Effects of contralateral noise on the 20-Hz auditory steady state response--magnetoencephalography study

Hajime Usubuchi; Tetsuaki Kawase; Akitake Kanno; Izumi Yahata; Hiromitsu Miyazaki; Nobukazu Nakasato; Ryuta Kawashima; Yukio Katori

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099457

Effects of contralateral noise on the 20-Hz auditory steady state response--magnetoencephalography study

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 10;9(6):e99457. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099457. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Hajime Usubuchi¹, Tetsuaki Kawase², Akitake Kanno³, Izumi Yahata¹, Hiromitsu Miyazaki¹, Nobukazu Nakasato⁴, Ryuta Kawashima³, Yukio Katori¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
² Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan; Laboratory of Rehabilitative Auditory Science, Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan; Department of Audiology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
³ Department of Functional Brain Imaging, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.
⁴ Department of Epileptology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan; Department of Electromagnetic Neurophysiology, Smart Ageing International Research Center, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan.

Abstract

The auditory steady state response (ASSR) is an oscillatory brain response, which is phase locked to the rhythm of an auditory stimulus. ASSRs have been recorded in response to a wide frequency range of modulation and/or repetition, but the physiological features of the ASSRs are somewhat different depending on the modulation frequency. Recently, the 20-Hz ASSR has been emphasized in clinical examinations, especially in the area of psychiatry. However, little is known about the physiological properties of the 20-Hz ASSR, compared to those of the 40-Hz and 80-Hz ASSRs. The effects of contralateral noise on the ASSR are known to depend on the modulation frequency to evoke ASSR. However, the effects of contralateral noise on the 20-Hz ASSR are not known. Here we assessed the effects of contralateral white noise at a level of 70 dB SPL on the 20-Hz and 40-Hz ASSRs using a helmet-shaped magnetoencephalography system in 9 healthy volunteers (8 males and 1 female, mean age 31.2 years). The ASSRs were elicited by monaural 1000-Hz 5-s tone bursts amplitude-modulated at 20 and 39 Hz and presented at 80 dB SPL. Contralateral noise caused significant suppression of both the 20-Hz and 40-Hz ASSRs, although suppression was significantly smaller for the 20-Hz ASSRs than the 40-Hz ASSRs. Moreover, the greatest suppression of both 20-Hz and 40-Hz ASSRs occurred in the right hemisphere when stimuli were presented to the right ear with contralateral noise. The present study newly showed that 20-Hz ASSRs are suppressed by contralateral noise, which may be important both for characterization of the 20-Hz ASSR and for interpretation in clinical situations. Physicians must be aware that the 20-Hz ASSR is significantly suppressed by sound (e.g. masking noise or binaural stimulation) applied to the contralateral ear.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Evoked Potentials, Auditory / physiology*
Female
Humans
Magnetoencephalography*
Male
Noise*

Grants and funding

This study was supported by a management grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for fiscal 2011–2012. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.