scholarly journals Nicotine enhances an auditory Event-Related Potential component which is inversely related to habituation

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 861-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Veltri ◽  
Naira Taroyan ◽  
Paul G Overton

Nicotine is a psychoactive substance that is commonly consumed in the context of music. However, the reason why music and nicotine are co-consumed is uncertain. One possibility is that nicotine affects cognitive processes relevant to aspects of music appreciation in a beneficial way. Here we investigated this possibility using Event-Related Potentials. Participants underwent a simple decision-making task (to maintain attentional focus), responses to which were signalled by auditory stimuli. Unlike previous research looking at the effects of nicotine on auditory processing, we used complex tones that varied in pitch, a fundamental element of music. In addition, unlike most other studies, we tested non-smoking subjects to avoid withdrawal-related complications. We found that nicotine (4.0 mg, administered as gum) increased P2 amplitude in the frontal region. Since a decrease in P2 amplitude and latency is related to habituation processes, and an enhanced ability to disengage from irrelevant stimuli, our findings suggest that nicotine may cause a reduction in habituation, resulting in non-smokers being less able to adapt to repeated stimuli. A corollary of that decrease in adaptation may be that nicotine extends the temporal window during which a listener is able and willing to engage with a piece of music.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prune Mazer ◽  
Inês Macedo ◽  
Tiago O. Paiva ◽  
Fernando Ferreira-Santos ◽  
Rita Pasion ◽  
...  

Auditory event-related potentials (ERP) may serve as diagnostic tools for schizophrenia and inform on the susceptibility for this condition. Particularly, the examination of N1 and P2 components of the auditory ERP may shed light on the impairments of information processing streams in schizophrenia. However, the habituation properties (i.e., decreasing amplitude with the repeated presentation of an auditory stimulus) of these components remain poorly studied compared to other auditory ERPs. Therefore, the current study used a roving paradigm to assess the modulation and habituation of N1 and P2 to simple (pure tones) and complex sounds (human voices and bird songs) in 26 first-episode patients with schizophrenia and 27 healthy participants. To explore the habituation properties of these ERPs, we measured the decrease in amplitude over a train of seven repetitions of the same stimulus (either bird songs or human voices). We observed that, for human voices, N1 and P2 amplitudes decreased linearly from stimulus 1–7, in both groups. Regarding bird songs, only the P2 component showed a decreased amplitude with stimulus presentation, exclusively in the control group. This suggests that patients did not show a fading of neural responses to repeated bird songs, reflecting abnormal habituation to this stimulus. This could reflect the inability to inhibit irrelevant or redundant information at later stages of auditory processing. In turn schizophrenia patients appear to have a preserved auditory processing of human voices.


Author(s):  
Luodi Yu ◽  
Jiajing Zeng ◽  
Suiping Wang ◽  
Yang Zhang

Purpose This study aimed to examine whether abstract knowledge of word-level linguistic prosody is independent of or integrated with phonetic knowledge. Method Event-related potential (ERP) responses were measured from 18 adult listeners while they listened to native and nonnative word-level prosody in speech and in nonspeech. The prosodic phonology (speech) conditions included disyllabic pseudowords spoken in Chinese and in English matched for syllabic structure, duration, and intensity. The prosodic acoustic (nonspeech) conditions were hummed versions of the speech stimuli, which eliminated the phonetic content while preserving the acoustic prosodic features. Results We observed language-specific effects on the ERP that native stimuli elicited larger late negative response (LNR) amplitude than nonnative stimuli in the prosodic phonology conditions. However, no such effect was observed in the phoneme-free prosodic acoustic control conditions. Conclusions The results support the integration view that word-level linguistic prosody likely relies on the phonetic content where the acoustic cues embedded in. It remains to be examined whether the LNR may serve as a neural signature for language-specific processing of prosodic phonology beyond auditory processing of the critical acoustic cues at the suprasyllabic level.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-280
Author(s):  
Jianfeng Wang ◽  
Yan Wu ◽  
Lushi Jing

Implicit motives play an important role in the regulation of many basic cognitive processes, particularly in the stage of attention. We conducted a study with a sample of 58 college students to examine selective attention to emotional stimuli as a function of individual differences in the implicit need for affiliation (nAff). In an affective oddball paradigm, event-related potentials were recorded while participants viewed positive, neutral, and negative images of people. Results showed that individuals high in nAff elicited larger late positive potential amplitudes to negative images than those low in nAff did. These findings replicate and extend the results of a previous study focused on these relationships and provide additional information on the neural correlates of affiliation-related emotional information processing.


2004 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 617-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Heinke ◽  
Ramona Kenntner ◽  
Thomas C. Gunter ◽  
Daniela Sammler ◽  
Derk Olthoff ◽  
...  

Background It is an open question whether cognitive processes of auditory perception that are mediated by functionally different cortices exhibit the same sensitivity to sedation. The auditory event-related potentials P1, mismatch negativity (MMN), and early right anterior negativity (ERAN) originate from different cortical areas and reflect different stages of auditory processing. The P1 originates mainly from the primary auditory cortex. The MMN is generated in or in the close vicinity of the primary auditory cortex but is also dependent on frontal sources. The ERAN mainly originates from frontal generators. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of increasing propofol sedation on different stages of auditory processing as reflected in P1, MMN, and ERAN. Methods The P1, the MMN, and the ERAN were recorded preoperatively in 18 patients during four levels of anesthesia adjusted with target-controlled infusion: awake state (target concentration of propofol 0.0 microg/ml), light sedation (0.5 microg/ml), deep sedation (1.5 microg/ml), and unconsciousness (2.5-3.0 microg/ml). Simultaneously, propofol anesthesia was assessed using the Bispectral Index. Results Propofol sedation resulted in a progressive decrease in amplitudes and an increase of latencies with a similar pattern for MMN and ERAN. MMN and ERAN were elicited during sedation but were abolished during unconsciousness. In contrast, the amplitude of the P1 was unchanged by sedation but markedly decreased during unconsciousness. Conclusion The results indicate differential effects of propofol sedation on cognitive functions that involve mainly the auditory cortices and cognitive functions that involve the frontal cortices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Samartin-Veiga ◽  
A. J. González-Villar ◽  
Y. Triñanes ◽  
C. Gómez-Perretta ◽  
M. T. Carrillo-de-la-Peña

AbstractFibromyalgia (FM) has been associated to an increased processing of somatosensory stimuli, but its generalization to other sensory modalities is under discussion. To clarify this, we studied auditory event-related potentials (AEPs) to stimuli of different intensity in patients with FM and healthy controls (HCs), considering the effects of attention mechanisms and medication. We performed two experiments: In study 1 (n = 50 FM, 60 HCs), the stimuli were presented randomly within the sequence; in study 2 (n = 28 FM, 30 HCs), they were presented in blocks of the same intensity. We analyzed intensity and group effects on N1-P2 amplitude and, only for the FM group, the effect of medication and the correlation between AEPs and clinical variables. Contrary to the expectation, the patients showed a trend of reduced AEPs to the loudest tones (study 1) or no significant differences with the HCs (study 2). Medication with central effects significantly reduced AEPs, while no significant relationships between the N1-P2 amplitude/intensity function and patients’ symptoms were observed. The findings do not provide evidence of augmented auditory processing in FM. Nevertheless, given the observed effect of medication, the role of sensory amplification as an underlying pathophysiological mechanism in fibromyalgia cannot be discarded.


1995 ◽  
Vol 80 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1363-1376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lex L. Merrill ◽  
David A. Kobus ◽  
F. J. McGuigan

To gauge the interaction of real-world sonar-task experience and age on brain electrical activity, the effect of sonar experience and age on event related potentials (ERP) was examined. A three-group design was used and the results suggest that sonar experience and age affect the amplitude and distribution of the ERP component. The results concerning age and ERPs support and extend the results of previous studies and suggest that age-related differences occur at a much younger age than is reported elsewhere. Attentional and stimulus evaluation processes which have been linked to parameters of the ERP component may be enhanced with real-world auditory task experience. Research on ERP should control for the possible confounds of auditory-task experience and age.


2004 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 079-087 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Jerger ◽  
Jeffrey Martin ◽  
Roderick McColl

In a previous publication (Jerger et al, 2002), we presented event-related potential (ERP) data on a pair of 10-year-old twin girls (Twins C and E), one of whom (Twin E) showed strong evidence of auditory processing disorder. For the present paper, we analyzed cross-correlation functions of ERP waveforms generated in response to the presentation of target stimuli to either the right or left ears in a dichotic paradigm. There were four conditions; three involved the processing of real words for either phonemic, semantic, or spectral targets; one involved the processing of a nonword acoustic signal. Marked differences in the cross-correlation functions were observed. In the case of Twin C, cross-correlation functions were uniformly normal across both hemispheres. The functions for Twin E, however, suggest poorly correlated neural activity over the left parietal region during the three word processing conditions, and over the right parietal area in the nonword acoustic condition. Differences between the twins' brains were evaluated using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI). For Twin E, results showed reduced anisotropy over the length of the midline corpus callosum and adjacent lateral structures, implying reduced myelin integrity. Taken together, these findings suggest that failure to achieve appropriate temporally correlated bihemispheric brain activity in response to auditory stimulation, perhaps as a result of faulty interhemispheric communication via corpus callosum, may be a factor in at least some children with auditory processing disorder.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document