Auditory N1 component to gaps in continuous narrowband noises.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether (1) the auditory N1 component can be elicited to gaps in continuous narrowband noises, (2) psychophysical and electrophysiological gap thresholds (PGTs and EGTs) are similar to one another, and (3) EGTs are the same for all narrowband noise center frequencies.


METHODS
PGTs and EGTs were obtained from 18 normal-hearing young-adult listeners to gaps in continuous narrowband noises with center frequencies of 0.5, 1, or 4 kHz. PGTs were obtained with a modified Békésy-type tracking paradigm, whereas EGTs were obtained to 2-, 5-, 10-, 20-, or 50-msec gaps presented every 2.2 sec.


RESULTS
(1) The auditory N1 component was recorded to gaps in narrowband noises, although they appeared morphologically different from cortical potentials obtained using the continuous broadband noise. (2) At center frequencies of 1 and 4 kHz, psychometric functions revealed close similarity between PGTs and EGTs. However, different results were present for the 0.5-kHz narrowband noise, attributed to stimulus artifact. (3) EGTs were approximately 10 msec for most participants at 1 and 4 kHz, but 20 msec at 0.5 kHz, corroborating other studies showing increases in gap threshold with lower center frequencies.


CONCLUSIONS
The auditory N1 component can be recorded to gaps in continuous narrowband noises whose gap thresholds are grossly similar to those obtained psychophysically. The differences found between PGTs and EGTs with different narrowband noise center frequencies call for further investigation of narrowband noise stimuli for the study of temporal resolution.
Atcherson
Samuel R
SR
Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas 72204, USA. sratcherson@ualr.edu
Gould
Herbert Jay
HJ
Mendel
Maurice I
MI
Ethington
Corrina A
CA
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult