responses

This study was triggered by the experimental evidence that subjects required to tap in synchrony with a heard rhythm spontaneously time their tapping to variations in rhythm frequency even when these variations are so small that they are not consciously detectable. We performed a series of magnetoencephalographic (MEG) measurements, aimed at investigating whether the response of the auditory cortex discriminates randomly administered series of brief tones differing from each other only by their interstimulus intervals (ISI). Moreover, by combining psychophysical measurements, conscious and preconscious adjustments of tapping to rhythm variations were compared with brain cortical responses. The ISIs were varied by 2% or 20% from a "central" value of 500 ms. Subjects always consciously detected the 20% ISI changes and easily adjusted their tapping accordingly, whereas they never consciously detected the 2% ISI changes, even though they always correctly adjusted their tapping to them. Analysis of the auditory evoked fields (AEFs) showed that the intensity of the M100 component decreased with decreasing ISI both for 20% and 2% variations in a statistically significant manner, despite the fact that the 2% variation was not consciously perceived. The M100 behavior indicated that connections between auditory and motor cortexes may exist that are able to use the information on rhythm variations in the stimuli even when these are not consciously identified by the subject. The ability of the auditory cortex to discriminate different time characteristics of the incoming rhythmic stimuli is discussed in this paper in relation to the theories regarding the physiology of time perception and discrimination.

Perception of complex sounds: N1 latency codes pitch and topography codes spectra

OBJECTIVES

This work aimed to find out whether the human cortical 'tonotopy' represents the true fundamental frequency (Fo) of complex sounds, or the center frequency CF at which harmonics peak in the audio spectrum. Indeed, complex periodic sounds (such as those of the human voice, musical instruments, etc.) comprise a 'fundamental component' (Fo) and its 'harmonics' (2Fo, 3Fo, ...nFo). These often peak around a certain frequency CF. As Fo and CF are confounded in pure (sinusoidal) tones, the question of whether Fo or CF is represented through tonotopy had been hitherto unresolved.

METHODS

Whole-head recordings of brain electrical activity were obtained for 16 subjects submitted to an array of 9 different series of sounds (3 Fox3 CF). Electrophysiological data were analyzed separately for each sound and each subject with brain functional imaging and dipole reconstruction.

RESULTS

Equivalent dipole sources of N1 components were, significantly for all subjects, more and more frontally oriented as CF increased, independently of Fo.

CONCLUSIONS

Sounds are mapped in both the right and the left primary auditory cortices according to the spectral profiles of their harmonics (CF), rather than their fundamental frequencies (Fo).

A combined functional in vivo measure for primary and secondary auditory cortices

Auditory evoked magnetic fields are reliable physiological in vivo markers of activity generated in auditory cortices. In recent years, several components of auditory evoked fields have been demonstrated with specific topographies within the auditory cortex in man. Their differential elicitation and analyses has rendered the discrimination of neural activities in primary vs. secondary auditory cortical fields possible. This in vivo measure may be of interest in a number of (neuro)psychiatric and neuropsychological disorders with central auditory deficits, in which in vivo anatomical measures do not allow a clear distinction of primary vs. secondary auditory cortex involvement. To help better understand the pathophysiology of such disorders, we developed and introduce a combined measure of steady-state field (SSR) and the N1 component of the transient evoked field. The acoustic stimulus for this paradigm consists of a 500-ms tone burst with 39-Hz amplitude modulation of the carrier frequency. This combined stimulation allows assessment of both auditory cortex components in one brief examination to be well tolerated by patients. We examined the source locations of SSR and N1 component with separate classical stimulation and combined stimulation within-session in healthy volunteer subjects. We demonstrate here that the distinct sources of steady-state (primary auditory cortex) and N1 (secondary auditory cortex) responses can be reliably measured without significant spatial distortion with this combined stimulation paradigm.

Tonotopic cortical changes following stapes substitution in otosclerotic patients: a magnetoencephalographic study

The aim of the study was to investigate and follow up the tonotopic organization of the primary auditory cortex in otosclerotic patients before and after corrective surgery. The characteristics of primary auditory cortex activation were studied in ten otosclerotic patients (i.e., subjects suffering from a conductive hearing loss, prior to and following stapes substitution). Magnetoencephalographic recordings of auditory evoked fields by tone-burst stimulation at octave frequencies between 250 and 2000 Hz were performed during monaural stimulation. The brain topography of the main cortical response (N100m) generators at different tones was studied in patients and compared with ten healthy controls; pre- post-surgical changes were also correlated to their clinical outcome following corrective surgery. A significant decrease of the tonotopic extension in the cortical region responsive to the four explored frequencies was found in patients before surgery with respect to the control population. At the time of postsurgical follow-up, the tonotopic representation had enlarged and was approaching the dimensions seen in normal subjects, although with higher variability. The extent of the enlargement of the postoperative tonotopically organized area was directly correlated with the postsurgery period duration. Our findings indicate that auditory cortical areas of human adults undergo functional reorganization following peripheral alteration of the sensory input entering the CNS. The restriction of the cortical tonotopic region caused by the long-term reduction of acoustic input is followed by a reorganization within the usual boundaries following the recovery of auditory function; this process is taking place in a time scale of a few weeks.

Speaking modifies voice-evoked activity in the human auditory cortex

The voice we most often hear is our own, and proper interaction between speaking and hearing is essential for both acquisition and performance of spoken language. Disturbed audiovocal interactions have been implicated in aphasia, stuttering, and schizophrenic voice hallucinations, but paradigms for a noninvasive assessment of auditory self-monitoring of speaking and its possible dysfunctions are rare. Using magnetoencephalograpy we show here that self-uttered syllables transiently activate the speaker's auditory cortex around 100 ms after voice onset. These phasic responses were delayed by 11 ms in the speech-dominant left hemisphere relative to the right, whereas during listening to a replay of the same utterances the response latencies were symmetric. Moreover, the auditory cortices did not react to rare vowel changes interspersed randomly within a series of repetitively spoken vowels, in contrast to regular change-related responses evoked 100-200 ms after replayed rare vowels. Thus, speaking primes the human auditory cortex at a millisecond time scale, dampening and delaying reactions to self-produced "expected" sounds, more prominently in the speech-dominant hemisphere. Such motor-to-sensory priming of early auditory cortex responses during voicing constitutes one element of speech self-monitoring that could be compromised in central speech disorders.

Latency of the auditory evoked neuromagnetic field components: stimulus dependence and insights toward perception

This review will focus on investigations of the auditory evoked neuromagnetic field component, the M100, detectable in the magnetoencephalogram recorded during presentation of auditory stimuli, approximately 100 milliseconds after stimulus onset. In particular, the dependence of M100 latency on attributes of the stimulus, such as intensity, pitch and timbre will be discussed, along with evidence relating M100 latency observations to perceptual features of the stimuli. Comparison with investigation of the analogous electrical potential component, the N1, will be made. Parametric development of stimuli from pure tones through complex tones to speech elements will be made, allowing the influence of spectral pitch, virtual pitch and perceptual categorization to be delineated and suggesting implications for the role of such latency observations in the study of speech processing. The final section will deal with potential clinical applications offered by M100 latency measurements, as objective indices of normal and abnormal cortical processing.

Habituation of event-related potentials in patients with Parkinson's disease

Auditory event-related potential (ERP) was studied in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) using our new procedures. We examined 12 non-demented patients with PD, and 9 age-matched control subjects. Ninety responses induced by rare stimulation were continuously recorded from Fz, Cz, Pz referred to linked earlobe electrode (A1A2), and were divided into nine blocks (one block = 10 responses) for statistical analysis. We assessed the habituation of auditory ERP to detect delicate changes related to the information processing in PD. N100 and P300 latencies were significantly longer in PD than in control subjects (p<0.05). P300 latency gradually increased with progression of recording blocks in both PD and control subjects, whereas N100 latency increased only in PD. Three way analysis of variance for P300 amplitude revealed significant effects of subject group, recording electrode site, and trial block. P300 amplitude was smaller in PD than in control subjects. Significant negative correlation between P300 amplitudes and block numbers were observed at Cz and Pz in PD, and at Fz in the control group. Previous reports as well as present results suggest that prolongation of N100 latency might be related to frontal lobe dysfunction, and abnormality of P300 to dysfunction in both the frontal lobe and hippocampus in PD.

Magnetoencephalography in the study of human somatosensory cortical processing

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a totally non-invasive research method which provides information about cortical dynamics on a millisecond time-scale. Whole-scalp magnetic field patterns following stimulation of different peripheral nerves indicate activation of an extensive cortical network. At the SI cortex, the responses reflect mainly the activity of area 3b, with clearly somatotopical representations of different body parts. The SII cortex is activated bilaterally and it also receives, besides tactile input, nociceptive afference. Somatically evoked MEG signals may also be detected from the posterior parietal cortex, central mesial cortex and the frontal lobe. The serial versus parallel processing in the cortical somatosensory network is still under debate.

[18F]FDG-PET and whole-scalp MEG localization of epileptogenic cortex

PURPOSE

To evaluate combined [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) and 122-channel whole-scalp magnetoencephalography (MEG) in lateralizing the epileptogenic cortex in patients whose routine presurgical evaluations gave discordant results about the location of the epileptic focus.

METHODS

Nine patients (five women, four men) aged 13-40 years were studied. Subdural EEG (SEEG) was recorded from eight patients. Six patients were operated on.

RESULTS

In seven of nine patients, PET and MEG agreed in localizing the epileptogenic cortex. When PET and MEG were in congruence, SEEG agreed with the findings. In five of six operated-on patients, PET and MEG results were congruent, and the outcome of the operation was successful. Two patients had discordant PET and MEG results. In one patient, PET showed bitemporal hypometabolism, whereas MEG showed epileptiform activity in the right parietal lobe. The surgical outcome of the palliative temporal lobectomy was poor. Another patient had unilateral temporal hypometabolism in PET and bitemporal activity in MEG. She was not operated on.

CONCLUSIONS

In most patients, PET and MEG were congruent in locating the epileptogenic cortex. Thus the combination of these techniques may provide useful support for the localization of the seizure onset and reduce the need for invasive procedures.

Auditory evoked neuromagnetic response in cerebrovascular diseases: a preliminary study

OBJECTIVES

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measures aspects of the function of the auditory cortex of the human brain with high spatial resolution. The objective was to determine whether MEG also accurately identifies the auditory cortex of the brain in patients with ischaemic stroke.

METHODS

The auditory evoked magnetic field (AEF) was examined after stimuli of 1 kHz tone bursts in 24 stroke patients without apparent infarcts in the auditory cortex, and compared the topography of sources of 50 ms (P50m) and 100 ms latency deflections (N100m), the most prominent components of middle and long latency AEFs, with that of 12 normal subjects. Cerebral haemodynamics in and around the auditory cortex were evaluated using PET.

RESULTS

In nine of 24 stroke patients, the accurate magnetic sources of P50m or N100m were not identified. The distribution of P50m sources varied more widely than N100m. Eight of these nine patients had severe stenotic lesions in the carotid or middle cerebral arterial trunks. Patients with abnormal P50m responses had decreased supratemporal and hemispheric blood flow compared with patients with normal P50m responses.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that large vessel disease with disturbed cerebral haemodynamics in and near the auditory cortex tend to affect AEFs, especially the middle latency components. This is the first combined study of MEG and PET to show a significant correlation between AEF responses in stroke patients and their PET indices.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging measures of blood flow patterns in the human auditory cortex in response to sound

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) holds exciting potential as a research and clinical tool for exploring the human auditory system. This noninvasive technique allows the measurement of discrete changes in cerebral cortical blood flow in response to sensory stimuli, allowing determination of precise neuroanatomical locations of the underlying brain parenchymal activity. Application of fMRI in auditory research, however, has been limited. One problem is that fMRI utilizing echo-planar imaging technology (EPI) generates intense noise that could potentially affect the results of auditory experiments. Also, issues relating to the reliability of fMRI for listeners with normal hearing need to be resolved before this technique can be used to study listeners with hearing loss. This preliminary study examines the feasibility of using fMRI in auditory research by performing a simple set of experiments to test the reliability of scanning parameters that use a high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio unlike that presently reported in the literature. We used consonant-vowel (CV) speech stimuli to investigate whether or not we could observe reproducible and consistent changes in cortical blood flow in listeners during a single scanning session, across more than one scanning session, and in more than one listener. In addition, we wanted to determine if there were differences between CV speech and nonspeech complex stimuli across listeners. Our study shows reproducibility within and across listeners for CV speech stimuli. Results were reproducible for CV speech stimuli within fMRI scanning sessions for 5 out of 9 listeners and were reproducible for 6 out of 8 listeners across fMRI scanning sessions. Results of nonspeech complex stimuli across listeners showed activity in 4 out of 9 individuals tested.

Reversal of cerebral asymmetry in schizophrenia measured with magnetoencephalography

It has been suggested that schizophrenic patients fail to develop left-hemisphere dominance because of an early disturbance in neuronal development. This hypothesis has been supported by some post-mortem. CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies, while other in-vivo studies have given contradicting results. We used 122-channel whole-head magnetoencephalography and MRI to locate the sources of auditory evoked responses in 19 schizophrenic patients and in 20 healthy controls. Auditory evoked responses were detected in all subjects. The left-right hemisphere asymmetry of cerebral sources for auditory evoked responses was markedly dispersed among patients when compared with controls. The source locations for left auditory cortex were clearly anterior with respect to the right hemisphere in 32% of the patients, while the corresponding prevalence of this abnormal asymmetry was 0% in controls (p = 0.008. Fisher's exact test). The reversed asymmetry appeared to be associated with a shorter anterior-posterior distance between the auditory cortex and the anterior tip of the temporal lobe in the left side when compared with the right side. The reversed asymmetry was associated with higher PANSS general psychopathological score, and especially with higher guilt feelings and motor retardation scores. The large 2.5-fold standard deviation in the inter-hemispheric anterior posterior difference in the location of the auditory cortex among patients (p 0.001 for the difference in the magnitude of variance between controls and patients) clearly reflects the dispersion of the left right asymmetry into both direction, and three of the patients with 'normal asymmetry' had a greater left-right asymmetry than any of the controls. Markedly greater reversal of hemispheric asymmetry among patients implies that regulation of the development of brain asymmetry is disturbed among schizophrenic patients. Abnormality in the cerebral asymmetry may be a crucial factor in the development of schizophrenic disorder in a substantial proportion of patients. The results suggest that the reversed asymmetry is associated with the higher severity of general psychopathological symptoms.

Replicability of MEG and EEG measures of the auditory N1/N1m-response

We investigated the replicability of the source location, amplitude and latency measures of the auditory evoked N1 (EEG) and N1m (MEG) responses. Each of the 5 subjects was measured 6 times in two recording sessions. Responses to monaural stimuli were recorded from 122 MEG and 64 EEG channels simultaneously. The EEG data were modeled with a symmetrically-located dipole pair. For the MEG data, one dipole in each hemisphere was located independently using a subset of channels. Standard deviation (SD) was used as a measure for replicability. The average SD of the x, y and z coordinates of the contralateral N1m dipole was about 2 mm, whereas the corresponding figures for the ipsilateral N1m and the contra- and ipsilateral N1 were about twice as large. The SDs of the dipole amplitudes and latencies were almost equal with MEG and EEG. The amplitude and latency measures of the MEG field gradient waveforms were almost as replicable as those of the dipole models. The results suggest that both MEG and EEG can be used for investigating the simultaneous activity of the left and right auditory cortices independently, MEG being superior in certain experimental setups.

Cortical-hippocampal auditory processing identified by magnetoencephalography

We recorded magnetic and electrical responses simultaneously in an auditory detection task to elucidate the brain areas involved in auditory processing. Target stimuli evoked magnetic fields peaking at approximately the same latency of around about 400 msec (M400) over the anterior temporal, superior temporal, and parietal regions on each hemisphere. Equivalent current dipoles (ECDs) were analyzed with a time-varying multidipole model and superimposed on each subject's magnetic resonance image (MRI). Multiple independent dipoles located in the superior temporal plane, inferior parietal lobe, and mesial temporal region best accounted for the recorded M400 fields. These findings suggest that distributed activity in multiple structures including the mesial temporal, superior temporal, and inferior parietal regions on both hemispheres is engaged during auditory attention and memory updating.

Therapeutic effects of alternating current pulsed electromagnetic fields in multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is the third most common cause of severe disability in patients between the ages of 15 and 50 years. The cause of the disease and its pathogenesis remain unknown. The last 20 years have seen only meager advances in the development of effective treatments for the disease. No specific treatment modality can cure the disease or alter its long-term course and eventual outcome. Moreover, there are no agents or treatments that will restore premorbid neuronal function. A host of biological phenomena associated with the disease involving interactions among genetic, environmental, immunologic, and hormonal factors, cannot be explained on the basis of demyelination alone and therefore require refocusing attention on alternative explanations, one of which implicates the pineal gland as pivotal. The pineal gland functions as a magnetoreceptor organ. This biological property of the gland provided the impetus for the development of a novel and highly effective therapeutic modality, which involves transcranial applications of alternating current (AC) pulsed electromagnetic fields in the picotesla flux density. This review summarizes recent clinical work on the effects of transcranially applied pulsed electromagnetic fields for the symptomatic treatment of the disease.

Differential effects of alcohol on the cortical processing of foreign and native language

The effect of alcohol (ethanol) on cortical processing of Finnish vs. English words in Finnish-speaking subjects was studied by recording auditory event-related potentials in 10 subjects who had started studying English at the age of 9-10 years. At the beginning of the block of 100 words, the subject heard an introductory sentence. Half of the words completed the sentence well and the other half did not. The subject pressed a reaction key immediately after hearing a proper word. After the control condition, the subject ingested alcohol (1 ml/kg). Alcohol attenuated the amplitude of N100 to both Finnish and English words, this attenuation being significantly stronger for English than for Finnish words. The early differential effect of alcohol suggests that language-specific information is extracted in the cortex already approximately 100 ms from the word onset. The results are in line with animal experiments demonstrating that alcohol selectively affects the activity of single units involved in newer forms of behavior.

Neuromagnetic evaluation of cortical auditory function in patients with temporal lobe tumors

The N100m wave response of the auditory evoked magnetic field originates in the posterior part of the bilateral superior temporal planes for either contra- or ipsilateral ear stimulus. Cortical auditory function was evaluated in 14 patients with temporal lobe tumors using a magnetic resonance (MR) imaging-linked whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) system. Before surgery, seven patients had normal N100m latency (within the range of the mean +/- 2 standard deviations of 37 normal volunteers) in both normal hemispheres and in those with lesions, and MR imaging indicated no tumor invasion or edema in the posterior one-third of the superior temporal planes, even when the sylvian fissure was shifted upward due to the mass effect. Seven patients had prolonged N100m latency or absence of N100m in the hemisphere containing the lesion, and the posterior portion of the superior temporal plane was involved by the tumor or perifocal edema. Prolonged N100m latency recovered to the normal range after removal of tumors in two of four patients investigated postoperatively. The MEG system can be used to evaluate cortical auditory function noninvasively before and after surgical treatment of temporal lobe tumors.

Somatosensory evoked magnetic fields arising from sources in the human cerebellum

Somatosensory evoked neuromagnetic activity of human cerebellum was recorded noninvasively with a 122-channel whole-scalp magnetometer. Cerebellar source areas activated 13-19 ms after unilateral electric stimulation of the median nerve. The first signals preceded those occurring in the primary sensorimotor cortex at around 20 ms and overlapped in time with the activation of thalamic sources. The orientation and location of most prominent cerebellar activation suggest that the detected signals represent synchronized postsynaptic activity of spinocerebellar cortex. These signals are probably elicited by the first afferent sensory volley from peripheral nerve endings and mediated by spinocerebellar (cuneocerebellar) tracts. The results imply strong coherent activation of cerebellar neuronal populations after purely sensory stimulation. Moreover, with presented methods the millisecond-scale temporal resolution of neurophysiological measurements can be more generally applied to the study of neuronal population activity in intact human cerebellum.

Temporal prominence of auditory evoked potentials (N1 wave) in 4-8-year-old children

Cortical auditory evoked potentials (N1 wave) were studied in 24 adults (12 men, 12 women) and 20 children (12 boys, 8 girls; age: 4-8 years). In adults, this wave was recorded with maximal amplitude at frontocentral sites, peaking at about 100 ms poststimulation, whereas in children the auditory response displayed maximal amplitude at the midtemporal sites, with a positive wave at about 100 ms and a large negative wave at approximately 170 ms. Moreover, the modulatory effects of intensity on N1 amplitude were prominent at frontocentral sites in adults and at temporal sites in children. Frontocentral negative response was also recorded in children but was smaller in amplitude and longer in peak latency (around 140 ms) than in adults; responses were of greater amplitude at the frontal site than at the vertex before 6 years of age, whereas the reverse was more often found after this age. These data suggest great differences with age in the neural generators contributing to auditory evoked potentials recorded in the N1 latency range.

Tonotopic organization of the sources of human auditory steady-state responses

Steady-state responses (SSRs) or steady-state fields (SSFs) show maximum amplitude when tone pulses are presented at repetition rates near 40 Hz. This result has led to the hypothesis that the SSR/SSF consists of superimposed transient 'middle latency' responses which display wave periods near 40 Hz and summate with one another when phase locked by 40 Hz steady-state stimulation. We evaluated this hypothesis by comparing the cortical sources of the 40 Hz auditory SSF with sources of the middle latency Pa wave which is prominent in electrical and magnetic recordings, and with the cortical sources of the familiar N1 wave, at different carrier frequencies between 250 and 4000 Hz. SSF sources determined for the different carrier frequencies were found to display a 'medial' tendency tonotopy resembling that of the N1m (sources for the higher frequencies represented more deeply within the supratemporal sulcus), opposite the 'lateral' tendency tonotopy of the middle latency Pam (sources for the higher frequencies situated more laterally). A medial SSF tonotopy was observed in each of the subjects investigated, including three subjects for whom Pam and N1m maps were also available. These findings suggest that the 40 Hz SSF may not consist of summated or entrained middle latency responses, as has previously been proposed. Alternative mechanisms for the SSR are discussed.

Topography of auditory evoked long-latency potentials in children with severe language impairment: the T complex

Topographic maps of the late auditory evoked potentials (AEP) were studied in a group of 20 children, aged 9-15 years, with severe language impairment (LI) and an age-matched control (C) group of 20 normal children. The stimulus was a pure tone at 500 Hz with a duration of 100 ms and a rise and fall time of 20 ms. The intensity was 75 dB HL. Six test sequences of 50 stimuli at an interval of 1.0 s were presented to the left and right ear separately. Grand average maps of all the children in the LI and the C group, separately, were calculated and showed a bilateral negativity over the temporal areas, corresponding to the negative peak of the T complex (Tb) at a latency of about 150 ms. The amplitudes were larger contralateral to the stimulated ear in both groups. A difference map between the two grand average maps showed topographic differences at temporal sites. However, the T complex could not be identified in 7 LI children and 1 C child. In the remaining subjects with a T complex the topographic pattern was similar in the two groups but with lower amplitudes and significantly longer latencies in the LI group. The presence and latency of the positive peak of the T complex (Ta) was also examined, showing significant between-group differences. The value of Tb, in diagnosing language impairment, was tested by means of a scoring system and with statistical mapping. The diagnostic sensitivity of Tb latency, amplitude and topography in selecting the LI children was 90% to 40% with a specificity of 80% to 95%. The results indicate slower and deviating processing in the central auditory pathways of LI children. The variation in results between children, with missing components or prolonged latencies in the majority, but not all, of the LI children, may be explained by different pathophysiological causes of their language impairment. The more pronounced deviations of the T complex compared with the vertex-recorded NI may also indicate a specific role of the T complex-related cortical activity in language impairment.

Comparison of late components in simultaneously recorded event-related electrical potentials and event-related magnetic fields

We have attempted to define the late components of the event-related magnetic field (ERF) and to relate them to the late components of the event-related electrical potential (ERP). Simultaneous multichannel electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetoencephalogram (MEG) were recorded in 13 subjects during an auditory oddball paradigm in two series of experiments. EEG responses to frequent tones consisted of the N1 and P2 components of the auditory vertex potential. Responses to rare tones consisted of N1, apparent P2, N2 and P3 components. All EEG components were best seen in the midline and were highly reproducible for all subjects. MEG responses to frequent tones consisted of N1m and P2m components that were highly reproducible only when recorded over the temporal region. By contrast, the ERF to rare tones was less well defined and only the N1m component could be identified satisfactorily. There was little consistent activity in the MEG at the time of occurrence of the N2 and P3 components of the ERP.

Electrophysiological evidence suggesting that sensory stimuli of unknown origin induce spontaneous K-complexes

The present study was performed to determine whether or not spontaneous K-complexes are induced by sensory stimuli. In the first part of the present study, sound stimuli were prescribed during sleep in 7 healthy, young, adult subjects. EEG segments in stage 2 sleep were averaged separately according to the presence or absence of an evoked K-complex appearing after each stimulus. The sound stimulus induced N100 and P200 components in averaged EEGs regardless of K-complex appearance. The appearance of N100 and P200 components was considered to be an indicator of the presence of sensory stimuli. In the second part of the present study, EEG segments in stage 2 sleep containing an evoked K-complex or spontaneous K-complex were separately averaged with respect to the peak of N300, one of the main components constituting the K-complex. Small negative and positive components were found just before the main components of spontaneous K-complexes in averaged EEGs. These two components were judged to correspond to N100 and P200 components induced by the sound stimulus, as they appeared just before the main components of the spontaneous K-complex with almost the same lag time between the two components, or between each of the two components and the main components of K-complex, as in the case of N100 and P200 appearing just before the evoked K-complex. The present findings suggest that the spontaneous K-complex is not a spontaneous phenomenon, but that it is induced by sensory stimuli, probably of extracerebral origin.

Topography of auditory evoked cortical potentials in children with severe language impairment: the N1 component

Topographic maps of late auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were obtained in a group of 20 children, aged 9-15 years, with severe language impairment (LI) and an age-matched control (C) group of 20 normal children. The study was focused on differences in the latency, amplitude and topography of the N1 component between the two groups and the potential diagnostic value of these variables. The stimulus was a pure tone at 500 Hz with a duration of 100 msec and a rise and fall time of 20 msec. The intensity was 75 dB HL. Six test sequences of 50 stimuli at an interval of 1.0 sec were presented to the left and right ear separately. The AEPs were recorded and analyzed with the Bio-Logic Brain Atlas III program. In the topographic maps a focus corresponding to N1 (FN1) was seen in 15 subjects after left-ear stimulation and in 17 subjects after right-ear stimulation in the LI group. In the C group FN1 was identified in all 20 subjects after left-ear stimulation and in 19 subjects after right-ear stimulation. The position of FN1 was in front of the interaural line and with a dominance on the side contralateral to the ear stimulated in both groups. Among the subjects with an FN1, 6 in the LI group and 4 in the C group had deviating topography. Non-focal maps were seen in 5 LI subjects and 1 C subject. The latencies of N1 were longer in the LI group and there was no decrease in latency with age. There were no differences in FN1 amplitudes between groups. The prolonged latencies in the LI subjects compared to the C subjects may be explained by a slower processing in central auditory pathways and the lack of decrease in latencies with age in the LI subjects might indicate that the disturbance persists and is not a pure delay of maturation. The diagnostic sensitivity of N1 latency, amplitude and topography, in selecting the LI subjects, was 40% with a specificity of 90%. Statistical mapping of a time epoch of 70-140 msec and corresponding to FN1 in the map showed regions of > or = 3 S.D. in 10 LI and 2 C subjects, which corresponds to a sensitivity of 50% and a specificity of 90%. The variability of results within the LI group may reflect different pathophysiological factors underlying the language impairment. In conclusion, topographic evaluation of auditory long-latency potentials may become a diagnostic tool in speech and language disorders.

Human middle latency auditory evoked magnetic fields

The magnetic equivalents of SN10, Po, Na, Pa, Nb and Pb (SN10m, Pom, Nam, Pam, Nbm, and Pbm) in short and middle latency auditory evoked potentials were measured with a 7-channel DC superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The sources of Pom, Nam, Pam, Nbm and Pbm responses were estimated to be located in the auditory cortex, while the source of SN10m was considered to be in a deeper part of the brain. In addition, the source of Pam was estimated to be in the vicinity of the moving N100m source. The source of Pbm was considered to be in a separate area, anterior to the source of Pam and N100m, which suggested that source of Pam was located in the primary auditory cortex, while the source of Pbm was located in the secondary auditory cortex. The source of N100m was considered to spread from the primary auditory cortex to the secondary auditory cortex.

Source localization of middle latency auditory evoked magnetic fields

The magnetic counterparts of middle latency auditory evoked responses (MLR) were measured for seven normal subjects with a 7-channel de superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). The source of each component (Na, Pa, Nb and Pb) was estimated and plotted onto the individual magnetic resonance images (MRI). The source of Na, as well as those of Pa, Nb and Pb, was estimated to be in the supratemporal auditory cortex. The positions of Pa, Nb and Pb sources were compared with one another. No significant difference was observed between the positions of Pa and Nb sources. On the other hand, the source of Pb was found to be anterior to the sources of both Pa and Nb. It was suggested that there are more than two separate areas activated in the human auditory cortex during MLR.