Two distinct dynamic modes subtend the detection of unexpected sounds.
The brain response to auditory novelty comprises two main eeg components: an early mismatch negativity and a late P300. Whereas the former has been proposed to reflect a prediction error, the latter is often associated with working memory updating. Interestingly, these two proposals predict fundamentally different dynamics: prediction errors are thought to propagate serially through several distinct brain areas, while working memory supposes that activity is sustained over time within a stable set of brain areas. Here we test this temporal dissociation by showing how the generalization of brain activity patterns across time can characterize the dynamics of the underlying neural processes. This method is applied to magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings acquired from healthy participants who were presented with two types of auditory novelty. Following our predictions, the results show that the mismatch evoked by a local novelty leads to the sequential recruitment of distinct and short-lived patterns of brain activity. In sharp contrast, the global novelty evoked by an unexpected sequence of five sounds elicits a sustained state of brain activity that lasts for several hundreds of milliseconds. The present results highlight how MEG combined with multivariate pattern analyses can characterize the dynamics of human cortical processes.
Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U992, Gif/Yvette, France ; NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Gif/Yvette, France ; Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière Research Center (ICM), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), U975, Paris, France.
Jean-Rémi
JR
King
NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Gif/Yvette, France ; Institut Mines-Télécom, Télécom ParisTech, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Laboratoire Traitement et Communication de l'Information (LTCI), Paris, France ; Parietal, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.
Alexandre
A
Gramfort
Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U992, Gif/Yvette, France ; NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Gif/Yvette, France.
Aaron
A
Schurger
Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière Research Center (ICM), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), U975, Paris, France ; Assistant Publique Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Groupe hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Department of Neurophysiology, Paris, France ; Faculté de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière, Université Paris 6, Paris, France.
Lionel
L
Naccache
Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) U992, Gif/Yvette, France ; NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Gif/Yvette, France ; Université Paris 11, Orsay, France ; Collège de France, Paris, France.
Stanislas
S
Dehaene
D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D012372:ROC Curve; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric