Ultrafast tracking of sound location changes as revealed by human auditory evoked potentials

Abstract

The rapid discrimination of auditory location information enables grouping and selectively attending to specific sound sources. The typical indicator of auditory change detection is the mismatch negativity (MMN) occurring at a latency of about 100–250ms. However, recent studies have revealed the existence of earlier markers of frequency deviance detection in the middle-latency response (MLR). Here, we measured the MLR and MMN to changes in sound location. Clicks were presented in either the left or right hemifields during oddball (rare 30°-shifts in location), reversed oddball, and control (sounds occurring equiprobably from five locations) conditions. Clicks at deviant locations elicited an MMN and an enhanced Na component of the MLR peaking at 20ms compared to clicks at standard or control locations. Whereas MMN was not significantly lateralized, the Na effect showed a contralateral dominance. These findings indicate that, also for sound location changes, early detection processes exist upstream of MMN.