Frequency-related differences in the speed of human auditory processing

Three experiments were performed, two comparing the peak latencies of auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) elicited by 250 Hz and 4000 Hz tone pips and a third comparing simple reaction times (RTs) to the same stimuli. In the AEP experiments, the latencies of brainstem, middle and long-latency components were delayed following 250 Hz tone pips in comparison with the latencies of the same components evoked by loudness-matched 4000 Hz tones. Frequency-related latency differences increased with component latency, ranging from less than 1.0 ms for wave V of the brainstem AEP, to more than 20.0 ms for the cortical N1 component. Interpeak latency differences were also significantly lengthened following the 250 Hz tone pips. In the behavioral study, RTs were 14.6 ms slower following 250 than 4000 Hz tone pips. The results suggest that the time required for the sensory analysis of auditory signals varies inversely with their frequency.

[1]  D L Woods,et al.  Click spatial position influences middle latency auditory evoked potentials (MAEPs) in humans. , 1985, Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology.

[2]  K. Alho,et al.  Stages of auditory feature conjunction: an event-related brain potential study. , 1994, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[3]  W. R. Garner,et al.  Pitch characteristics of short tones; two kinds of pitch threshold. , 1947, Journal of experimental psychology.

[4]  A R Thornton,et al.  Effects of stimulus frequency and intensity on the middle componenets of the averaged auditory eletroencephalic response. , 1977, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[5]  T W Picton,et al.  Thresholds for short-latency auditory-evoked potentials to tones in notched noise in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects. , 1990, Audiology : official organ of the International Society of Audiology.

[6]  B. Moore.  Frequency difference limens for short-duration tones. , 1973, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[7]  G. Henning.  Detectability of interaural delay in high-frequency complex waveforms. , 1974, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[8]  C. Pollak,et al.  Evoked responses to clicks and tones of varying intensity in waking adults. , 1966, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[9]  D. Hubel,et al.  Segregation of form, color, movement, and depth: anatomy, physiology, and perception. , 1988, Science.

[10]  M. Moretti,et al.  Effects of rise-fall time, frequency, and intensity on the early/middle evoked response. , 1984, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[11]  T. Imig,et al.  Neural Mechanisms for Sound Localization , 1984 .

[12]  A M Liberman,et al.  A specialization for speech perception. , 1989, Science.

[13]  O D Creutzfeldt,et al.  Functional subdivisions in the auditory cortex of the guinea pig , 1989, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[14]  C. Schreiner,et al.  Physiology and topography of neurons with multipeaked tuning curves in cat primary auditory cortex. , 1991, Journal of neurophysiology.

[15]  George A. Gescheider,et al.  Hearing: Physiological Acoustics, Neural Coding, and Psychoacoustics , 1989 .

[16]  K. Alho,et al.  Intermodal selective attention: evidence for processing in tonotopic auditory fields. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[17]  T. Picton,et al.  The N1 wave of the human electric and magnetic response to sound: a review and an analysis of the component structure. , 1987, Psychophysiology.

[18]  J. Suzuki,et al.  Effects of rise time on simultaneously recorded auditory-evoked potentials from the early, middle and late ranges. , 1979, Audiology : official organ of the International Society of Audiology.

[19]  K. Lehnertz,et al.  Tonotopic organization of the human auditory cortex revealed by transient auditory evoked magnetic fields. , 1988, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[20]  R Galambos,et al.  Brainstem auditory evoked reponses in man. I. Effect of stimulus rise--fall time and duration. , 1976, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[21]  E. de Boer,et al.  Auditory psychophysics: spectrotemporal representation of signals. , 1987, Annual review of psychology.

[22]  D. Woods,et al.  Feature processing during high-rate auditory selective attention , 1993, Perception & psychophysics.

[23]  C. Newman,et al.  The effects of stimulus frequency and recording site on the amplitude and latency of multichannel cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) component N1. , 1992, Ear and hearing.

[24]  R. Goldstein,et al.  Middle components of the AER to tone-pips in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects. , 1977, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[25]  H. Davis,et al.  Effects of duration and rise time of tone bursts on evoked V potentials. , 1968, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[26]  C D Geisler,et al.  Responses of primary auditory fibers to brief tone bursts. , 1982, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[27]  T. Picton,et al.  Evoked potential audiometry. , 1976, The Journal of otolaryngology.