Oddball Effect Research Articles

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Novelty Detection in Mouse Auditory Cortex

Event Abstract Back to Event Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Novelty Detection in Mouse Auditory Cortex Jose Garcia-Lazaro1*, I. Nelken2 and J. W. Schnupp1 1 Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, United Kingdom 2 The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel In order to study the interactions between the behavioural and electrophysiological aspects of the processing of novel stimuli, we measured evoked epidural potentials from anesthetized (2-2-2-tribromoethanol/tert-amyl alcohol) C57BL6 mice in the oddball paradigm. Evoked local field potential responses were recorded epidurally from auditory cortex using custom-built low impedance electrodes. Acoustic stimuli consisted on 30 ms tone pips presented once every 300 ms. Two different frequencies, 6.67 kHz and 13.7 kHz, were presented in a randomly interleaved manner. In one condition, one of these frequencies was presented as a standard, with a 90% probability and the other as a deviant, with 10% probability. In a second condition, these probabilities were reversed. We recorded responses to 1000 repeats for each condition. Our preliminary data shows a strong oddball effect. Although this effect was observed for both frequencies, it was significantly stronger for the larger frequency. In order to investigate the potential role of experience, we also measured electrophysiological responses from animals after avoidance training. Training was entirely automated using a simplified version of the Intellicage system (NewBehavior AG, Zurich, Switzerland). The system operates using transponder technology for individual animal recognition and contains an isolated test chamber where mice obtain drinking water by triggering a nose-poke hole. In our paradigm, on 75% of the times an animal visited the chamber, a standard (6.67 kHz) sound stimulus was presented. The stimulus consisted on tone pips presented at intervals of 300 ms for 5 seconds. On the remaining 25% of the visits, a deviant (13.7 kHz) sound stimulus was presented. During a deviant visit animals did not obtain water, but instead a mildly aversive air-puff. Preliminary electrophysiological data from behaviorally trained animals shows that while potentials recorded in response to the standard (non-aversive) stimulus remained largely unchanged, potentials recorded in response to the aversive stimulus exhibited a two-fold increase in amplitude. These differences in the responses following training represent the prima facie evidence for experience induced changes in mouse auditory cortex. Supported by an EU FP6 project grant (LSHM-CT-2006-037378). 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: Garcia-Lazaro J, Nelken I and Schnupp JW (2009). Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Novelty Detection in Mouse Auditory Cortex. Conference Abstract: MMN 09 Fifth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Applications. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.05.080 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: 25 Mar 2009; Published Online: 25 Mar 2009. * Correspondence: Jose Garcia-Lazaro, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, jose.garcia-lazaro@dpag.ox.ac.uk 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 Jose Garcia-Lazaro I. Nelken J. W Schnupp Google Jose Garcia-Lazaro I. Nelken J. W Schnupp Google Scholar Jose Garcia-Lazaro I. Nelken J. W Schnupp PubMed Jose Garcia-Lazaro I. Nelken J. W Schnupp 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.

Does the asymmetry effect inflate the temporal expansion of odd stimuli?

Tse et al. (Percept Psychophys 66:1171-1189, 2004) reported that participants tend to overestimate the duration of an oddball stimulus. The size of this effect was much larger than the one reported by Ulrich et al. (Psychol Res 70:77-87, 2006). More crucially, the effect in the study of Tse et al. already emerged at short standard durations, arguing against the arousal account proposed by Ulrich et al. This study investigated whether the oddball effect reported by Tse et al. was inflated by an asymmetry effect, that is, by an asymmetrical distribution of physical comparison durations around the duration of the standard. Experiment 1 demonstrated that an asymmetry effect could mimic an oddball effect. Therefore, we conducted Experiment 2 to replicate the results by Tse et al. employing not only their original procedure but also an adaptive procedure that rather avoids an asymmetry effect. Both psychophysical procedures in this experiment revealed an oddball effect, which, however, was of smaller size than the one reported by Tse et al. Furthermore, this effect emerged only at longer standard durations, which is in agreement with the arousal account as the underlying mechanism of this robust temporal illusion.

Influence of comorbid obsessive-compulsive symptoms on brain event-related potentials in Gilles de la Tourette syndrome

Approximately 30 to 50% of people suffering from Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS) also fulfill diagnostic criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Despite this high degree of comorbidity, very few studies have addressed the question of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) in GTS patients using specific brain event-related potentials (ERP) responses. The aim of the current study was to quantify neurocognitive aspects of comorbidity, using ERPs. Fourteen adults with GTS (without OCD) were compared to a group of 12 participants with GTS and comorbid obsessive-compulsive symptoms (GTS + OCS), to a group of 15 participants with OCD and to a group of 14 control participants without neurological or psychiatric problems. The P200 and P300 components were recorded during a visual counting oddball task. Results showed intact P200 amplitude in all groups, whilst the P300 amplitude was affected differentially across groups. The P300 oddball effect was reduced in participants in both OCD and GTS + OCS groups in the anterior region. However, the P300 oddball effect was significantly larger in participants of the GTS group compared to all other groups, mostly in the parietal region. These findings suggest that adults with GTS are characterized by enhanced working memory updating processes and that the superimposition of OCS can lead to a reduction of these processes. The discrepancy between our findings and results obtained in previous studies on GTS could reflect the modulating effect of OCS on late ERP components.

Daytime Light Exposure Dynamically Enhances Brain Responses

In humans, light enhances both alertness and performance during nighttime and daytime [1-4] and influences regional brain function [5]. These effects do not correspond to classical visual responses but involve a non-image forming (NIF) system, which elicits greater endocrine, physiological, neurophysiological, and behavioral responses to shorter light wavelengths than to wavelengths geared toward the visual system [6-11]. During daytime, the neural changes induced by light exposure, and their time courses, are largely unknown. With functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we characterized the neural correlates of the alerting effect of daytime light by assessing the responses to an auditory oddball task [12-15], before and after a short exposure to a bright white light. Light-induced improvement in subjective alertness was linearly related to responses in the posterior thalamus. In addition, light enhanced responses in a set of cortical areas supporting attentional oddball effects, and it prevented decreases of activity otherwise observed during continuous darkness. Responses to light were remarkably dynamic. They declined within minutes after the end of the light stimulus, following various region-specific time courses. These findings suggest that light can modulate activity of subcortical structures involved in alertness, thereby dynamically promoting cortical activity in networks involved in ongoing nonvisual cognitive processes.

Why the P600 is not just a P300: the role of the basal ganglia.

One of the important issues in event-related brain potential research is whether the language-related P600 and the P300 oddball effect are distinct components or not. We addressed this question by testing 14 aphasic patients, half of them with lesions including the basal ganglia and half of them with temporo-parietal lesions, in both an auditory oddball task and an experiment with auditory presented verb inflection violations. Whereas both patient groups displayed a clear P300 effect in the oddball experiment, only the group with temporo-parietal lesions showed a P600 in the language experiment. These data indicate that the basal ganglia seem to play a crucial role in the modulation of the P600, but not of the P300 component.

Subliminal visual oddball stimuli evoke a P300 component

Objective: To provide evidence that a P300 component can be elicited by subliminal stimuli in an oddball paradigm. Methods: The words LEFT and RIGHT were presented in a frequent-rare ratio (80–20%), counterbalanced between subjects. Stimuli were presented at the objective detection threshold ( d′=0, via unmasked 1 ms presentations), a stringent measure for detecting any conscious perception. Results: A significantly larger amplitude component was found for rare vs. frequent stimulus presentations across electrodes Fz, Cz, and Pz using both a broad 200–900 ms window ( F(1,27)=5.75, P<0.012, η 2=0.18; one-tailed), and a more narrow 400–760 ms window defined using principal component analysis ( F(1,27)=10.10, P<0.002, η 2=0.27; one-tailed). No significant component latency effects were found. An analysis of the conscious perception index ( d′) and the oddball effect (rare-frequent amplitude difference) revealed a negative relationship, further supporting the contention that conscious perception does not account for the finding, and suggesting that any conscious stimulus detection may inhibit this subliminal effect. Conclusions: Results provide evidence that an endogenous component can be elicited by undetectable subliminal stimuli in an oddball paradigm. Implications are discussed for comparing conscious and unconscious information processing, unconscious learning, and the measurement of ERPs to subliminal stimuli.

An event-related functional MRI study of the stroop color word interference task.

In this study we have attempted to define the neural circuits differentially activated by cognitive interference. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify areas of the brain that are activated by the Stroop word-color task in two experiments. In the first experiment, we used infrequent, incongruent colored word stimuli to elicit strong Stroop interference (the 'conventional Stroop' paradigm). In the second experiment, we used infrequent, congruent colored words (the 'inverse Stroop' paradigm) to confirm that the regions identified in the first experiment were in fact specifically related to the Stroop effect and not to nonspecific oddball effects associated with the use of infrequent stimuli. Performance of the conventional Stroop specifically activated the anterior cingulate, insula, premotor and inferior frontal regions. These activated regions in the current experiment are consistent with those activated in fMRI experiments that use a more traditional block design. Finally, analysis of the time course of fMRI signal changes demonstrated differential onset and offset of signal changes in these activated regions. The time course results suggest that the action of various brain areas can be temporally dissociated.

Event-related potential evidence for a specific recognition memory deficit in adult survivors of cerebral hypoxia.

Transient global ischaemia due to cardiac arrest may lead to profound neuropsychological disorders. Recent research indicates that memory processes are particularly impaired after hypoxic brain injury. Visual recognition memory functions were examined in these patients by means of event-related potential (ERP) and performance data. Eight chronic hypoxic patients, matched with controls for sex and age, performed a visual recognition memory task requiring recognition judgements for either object forms or spatial locations and a visual classification (i.e. oddball) task that imposed negligible memory demands. Reliable P300 oddball effects were obtained both for patients and for controls, whereas the two groups differed in P300 latency and P300 scalp topography. In the memory task, old/new effects (i.e. larger ERP waveforms for previously studied than for unstudied items) were found for the controls. In contrast, in patients these old/new effects were absent or even inverted in polarity while recognition performance was well above chance level, except for one patient. These results suggest that recognition, based on the retrieval of an item's study episode, is degraded in patients who have suffered a period of transient global ischaemia. In the light of the patients' above-chance level of recognition performance and the outcome of post hoc analysis of practice-related changes in recognition performance, it is argued that the patients' memory disorders are best characterized as a degradation of explicit memory functions such as episodic retrieval of a study episode. Implicit functions such as cognitive skill learning were intact.

The ‘oddball CNV’ as an indicator of different information processing in patients with panic disorders

In previous studies we found an inverse relationship between CNV amplitude and the probability of the occurrence of the warning stimulus (S1) in a cued reaction time task. The aim of the present study was to investigate this ‘oddball effect’ on CNV amplitude (Oddball CNV) in patients with anxiety disorders, since this effect describes the influence of event probability on reactive as well as proactive components of information processing. Patients suffering from panic disorders with or without agoraphobia and controls participated in a choice reaction time experiment. The subjects' task was to respond to flashes (S2s), cued 4 s in advance in random order by one of two easily distinguishable acoustic stimuli (Sta, S1b). In condition 1 the probability of S1a and S1b was 0.2 and 0.8, respectively, and in condition 2 0.5 for both S1s. The DC-EEG was recorded from F 3, F 4, C 3, C z, C 4 and P 3, linked mastoids as the reference. The data obtained confirm the oddball effect on the CNV amplitude, show clear deviations of patients in this effect, and also indicate remarkable differences in CNV shape between patients and controls. These observations are discussed as differences in information processing and information utilization.

Rare events and the CNV — the oddball CNV

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), such as Nd and P300, change as a function of the proportion of time if a rare, significant, stimulus occurs. This ‘oddball’ paradigm has had a significant influence on the interpretation of ERPs in terms of the psychological and information-processing functions they reflect. Interpretations of transient components have differed considerably from that of the sustained potential known as the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV), the latter appearing to reflect proactive rather than reactive brain processes. However, experiments in monkeys indicated that the CNV was also sensitive to the oddball effect. The purpose of this experiment was to replicate that finding in humans. The CNVs and P300s of five male and five female college students were studied under three conditions involving different proportions of two types of warning stimuli in a cued reaction time task (paired tone and light). The proportions of one of the warning stimuli, with respect to the total number of trials, were 0.10, 0.30 and 0.50. P300s were larger when elicited by rare warning tones only in the 0.10 condition with maximum P300 amplitude at the parietal site. CNVs at frontal and central areas were larger when the warning cue was the rare event, but there was no effect at the parietal site. These findings may require a rethinking of specific information processing interpretations of other endogenous ERPs, although the results also indicate that the ‘oddball’ effect on the P300 and CNV was distinctive in terms of scalp distributions and sensitivity to the manipulation.