Inter-Stimulus-Interval Dependence in Auditory Cortex Reflects Perceptual Organization of Streams Under Informational Masking.

ABSTRACT: The perceptual saliency of a regular sound sequence embedded into a well-chosen multi-tone-masker background fluctuates despite the absence of change in the physical stimulus. When such tone streams are perceived, each tone of the stream evokes a negative-going response referred to as awareness-related negativity (ARN). Here we probe if the ARN amplitude shows a dependence on the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) within perceived tone streams, similar to the N1 response evoked by unmasked tone streams independently of a task. Isochronous target streams were presented under multi-tone masking with ISIs of 500, 850, and 1200 ms, while listeners indicated when they perceived the onset of the target streams. A control experiment applied the same tone streams without masking in the presence of a se

SUBMITTER: Raudonat C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12665807 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature