Habituation and Attention in the Auditory System

Impact of acute psychosocial stress on attentional control in humans. A study of evoked potentials and pupillary response

Psychosocial stress has increased considerably in our modern lifestyle, affecting global mental health. Deficits in attentional control are cardinal features of stress disorders and pathological anxiety. Studies suggest that changes in the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system could underlie the effects of stress on top-down attentional control. However, the impact of psychosocial stress on attentional processes and its underlying neural mechanisms are poorly understood. This study aims to investigate the effect of psychosocial stress on attentional processing and brain signatures. Evoked potentials and pupillary activity related to the oddball auditory paradigm were recorded before and after applying the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST). Electrocardiogram (ECG), salivary cortisol, and subjective anxiety/stress levels were measured at different experimental periods. The control group experienced the same physical and cognitive effort but without the psychosocial stress component. The results showed that stressed subjects exhibited decreased P3a and P3b amplitude, pupil phasic response, and correct responses. On the other hand, they displayed an increase in Mismatch Negativity (MMN). N1 amplitude after MIST only decreased in the control group. We found that differences in P3b amplitude between the first and second oddball were significantly correlated with pupillary dilation and salivary cortisol levels. Our results suggest that under social-evaluative threat, basal activity of the coeruleus-norepinephrine system increases, enhancing alertness and decreasing voluntary attentional resources for the cognitive task. These findings contribute to understanding the neurobiological basis of attentional changes in pathologies associated with chronic psychosocial stress.

The hearing hippocampus

The hippocampus has a well-established role in spatial and episodic memory but a broader function has been proposed including aspects of perception and relational processing. Neural bases of sound analysis have been described in the pathway to auditory cortex, but wider networks supporting auditory cognition are still being established. We review what is known about the role of the hippocampus in processing auditory information, and how the hippocampus itself is shaped by sound. In examining imaging, recording, and lesion studies in species from rodents to humans, we uncover a hierarchy of hippocampal responses to sound including during passive exposure, active listening, and the learning of associations between sounds and other stimuli. We describe how the hippocampus' connectivity and computational architecture allow it to track and manipulate auditory information - whether in the form of speech, music, or environmental, emotional, or phantom sounds. Functional and structural correlates of auditory experience are also identified. The extent of auditory-hippocampal interactions is consistent with the view that the hippocampus makes broad contributions to perception and cognition, beyond spatial and episodic memory. More deeply understanding these interactions may unlock applications including entraining hippocampal rhythms to support cognition, and intervening in links between hearing loss and dementia.

More evidence for a long-latency mismatch response in urethane-anaesthetised mice

Long-latency mismatch responses to oddball stimuli have recently been observed from anaesthetised rodents. This electrophysiological activity is viewed through 200 to 700 ms post-stimulus; a window that is typically obstructed from analysis by the response to subsequent stimuli in the auditory paradigm. A novel difference waveform computation using two adjoining evoked responses has enabled visualisation of this activity over a longer window than previously available. In the present study, this technique was retroactively applied to data from 13 urethane-anaesthetised mice. Oddball paradigm waveforms were compared with those of a many-standards control sequence, confirming that oddball stimuli evoked long-latency potentials that did not arise from standard or control stimuli. Statistical tests were performed to identify regions of significant difference. Oddball-induced mismatch responses were found to display significantly greater long-latency potentials than identical stimuli presented in an equal-probability context. As such, it may be concluded that long-latency potentials were evoked by the oddball condition. How this feature of the anaesthetised rodent mismatch response relates to human mismatch negativity is unclear, although it may be tentatively linked to the human P3a component, which emerges downstream from mismatch negativity under certain conditions. These results demonstrate that the time dynamics of mismatch responses from anaesthetised rodents are more extensive than previously considered.

A Critical Review of the Deviance Detection Theory of Mismatch Negativity

Mismatch negativity (MMN) is a component of the difference waveform derived from passive auditory oddball stimulation. Since its inception in 1978, this has become one of the most popular event-related potential techniques, with over two-thousand published studies using this method. This is a testament to the ingenuity and commitment of generations of researchers engaging in basic, clinical and animal research. Despite this intensive effort, high-level descriptions of the mechanisms theorized to underpin mismatch negativity have scarcely changed over the past four decades. The prevailing deviance detection theory posits that MMN reflects inattentive detection of difference between repetitive standard and infrequent deviant stimuli due to a mismatch between the unexpected deviant and a memory representation of the standard. Evidence for these mechanisms is inconclusive, and a plausible alternative sensory processing theory considers fundamental principles of sensory neurophysiology to be the primary source of differences between standard and deviant responses evoked during passive oddball stimulation. By frequently being restated without appropriate methods to exclude alternatives, the potentially flawed deviance detection theory has remained largely dominant, which could lead some researchers and clinicians to assume its veracity implicitly. It is important to have a more comprehensive understanding of the source(s) of MMN generation before its widespread application as a clinical biomarker. This review evaluates issues of validity concerning the prevailing theoretical account of mismatch negativity and the passive auditory oddball paradigm, highlighting several limitations regarding its interpretation and clinical application.

Rhythm Violation Enhances Auditory-Evoked Responses to the Extent of Overriding Sensory Adaptation in Passive Listening

Sensory systems utilize temporal structure in the environment to build expectations about the timing of forthcoming events. We investigated the effects of rhythm-based temporal expectation on auditory responses measured with EEG recorded from the frontocentral sites implicated in auditory processing. By manipulating temporal expectation and the interonset interval (IOI) of tones, we examined how neural responses adapted to auditory rhythm and reacted to stimuli that violated the rhythm. Participants passively listened to the tones while watching a silent nature video. In Experiment 1 (n = 22), in the long-IOI block, tones were frequently presented (80%) with 1.7-sec IOI and infrequently presented (20%) with 1.2-sec IOI, generating unexpectedly early tones that violated temporal expectation. Conversely, in the short-IOI block, tones were frequently presented with 1.2-sec IOI and infrequently presented with 1.7-sec IOI, generating late tones. We analyzed the tone-evoked N1-P2 amplitude of ERPs and intertrial phase clustering in the theta-alpha band. The results provided evidence of strong delay-dependent adaptation effects (short-term, sensitive to IOI), weak cumulative adaptation effects (long-term, driven by tone repetition over time), and robust temporal-expectation violation effects over and above the adaptation effects. Experiment 2 (n = 22) repeated Experiment 1 with shorter IOIs of 1.2 and 0.7 sec. Overall, we found evidence of strong delay-dependent adaptation effects, weak cumulative adaptation effects (which may most efficiently accumulate at the tone presentation rate of ∼1 Hz), and robust temporal-expectation violation effects that substantially boost auditory responses to the extent of overriding the delay-dependent adaptation effects likely through mechanisms involved in exogenous attention.

The release from refractoriness hypothesis of N1 of event-related potentials needs reassessment

N1 of event-related potentials (ERPs) is augmented in amplitude in ∼50-150 ms by occasional changes (deviants) in the physical features of a sound repeated at intervals of from ∼400 ms to seconds (standard). The release-from-refractoriness hypothesis links the N1 augmentation to a deviant-feature-specific neural population that is fresh to fully respond as opposed to a standard-feature-specific neural population that is unresponsive due to its post-response refractoriness. The present work explored this hypothesis in the context of ERP studies, behavioral habituation studies and studies on stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA). The idea of hundreds of milliseconds neural population-level refractoriness was observed to be founded upon negative N1 evidence (no observable effect of dishabituating stimuli on N1 to standards - the null hypothesis retained) and merely supported by positive N1 evidence (null hypotheses rejected). This idea was also found to be directly challenged by positive N1 evidence. No conclusive network- or single-neuron-level evidence was found for the refractoriness. Therefore, the validity of the release-from-refractoriness hypothesis of N1 to guide psychophysiological research needs reassessment.

Dynamic effects of habituation and novelty detection on newborn event-related potentials

Newborns habituate to repeated auditory stimuli, and discriminate syllables, generating opportunities for early language learning. This study investigated trial-by-trial changes in newborn electrophysiological responses to auditory speech syllables as an index of habituation and novelty detection. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 16 term newborn infants, aged 1-3 days, in response to monosyllabic speech syllables presented during habituation and novelty detection tasks. Multilevel models demonstrated that newborns habituated to repeated auditory syllables, as ERP amplitude attenuated for a late-latency component over successive trials. Subsequently, during the novelty detection task, early- and late-latency component amplitudes decreased over successive trials for novel syllables only, indicating encoding of the novel speech syllable. We conclude that newborns dynamically encoded novel syllables over relatively short time periods, as indicated by a systematic change in response patterns with increased exposure. These results have important implications for understanding early precursors of learning and memory in newborns.

The Geometry of Plasticity-Induced Sensitization in Isoinhibitory Rate Motifs

A well-known phenomenon in sensory perception is desensitization, wherein behavioral responses to persistent stimuli become attenuated over time. In this letter, our focus is on studying mechanisms through which desensitization may be mediated at the network level and, specifically, how sensitivity changes arise as a function of long-term plasticity. Our principal object of study is a generic isoinhibitory motif: a small excitatory-inhibitory network with recurrent inhibition. Such a motif is of interest due to its overrepresentation in laminar sensory network architectures. Here, we introduce a sensitivity analysis derived from control theory in which we characterize the fixed-energy reachable set of the motif. This set describes the regions of the phase-space that are more easily (in terms of stimulus energy) accessed, thus providing a holistic assessment of sensitivity. We specifically focus on how the geometry of this set changes due to repetitive application of a persistent stimulus. We find that for certain motif dynamics, this geometry contracts along the stimulus orientation while expanding in orthogonal directions. In other words, the motif not only desensitizes to the persistent input, but heightens its responsiveness (sensitizes) to those that are orthogonal. We develop a perturbation analysis that links this sensitization to both plasticity-induced changes in synaptic weights and the intrinsic dynamics of the network, highlighting that the effect is not purely due to weight-dependent disinhibition. Instead, this effect depends on the relative neuronal time constants and the consequent stimulus-induced drift that arises in the motif phase-space. For tightly distributed (but random) parameter ranges, sensitization is quite generic and manifests in larger recurrent E-I networks within which the motif is embedded.

Mechanisms underlying the social enhancement of vocal learning in songbirds

Social processes profoundly influence speech and language acquisition. Despite the importance of social influences, little is known about how social interactions modulate vocal learning. Like humans, songbirds learn their vocalizations during development, and they provide an excellent opportunity to reveal mechanisms of social influences on vocal learning. Using yoked experimental designs, we demonstrate that social interactions with adult tutors for as little as 1 d significantly enhanced vocal learning. Social influences on attention to song seemed central to the social enhancement of learning because socially tutored birds were more attentive to the tutor's songs than passively tutored birds, and because variation in attentiveness and in the social modulation of attention significantly predicted variation in vocal learning. Attention to song was influenced by both the nature and amount of tutor song: Pupils paid more attention to songs that tutors directed at them and to tutors that produced fewer songs. Tutors altered their song structure when directing songs at pupils in a manner that resembled how humans alter their vocalizations when speaking to infants, that was distinct from how tutors changed their songs when singing to females, and that could influence attention and learning. Furthermore, social interactions that rapidly enhanced learning increased the activity of noradrenergic and dopaminergic midbrain neurons. These data highlight striking parallels between humans and songbirds in the social modulation of vocal learning and suggest that social influences on attention and midbrain circuitry could represent shared mechanisms underlying the social modulation of vocal learning.

Neural adaptation to silence in the human auditory cortex: a magnetoencephalographic study

INTRODUCTION

Previous studies demonstrated that a decrement in the N1m response, a major deflection in the auditory evoked response, with sound repetition was mainly caused by bottom-up driven neural refractory periods following brain activation due to sound stimulations. However, it currently remains unknown whether this decrement occurs with a repetition of silences, which do not induce refractoriness.

METHODS

In the present study, we investigated decrements in N1m responses elicited by five repetitive silences in a continuous pure tone and by five repetitive pure tones in silence using magnetoencephalography.

RESULTS

Repetitive sound stimulation differentially affected the N1m decrement in a sound type-dependent manner; while the N1m amplitude decreased from the 1st to the 2nd pure tone and remained constant from the 2nd to the 5th pure tone in silence, a gradual decrement was observed in the N1m amplitude from the 1st to the 5th silence embedded in a continuous pure tone.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that neural refractoriness may mainly cause decrements in N1m responses elicited by trains of pure tones in silence, while habituation, which is a form of the implicit learning process, may play an important role in the N1m source strength decrements elicited by successive silences in a continuous pure tone.

Passive sound exposure induces rapid perceptual learning in musicians: event-related potential evidence

Musicians show enhanced auditory processing compared to nonmusicians. However, the neural basis underlying the effects of musical training on rapid plasticity in auditory processing has not been systematically studied. Here, the rapid (one session) learning-related plastic changes in event-related potential (ERP) responses for pitch and duration deviants between passive blocks were compared between musicians and nonmusicians. Passive blocks were interleaved with an active discrimination task. In addition to musicians having faster and stronger overall source activation for deviating sounds, source analysis revealed rapid plastic changes in the left and right temporal and left frontal sources that were present only in musicians. Source activation decreased in these areas even without focused attention. Furthermore, deviant-related ERP responses above the parietal areas decreased after the active task in both musicians and nonmusicians. Taken together, the results indicate enhanced rapid plasticity in sound change discrimination and perceptual learning in musicians when compared with nonmusicians.

Eye fixation-related potentials (EFRPs) during object identification

Eye fixation-related potential (EFRP) measures electrical brain activity in response to eye fixations. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether the EFRPs vary during consecutive eye fixations while subjects were performing an object identification task. Eye fixations evoked P1 and N1 components at the occipital and parietal recording sites. The latency of P1 component increased during consecutive fixations. The amplitude of P1 increased and the amplitude of N1 decreased during consecutive fixations. The results indicate that EFRPs are modulated during consecutive fixations, suggesting that the current technique may provide a useful tool to study temporal dynamics of visual perception and processes underlying object identification.

Representation of harmonic frequencies in auditory memory: A mismatch negativity study

Most natural sounds are composed of a mixture of frequencies, which activate separate neurons in the tonotopic auditory cortex. Nevertheless, we perceive this mixture as an integrated sound with unique acoustic properties. We used the Mismatch Negativity (MMN), a marker of auditory change detection, to determine whether individual harmonics are represented in sensory memory. The MMN elicited by duration and pitch deviations were compared for harmonic and pure tones. Controlled for acoustic differences between standards and deviants and their relative probabilities, the MMN was larger for harmonic than pure tones for duration but not for pitch deviance. Because the magnitude of the MMN reflects the number of concurrent changes in the acoustic input relative to a preexistent acoustic representation, these results suggest that duration is represented and compared separately for individual frequencies, whereas pitch comparison occurs after integration.

Habituation of the auditory evoked field component N100m and its dependence on stimulus duration

OBJECTIVES

In the current study we investigated the habituation of the neuromagnetic auditory evoked field (AEF) component N100m and its dependence on stimulus duration.

METHODS

Fifteen subjects were stimulated monaurally in 3 blocks of 210 trials with 1000 Hz tones of different duration (50, 100, 200 ms) and in a single block of 70 trials with 1200 Hz tones. The order of blocks was counterbalanced within the total experiment. Tones were separated by a stimulus onset asynchrony of 2000 ms. AEF were recorded over both hemispheres by means of a 31 channel system (Philips) on two different days. The AEF were compared within and between the blocks and between the hemispheres. Additionally, the effects of block order were analyzed.

RESULTS

In the course of the experiment a pronounced decrease of N100m mean global field power (MGFP) and an increase of its latency were observed. While the order of blocks clearly affected the degree of habituation, stimulus duration did not have any influence on it. Within the blocks, habituation also had an impact on dipole location in inferior-superior direction. The application of the 1200 Hz stimulus led to a slight response recovery. The change in tone pitch affected the dipole orientation, as an indicator for the tonotopic organization of the auditory cortex.

The pain inhibiting pain effect: an electrophysiological study in humans

This study examines the counterirritation phenomenon of experimental pain in human subjects. Phasic pain induced by intracutaneous electrical stimuli was simultaneously applied with tonic pain induced by ischemic muscle work. Pain ratings, spontaneous EEG and evoked potentials were measured. We found a significant reduction of phasic pain ratings during and 10 min after tonic pain. The late somatosensory evoked potentials as neurophysiological correlates of phasic pain sensation were attenuated until 20 min after tonic pain offset. The extent of phasic pain relief due to concomitant tonic pain was small but significant, comparable to the effect of a regular systemic dose of a narco-analgesic drug in this experimental pain model. On the other hand, no modulations in the late components of the auditory evoked potential and the power spectrum of the spontaneous EEG were observed. These variables reflect the attention and vigilance of the subject and are well-known to be affected by opioids. The only exception was an increase of beta power, which might reflect hyperarousal during tonic pain. These results support the suggestion, that the analgesic effect of heterotopic noxious stimulation in humans is based on the activation of a specific inhibitory pain control system. Systemic release of endogenous opioids is unlikely to be involved, because the typical effects of opioids on the EEG were not observed.

On the validity of interblock averaging of P300 in clinical settings

The reduction of long-latency auditory ERPs amplitude, including P300, to repeated stimuli has been well documented in the literature on habituation. The effect of block repetition on auditory ERPs recorded for clinical purposes, where interblock intervals are commonly longer than those employed in habituation studies, was studied in a sample of 38 adults submitted to two blocks of a counting oddball paradigm. Four different experimental conditions were considered, differing in target probability, delivery or not of a previous passive oddball tone sequence, and the performance or not of other oddball tasks requiring more complex discriminative responses between the two blocks. Results showed that: (1) N1 amplitude to the frequent non-target stimuli decreased in the second block under all the conditions; (2) when the two blocks were consecutive (separated by 2-3 min), P300 amplitudes were unaffected by block repetition, this whatever the probability of the target (25% vs. 10%) and whether or not a passive oddball sequence preceded the two active blocks; (3) P300 amplitude was only affected by stimulus repetition in those subjects who performed more complex cognitive tasks between the first and second blocks and; (4) latency values were unaffected by repetition. It is hypothesised that the N1 amplitude decline may be caused by a decrease in alertness or arousal level produced by stimuli repetition. Reduction in P3 amplitude only appeared when more difficult tasks had to be done between the two oddball blocks and may reflect a decrease in the amount of attentional resources allocated to the second block, due either to fatigue or over training. The practice of using a grand average of several repetitions of the oddball paradigm, as recommended for the clinical use of long-latency ERPs, seems to be adequate provided that long interblock intervals are used and that the subject is not engaged in tasks requiring a high mental workload between the trial blocks.

Decrement of the N1 auditory event-related potential with stimulus repetition: habituation vs. refractoriness

We examined whether the amplitude decrement traditionally found for the N1 peak of the event-related potential (ERP) with repetition of auditory stimuli results from the process of habituation or from the refractory period of the neural elements underlying the N1 response. These competing accounts of the process underlying the N1 decrement with repetition differ in terms of the predicted effects of variations in stimulus repetition and interstimulus interval (ISI). These predictions were examined using a short-term habituation design with a factorial combination of stimulus repetition and ISI. Forty-five subjects received 21 stimulus trains, each consisting of seven innocuous tones, all at 1 kHz except the sixth, which was a 1.5-kHz tone. Each subject was assigned to one of three ISI conditions (either 1, 3 or 10 s). The results provide little support for the view that N1 response decrement with stimulus repetition reflects a process of habituation. The present results provide greater support for the view that this decrement is based on the separate refractory periods or recovery cycle processes of at least two neural generators contributing to activity in the N1 peak latency range.

Age and stage dependency of P300 latency alterations in non-demented Parkinson's disease patients without therapy

Acoustic P300 was recorded from Fz, Cz and Pz by means of an 'odd-ball' paradigm in 44 non-demented de novo Parkinson's disease patients (PD) or PD patients under treatment withdrawal, and in 31 age-matched normal subjects, to evaluate whether a P300 latency increase was present in PD patients. The influence of age and disease stage on latency was successively verified by subgrouping PD patients according to different age ('young' and 'old') and disease stage ('early' or 'advanced'). PD patient data were compared to data of normal subjects subgrouped into 'young' and 'old' or, to eliminate the age-dependent shift of latency, this latter was adjusted to 60 years in all the examined subjects. A significant increase of latency has been found in Fz and Cz in the 'old' group of PD patients (n = 23) but not in the 'young' group (n = 21) utilising both methods. Moreover, a significant latency increase was also present in Fz and Cz in the group of 'advanced' PD patients (n = 8), but not in the group of 'early' PD patients (n = 36) utilising age-adjusted measurements. When the 'early' PD patient group was divided into 'young' (n = 20) and 'old' (n = 16), the 'early old' group displayed significantly increased latencies in Fz compared with normal subjects. Abnormal P300 latencies were observed, at least in one electrode, by analysing the raw data, in 5.0% of the 'early young', 43.7% of the 'early old' and up to 62.7% of the 'advanced' patients. Fz represented the site in which abnormal P300 latencies were most often observed. Moreover, in the total group of PD patients, the P300 delay was significant only on the frontal (Fz) site when compared with normal subjects. The reported findings were interpreted as if PD produces a sort of 'accelerated effect of age' on the cognitive functions, presumably produced by a mechanism different from that producing motor impairment since no clear correlation could be detected between P300 latency and motor score. The frontal impairment of P300 is in line with previous neuropsychological findings obtained in these patients. Considering that about 30% of PD patients develop dementia during their disease progression, a border-line or abnormal P300 latency observed at disease onset may represent a predictive marker of this evolution.

P300 from a passive auditory paradigm

The P300 (P3) event-related brain potential (ERP) was elicited with a passive tone sequence paradigm and evaluated in 2 studies. Experiment 1 compared ERPs from the passive procedure with those from an active discrimination (oddball) task. The passive sequence paradigm yielded P3 wave forms remarkably similar to those obtained from the active task since both demonstrated central-parietal maximum scalp distributions and virtually identical peak latencies. No differences between tasks were found when ERPs were elicited with subject's eyes open or closed. Experiment 2 compared ERPs from the passive sequence paradigm obtained when subjects were attempting to solve a word puzzle with those from a simple ignore condition. The puzzle-solving secondary task produced a decrease in P3 amplitude relative to the ignore condition, although P3 peak latency was unaffected. These results suggest that the passive sequence paradigm may be a useful and reliable means of eliciting the P3 ERP in subject populations or experimental situations in which an active discrimination task cannot be performed.

Simultaneous recording of auditory evoked potentials. Relationships among the fast, middle and long latency components

The whole pattern of the fast, middle and long latency auditory evoked potentials (AEP) was recorded simultaneously from the scalp surface of 13 normal-hearing adults. The individual responses were displayed on a nonlinear time axis in order to improve identification of the components. Stimulation consisted of 2048 unfiltered clicks, delivered monaurally at 80, 60, 40 dB HL with an ISI of 750 ms. Changes in mean latency and amplitude of each AEP component were statistically evaluated in relation to intensity and electrode montage (vertex-mastoid ipsi- and contralateral to the stimulated ear). The latencies of fast components I-VI and the slow P1 increase significantly with declining stimulus intensity. The amplitudes of the fast, I, II, III, V and the slow P1-N1, P2-N2 decrease significantly with intensity. As regards differences due to the electrode montage the contralateral recording causes significant changes in latency of the fast potentials up to wave IV, and changes in amplitude of the fast up to wave V, and of the slow P1-N1 and P2-N2. Therefore, as their latency and amplitude seem to be less closely related to the stimulus and electrode placement, the middle components behave differently, compared with the preceding and following components. Based on parametric comparisons of potentials ranging widely in latency, but each one evoked by an equal sensory input, this kind of AEP evaluation may be useful both for neurophysiological and clinical studies of the whole auditory pathway function.

Visual evoked potentials basic references

A list is given of 60 basic references (monographs and general reviews) in the field of evoked potentials and event-related brain potentials applied to vision research in man.

Cerebral potentials during smooth goal-directed hand movements in right-handed and left-handed subjects

During smooth goal-directed hand movements a negative potential shift can be recorded from the human scalp. This goal-directed movement potential (GDMP) is preponderant over central areas with a maximum at the vertex and, over the motor cortex, contralaterally larger than ipsilaterally to the moving hand. In 11 right-handed and 6 left-handed subjects, the morphology and distribution of these potential shifts were studied in relation to task differences, moving hand and handedness. The results show a functional differentiation of two components of the GDMP: (1), a lateralized, slow negative wave, restricted to the precentral area and selectively varying with the hand used, and (2), a widespread, bilateral symmetrical component, selectively influenced by task-specific and individual factors. Two effects reflect an influence of the subject's handedness on the GDMP: (A) averaged for both hand conditions, there are larger amplitudes over the hemisphere contralateral to the dominant hand, and (b), averaged for both hemispheres, larger amplitudes result from using the non-dominant hand.

Evoked potential correlates of human information processing

The late positive component (P3) of the feedback evoked potential was investigated in two tasks: the detection of near-threshold auditory stimuli, and the estimation of 1 s time intervals. When the intensity or probability of the threshold stimuli was varied in the detection task, it became apparent that the feedback P3 was related to the 'contingent probability' of confirming or disconfirming feedback given a particular response. In the time-estimation task the relative probabiliti-s of confirming and disconfirming feedback were altered by changing the time-window wherein a response was judged correct. In these experiments it was found that the feedback P3 component was highly dependent upon the probability of the feedback, and relatively independent of its confirming or disconfirming meaning. With decreasing probability of the feedback stimuli, the P3 component became larger, later, and somewhat more frontal.

Two varieties of long-latency positive waves evoked by unpredictable auditory stimuli in man

Two distinct late-positive components of the scalp-recorded auditory evoked potential were identified which differed in their latency, scalp topography and psychological correlates. The earlier component, called "P3a" (latency about 240 msec), was elicited by infrequent, unpredictable shifts of either intensity or frequency in a train of tone pips whether the subject was ignoring (reading a book) or attending to the tones (counting). The later component, called "P3a" (mean latency about 350 msec), occurred only when the subject was actively attending to the tones; it was evoked by the infrequent, unpredictable stimulus shifts, regardless of whether the subject was counting that stimulus or the more frequently occurring stimulus. Both of these distinct psychophysiological entities have previously been refered to as the "P3" or "P300" in the literature.