Auditory stimulus intensity responses and frontal midline theta rhythm.

The influence of stimulus intensity on the N1 component of auditory evoked potentials recorded at fronto-central sites was investigated in respect to the spectral components of the EEG recorded at Cz, Fz and Oz. The study was performed on 14 healthy adult subjects. The only EEG frequency bandwidth that was strongly correlated with the N1 amplitude-intensity slope was the theta rhythm, particularly the 5-7 Hz frequencies recorded at Cz and Fz. This frequency bandwidth corresponds to the previously described frontal midline theta rhythm related to performance of tests that require continuous concentration of attention. Our results show that the steeper the slope, the greater the amount of Fm theta. This suggests that the interindividual differences in the N1 amplitude/intensity slope could be related to interindividual differences in attentional readiness toward the auditory stimuli, even when delivered in "passive" conditions.