Mechanisms underlying the auditory continuity illusion

Abstract

This study investigates the auditory continuity illusion, combining psychophysics and magnetoencephalography. Stimuli consisted of amplitude-modulated (AM) noise interrupted by bursts of louder, unmodulated noise. Subjective judgments confirmed that the AM was perceived as continuous, a case of illusory continuity. Psychophysical measurements showed that the illusory modulation had little effect on the detection of a physical modulation, i.e., the illusory modulation produced no modulation masking. Duration discrimination thresholds for the AM noise segments, however, were elevated by the illusion. A whole-head magnetoencephalographic system was used to record brain activity when listeners attended passively to the stimuli. The AM noise produced a modulated magnetic activity, the auditory steady-state response. The illusory modulation did not produce such a response, instead, a possible neural correlate of the illusion was found in transient evoked responses. When the AM was interrupted by silence, oscillatory activity in the gamma-band range as well as slow evoked potentials were observed at each AM onset. In the case of the illusion, these neural responses were largely reduced. Both sets of results are inconsistent with a restoration of the modulation in the case of illusory continuity. Rather, they point to a role for onset-detection mechanisms in auditory scene analysis.