Non-linear laws of echoic memory and auditory change detection in humans

BMC Neuroscience

Research Article

Yasuyuki Takeshima¹  Sumru Keceli¹  Tomokazu Urakawa¹  Ryusuke Kakigi¹  Koji Inui¹  Koya Yamashiro¹  Naofumi Otsuru¹  Makoto Nishihara² 

[1] Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, 444-8585, Myodaiji, Okazaki, Japan;Multidisciplinary Pain Center, Aichi Medical University, 480-1195, Aichi, Japan;

关键词: Sound Pressure;    Standard Stimulus;    Sound Location;    Sound Frequency;    Dichotic Listening;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2202-11-80

 received in 2009-12-09, accepted in 2010-07-03,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe detection of any abrupt change in the environment is important to survival. Since memory of preceding sensory conditions is necessary for detecting changes, such a change-detection system relates closely to the memory system. Here we used an auditory change-related N1 subcomponent (change-N1) of event-related brain potentials to investigate cortical mechanisms underlying change detection and echoic memory.ResultsChange-N1 was elicited by a simple paradigm with two tones, a standard followed by a deviant, while subjects watched a silent movie. The amplitude of change-N1 elicited by a fixed sound pressure deviance (70 dB vs. 75 dB) was negatively correlated with the logarithm of the interval between the standard sound and deviant sound (1, 10, 100, or 1000 ms), while positively correlated with the logarithm of the duration of the standard sound (25, 100, 500, or 1000 ms). The amplitude of change-N1 elicited by a deviance in sound pressure, sound frequency, and sound location was correlated with the logarithm of the magnitude of physical differences between the standard and deviant sounds.ConclusionsThe present findings suggest that temporal representation of echoic memory is non-linear and Weber-Fechner law holds for the automatic cortical response to sound changes within a suprathreshold range. Since the present results show that the behavior of echoic memory can be understood through change-N1, change-N1 would be a useful tool to investigate memory systems.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Inui et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010