1
|
Richardson ML, Luo J, Zeng FG. Attention-Modulated Cortical Responses as a Biomarker for Tinnitus. Brain Sci 2024; 14:421. [PMID: 38790400 PMCID: PMC11118879 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci14050421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2024] [Revised: 04/17/2024] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/26/2024] Open
Abstract
Attention plays an important role in not only the awareness and perception of tinnitus but also its interactions with external sounds. Recent evidence suggests that attention is heightened in the tinnitus brain, likely as a result of relatively local cortical changes specific to deafferentation sites or global changes that help maintain normal cognitive capabilities in individuals with hearing loss. However, most electrophysiological studies have used passive listening paradigms to probe the tinnitus brain and produced mixed results in terms of finding a distinctive biomarker for tinnitus. Here, we designed a selective attention task, in which human adults attended to one of two interleaved tonal (500 Hz and 5 kHz) sequences. In total, 16 tinnitus (5 females) and 13 age- and hearing-matched control (8 females) subjects participated in the study, with the tinnitus subjects matching the tinnitus pitch to 5.4 kHz (range = 1.9-10.8 kHz). Cortical responses were recorded in both passive and attentive listening conditions, producing no differences in P1, N1, and P2 between the tinnitus and control subjects under any conditions. However, a different pattern of results emerged when the difference was examined between the attended and unattended responses. This attention-modulated cortical response was significantly greater in the tinnitus than control subjects: 3.9-times greater for N1 at 5 kHz (95% CI: 2.9 to 5.0, p = 0.007, ηp2 = 0.24) and 3.0 for P2 at 500 Hz (95% CI: 1.9 to 4.5, p = 0.026, ηp2 = 0.17). We interpreted the greater N1 modulation as local neural changes specific to the tinnitus frequency and the greater P2 as global changes to hearing loss. These two cortical measures were used to differentiate between the tinnitus and control subjects, producing 83.3% sensitivity and 76.9% specificity (AUC = 0.81, p = 0.006). These results suggest that the tinnitus brain is more plastic than that of the matched non-tinnitus controls and that the attention-modulated cortical response can be developed as a clinically meaningful biomarker for tinnitus.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthew L. Richardson
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA;
- Center for Hearing Research, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Jiaxin Luo
- Center for Hearing Research, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Fan-Gang Zeng
- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA;
- Center for Hearing Research, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
- Departments of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Cognitive Sciences, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Price CN, Bidelman GM. Attention reinforces human corticofugal system to aid speech perception in noise. Neuroimage 2021; 235:118014. [PMID: 33794356 PMCID: PMC8274701 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2020] [Revised: 03/09/2021] [Accepted: 03/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Perceiving speech-in-noise (SIN) demands precise neural coding between brainstem and cortical levels of the hearing system. Attentional processes can then select and prioritize task-relevant cues over competing background noise for successful speech perception. In animal models, brainstem-cortical interplay is achieved via descending corticofugal projections from cortex that shape midbrain responses to behaviorally-relevant sounds. Attentional engagement of corticofugal feedback may assist SIN understanding but has never been confirmed and remains highly controversial in humans. To resolve these issues, we recorded source-level, anatomically constrained brainstem frequency-following responses (FFRs) and cortical event-related potentials (ERPs) to speech via high-density EEG while listeners performed rapid SIN identification tasks. We varied attention with active vs. passive listening scenarios whereas task difficulty was manipulated with additive noise interference. Active listening (but not arousal-control tasks) exaggerated both ERPs and FFRs, confirming attentional gain extends to lower subcortical levels of speech processing. We used functional connectivity to measure the directed strength of coupling between levels and characterize "bottom-up" vs. "top-down" (corticofugal) signaling within the auditory brainstem-cortical pathway. While attention strengthened connectivity bidirectionally, corticofugal transmission disengaged under passive (but not active) SIN listening. Our findings (i) show attention enhances the brain's transcription of speech even prior to cortex and (ii) establish a direct role of the human corticofugal feedback system as an aid to cocktail party speech perception.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin N Price
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA; School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, 4055 North Park Loop, Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
| | - Gavin M Bidelman
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA; School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, 4055 North Park Loop, Memphis, TN 38152, USA; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Peterson SM, Furuichi E, Ferris DP. Effects of virtual reality high heights exposure during beam-walking on physiological stress and cognitive loading. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0200306. [PMID: 29979750 PMCID: PMC6034883 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2018] [Accepted: 06/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Virtual reality has been increasingly used in research on balance rehabilitation because it provides robust and novel sensory experiences in controlled environments. We studied 19 healthy young subjects performing a balance beam walking task in two virtual reality conditions and with unaltered view (15 minutes each) to determine if virtual reality high heights exposure induced stress. We recorded number of steps off the beam, heart rate, electrodermal activity, response time to an auditory cue, and high-density electroencephalography (EEG). We hypothesized that virtual high heights exposure would increase measures of physiological stress compared to unaltered viewing at low heights. We found that the virtual high height condition increased heart rate variability and heart rate frequency power relative to virtual low heights. Virtual reality use resulted in increased number of step-offs, heart rate, electrodermal activity, and response time compared to the unaltered viewing at low heights condition. Our results indicated that virtual reality decreased dynamic balance performance and increased physical and cognitive loading compared to unaltered viewing at low heights. In virtual reality, we found significant decreases in source-localized EEG peak amplitude relative to unaltered viewing in the anterior cingulate, which is considered important in sensing loss of balance. Our findings indicate that virtual reality provides realistic experiences that can induce physiological stress in humans during dynamic balance tasks, but virtual reality use impairs physical and cognitive performance during balance.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Steven M Peterson
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Emily Furuichi
- School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
| | - Daniel P Ferris
- J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
de Boer J, Krumbholz K. Auditory Attention Causes Gain Enhancement and Frequency Sharpening at Successive Stages of Cortical Processing-Evidence from Human Electroencephalography. J Cogn Neurosci 2018; 30:785-798. [PMID: 29488851 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Previous findings have suggested that auditory attention causes not only enhancement in neural processing gain, but also sharpening in neural frequency tuning in human auditory cortex. The current study was aimed to reexamine these findings. Specifically, we aimed to investigate whether attentional gain enhancement and frequency sharpening emerge at the same or different processing levels and whether they represent independent or cooperative effects. For that, we examined the pattern of attentional modulation effects on early, sensory-driven cortical auditory-evoked potentials occurring at different latencies. Attention was manipulated using a dichotic listening task and was thus not selectively directed to specific frequency values. Possible attention-related changes in frequency tuning selectivity were measured with an adaptation paradigm. Our results show marked disparities in attention effects between the earlier N1 deflection and the subsequent P2 deflection, with the N1 showing a strong gain enhancement effect, but no sharpening, and the P2 showing clear evidence of sharpening, but no independent gain effect. They suggest that gain enhancement and frequency sharpening represent successive stages of a cooperative attentional modulation mechanism that increases the representational bandwidth of attended versus unattended sounds.
Collapse
|
5
|
Callan DE, Gateau T, Durantin G, Gonthier N, Dehais F. Disruption in neural phase synchrony is related to identification of inattentional deafness in real-world setting. Hum Brain Mapp 2018; 39:2596-2608. [PMID: 29484760 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2017] [Revised: 02/19/2018] [Accepted: 02/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals often have reduced ability to hear alarms in real world situations (e.g., anesthesia monitoring, flying airplanes) when attention is focused on another task, sometimes with devastating consequences. This phenomenon is called inattentional deafness and usually occurs under critical high workload conditions. It is difficult to simulate the critical nature of these tasks in the laboratory. In this study, dry electroencephalography is used to investigate inattentional deafness in real flight while piloting an airplane. The pilots participating in the experiment responded to audio alarms while experiencing critical high workload situations. It was found that missed relative to detected alarms were marked by reduced stimulus evoked phase synchrony in theta and alpha frequencies (6-14 Hz) from 120 to 230 ms poststimulus onset. Correlation of alarm detection performance with intertrial coherence measures of neural phase synchrony showed different frequency and time ranges for detected and missed alarms. These results are consistent with selective attentional processes actively disrupting oscillatory coherence in sensory networks not involved with the primary task (piloting in this case) under critical high load conditions. This hypothesis is corroborated by analyses of flight parameters showing greater maneuvering associated with difficult phases of flight occurring during missed alarms. Our results suggest modulation of neural oscillation is a general mechanism of attention utilizing enhancement of phase synchrony to sharpen alarm perception during successful divided attention, and disruption of phase synchrony in brain networks when attentional demands of the primary task are great, such as in the case of inattentional deafness.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel E Callan
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.,Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France
| | - Thibault Gateau
- Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France
| | - Gautier Durantin
- School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - Nicolas Gonthier
- Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.,Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France
| | - Frédéric Dehais
- Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Attention modulates cortical processing of pitch feedback errors in voice control. Sci Rep 2015; 5:7812. [PMID: 25589447 PMCID: PMC4295089 DOI: 10.1038/srep07812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2014] [Accepted: 12/10/2014] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Considerable evidence has shown that unexpected alterations in auditory feedback elicit fast compensatory adjustments in vocal production. Although generally thought to be involuntary in nature, whether these adjustments can be influenced by attention remains unknown. The present event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to examine whether neurobehavioral processing of auditory-vocal integration can be affected by attention. While sustaining a vowel phonation and hearing pitch-shifted feedback, participants were required to either ignore the pitch perturbations, or attend to them with low (counting the number of perturbations) or high attentional load (counting the type of perturbations). Behavioral results revealed no systematic change of vocal response to pitch perturbations irrespective of whether they were attended or not. At the level of cortex, there was an enhancement of P2 response to attended pitch perturbations in the low-load condition as compared to when they were ignored. In the high-load condition, however, P2 response did not differ from that in the ignored condition. These findings provide the first neurophysiological evidence that auditory-motor integration in voice control can be modulated as a function of attention at the level of cortex. Furthermore, this modulatory effect does not lead to a general enhancement but is subject to attentional load.
Collapse
|
7
|
Nourski KV, Steinschneider M, Oya H, Kawasaki H, Howard MA. Modulation of response patterns in human auditory cortex during a target detection task: an intracranial electrophysiology study. Int J Psychophysiol 2014; 95:191-201. [PMID: 24681353 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2014] [Revised: 03/11/2014] [Accepted: 03/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Selective attention enhances cortical activity representing an attended sound stream in human posterolateral superior temporal gyrus (PLST). It is unclear, however, what mechanisms are associated with a target detection task that necessitates sustained attention (vigilance) to a sound stream. We compared responses elicited by target and non-target sounds, and to sounds presented in a passive-listening paradigm. Subjects were neurosurgical patients undergoing invasive monitoring for medically refractory epilepsy. Stimuli were complex tones, band-limited noise bursts and speech syllables. High gamma cortical activity (70-150 Hz) was examined in all subjects using subdural grid electrodes implanted over PLST. Additionally, responses were measured from depth electrodes implanted within Heschl's gyrus (HG) in one subject. Responses to target sounds recorded from PLST were increased when compared to responses elicited by the same sounds when they were not-targets, and when they were presented during passive listening. Increases in high gamma activity to target sounds occurred during later portions (after 250 ms) of the response. These increases were related to the task and not to detailed stimulus characteristics. In contrast, earlier activity that did not vary across conditions did represent stimulus acoustic characteristics. Effects observed on PLST were not noted in HG. No consistent effects were noted in the averaged evoked potentials in either cortical region. We conclude that task dependence modulates later activity in PLST during vigilance. Later activity may represent feedback from higher cortical areas. Study of concurrently recorded activity from frontoparietal areas is necessary to further clarify task-related modulation of activity on PLST.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kirill V Nourski
- Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
| | | | - Hiroyuki Oya
- Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Hiroto Kawasaki
- Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Matthew A Howard
- Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Gontier E, Hasuo E, Mitsudo T, Grondin S. EEG investigations of duration discrimination: the intermodal effect is induced by an attentional bias. PLoS One 2013; 8:e74073. [PMID: 24009766 PMCID: PMC3751868 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0074073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2013] [Accepted: 07/29/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies indicated that empty time intervals are better discriminated in the auditory than in the visual modality, and when delimited by signals delivered from the same (intramodal intervals) rather than from different sensory modalities (intermodal intervals). The present electrophysiological study was conducted to determine the mechanisms which modulated the performances in inter- and intramodal conditions. Participants were asked to categorise as short or long empty intervals marked by auditory (A) and/or visual (V) signals (intramodal intervals: AA, VV; intermodal intervals: AV, VA). Behavioural data revealed that the performances were higher for the AA intervals than for the three other intervals and lower for inter- compared to intramodal intervals. Electrophysiological results indicated that the CNV amplitude recorded at fronto-central electrodes increased significantly until the end of the presentation of the long intervals in the AA conditions, while no significant change in the time course of this component was observed for the other three modalities of presentation. They also indicated that the N1 and P2 amplitudes recorded after the presentation of the signals which delimited the beginning of the intervals were higher for the inter- (AV/VA) compared to the intramodal intervals (AA/VV). The time course of the CNV revealed that the high performances observed with AA intervals would be related to the effectiveness of the neural mechanisms underlying the processing of the ongoing interval. The greater amplitude of the N1 and P2 components during the intermodal intervals suggests that the weak performances observed in these conditions would be caused by an attentional bias induced by the cognitive load and the necessity to switch between modalities.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Emilie Gontier
- Laboratoire de Recherche en Psychologie de la Perception, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada.
| | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
9
|
de Souza ACS, Yehia HC, Sato MA, Callan D. Brain activity underlying auditory perceptual learning during short period training: simultaneous fMRI and EEG recording. BMC Neurosci 2013; 14:8. [PMID: 23316957 PMCID: PMC3557158 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2202-14-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2012] [Accepted: 12/26/2012] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is an accumulating body of evidence indicating that neuronal functional specificity to basic sensory stimulation is mutable and subject to experience. Although fMRI experiments have investigated changes in brain activity after relative to before perceptual learning, brain activity during perceptual learning has not been explored. This work investigated brain activity related to auditory frequency discrimination learning using a variational Bayesian approach for source localization, during simultaneous EEG and fMRI recording. We investigated whether the practice effects are determined solely by activity in stimulus-driven mechanisms or whether high-level attentional mechanisms, which are linked to the perceptual task, control the learning process. RESULTS The results of fMRI analyses revealed significant attention and learning related activity in left and right superior temporal gyrus STG as well as the left inferior frontal gyrus IFG. Current source localization of simultaneously recorded EEG data was estimated using a variational Bayesian method. Analysis of current localized to the left inferior frontal gyrus and the right superior temporal gyrus revealed gamma band activity correlated with behavioral performance. CONCLUSIONS Rapid improvement in task performance is accompanied by plastic changes in the sensory cortex as well as superior areas gated by selective attention. Together the fMRI and EEG results suggest that gamma band activity in the right STG and left IFG plays an important role during perceptual learning.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Masa-aki Sato
- ATR Neural Information Analysis Laboratories, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Daniel Callan
- ATR Neural Information Analysis Laboratories, Kyoto, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Andermann ML, Kauramäki J, Palomäki T, Moore CI, Hari R, Jääskeläinen IP, Sams M. Brain state-triggered stimulus delivery: An efficient tool for probing ongoing brain activity. OPEN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE 2012; 2:5. [PMID: 23275858 PMCID: PMC3531547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
What is the relationship between variability in ongoing brain activity preceding a sensory stimulus and subsequent perception of that stimulus? A challenge in the study of this key topic in systems neuroscience is the relative rarity of certain brain 'states'-left to chance, they may seldom align with sensory presentation. We developed a novel method for studying the influence of targeted brain states on subsequent perceptual performance by online identification of spatiotemporal brain activity patterns of interest, and brain-state triggered presentation of subsequent stimuli. This general method was applied to an electroencephalography study of human auditory selective listening. We obtained online, time-varying estimates of the instantaneous direction of neural bias (towards processing left or right ear sounds). Detection of target sounds was influenced by pre-target fluctuations in neural bias, within and across trials. We propose that brain state-triggered stimulus delivery will enable efficient, statistically tractable studies of rare patterns of ongoing activity in single neurons and distributed neural circuits, and their influence on subsequent behavioral and neural responses.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M L Andermann
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki, Finland ; Brain Research Unit, Low Temperature Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki, Finland ; Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, MA, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
11
|
Neelon MF, Williams J, Garell PC. Elastic Attention: Enhanced, then Sharpened Response to Auditory Input as Attentional Load Increases. Front Hum Neurosci 2011; 5:41. [PMID: 21559348 PMCID: PMC3085242 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2011.00041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2011] [Accepted: 03/30/2011] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A long debate in selective attention research is whether attention enhances sensory response or sharpens neural tuning by suppressing response to non-target input. In fact, both processes may occur as a function of load: an uncertain listener might use a broad attentional filter to enhance responses to all inputs (i.e., vigilance), yet employ sharpened tuning to focus on hard to discriminate targets. The present work used the greater signal gain, anatomical precision, and laterality separation of intracranial electrophysiological recordings (electrocorticograms) to investigate these competing effects. Data were recorded from acoustically-responsive cortex in the perisylvian region of a single hemisphere in five neurosurgery patients. Patients performed a dichotic listening task in which they alternately attended toward, away from, or completely ignored (silent reading) tones presented to designated ears at varying presentation rates. Comparisons between the grand-averaged event-related potential (ERP) waveforms show a striking change in the effect of selective auditory attention with attentional load. At slower presentation rates (low-load), ERPs were overall enhanced in response to both input channels and regardless of attended ear, including a significant enhancement of ipsilateral input. This result supports a broadly enhancing model of attention under low perceptual load conditions. At the fastest rate, however, only responses to attended inputs contralateral to grid location remained enhanced. This result supports an increasing suppression, or "sharpening," of neural responses to non-targets with increasing attentional load. These data provide support for an elastic model of attention in which attentional scope narrows with increasing load.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Michael F Neelon
- Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Asheville Asheville, NC, USA
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
12
|
Steinschneider M, Nourski KV, Kawasaki H, Oya H, Brugge JF, Howard MA. Intracranial study of speech-elicited activity on the human posterolateral superior temporal gyrus. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2011; 21:2332-47. [PMID: 21368087 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhr014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
To clarify speech-elicited response patterns within auditory-responsive cortex of the posterolateral superior temporal (PLST) gyrus, time-frequency analyses of event-related band power in the high gamma frequency range (75-175 Hz) were performed on the electrocorticograms recorded from high-density subdural grid electrodes in 8 patients undergoing evaluation for medically intractable epilepsy. Stimuli were 6 stop consonant-vowel (CV) syllables that varied in their consonant place of articulation (POA) and voice onset time (VOT). Initial augmentation was maximal over several centimeters of PLST, lasted about 400 ms, and was often followed by suppression and a local outward expansion of activation. Maximal gamma power overlapped either the Nα or Pβ deflections of the average evoked potential (AEP). Correlations were observed between the relative magnitudes of gamma band responses elicited by unvoiced stop CV syllables (/pa/, /ka/, /ta/) and their corresponding voiced stop CV syllables (/ba/, /ga/, /da/), as well as by the VOT of the stimuli. VOT was also represented in the temporal patterns of the AEP. These findings, obtained in the passive awake state, indicate that PLST discriminates acoustic features associated with POA and VOT and serve as a benchmark upon which task-related speech activity can be compared.
Collapse
|
13
|
May PJC, Tiitinen H. Mismatch negativity (MMN), the deviance-elicited auditory deflection, explained. Psychophysiology 2010; 47:66-122. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00856.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 374] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
|
14
|
Otsuka A, Kuriki S, Murata N, Hasegawa T. Neuromagnetic responses to chords are modified by preceding musical scale. Neurosci Res 2008; 60:50-5. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2007.09.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2007] [Revised: 09/18/2007] [Accepted: 09/20/2007] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
|
15
|
Kauramäki J, Jääskeläinen IP, Sams M. Selective attention increases both gain and feature selectivity of the human auditory cortex. PLoS One 2007; 2:e909. [PMID: 17878944 PMCID: PMC1975472 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2007] [Accepted: 08/23/2007] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND An experienced car mechanic can often deduce what's wrong with a car by carefully listening to the sound of the ailing engine, despite the presence of multiple sources of noise. Indeed, the ability to select task-relevant sounds for awareness, whilst ignoring irrelevant ones, constitutes one of the most fundamental of human faculties, but the underlying neural mechanisms have remained elusive. While most of the literature explains the neural basis of selective attention by means of an increase in neural gain, a number of papers propose enhancement in neural selectivity as an alternative or a complementary mechanism. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Here, to address the question whether pure gain increase alone can explain auditory selective attention in humans, we quantified the auditory cortex frequency selectivity in 20 healthy subjects by masking 1000-Hz tones by continuous noise masker with parametrically varying frequency notches around the tone frequency (i.e., a notched-noise masker). The task of the subjects was, in different conditions, to selectively attend to either occasionally occurring slight increments in tone frequency (1020 Hz), tones of slightly longer duration, or ignore the sounds. In line with previous studies, in the ignore condition, the global field power (GFP) of event-related brain responses at 100 ms from the stimulus onset to the 1000-Hz tones was suppressed as a function of the narrowing of the notch width. During the selective attention conditions, the suppressant effect of the noise notch width on GFP was decreased, but as a function significantly different from a multiplicative one expected on the basis of simple gain model of selective attention. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Our results suggest that auditory selective attention in humans cannot be explained by a gain model, where only the neural activity level is increased, but rather that selective attention additionally enhances auditory cortex frequency selectivity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jaakko Kauramäki
- Laboratory of Computational Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland.
| | | | | |
Collapse
|