Temporal resolution of the human primary auditory cortex in gap detection.
The temporal resolution of the primary auditory cortex was studied by recording the magnetic middle latency fields (MAEF) evoked by gaps of 3, 6 and 9 ms inserted in the middle of 600 ms broadband noise bursts. Spatio-temporal source modelling showed that a significant neural representation as reflected by MAEF responses is present at gap durations as low as 3 sms. The comparison of the MAEF waveforms elicited by the onset, gap and offset of the noise bursts indicates that the gap related response near threshold is largely determined by the onset to the burst following the gap. The electro-physiologically derived minimum detectable gap closely resembled the psychoacoustic threshold of 2.0 ms obtained in the same subjects.
Rupp
André
A
Section of Biomagnetism, Department of Neurology, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, University Hospital of Heidelberg, Germany. andre.rupp@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
Gutschalk
Alexander
A
Hack
Sebastian
S
Scherg
Michael
M
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*