title: Asymmetrical mismatch negativity in humans as determined by phonetic but not physical difference.
abstract: A two-tone oddball procedure was employed to examine the effect of a phonemic category on the mismatch negativity (MMN). One of the stimuli was a phoneme prototype of Japanese /e/, and the other, [e/ö], which was perceived by Japanese participants as showing deviance from typicality but is nonetheless included in the category /e/. As control stimuli, a pair of pure tones (1940 and 1794 Hz), corresponding to the F2 frequencies of /e/ and [e/ö], respectively, was presented within the same oddball procedure. The MMN for deviant [e/ö] revealed greater amplitude than that of deviant /e/, although there was no significant difference in amplitude between the pure tones. The results suggest that a phonemic category determines the auditory sensory memory.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Education of Exceptional Children, Tokyo Gakugei University, 4-1-1 Nukui-Kitamachi, Koganei, Tokyo, Japan. kazunari@u-gakugei.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kazunari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Souichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Otomo
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kanno
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*