Percept-dependent sensitivity to frequency change in the human auditory system
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1
Institute for Psychology, Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary
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2
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary
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3
Institute of Psychology, University of Szeged, Hungary
We tested whether sensitivity to feature deviance in the human auditory system depends on the actually experienced perceptual organization of the sound sequence. A sequence of regularly repeating ABA_ triplets was delivered to participants with a uniform 150 ms onset-to-onset interval, where ‘A’ and ‘B’ denote tones differing in frequency by 4 semitones [ST] and ‘_’ stands for a silent period equal to the common 75 ms tone duration. Occasionally, the second ‘A’ tone of the triplet was exchanged for a slightly (0.5 ST) or moderately (1.5 ST) lower tone (5%, each). In a pilot study, the parameters were set up so that a) most subjects experienced the sound sequence in equal proportion of the time as a single stream (integrated percept) or as two separate streams (A-A… and B---B…; segregated percept) and b) deviants did not significantly affect the perceived sound organization. Subjects continuously marked their perception of the sound sequences while EEG was recorded from their scalp. We found that the amplitude of the N2 and P3a components elicited by deviants differed as a function of the perceived sound organization. Experiencing the integrated percept the deviants elicited an N2 of larger central (Cz) amplitude than those encountered during experiencing the segregated percept, and the amplitude change from the standard to the deviants was higher as well. Further, the P3a amplitude elicited by the segregated large deviant was more positive than that for any of the other combinations of stimulus type and percept, suggesting that the large deviant was probably the only sound triggering an attention switch. These results suggest that the evaluation of the same auditory events (reflected in the N2 and P3a responses) is dependent on the perceived sound organization. Funding: Supported by EU FP7-ICT-231168-SCANDLE.
Keywords:
EEG,
Perception
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Sessions: Neurophysiology of Sensation and Perception
Citation:
Szalárdy
O,
Bőhm
T,
Bendixen
A and
Winkler
I
(2011). Percept-dependent sensitivity to frequency change in the human auditory system.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00340
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Received:
23 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Orsolya Szalárdy, Institute for Psychology, Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, szalardy.orsolya@ttk.mta.hu