| Literature DB >> 23251527 |
Sascha Otterbein1, Cornelius Abel, Linda V Heinemann, Jochen Kaiser, Maren Schmidt-Kassow.
Abstract
Temporal predictability is thought to affect stimulus processing by facilitating the allocation of attentional resources. Recent studies have shown that periodicity of a tonal sequence results in a decreased peak latency and a larger amplitude of the P3b compared with temporally random, i.e., aperiodic sequences. We investigated whether this applies also to sequences of linguistic stimuli (syllables), although speech is usually aperiodic. We compared aperiodic syllable sequences with two temporally regular conditions. In one condition, the interval between syllable onset was fixed, whereas in a second condition the interval between the syllables' perceptual center (p-center) was kept constant. Event-related potentials were assessed in 30 adults who were instructed to detect irregularities in the stimulus sequences. We found larger P3b amplitudes for both temporally predictable conditions as compared to the aperiodic condition and a shorter P3b latency in the p-center condition than in both other conditions. These findings demonstrate that even in acoustically more complex sequences such as syllable streams, temporal predictability facilitates the processing of deviant stimuli. Furthermore, we provide first electrophysiological evidence for the relevance of the p-center concept in linguistic stimulus processing.Entities:
Mesh:
Year: 2012 PMID: 23251527 PMCID: PMC3519624 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051419
Source DB: PubMed Journal: PLoS One ISSN: 1932-6203 Impact factor: 3.240
Stimuli.
| Syllable | Duration [ms] | p-center [ms] | Syllable | Duration [ms] | p-center [ms] |
| pa: | 228.3 | 81 | pε: | 226.8 | 86 |
| pla: | 278.2 | 136 | plε: | 278.5 | 138 |
| pfla: | 328.4 | 188 | Pflε: | 328.8 | 189 |
Figure 1Stimulus alignment for the three timing conditions.
Critical targets are marked in black. iso-SOA = isochronous physical syllable onsets; iso-PC = isochronous vowel onsets; jit-SOA = jittered physical syllable onsets.
Figure 2Electrode setup.
23 electrodes of interest are shaded in grey.
Figure 3Response accuracy.
Error bars indicate the SD.
Response accuracy.
| Response accuracy [%] | iso-PC | iso-SOA | jit-SOA | |||||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | |||
| standard | 93.9 | 7.9 | 93.9 | 7.2 | 90.0 | 8.3 | ||
| deviant | 86.2 | 10.4 | 86.5 | 9.4 | 86.9 | 10.1 | ||
Figure 4P3b response.
Panel A: P3b topography for each timing condition. ROI electrodes are marked with asterisks. Panel B: P3b difference waves at 6 representative ROI electrodes for each condition.
Figure 5P3b difference waves averaged across 23 ROI electrode sites in the time window of 450–800 ms.
Mean amplitudes for each timing condition in the time window 450–800 ms.
| Mean amplitude [µV] | iso-PC | iso-SOA | jit-SOA | |||
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | Mean | SD | |
| standard | 0.94 | 2.06 | 0.53 | 2.02 | 0.23 | 2.07 |
| deviant | 4.66 | 3.33 | 5.22 | 2.79 | 2.15 | 2.68 |