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Behavioral and event‐related potential distraction effects with regularly occurring auditory deviants
Author(s) -
Jankowiak Sylvia,
Berti Stefan
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00479.x
Subject(s) - mismatch negativity , p3a , distraction , psychology , negativity effect , audiology , task (project management) , loudness , event related potential , electroencephalography , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , neuroscience , medicine , management , economics
When auditory stimulation contains infrequent task‐irrelevant changes (deviants), behavioral responses to task‐relevant aspects of the stimulation are prolonged. Event‐related brain potentials (ERPs) show that deviants elicit mismatch negativity (MMN), P3a, and reorienting negativity (RON). Here, we examine whether distraction effects can also be elicited within fixed auditory sequences with deviant probabilities of 0.25, 0.33, and 0.5. Deviants varied either in pitch, loudness, or sound source location. In all conditions MMN and P3a were elicited, suggesting that an automatic detection of and an attentional allocation to the change occurred. With relative frequencies of 25% and 33%, deviants also yielded a RT prolongation and a RON, suggesting reorientation to the relevant task. Our study demonstrates the ability to detect frequent and predictable changes automatically and shows behavioral effects in two conditions.