In:
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Vol. 130, No. 4_Supplement ( 2011-10-01), p. 2517-2517
Abstract:
Previous psychophysical experiments from our lab have suggested a difference in the way perceptual sound streams and discrete sound events are stored in short-term memory. We explored differences in brain activity during memory retention of these two kinds of sequences using EEG. Listeners heard a target sequence composed either entirely of short pitched tones (forming a stream) or natural sounds (e.g., a horn or a scream, which are perceptually disconnected), while scalp activity was recorded using EEG. After a 2 s retention period, listeners were required to detect a change in the ordering of a probe sequence (same/different). For a given sequence length, performance for pitched tone sequences was consistently higher than for natural sound sequences, suggesting that memory retention of an auditory stream requires less cognitive effort than retention of a sequence of perceptually disconnected sounds. Retention period alpha (8–12 Hz) oscillatory activity generally increased from pre-target levels in parietal and occipital electrodes for both types of sound sequences, with a trend toward more widespread increases for natural sounds. These results may indicate that alpha activity is related to the amount of cognitive effort required to maintain sound sequences in short-term memory. [Work supported by NSSEFF grant to BGS-C.]
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0001-4966
,
1520-8524
Language:
English
Publisher:
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)
Publication Date:
2011
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1461063-2
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