title: The effect of stimulus probability on the somatosensory mismatch field.
abstract: We investigated the effect of deviant stimulus probability on the somatosensory magnetic mismatch negativity (MMNm) using an electrical two-point stimulation. First, we determined the discrimination threshold (DT) of the two-point distance. We applied standard stimuli at a distance that subjects felt as one point and deviant stimuli at a distance that subjects definitely felt as two points. We used three deviant stimulus probabilities, 10, 30, and 50%. The components peaking around 30-70 ms (first component) and 150-250 ms (fourth component) following deviant stimuli were significantly larger than those following standard stimuli in 10% condition, but not in 30 or 50% condition. The equivalent current dipole (ECD) was located in the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex (cSI) for the first component, and in the cSI and in the contralateral secondary somatosensory cortex (cSII) for the fourth component. The peak amplitude of the MMNm decreased as the probability of the deviant stimulus increased. The Somatosensory MMNm was affected by deviant stimulus probability similar to an auditory mismatch negativity (MMN).
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Physiology, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan. akatuka@nips.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kosuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Akatsuka
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wasaka
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakata
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kida
authors.forename: Ryusuke
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kakigi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D004056:Differential Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors