Generation of human auditory steady-state responses (SSRs). II: Addition of responses to individual stimuli

doi:10.1016/0378-5955(94)00185-S

Hearing Research

Volume 83, Issues 1–2, March 1995, Pages 9-18

https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-5955(94)00185-S Get rights and content

Abstract

In order to investigate the generation of teh 40 Hz steady-state response (SSR), auditory potentials evoked by clicks were recorded in 16 healthy subjects in two stimulating conditions. Firstly, repetition rates of 7.9 and 40 Hz were used to obtain individual middle latency responses (MLRs) and 40 Hz-SSRs, respectively. In the second condition, eight click trains were presented at a 40 Hz repetition rate and an inter-train interval of 126 ms. We extracted from the whole train response: (1) the response-segment taking place after the last click of the train (last click response, LCR), (2) a modified LCR (mLCR) obtained by clearing the LCR from the amplitude enhancement due to the overlapping of the responses to the clicks preceding the last within the stimulus train.

In comparison to MLRs, the most relevant feature of the evoked activity following the last click of the train (LCRs, mLCRs) was the appearance in the 50–110 ms latency range of one (in 11 subjects) or two (in 2 subjects) additional positive-negative deflections having the same periodicity as that of MLR waves.

The grand average (GA) of the 40 Hz-SSRs was compared with three predictions synthesized by superimposing: (1) the GA of MLRs, (2) the GA of LCRs, (3) the GA of mLCRs. Both the MLR and mLCR predictions reproduced the recorded signal in amplitude while the LCR prediction amplitude resulted almost twice that of the 40 Hz-SSR. With regard to the phase, the MLR, LCR and mLCR closely predicted the recorded signal.

Our findings confirm the effectiveness of the linear addition mechanism in the generation of the 40 Hz-SSR. However the responses to individual stimuli within the 40 Hz-SSR differ from MLRs because of additional periodic activity. These results suggest that phenomena related to the resonant frequency of the activated system may play a role in the mechanisms which interact to generate the 40 Hz-SSR.

References (25)

G.B. Azzena et al.
Generation of the human auditory steady-state responses (SSRs). I. Stimulus rate effects
Hear. Res.
(1995)
E. Basar et al.
Combined dynamics of EEG and evoked potentials. I. Studies of simultaneously recorded EEG-EPograms in the auditory pathway, reticular formation and hyppocampus of cat brain during waking stage
Biol. Cybern.
(1979)
E. Basar et al.
Combined dynamics of EEG and evoked potentials. II. Studies of simultaneously recorded EEG-EPrograms in the auditory pathway, reticular formation and hyppocampus of cat brain during sleep
Biol. Cybern.
(1979)
E. Basar et al.
The associations between 40 Hz-EEG and the middle latency response of the auditory evoked potential
Int. J. Neurosci.
(1987)
S.L. Bressler et al.
Frequency analysis of olfactory system EEG in cat, rabbit and rat
Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.
(1980)
R.J. Erwin et al.
Midlatency auditory evoked responses: differential effects of sleep in the human
Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.
(1986)
R. Galambos et al.
A 40-Hz auditory potential recorded in the human scalp
R. Galambos
Tactile and auditory stimuli presented at high rates (30–50 per sec) produce similar event related potentials
Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.
(1982)
R. Hari et al.
Neuromagnetic steady-state responses to auditory stimuli
J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
(1989)
ISO 389
Acoustics standard reference zero for the calibration of pure tone audiometers
(1985)

K.T. Kavanagh et al.

Auditory brainstem and middle latency responses. I. Effects of response filtering and waveform identification

Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol.

(1984)

S. Makeig et al.

The 40-Hz band evoked response lasts 150 msec and increases in size at slow rates

Soc. Neurosci. Abstr.

(1989)

Cited by (49)

An automatic detection method for 40-Hz auditory steady state response and its application in prognosis of comatose patients
2020, Clinical Neurophysiology
We proposed a 40-Hz auditory steady-state response (ASSR) automatic detection method, and studied the prognosis of comatose patients by combining the 40-Hz ASSR detection results of multiple paradigms of auditory stimulation.
The 40-Hz ASSR elicitation experiments were carried out on 32 comatose patients, with the detection results used as prognosis predictors. To achieve automatic detection, the detection was modeled as a binary hypothesis test for a sinusoidal waveform with unknown amplitude and phase, based on the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT). The patients were followed up for 6 months, and each patient’s outcome was classified as either favorable outcome (severe disability, moderate disability or good recovery) or unfavorable outcome (vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome or death) according to the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS). The performance of the prognosis predictors was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC).
The largest AUC in univariate analysis involving a single stimulation paradigm was 0.849, while the AUC obtained by combining multiple predictors was increased to 0.966.
For comatose patients, the absence of 40-Hz ASSR in multiple stimulation paradigms may indicate an unfavorable prognosis. Furthermore, the combination of multiple auditory stimulation paradigms may increase the outcome prediction accuracy.
The combination of multi-paradigm 40-Hz ASSR automatic detection results may provide a feasible automatic outcome prediction method for comatose patients.
The 6Hz fundamental stimulation frequency rate for individual face discrimination in the right occipito-temporal cortex
2013, Neuropsychologia
What is the stimulus presentation rate at which the human brain can discriminate each exemplar of a familiar visual category? We presented faces at 14 frequency rates (1.0–16.66 Hz) to human observers while recording high-density electroencephalogram (EEG). Different face exemplars elicited a larger steady-state visual evoked (ssVEP) response than when the same face was repeated, but only for stimulation frequencies between 4 and 8.33 Hz, with a maximal difference at 5.88 Hz (170 ms cycle). The effect was confined to the exact stimulation frequency and localized over the right occipito-temporal cortex. At high frequency rates (>10 Hz), the response to different and identical exemplars did not differ, suggesting that the fine-grained analysis needed for individual face discrimination cannot be completed before the next face interrupts, or competes, with the processed face. At low rates (<3 Hz), repetition suppression could not be identified at the stimulation frequency, suggesting that the neural response to an individual face is temporally dispersed and distributed over different processes. These observations indicate that at a temporal rate of 170 ms (6 faces/s) the face perception network is able to fully discriminate between each individual face presented, providing information about the temporal bottleneck of individual face discrimination in humans. These results also have important practical implications for optimizing paradigms that rely on repetition suppression, and open an avenue for investigating complex visual processes at an optimal range of stimulation frequency rates.
Synchronization of beta and gamma oscillations in the somatosensory evoked neuromagnetic steady-state response
2013, Experimental Neurology
The sensory evoked neuromagnetic response consists of superimposition of an immediately stimulus-driven component and induced changes in the autonomous brain activity, each having distinct functional relevance. Commonly, the strength of phase locking in neural activities has been used to differentiate the different responses. The steady-state response is a strong oscillatory neural activity, which is evoked with rhythmic stimulation, and provides an effective tool to investigate oscillatory brain networks. In this case, both the sensory response and intrinsic activity, representing higher order processes, are highly synchronized to the stimulus. In this study we hypothesized that temporal dynamics of oscillatory activities would characterize the differences between the two types of activities and that beta and gamma oscillations are differently involved in this distinction.
We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) for studying how ongoing steady-state responses elicited by a 20-Hz vibro-tactile stimulus to the right index finger were affected by a concurrent isolated touch stimulus to the same hand ring finger. SI source activity showed oscillations at multiples of 20 Hz with characteristic differences in the beta band and the gamma band. The response amplitudes were largest at 20 Hz (beta) and significantly reduced at 40 Hz and 60 Hz (gamma), although synchronization strength, indicated by inter-trial coherence (ITC), did not substantially differ between 20 Hz and 40 Hz. Moreover, the beta oscillations showed a fast onset, whereas the amplitude of gamma oscillations increased slowly and reached the steady state 400 ms after onset of the vibration stimulus. Most importantly, the pulse stimuli interacted only with gamma oscillations in a way that gamma oscillations decreased immediately after the concurrent stimulus onset and recovered slowly, resembling the initial slope. Such time course of gamma oscillations is similar to our previous observations in the auditory system. The time constant is in line with the time required for conscious perception of the sensory stimulus. Based on the observed different spectro-temporal dynamics, we propose that while beta activities likely relate to independent representation of the sensory input, gamma oscillation likely relates to binding of sensory information for higher order processing.
Steady-state auditory evoked responses
2013, Handbook of Clinical Neurophysiology
Citation Excerpt :
Azzena et al. (1995) investigated the ASSR generation mechanism with comparing the amplitudes and phases of click-evoked ASSRs in the 20–60 Hz range and with surrogate ASSRs, which were derived from MLR recorded at 7.9 Hz repetition rate and found that at 40 Hz, the surrogate ASSRs explained the recorded waveforms sufficiently; however, substantial differences were observed at lower and higher stimulation rates. When analyzing the response to the last click in a stimulus train, longer lasting oscillations than in the MLR had been observed (Santarelli et al., 1995) and were discussed as supporting the hypothesis of stimulus driven synchronization of intrinsic neural oscillations. In summary, the deviations from a perfect match of superimposed MLR responses questioned whether such an explanation would be satisfying in general.
Auditory gamma and beta oscillations
2013, Handbook of Clinical Neurophysiology
Converging evidence for gamma synchrony deficits in schizophrenia
2013, Supplements to Clinical Neurophysiology
Citation Excerpt :
This initially made the measure appealing to audiology and anesthesiology researchers because it was a more efficient method of GBR data collection. However, Galambos’ seminal theory of 40 Hz ASSR generation was challenged by converging evidence: failed attempts to build ASSRs synthetically by superimposing GBRs (Santarelli et al., 1995; Plourde and Villemure, 1996); the differential effects of anesthetics on GBRs and ASSRs (Plourde and Villemure, 1996), and MEG evidence of non-overlapping generators in auditory cortex (Pantev et al., 1993; Ross et al., 2002). Moreover, unlike the transient GBR, the ASSR takes 200–300 ms to reach a stable magnitude and is perturbed for more than one gamma cycle if a short noise burst is presented within the driving stimulus (Ross et al., 2005; Krishnan et al., 2009).
Background: In electroencephalogram (EEG) studies of auditory steady-state responses (ASSRs), patients with schizophrenia show a deficit in power and/or phase-locking, particularly at the 40 Hz frequency where these responses resonate. In addition, studies of the transient gamma-band response (GBR) elicited by single tones have revealed deficits in gamma power and phase-locking in schizophrenia. We examined the degree to which the 40 Hz ASSR and the transient GBR to single tones are correlated and whether they assess overlapping or distinct gamma-band abnormalities in schizophrenia.
Methods: EEG was recorded during 40 Hz ASSR and auditory oddball paradigms from 28 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SZ) and 25 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC). The ASSR was elicited by 500 ms click trains, and the transient GBR was elicited by the standard tones from the oddball paradigm. Gamma phase and magnitude values, calculated using Morlet wavelet transformations, were used to derive total power and phase-locking measures.
Results: Relative to HC, SZ patients had significant deficits in total gamma power and phase-locking for both ASSR- and GBR-based measures. Within both groups, the 40 Hz ASSR and GBR phase-locking measures were significantly correlated, with a similar trend evident for the total power measures. Moreover, co-varying for GBR substantially reduced 40 Hz ASSR power and phase-locking differences between the groups.
Conclusions: 40 Hz ASSR and transient GBR measures provide very similar information about auditory gamma abnormalities in schizophrenia, despite the overall enhancement of 40 Hz ASSR total power and phase-locking values relative to the corresponding GBR values.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Generation of human auditory steady-state responses (SSRs). II: Addition of responses to individual stimuli

Abstract

Generation of the human auditory steady-state responses (SSRs). I. Stimulus rate effects

Hear. Res.

Combined dynamics of EEG and evoked potentials. I. Studies of simultaneously recorded EEG-EPograms in the auditory pathway, reticular formation and hyppocampus of cat brain during waking stage

Biol. Cybern.

Combined dynamics of EEG and evoked potentials. II. Studies of simultaneously recorded EEG-EPrograms in the auditory pathway, reticular formation and hyppocampus of cat brain during sleep

Biol. Cybern.

The associations between 40 Hz-EEG and the middle latency response of the auditory evoked potential

Int. J. Neurosci.

Frequency analysis of olfactory system EEG in cat, rabbit and rat

Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.

Midlatency auditory evoked responses: differential effects of sleep in the human

Electroenceph. Clin. Neurophysiol.

A 40-Hz auditory potential recorded in the human scalp

Tactile and auditory stimuli presented at high rates (30–50 per sec) produce similar event related potentials

Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

Neuromagnetic steady-state responses to auditory stimuli

J. Acoust. Soc. Am.

Acoustics standard reference zero for the calibration of pure tone audiometers

Auditory brainstem and middle latency responses. I. Effects of response filtering and waveform identification

Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol.

The 40-Hz band evoked response lasts 150 msec and increases in size at slow rates

Soc. Neurosci. Abstr.