title: Partial information can be transmitted in an auditory channel: inferences from lateralized readiness potentials.
abstract: With the two-choice go/no-go paradigm, we investigated whether timbre attribute can be transmitted as partial information from the stimulus identification stage to the response preparation stage in auditory tone processing. We manipulated two attributes of the stimulus: timbre (piano vs. violin) and acoustic intensity (soft vs. loud) to ensure an earlier processing of timbre than intensity. We associated the timbre attribute more with go trials. Results showed that lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) were consistently elicited in no-go trials. This showed that the timbre attribute had been transmitted to the response preparation stage before the intensity attribute was processed in the stimuli identification stage. Such a result provides evidence for the continuous model and asynchronous discrete coding (ADC) model in information processing. We suggest that partial information can be transmitted in an auditory channel.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory For NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Diankun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Jiehui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Dezhong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yao
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012984:Software; D055815:Young Adult