Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 15, Issue 1, January 2002, Pages 167-174
NeuroImage

Regular Article
Differential Contribution of Frontal and Temporal Cortices to Auditory Change Detection: fMRI and ERP Results

https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2001.0970Get rights and content

Abstract

The present study addresses the functional role of the temporal and frontal lobes in auditory change detection. Prior event-related potential (ERP) research suggested that the mismatch negativity (MMN) reflects the involvement of a temporofrontal network subserving auditory change detection processes and the initiation of an involuntary attention switch. In the present study participants were presented with repetitive spectrally rich sounds. Infrequent changes of either small (10% change), medium (30% change), or large (100% change) magnitude were embedded in the stimulus train. ERPs and fMRI measures were obtained in the same subjects in subsequent sessions. Significant hemodynamic activation in the superior temporal gyri (STG) bilaterally and the opercular part of the right inferior frontal gyrus was observed for large and medium deviants only. ERPs showed that small deviants elicited MMN when presented in silence but not when presented with recorded MR background noise, indicating that small deviants were hardly detected under fMRI conditions. The MR signal change in temporal lobe regions was larger for large than for medium deviants. For the right fronto-opercular cortex the opposite pattern was observed. The strength of the temporal activation correlated with the amplitude of the change-related ERP at around 110 ms from stimulus onset while the frontal activation correlated with the change-related ERP at around 150 ms. These results suggest that the right fronto-opercular cortex is part of the neural network generating the MMN. Three alternative explanations of these findings are discussed.

References (37)

  • Burns, E. M.1999. Intervals, scales, and tuning. In The Psychology of Music (D. Deutsch, Ed.), pp. 215–264. Academic...
  • L.L. Chao et al.

    Human prefrontal lesions increase distractibility to irrelevant sensory inputs

    NeuroReport

    (1997)
  • L. Deouell et al.

    Mismatch negativity in dichotic listening: Evidence for interhemispheric differences and multiple generators

    Psychophysiology

    (1998)
  • C. Escera et al.

    Involuntary attention and distractibility as evaluated with event-related brain potentials

    Audiol. Neurootol.

    (2000)
  • C. Escera et al.

    Neural mechanisms of involuntary attention to acoustic novelty and change

    J. Cogn. Neurosci.

    (1998)
  • M.H. Giard et al.

    Brain generators implicated in processing of auditory stimulus deviance: A topographic event-related potential study

    Psychophysiology

    (1990)
  • R.N. Henson et al.

    Recollection and familiarity in recognition memory: An event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study

    J. Neurosci.

    (1999)
  • O. Josephs et al.

    Event-related fMRI

    Hum. Brain Mapping

    (1997)
  • Cited by (418)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    1

    To whom all correspondence should be addressed at Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, P.O. Box 500355, D-04303 Leipzig, Germany. Fax: +49 341 9940113. E-mail: [email protected].

    View full text