An asymmetry in automatic processing of infrequent changes - a mismatch negativity study

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event An asymmetry in automatic processing of infrequent changes - a mismatch negativity study Jana Timm1*, Annekathrin Weise1, Erich Schröger1 and Sabine Grimm2 1 Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Germany 2 Institute of Research for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, University of Barcelona, Spain The infrequent occurrence of a transient change within simple sounds (a brief frequency modulation, FM) is known to elicit the change-specific mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related brain potential. The present study tested to which extent the infrequent exclusion of a transient change (deviance) within simple sounds is detected by the MMN system. We suggested two hypotheses: According to the cognitive hypothesis, deviance detection relies on a sensory memory based comparison. MMN is elicited when the representation of the incoming sound does not match the representation of the preceding regular occurring sound (standard). According to the feature-detector-hypothesis the deviance detection depends on the increased activation of feature detectors to additional features. We measured MMN to the exclusion and inclusion of a transient FM within a deviant sound that was present or absent, respectively, in the standard sound. According to the cognitive hypothesis, both types of deviants should elicit comparable MMN responses as the relative content of the deviating information resulting from the comparison process is the same. If the feature-detector-hypothesis holds, the inclusion of the infrequent FM should elicit a distinct MMN. Contrary, its exclusion should evoke MMN of smaller size as the feature detectors should be activated to a lesser extent to the absent stimulus feature. MMN appeared only when the deviant featured an early occurring inclusion of the transient FM. Thus, this asymmetry in automatic deviant-detection of a transient change within a sinusoidal sound is more in line with the assumption of the feature-detector-hypothesis. Consequently, the underlying MMN system seems - in this case - to rely on the increased activity of feature detectors. Keywords: Attention, mismatch negativity Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neurophysiology of Cognition and Attention Citation: Timm J, Weise A, Schröger E and Grimm S (2011). An asymmetry in automatic processing of infrequent changes - a mismatch negativity study. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00428 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 24 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Miss. Jana Timm, Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, jana.timm@uni-leipzig.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Jana Timm Annekathrin Weise Erich Schröger Sabine Grimm Google Jana Timm Annekathrin Weise Erich Schröger Sabine Grimm Google Scholar Jana Timm Annekathrin Weise Erich Schröger Sabine Grimm PubMed Jana Timm Annekathrin Weise Erich Schröger Sabine Grimm Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.