title: Action-related auditory ERP attenuation: Paradigms and hypotheses.
abstract: A number studies have shown that the auditory N1 event-related potential (ERP) is attenuated when elicited by self-induced or self-generated sounds. Because N1 is a correlate of auditory feature- and event-detection, it was generally assumed that N1-attenuation reflected the cancellation of auditory re-afference, enabled by the internal forward modeling of the predictable sensory consequences of the given action. Focusing on paradigms utilizing non-speech actions, the present review summarizes recent progress on action-related auditory attenuation. Following a critical analysis of the most widely used, contingent paradigm, two further hypotheses on the possible causes of action-related auditory ERP attenuation are presented. The attention hypotheses suggest that auditory ERP attenuation is brought about by a temporary division of attention between the action and the auditory stimulation. The pre-activation hypothesis suggests that the attenuation is caused by the activation of a sensory template during the initiation of the action, which interferes with the incoming stimulation. Although each hypothesis can account for a number of findings, none of them can accommodate the whole spectrum of results. It is suggested that a better understanding of auditory ERP attenuation phenomena could be achieved by systematic investigations of the types of actions, the degree of action-effect contingency, and the temporal characteristics of action-effect contingency representation-buildup and -deactivation. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Prediction and Attention.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, HAS, P.O.B. 286, H-1519 Budapest, Hungary. Electronic address: horvath.janos@ttk.mta.hu.
authors.forename: János
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Horváth
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D006801:Humans; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012107:Research Design
keywords: Attention; Event-related potentials (ERP); Forward modeling; Hearing; Prediction