Sparse imaging of the auditory oddball task with functional MRI.

Cortical reactions to rare task-related stimuli have been studied with electrophysiological methods in the assessment of the P300 component as well as in functional imaging studies with regard to oddball tasks. While functional magnetic resonance imaging studies using auditory stimuli have to deal with interference between auditory stimuli and scanner noise, the aim of our study was to assess auditory target processing with the sparse imaging method. Single volumes of echo-planar imaging were acquired 4 s following the onset of the stimuli of interest. In keeping with previous studies, target stimuli activated the insula, superior temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, parietal cortex and the cerebellum. Our results encourage the application of the sparse imaging method in experiments on cognitive processing elicited by auditory stimulation in a silent environment.