title: Temporal expectations and neural amplitude fluctuations in auditory cortex interactively influence perception.
abstract: Alignment of neural oscillations with temporally regular input allows listeners to generate temporal expectations. However, it remains unclear how behavior is governed in the context of temporal variability: What role do temporal expectations play, and how do they interact with the strength of neural oscillatory activity? Here, human participants detected near-threshold targets in temporally variable acoustic sequences. Temporal expectation strength was estimated using an oscillator model and pre-target neural amplitudes in auditory cortex were extracted from magnetoencephalography signals. Temporal expectations modulated target-detection performance, however, only when neural delta-band amplitudes were large. Thus, slow neural oscillations act to gate influences of temporal expectation on perception. Furthermore, slow amplitude fluctuations governed linear and quadratic influences of auditory alpha-band activity on performance. By fusing a model of temporal expectation with neural oscillatory dynamics, the current findings show that human perception in temporally variable contexts relies on complex interactions between multiple neural frequency bands.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Research Group "Auditory Cognition", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1A, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: herrmann.b@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Research Group "Auditory Cognition", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1A, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Molly J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032, USA; Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia Program, Nathan S. Kline Institute, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA.
authors.forename: Saskia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Haegens
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Research Group "Auditory Cognition", Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1A, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Obleser
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D003700:Delta Rhythm; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Auditory alpha oscillations; Auditory perception; Neural entrainment; Temporal expectations