Abstract
Temporal contiguity between an action and corresponding auditory feedback is crucial to the perception of self-generated sound. However, the neural mechanisms underlying motor–auditory temporal integration are unclear. Here, we conducted four experiments with an oddball paradigm to examine the specific event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by delayed auditory feedback for a self-generated action. The first experiment confirmed that a pitch-deviant auditory stimulus elicits mismatch negativity (MMN) and P300, both when it is generated passively and by the participant’s action. In our second and third experiments, we investigated the ERP components elicited by delayed auditory feedback for a self-generated action. We found that delayed auditory feedback elicited an enhancement of P2 (enhanced-P2) and a N300 component, which were apparently different from the MMN and P300 components observed in the first experiment. We further investigated the sensitivity of the enhanced-P2 and N300 to delay length in our fourth experiment. Strikingly, the amplitude of the N300 increased as a function of the delay length. Additionally, the N300 amplitude was significantly correlated with the conscious detection of the delay (the 50% detection point was around 200 ms), and hence reduction in the feeling of authorship of the sound (the sense of agency). In contrast, the enhanced-P2 was most prominent in short-delay (≤200 ms) conditions and diminished in long-delay conditions. Our results suggest that different neural mechanisms are employed for the processing of temporally deviant and pitch-deviant auditory feedback. Additionally, the temporal window for subjective motor–auditory integration is likely about 200 ms, as indicated by these auditory ERP components.
Highlights
Predicting the timing and occurrence of an auditory stimulus is a central feature of auditory processing (Haggard et al, 2002; Sugita and Suzuki, 2003; Fujisaki et al, 2004; Vroomen et al, 2004; Fujisaki and Nishida, 2010; Yamamoto et al, 2012)
For the event-related potentials (ERPs) located around 200 ms (MMN/enhanced-P2), we found no effect of session on either the latency or amplitude at any electrode (p > 0.1), with one exception: we observed an effect of session on the mismatch negativity (MMN)/enhanced-P2 latency at Pz [F(1,95) = 5.65, p < 0.05, effect size η2 = 0.06)
We have demonstrated that the perception of delayed auditory feedback of self-generated movement elicits early ERP
Summary
Predicting the timing and occurrence of an auditory stimulus is a central feature of auditory processing (Haggard et al, 2002; Sugita and Suzuki, 2003; Fujisaki et al, 2004; Vroomen et al, 2004; Fujisaki and Nishida, 2010; Yamamoto et al, 2012). This is important when a sound is made by an individual’s own actions, such as those involved in playing a musical instrument, operating machinery, dancing, vocalization, and everyday physical movement. The neural mechanisms that underlie the temporal integration of a selfaction and the corresponding auditory feedback are not fully understood
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