Auditory training: Stimulus exposure, task execution, and response feedback affect the neural detection of sound.

Abstract

The P1‐N1‐P2 cortical auditory evoked potential (AEP) has been used to study the effects of training‐related plasticity in the human central auditory system. One consistent finding is that enhanced P2 amplitudes coincide with improved perception. A typical interpretation of this result is that auditory training alters the physiological representation of the cue being trained. However, it is also possible that changes in P2 amplitude reflect other processes that are associated with, but not specific to, the improved representation of the trained cue itself. Here we isolated different components of auditory training by examining the effects of stimulus exposure, behavioral task execution, as well as task‐ plus‐feedback on the AEPs of 30 normal‐hearing young adults. For each group, AEP responses were passively obtained in response to two speech syllables differing in voice‐onset‐time, on three separate days. The first two sessions were on consecutive days and the third session occurred 1 week later. Results suggest that mere stimulus exposure alters the way sound is represented in the human auditory system, but the magnitude of P2 amplitude change is significantly greater when participants interact with the stimuli while executing a task. This point is especially true with the addition of feedback. [Work supported by NIH NIDCD Grant No. R01DC007705.]