Attenuation of auditory evoked potentials for hand and eye-initiated sounds.
Reduction of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) to self-initiated sounds has been considered evidence for a predictive model in which copies of motor commands suppress sensory representations of incoming stimuli. However, in studies which involve arbitrary auditory stimuli evoked by sensory-unspecific motor actions, learned associations may underlie ERP differences. Here, in a new paradigm, eye motor output generated auditory sensory input, a naïve action-sensation contingency. We measured the electroencephalogram (EEG) of 40 participants exposed to pure tones, which they produced with either a button-press or volitional saccade. We found that button-press-initiated stimuli evoked reduced amplitude compared to externally initiated stimuli for both the N1 and P2 ERP components, whereas saccade-initiated stimuli evoked intermediate attenuation at N1 and no reduction at P2. These results indicate that the motor-to-sensory mapping involved in speech production may be partly generalized to other contingencies, and that learned associations also contribute to the N1 attenuation effect.
School of Psychology, UNSW Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Electronic address: nathan.mifsud@unsw.edu.au.
Nathan G
NG
Mifsud
School of Psychology, UNSW Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Tom
T
Beesley
School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia.
Tamara L
TL
Watson
School of Psychology, UNSW Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Thomas J
TJ
Whitford
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005123:Eye; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
Corollary discharge; EEG; N1; Saccadic movements; Sensory suppression