Temporal integration affects intensity change detection in human auditory cortex

Neuroreport. 2010 Dec 29;21(18):1157-61. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e328340ccde.

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to clarify the effects of temporal integration on the auditory evoked response elicited by sounds of varying intensity. We measured auditory evoked fields in response to tones with different intervals of intensity change. The amplitude of the N1m', occurring approximately 100 ms after the intensity change, remained constant when the interval was longer than 250 ms. The recovery function we observed suggests that the neural populations underlying the N1m' are close to those underlying the late anterior N1m component. The N1m' amplitude decreased with decreasing intervals of intensity change at intervals less than 250 ms. This finding supports the notion that a disinhibitory process is caused by the offset of the sound.

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation / methods
  • Adult
  • Auditory Cortex / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping / methods
  • Evoked Potentials, Auditory / physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Loudness Perception / physiology*
  • Magnetoencephalography / methods
  • Male
  • Memory / physiology
  • Neural Inhibition / physiology
  • Pitch Perception / physiology*
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Sound Localization / physiology*
  • Time Factors
  • Time Perception / physiology*
  • Young Adult