Mental ability and pre-attentive processing: An analysis of mismatch negativity

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Mental ability and pre-attentive processing: An analysis of mismatch negativity Stefan Troche1*, M. E. Houlihan2, R. M. Stelmack3 and Thomas Rammsayer1 1 Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland 2 Department of Psychology, St. Thomas University, Fredericton, Canada 3 School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada The association of higher discrimination ability with higher mental ability is a well-established effect. In the present study, mismatch negativity (MNN) was derived during acoustic frequency and duration discrimination tasks to determine whether the mental ability effects are extant at a pre-attentive level of discrimination processing. MMN was recorded from 83 participants. Deviant tones were of a longer duration in one sequence and a higher frequency in the other. In both conditions, there were three levels of discrimination difficulty. Participants were instructed to ignore the tones and to attend to an animated movie. All three frequency MMN amplitudes but none of the duration MMN amplitudes were significantly related to MA. Larger frequency MMN amplitudes went with higher mental ability. Overall, frequency MMN amplitudes explained 18% of variance of the performance scores of the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery. Because MMN amplitude decreased with task difficulty, one could argue that the greater MMN amplitude for higher MA is indicative of their greater discrimination ability. However, this view is challenged by the failure to observe a relation between MMN amplitude and the 75% difference threshold in any condition. Conference: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Apr - 7 Apr, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Presentations Citation: Troche S, Houlihan ME, Stelmack RM and Rammsayer T (2009). Mental ability and pre-attentive processing: An analysis of mismatch negativity. Conference Abstract: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.098 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: 26 Mar 2009; Published Online: 26 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Stefan Troche, Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, troche@psy.unibe.ch 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 Stefan Troche M. E Houlihan R. M Stelmack Thomas Rammsayer Google Stefan Troche M. E Houlihan R. M Stelmack Thomas Rammsayer Google Scholar Stefan Troche M. E Houlihan R. M Stelmack Thomas Rammsayer PubMed Stefan Troche M. E Houlihan R. M Stelmack Thomas Rammsayer 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.