Abstract
Auditory enhancement is the increase in salience of a target embedded in a simultaneous masker that occurs when a copy of the masker, termed the precursor, is presented first. The effect reflects the general principle of contrast enhancement and may help in the perceptual constancy of speech under varying acoustic conditions. The physiological mechanisms underlying auditory enhancement remain unknown. This study investigated EEG responses under conditions that elicited perceptual enhancement. The target tone was amplitude-modulated at two modulation frequencies to target cortical (~40 Hz) and subcortical (100–200 Hz) responses. Measurements were made in either passive conditions or under active tasks to examine the potential effects of attention on the neural correlates of enhancement. Robust effects of enhancement were observed at the cortical level, replicating our earlier findings. Preliminary data under passive conditions also suggest a trend towards increased neural response to the enhanced target tone at frequencies exceeding 200 Hz, suggesting a subcortical contribution. The results suggest that this paradigm can be used to tap into the neural correlates of auditory enhancement at both cortical and subcortical levels simultaneously and show the potential for tapping into attentional modulation of auditory enhancement. [Work supported by NIH grant R01DC012262.]
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