title: Timing predictability enhances regularity encoding in the human subcortical auditory pathway.
abstract: The encoding of temporal regularities is a critical property of the auditory system, as short-term neural representations of environmental statistics serve to auditory object formation and detection of potentially relevant novel stimuli. A putative neural mechanism underlying regularity encoding is repetition suppression, the reduction of neural activity to repeated stimulation. Although repetitive stimulation per se has shown to reduce auditory neural activity in animal cortical and subcortical levels and in the human cerebral cortex, other factors such as timing may influence the encoding of statistical regularities. This study was set out to investigate whether temporal predictability in the ongoing auditory input modulates repetition suppression in subcortical stages of the auditory processing hierarchy. Human auditory frequency-following responses (FFR) were recorded to a repeating consonant-vowel stimuli (/wa/) delivered in temporally predictable and unpredictable conditions. FFR amplitude was attenuated by repetition independently of temporal predictability, yet we observed an accentuated suppression when the incoming stimulation was temporally predictable. These findings support the view that regularity encoding spans across the auditory hierarchy and point to temporal predictability as a modulatory factor of regularity encoding in early stages of the auditory pathway.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Brainlab - Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Santa Rosa 39-57, 08950, Esplugues de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Natàlia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gorina-Careta
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Brainlab - Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zarnowiec
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Brainlab - Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Costa-Faidella
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Brainlab - Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.|Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Santa Rosa 39-57, 08950, Esplugues de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Escera
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D010507:Periodicity; D013997:Time Factors