title: Evoked-potential changes following discrimination learning involving complex sounds.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Perceptual sensitivities are malleable via learning, even in adults. We trained adults to discriminate complex sounds (periodic, frequency-modulated sweep trains) using two different training procedures, and used psychoacoustic tests and evoked potential measures (the N1-P2 complex) to assess changes in both perceptual and neural sensitivities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Training took place either on a single day, or daily across eight days, and involved discrimination of pairs of stimuli using a single-interval, forced-choice task. In some participants, training started with dissimilar pairs that became progressively more similar across sessions, whereas in others training was constant, involving only one, highly similar, stimulus pair.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants were better able to discriminate the complex sounds after training, particularly after progressive training, and the evoked potentials elicited by some of the sounds increased in amplitude following training. Significant amplitude changes were restricted to the P2 peak.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicate that changes in perceptual sensitivities parallel enhanced neural processing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results are consistent with the proposal that changes in perceptual abilities arise from the brain's capacity to adaptively modify cortical representations of sensory stimuli, and that different training regimens can lead to differences in cortical sensitivities, even after relatively short periods of training.
authors.affiliation: University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States.
authors.forename: Itzel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Orduña
authors.forename: Estella H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Church
authors.forename: Ann C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Eddins
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mercado
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004566:Electrodes; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult