Auditory evoked responses to frequency and amplitude modulated sound

Abstract

Auditory evoked responses to pure tone bursts have been described in a number of studies and have been characterized by the P1, N1 and P2 components. The presence of later components, namely N2, P3 and the Contingent Negative Variation, depends largely on the cerebral processing of the stimulus. These evoked responses have been recorded using tone bursts. However, neurophysiological studies have shown that the cortex codes complex sounds. Therefore, we performed a set of acute experiments on the cat, using frequency and amplitude modulated sounds. This was reported in a previous study (Richards and Clark, 1972) which showed that similar onset and later waves could be recorded from the cortex of the cat. In some areas of the cortex the later waves were in synchrony with the modulation envelope.