Abstract
The N1 event-related potential (ERP) enhancement to auditory transients preceded briefly by another transient has been interpreted as a reflection of latent inhibition, or alternatively, as a superimposing mismatch negativity (MMN) to rare transient event combinations. In a previous study (Volosin, Gaál, & Horváth, 2017a), when rare glides preceded frequent gaps by 150 ms in continuous tones, gap-related N1 was enhanced in younger adults while P2 was attenuated both in younger and older adults, which could be parsimoniously explained by MMN overlap which was delayed with aging. The present study replicated and extended these results with a condition in which the roles of the two event types were reversed. Transients separated by 150 ms elicited delayed MMN in older adults, supporting the MMN interpretation over the latent inhibition account. Furthermore, the divergence of N1 and MMN elicitation patterns demonstrated the independence of N1 and MMN.
Highlights
Adaptation requires that the organism detects and responds to changes of the environment
When a tone is repeated, the N1 elicited by the second tone is typically smaller (Imada, Hari, Loveless, McEvoy, & Sams, 1993; Naatanen & Picton, 1987), which has been interpreted as stimulus-specific adaptation of the neural elements responding to the given sound features (Budd, Barry, Gordon, Rennie, & Michie, 1998)
Based on post-hoc observations showing that the negative event-related potential (ERP) enhancement affected the N1, and shifted the temporally close P2 in the negative direction, two recent studies (Volosin et al, 2017a; Wang, Mouraux, Liang, & Iannetti, 2008) suggested that the enhancement might be caused by an overlapping negative ERP, possibly an mismatch negativity (MMN)
Summary
Adaptation requires that the organism detects and responds to changes of the environment. Whereas N1 seems to reflect auditory feature detection, MMN is theorized to reflect deviations from a pre-attentively maintained model of the auditory environment (Naatanen & Winkler, 1999; Win kler, 2007). Several studies demonstrated N1 amplitude enhancements when the repetition occurred within 400 ms (Budd & Michie, 1994; Sable, Low, Maclin, Fabiani, & Gratton, 2004). To explain this between-tone interval dependent pattern, it was sug gested that the enhancement reflected the interaction of a rapid general sensitization and a strong, but delayed inhibitory process (latent inhibi tion explanation, McEvoy, Levanen, & Loveless, 1997; Sable et al, 2004). To provide further evidence for this post-hoc interpretation, the goal of the present study was to replicate and extend the study of Volosin et al (2017a) with a clear hypothesis on the presence of a similar MMN effect in a plausible variation of the previously adminis tered paradigm
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