Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) to speech sounds were recorded in a demanding selective attention task to measure how the mismatch negativity (MMN) was affected by attention, deviant feature, and task relevance, i.e., whether the feature was target or nontarget type. With vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) disyllables randomly presented to the right and left ears, subjects attended to the VCVs in one ear. In different conditions, the subjects responded to either intensity or phoneme deviance in the consonant. The position of the deviance within the VCV also varied, being in the first (VC), second (CV), or both (VC and CV) formant-transition regions. The MMN amplitudes were larger for deviants in the attended ear. Task relevance affected the MMNs to intensity and phoneme deviants differently. Target-type intensity deviants yielded larger MMNs than nontarget types. For phoneme deviants there was no main effect of task relevance, but there was a critical interaction with deviance position. The both position gave the largest MMN amplitudes for target-type phoneme deviants, as it did for target- and nontarget-type intensity deviants. The MMN for nontarget-type phoneme deviants, however, showed an inverse pattern such that the MMN for the both position had the smallest amplitude despite its greater spectro-temporal deviance and its greater detectability when it was the target. These data indicate that the MMN reflects differences in phonetic structure as well as differences in acoustic spectral-energy structure of the deviant stimuli. Furthermore, the task relevance effects demonstrate that top-down controls not only affect the amplitude of the MMN, but can reverse the pattern of MMN amplitudes among different stimuli.
REFERENCES
1.
Aaltonen
, O.
, Eerola
, O.
, Hellström
, Å.
, Uusipaikka
, E.
, and Lang
, A. H.
(1997
). “Perceptual magnet effect in the light of behavioral and psychophysiological data
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
101
, 1090
–1105
. 2.
Alain
, C.
, and Woods
, D. L.
(1994
). “Signal clustering modulates auditory cortical activity in humans
,” Percept. Psychophys.
56
, 501
–516
. 3.
Alain
, C.
, and Woods
, D. L.
(1997
). “Attention modulates auditory pattern memory as indexed by event-related brain potentials
,” Psychophysiology
34
, 534
–536
. 4.
Alho
, K.
(1995
). “Cerebral generators of mismatch negativity (MMN) and its magnetic counterpart (MMNm) elicited by sound changes
,” Ear Hear.
16
, 38
–51
. 5.
Alho
, K.
, Woods
, D. L.
, and Algazi
, A.
(1994
). “Processing of auditory stimuli during auditory and visual attention as revealed by event-related potentials
,” Psychophysiology
31
, 469
–479
. 6.
Alho
, K.
, Woods
, D. L.
, Algazi
, A.
, and Näätänen
, R.
(1992
). “Intermodal selective attention. II. Effects of attentional load on the processing of auditory and visual stimuli in central space
,” Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.
82
, 356
–368
. 7.
Bregman A. S. (1990). Auditory Scene Analysis (MIT, Cambridge, MA).
8.
Cowan, N. (1995). Attention and Memory. An Integrated Framework (Oxford U. P., Oxford).
9.
Connolly
, J. F.
, and Phillips
, N. A.
(1994
). “Event-related potential components reflect phonological and semantic processing of terminal word of spoken sentence
,” J. Cogn. Neurosci.
6
, 256
–266
. 10.
Connolly
, J. F.
, Phillips
, N. A.
, and Forbes
, K. A. K.
(1995
). “The effects of phonological and semantic features of sentence-ending words on visual event-related potentials
,” Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.
94
, 276
–287
. 11.
Czigler
, I.
, and Winkler
, I.
(1996
). “Preattentive auditory change detection relies on unitary sensory memory representations
,” NeuroReport
7
, 2413
–2417
. 12.
Dehaene-Lambertz
, G.
(1997
). “Electrophysiological correlates of categorical phoneme perception in adults
,” NeuroReport
8
, 919
–924
. 13.
Kraus
, N.
, McGee
, T.
, Sharma
, A.
, Carrell
, T. D.
, and Nicol
, T.
(1992
). “Mismatch negativity event-related potential elicited by speech stimuli
,” Ear Hear.
13
, 158
–137
. 14.
Kraus
, N.
, McGee
, T. J.
, Carrell
, T. D.
, and Sharma
, A.
(1995a
). “Neurophysiologic bases of speech discrimination
,” Ear Hear.
16
, 19
–37
. 15.
Kraus
, N.
, McGee
, T. J.
, Carrell
, T. D.
, King
, C.
, Tremblay
, K.
, and Nicol
, T.
(1995b
). “Central auditory system plasticity associated with speech discrimination training
,” J. Cogn. Neurosci.
7
, 25
–32
. 16.
Kraus
, N.
, McGee
, T. J.
, Carrell
, T. D.
, Zecker
, S. G.
, Nicol
, T. G.
, and Koch
, D. B.
(1996
). “Auditory neurophysiologic responses and discrimination deficits in children with learning problems
,” Science
273
, 971
–973
. 17.
Levänen
, S.
, Hari
, R.
, McEvoy
, L.
, and Sams
, M.
(1993
). “Responses of the human auditory cortex to changes in one versus two stimulus features
,” Exp. Brain Res.
97
, 177
–183
. 18.
Maiste
, A. C.
, Wiens
, A. S.
, Hunt
, M. J.
, Scherg
, M.
, and Picton
, T. W.
(1995
). “Event-related potentials and the categorical perception of speech sounds
,” Ear Hear.
16
, 68
–90
. 19.
Näätänen
, R.
(1990
). “The role of attention in auditory information processing as revealed by event-related potentials and other brain measures of cognitive function
,” Behav. Brain Sci.
13
, 201
–288
. 20.
Näätänen, R. (1992). Attention and Brain Function (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ).
21.
Näätänen
, R.
(1995
). “The mismatch negativity: A powerful tool for cognitive neuroscience
,” Ear Hear.
16
, 6
–18
. 22.
Näätänen
, R.
, and Alho
, K.
(1995
). “Mismatch negativity—A unique measure of sensory processing in audition
,” Int. J. Neurosci.
80
, 317
–337
. 23.
Näätänen
, R.
, Gaillard
, A. W. K.
, and Mäntysalo
, S.
(1978
). “Early selective-attention effect reinterpreted
,” Acta Psychol.
42
, 313
–329
. 24.
Näätänen
, R.
, Paavilainen
, P.
, Tittinen
, H.
, Jiang
, D.
, and Alho
, K.
(1993
). “Attention and mismatch negativity
,” Psychophysiology
30
, 436
–450
. 25.
Näätänen
, R.
, Lehtokoski
, A.
, Lennes
, M.
, Cheour
, M.
, Huotilainen
, M.
, Iivonen
, A.
, Vainio
, M.
, Alku
, P.
, Ilmoniemi
, R. J.
, Luuk
, A.
, Allik
, J.
, Sinkkonen
, J.
, and Alho
, K.
(1997
). “Language-specific phoneme representations revealed by electric and magnetic brain responses
,” Nature (London)
385
, 432
–434
. 26.
Nordby
, H.
, Roth
, W. T.
, and Pfefferbaum
, A.
(1988a
). “Event-related potentials to time-deviant and pitch-deviant tones
,” Psychophysiology
25
, 249
–261
. 27.
Nordby
, H.
, Roth
, W. T.
, and Pfefferbaum
, A.
(1988b
). “Event-related potentials to breaks in sequences of alternating pitches or interstimulus intervals
,” Psychophysiology
25
, 262
–268
. 28.
Oades
, R. D.
, and Dittmann-Balcar
, A.
(1995
). “Mismatch negativity (MMN) is altered by directing attention
,” NeuroReport
6
, 1187
–1190
. 29.
Picton
, T. W.
(1995
). “The neurophysiological evaluation of auditory discrimination
,” Ear Hear.
16
, 1
–5
. 30.
Ponton
, C. W.
, and Don
, M.
(1995
). “The mismatch negativity in cochlear implant users
,” Ear Hear.
16
, 131
–146
. 31.
Sams
, M.
, Aulanko
, R.
, Aaltonen
, O.
, and Näätänen
, R.
(1990
). “Event-related potentials to infrequent changes in synthesized phonetic stimuli
,” J. Cogn. Neurosci.
2
, 344
–357
. 32.
Sams
, M.
, Paavilainen
, P.
, Alho
, K.
, and Näätänen
, R.
(1985
). “Auditory frequency discrimination and event-related potentials
,” Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.
62
, 437
–448
. 33.
Sams
, M.
, Aulanko
, R.
, Hämäläinen
, M.
, Hari
, R.
, Lounasmaa
, O. V.
, Lu
, S. T.
, and Simola
, J.
(1991
). “Seeing speech: Visual information from lip movements modifies activity in the human auditory cortex
,” Neurosci. Lett.
127
, 141
–145
. 34.
Sandridge
, S.
, and Boothroyd
, A.
(1996
). “Using naturally produced speech to elicit mismatch negativity
,” J. Am. Acad. Audiol.
7
, 105
–112
. 35.
Schröger
, E.
(1995
). “Processing of auditory deviants with changes in one versus two stimulus dimension
,” Psychophysiology
32
, 55
–65
. 36.
Schröger
, E.
(1997
). “On the detection of auditory deviations: a pre-attentive activation model
,” Psychophysiology
34
, 245
–257
. 37.
Schröger
, E.
, Tervaniemi
, M.
, Wolff
, C.
, and Näätänen
, R.
(1996
). “Preattentive periodicity detection in auditory patterns as governed by time and intensity information
,” Cogn. Brain Res.
4
, 145
–148
. 38.
Sharma
, A.
, and Dorman
, M. F.
(1998
). “Exploration of the perceptual magnet effect using the mismatch negativity auditory evoked potential
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
104
, 511
–517
. 39.
Sharma
, A.
, Kraus
, N.
, McGee
, T.
, Carrell
, T.
, and Nicol
, T.
(1993
). “Acoustic versus phonetic representation of speech as reflected by the mismatch negativity event-related potentials
,” Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.
88
, 64
–71
. 40.
Trejo
, L. J.
, Ryan-Jones
, D. L.
, and Kramer
, A. F.
(1995
). “Attentional modulation of the mismatch negativity elicited by frequency differences between binaurally presented tone bursts
,” Psychophysiology
32
, 319
–328
. 41.
Tremblay
, K.
, Kraus
, N.
, Carrell
, T. D.
, and McGee
, T.
(1997
). “Central auditory system plasticity: Generalization to novel stimuli following listening training
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
102
, 3762
–3773
. 42.
Winkler
, I.
, Cowan
, N.
, Csépe
, V.
, Czigler
, I.
, and Näätänen
, R.
(1996
). “Interactions between transient and long-term auditory memory as reflected in the mismatch negativity
,” J. Cogn Neurosci.
8
, 403
–415
. 43.
Winkler
, I.
, Czigler
, I.
, Jaramillo
, M.
, Paavilainen
, P.
, and Näätänen
, R.
(1998
). “Temporal constraints of auditory event synthesis: Evidence from ERPs
,” NeuroReport
9
, 495
–499
. 44.
Woldorff
, M. G.
, Hackley
, S. A.
, and Hillyard
, S. A.
(1991
). “The effects of channel-selective attention on the mismatch negativity wave elicited by deviant tones
,” Psychophysiology
28
, 30
–42
. 45.
Woods
, D. L.
, and Clayworth
, C. W.
(1985
). “Click spatial position influences middle latency auditory evoked potentials (MAEPs) in humans
,” Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.
60
, 122
–129
. 46.
Woods
, D. L.
, Alho
, K.
, and Algazi
, A.
(1992
). “Intermodal selective attention. I. Effects on event-related potentials to lateralized auditory and visual stimuli
,” Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.
82
, 341
–355
. 47.
Woods
, D. L.
, Alho
, K.
, and Algazi
, A.
(1993
). “Intermodal selective attention: Evidence for processing in tonotopic fields
,” Psychophysiology
30
, 287
–295
. 48.
Woods
, D. L.
, Hillyard
, S. A.
, and Hansen
, J. C.
(1984
). “Event-related brain potentials reveal similar attentional mechanisms during selective listening and shadowing
,” J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform.
10
, 761
–777
.
This content is only available via PDF.
© 1999 Acoustical Society of America.
1999
Acoustical Society of America
You do not currently have access to this content.
