Elsevier

Neuroscience Research

Volume 162, January 2021, Pages 31-44
Neuroscience Research

Lateralization of brain responses to auditory motion: A study using single-trial analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neures.2020.01.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • •

    We studied the hemispheric asymmetry of oscillatory activity evoked by moving sounds.

  • •

    The spectral perturbation (ERSP) and inter-trial phase coherence (ITC) were measured.

  • •

    The spectral perturbations were stronger in the right hemisphere.

  • •

    The delta-alpha ITC showed stronger contralaterality in the left hemisphere.

  • •

    The asymmetry of motion-onset response was similar to that of ITC (“neglect model”).

Abstract

The present study investigates hemispheric asymmetry of the ERPs and low-frequency oscillatory responses evoked in both hemispheres of the brain by the sound stimuli with delayed onset of motion. EEG was recorded for three patterns of sound motion produced by changes in interaural time differences. Event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) and inter-trial phase coherence (ITC) were computed from the time-frequency decomposition of EEG signals. The participants either read books of their choice (passive listening) or indicated the sound trajectories perceived using a graphic tablet (active listening). Our goal was to find out whether the lateralization of the motion-onset response (MOR) and oscillatory responses to sound motion were more consistent with the right-hemispheric dominance, contralateral or neglect model of interhemispheric asymmetry.

Apparent dominance of the right hemisphere was found only in the ERSP responses. Stronger contralaterality of the left hemisphere corresponding to the “neglect model” of asymmetry was shown by the MOR components and by the phase coherence of the delta-alpha oscillations. Velocity and attention did not change consistently the interhemispheric asymmetry of both the MOR and the oscillatory responses. Our findings demonstrate how the lateralization pattern shown by the MOR potential was interrelated with that of the motion-related single-trial measures.

Section snippets

Participants and experimental conditions

Thirteen paid volunteers (2 men and 11 women, aged 22–42, mean age 26.8 ± 7 years) participated in the experiments. All the subjects had no history of neurological or otological diseases. The participants were screened in advance for normal hearing using standard-scale audiometry. All the participants were right-handed; their average handedness was 61 ± 5 %, according to the standard test scaled from -100 % for absolute left-handedness to +100 % for absolute right-handedness, with 0 for

Behavioural task

The behavioural data obtained in the localization task showed that the perceived angular distance travelled by the moving sound was 69 ± 2°, directions. To check whether the listeners’ attention was actually focused on the moving on average across left and right sounds, we calculated the rate of correct responses (Hit rate) for each type of stimuli. For the moving sounds, the correct response (Hit) was defined as the perceived final point shifted more than 10° away from the midline in the

Discussion

We have analyzed the lateralization of the ERPs and oscillatory responses evoked in both hemispheres of the brain by the sound stimuli with delayed onset of motion. We compared the spectral perturbation (ERSP) and inter-trial phase coherence (ITC) of slow oscillations between two listening conditions (active localization of the sound trajectory and passive listening to the same stimuli), two directions of sound motion and three motion velocities.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate how the lateralization pattern shown by the MOR potential was interrelated with that of the motion-related single-trial indices. The power measures of rhythmic activity suggested the stronger involvement of the right hemisphere in the auditory processing, whereas the ERPs showed no right-side dominance. Importantly, we found that stronger contralaterality of the left-hemispheric response (i.e. the “neglect model” of asymmetry) was exhibited by the MOR amplitude and by

Funding sources

This study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR, project number 19-315-9001619) and by the Program of Fundamental Scientific Research of State Academies for 2013-2020 (GP-14, section 63). None of the authors have potential conflicts of interest to be disclosed.

Glossary

ANOVA
Analysis of variance
EEG
Electroencephalogram
ERP
Event-related potential
ERSP
Event-related spectral perturbation
ICA
Independent component analysis
ITC
Inter-trial coherence
ITD
Interaural time differences
MOR
Motion-onset response

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