Stimulus-Specific Adaptation in Auditory Cortex Is an NMDA-Independent Process Distinct from the Sensory Novelty Encoded by the Mismatch Negativity

Animal models of MMN may serve both to further our understanding of neural processing beyond pure sensory coding and for unraveling the neural and pharmacological processes involved in the generation of MMN. We start this review by discussing the methodological issues that are especially important when pursuing a single-neuron correlate of MMN. Correlates of MMN have been studied in mice, rats, cats, and primates. Whereas essentially all of these studies demonstrated the presence of stimulus-specific adaptation, in the sense that responses to deviant tones are larger than the responses to standard tones, the presence of real MMN has been established only in a few. We argue for the use of more and better controls in order to clarify the situation. Finally, we discuss in detail the relationships between stimulus-specific adaptation of single-neuron responses, as established in the cat auditory cortex, and MMN. We argue that this is currently the only fully established correlate of true change detection, and hypothesize that it precedes and probably induces the neural activity that is eventually measured as MMN.

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ERP Repetition Effects and Mismatch Negativity Generation

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803.21.34.204 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 21 (3-4) ◽

pp. 204-213 ◽

Cited By ~ 67

Author(s):

Torsten Baldeweg

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Perceptual Learning ◽

Empirical Evidence ◽

Mismatch Negativity ◽

Prediction Error ◽

Predictive Coding ◽

Repetition Effects ◽

Specific Adaptation ◽

Repetition Suppression ◽

Trace Formation

Neuronal adaptation is a ubiquitous property of the cortex. This review presents evidence from MMN studies that show ERP components with similar adaptive properties. Specifically, I consider the empirical evidence from the perspective of a predictive coding model of perceptual learning and inference. Within this framework, ERP and neuronal repetition effects (repetition suppression) are seen as reductions in prediction error, a process that requires synaptic modifications. Repetition positivity is a human auditory ERP component, which shows similar properties to stimulus-specific adaptation of auditory cortex neurons; a candidate mechanism for auditory trace formation.

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Stimulus-specific adaptation in auditory thalamus of young and aged awake rats

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00403.2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 110 (8) ◽

pp. 1892-1902 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Ben D. Richardson ◽

Kenneth E. Hancock ◽

Donald M. Caspary

Keyword(s):

Young Adult ◽

Auditory Cortex ◽

Brown Norway ◽

Oddball Paradigm ◽

Adult Rats ◽

Specific Adaptation ◽

Auditory Thalamus ◽

Gating Mechanism ◽

Medial Geniculate ◽

Awake Rats

Novel stimulus detection by single neurons in the auditory system, known as stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA), appears to function as a real-time filtering/gating mechanism in processing acoustic information. Particular stimulus paradigms allowing for quantification of a neuron's ability to detect novel or deviant stimuli have been used to examine SSA in the inferior colliculus, medial geniculate body (MGB), and auditory cortex of anesthetized rodents. However, the study of SSA in awake animals is limited to auditory cortex. The present study used individually advanceable tetrodes to record single-unit responses from auditory thalamus (MGB) of awake young adult and aged Fischer Brown Norway (FBN) rats to 1) examine the presence of SSA in the MGB of awake rats and 2) determine whether SSA is altered by aging in MGB. MGB single units in awake FBN rats displayed SSA in response to two stimulus paradigms: the oddball paradigm and a random blocked/interleaved presentation of a set of frequencies. SSA levels were modestly, but nonsignificantly, increased in the nonlemniscal regions of the MGB and at lower stimulus intensities, where 27 of 57 (47%) young adult MGB units displayed SSA. The present findings provide the initial description of SSA in the MGB of awake rats and support SSA as being qualitatively independent of arousal level or anesthetized state. Finally, contrary to previous studies in auditory cortex of anesthetized rats, MGB units in aged rats showed SSA levels indistinguishable from SSA levels in young adult rats, suggesting that SSA in MGB was not impacted by aging in an awake preparation.

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Separation of mismatch negativity and the N1 wave in the auditory cortex of the cat: a topographic study

Clinical Neurophysiology ◽

10.1016/s1388-2457(01)00509-0 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 112 (5) ◽

pp. 778-784 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Zsuzsanna Pincze ◽

Péter Lakatos ◽

Csaba Rajkai ◽

István Ulbert ◽

George Karmos

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Mismatch Negativity ◽

N1 Wave

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Changes in auditory cortex and the development of mismatch negativity between 2 and 6 months of age

International Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1016/s0167-8760(03)00148-x ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 5-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 85

Author(s):

Laurel Trainor ◽

Melissa McFadden ◽

Lisa Hodgson ◽

Lisa Darragh ◽

Jennifer Barlow ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Mismatch Negativity

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Current Source Density Profiles of Stimulus-Specific Adaptation in Rat Auditory Cortex

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00240.2009 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 102 (3) ◽

pp. 1483-1490 ◽

Cited By ~ 83

Author(s):

Francois D. Szymanski ◽

Jose A. Garcia-Lazaro ◽

Jan W. H. Schnupp

Keyword(s):

Auditory Cortex ◽

Current Source ◽

Primary Auditory Cortex ◽

Auditory Pathway ◽

Afferent Input ◽

Current Source Density ◽

Specific Adaptation ◽

Source Density ◽

Density Analysis ◽

Layer V

Neurons in primary auditory cortex (A1) are known to exhibit a phenomenon known as stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA), which means that, when tested with pure tones, they will respond more strongly to a particular frequency if it is presented as a rare, unexpected “oddball” stimulus than when the same stimulus forms part of a series of common, “standard” stimuli. Although SSA has occasionally been observed in midbrain neurons that form part of the paraleminscal auditory pathway, it is thought to be weak, rare, or nonexistent among neurons of the leminscal pathway that provide the main afferent input to A1, so that SSA seen in A1 is likely generated within A1 by local mechanisms. To study the contributions that neural processing within the different cytoarchitectonic layers of A1 may make to SSA, we recorded local field potentials in A1 of the rat in response to standard and oddball tones and subjected these to current source density analysis. Although our results show that SSA can be observed throughout all layers of A1, right from the earliest part of the response, there are nevertheless significant differences between layers, with SSA becoming significantly stronger as stimulus-related activity passes from the main thalamorecipient layers III and IV to layer V.

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