Brain mechanism of selective listening reflected by event-related potentials

Kimmo Alho*, Kimmo Töttölä, Kalevi Reinikainen, Mikko Sams, Risto Näätänen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

118 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Stimulus selection during selective listening on the basis of simple physical stimulus features is reflected by an event-related potential (ERP) component called the processing negativity (PN). PN has been proposed to indicate a matching or comparison process between the physical features of the stimulus and an 'attentional trace', an actively formed and maintained temporary neuronal representation of the features defining the relevant stimuli. According to this theory, the smaller is the difference between the eliciting stimulus and that represented by the attentional trace, the longer time is the stimulus processed, and thus the larger in amplitude and longer in duration is the PN elicited. The relevant stimuli, perfectly matching with the attentional trace, and therefore eliciting the largest and longest-duration PN, are selected for further processing. In the present study, the relevant and irrelevant stimuli differed in pitch, and the magnitude of this pitch separation was varied between different stimulus blocks. The results support the afore-mentioned matching or comparison hypothesis of selective attention by showing that PN is not elicited only by the relevant stimuli but even by irrelevant stimuli, and further that the latter PN is larger in amplitude and longer in duration the more similar the irrelevant stimuli are to the relevant stimuli. This PN, however, was smaller than that to the relevant stimuli even for very small separations, reflecting high accuracy of the discrimination function of the attentional trace mechanism proposed to underly selective listening. The termination of the PN to the irrelevant stimuli was followed by a positivity which thus partly explained the difference (Nd) between the ERPs to the relevant and irrelevant stimuli.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)458-470
Number of pages13
JournalElectroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology. Evoked Potentials
Volume68
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 1987
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Auditory event-related potential
  • Pitch discrimination
  • Processing negativity
  • Selective attention

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Brain mechanism of selective listening reflected by event-related potentials'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this