Involvement of entrained neural oscillations in the perception of ambiguous sound sequences

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Involvement of entrained neural oscillations in the perception of ambiguous sound sequences Jordi Costa-Faidella1*, Elyse S. Sussman2 and Carles Escera1 1 University of Barcelona, Spain 2 Albert Einstein College of Medicine, United States The auditory system is constantly parsing the acoustic input into meaningful units (i.e. streams) to which behavior can be directed. This phenomenon is referred to as auditory scene analysis (ASA), and although extensively described, its underlying neural mechanisms are poorly understood. One hypothesis states that sounds activating distinct neural populations are heard as separate streams. However, there is increasing support for the role of temporal coherence in perceptual grouping and segregation. Here we aim to provide evidence for the entrainment of brain oscillations to temporally coherent acoustic patterns as one plausible neural mechanism of ASA. EEG data was recorded from 12 healthy participants while performing two tasks promoting two different perceptual organizations of the same sound sequence. Tone duration and intensity variations following different but temporally coherent patterns served as anchoring points to integrate or segregate sounds in different streams. Subjects performed at ceiling level in both tasks. A significant increase of phase-locking factor (PLF) was found in the frequency band corresponding to the stimulus presentation rate in both conditions, together with a specific increase corresponding to the timing of the perceived sound organization. Increments of induced power were observed in the theta range (4-7 Hz) at fronto-temporal sites in the grouping condition, and in the alpha range (8-12 Hz) at parietal sites in the segregation condition. Our results suggest that brain oscillations entrained to the temporal coherence of acoustic stimuli play a critical role in binding or segregating them in streams, and that whereas theta rhythms might serve stimulus integration, alpha rhythms might be involved in the suppression of irrelevant stimuli. Keywords: EEG, Perception 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 Sensation and Perception Citation: Costa-Faidella J, Sussman ES and Escera C (2011). Involvement of entrained neural oscillations in the perception of ambiguous sound sequences. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00351 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: 23 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Jordi Costa-Faidella, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, jcostafaidella@ub.edu 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 Jordi Costa-Faidella Elyse S Sussman Carles Escera Google Jordi Costa-Faidella Elyse S Sussman Carles Escera Google Scholar Jordi Costa-Faidella Elyse S Sussman Carles Escera PubMed Jordi Costa-Faidella Elyse S Sussman Carles Escera 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.