The fusion of unattended duration representations as indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN).

Within a single train of same-duration (standard) stimuli, an occasional longer-duration (deviant) sound elicits mismatch negativity (MMN) with a peak latency (measured relative to sound onset) reflecting the standard duration representation. When two such trains are presented in a dichotic paradigm, a separate duration representation arises for each train. We examined the role of attention in this segregation.

Caffeine effects on ERPs and performance in an auditory Go/NoGo task.

Objective: Previous research has shown that caffeine produces a general increase in arousal. The present study examined caffeine-induced arousal effects on performance and auditory ERPs. We sought components showing amplitude changes without topography changes, as would be expected of a pure arousal amplification of source activity.

The independence of memory traces of attended and unattended stimuli.

In a dichotic paradigm, duration-deviant mismatch negativity (MMN) largely reflects standard stimuli presented to the same ear as the deviant, suggesting an independent representation for each ear. We sought to assess this representation independence. Twenty-two participants, presented left (all 2000 Hz, 70-dB sound pressure level [SPL]) and right (all 800 Hz, 85-dB SPL) ear sounds, attended to 1 ear per block.