Author
Claude Alain
Other affiliations: Baycrest Hospital, Université du Québec à Montréal, University of California, Davis ...read more
Bio: Claude Alain is an academic researcher from University of Toronto. The author has contributed to research in topics: Auditory cortex & Auditory scene analysis. The author has an hindex of 60, co-authored 219 publications receiving 12344 citations. Previous affiliations of Claude Alain include Baycrest Hospital & Université du Québec à Montréal.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
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TL;DR: Improvements in the techniques for measuring the mismatch negativity and in the paradigms for eliciting it will be needed before the MMN can become clinically useful as an objective measurement of such disorders in individual patients.
Abstract: The mismatch negativity (MMN) is a frontal negative deflection in the human event-related potential that typically occurs when a repeating auditory stimulus changes in some manner. The MMN can be elicited by many kinds of stimulus change, varying from simple changes in a single stimulus feature to abstract changes in the relationship between stimuli. The main intracerebral sources for the MMN are located in the auditory cortices of the temporal lobe. Since it occurs whether or not stimuli are being attended, the MMN represents an automatic cerebral process for detecting change. The MMN is clinically helpful in terms of demonstrating disordered sensory processing or disordered memory in groups of patients. Improvements in the techniques for measuring the MMN and in the paradigms for eliciting it will be needed before the MMN can become clinically useful as an objective measurement of such disorders in individual patients.
572 citations
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TL;DR: The converging evidence from two independent measurements of dissociable brain activity during identification and localization of identical stimuli provides strong support for specialized auditory streams in the human brain.
Abstract: The extent to which sound identification and sound localization depend on specialized auditory pathways was examined by using functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potentials. Participants performed an S1–S2 match-to-sample task in which S1 differed from S2 in its pitch and/or location. In the pitch task, participants indicated whether S2 was lower, identical, or higher in pitch than S1. In the location task, participants were asked to localize S2 relative to S1 (i.e., leftward, same, or rightward). Relative to location, pitch processing generated greater activation in auditory cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus. Conversely, identifying the location of S2 relative to S1 generated greater activation in posterior temporal cortex, parietal cortex, and the superior frontal sulcus. Differential task-related effects on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were seen in anterior and posterior brain regions beginning at 300 ms poststimulus and lasting for several hundred milliseconds. The converging evidence from two independent measurements of dissociable brain activity during identification and localization of identical stimuli provides strong support for specialized auditory streams in the human brain. These findings are analogous to the “what” and “where” segregation of visual information processing, and suggest that a similar functional organization exists for processing information from the auditory modality.
522 citations
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TL;DR: The results support an auditory dual-pathway model in humans in which nonspatial sound information is processed primarily along the ventral stream whereas sound location is processed along the dorsal stream and areas posterior to primary auditory cortex.
372 citations
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TL;DR: Evidence is provided for two cortical mechanisms of streaming: automatic segregation of sounds and attention-dependent buildup process that integrates successive tones within streams over several seconds.
Abstract: A general assumption underlying auditory scene analysis is that the initial grouping of acoustic elements is independent of attention. The effects of attention on auditory stream segregation were investigated by recording event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants either attended to sound stimuli and indicated whether they heard one or two streams or watched a muted movie. The stimuli were pure-tone ABA– patterns that repeated for 10.8 sec with a stimulus onset asynchrony between A and B tones of 100 msec in which the A tone was fixed at 500 Hz, the B tone could be 500, 625, 750, or 1000 Hz, and – was a silence. In both listening conditions, an enhancement of the auditory-evoked response (P1–N1–P2 and N1c) to the B tone varied with Δf and correlated with perception of streaming. The ERP from 150 to 250 msec after the beginning of the repeating ABA– patterns became more positive during the course of the trial and was diminished when participants ignored the tones, consistent with behavioral studies indicating that streaming takes several seconds to build up. The N1c enhancement and the buildup over time were larger at right than left temporal electrodes, suggesting a right-hemisphere dominance for stream segregation. Sources in Heschl's gyrus accounted for the ERP modulations related to Δf-based segregation and buildup. These findings provide evidence for two cortical mechanisms of streaming: automatic segregation of sounds and attention-dependent buildup process that integrates successive tones within streams over several seconds.
335 citations
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TL;DR: Investigating the neural circuits of sensory memory using behavioral and electrophysiological measures of auditory processing in patients with unilateral brain damage to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, posterior association cortex, or the hippocampus provides evidence of a temporal-prefrontal neocortical network critical for the transient storage of auditory stimuli.
322 citations
Cited by
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9,362 citations
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: This is an introduction to the event related potential technique, which can help people facing with some malicious bugs inside their laptop to read a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon.
Abstract: Thank you for downloading an introduction to the event related potential technique. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look hundreds times for their favorite readings like this an introduction to the event related potential technique, but end up in malicious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some malicious bugs inside their laptop.
2,445 citations
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TL;DR: The mismatch negativity (MMN) enables one to establish the brain processes underlying the initiation of attention switch to, conscious perception of, sound change in an unattended stimulus stream.
2,104 citations
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TL;DR: Although the dorsolateral PFC is but one critical structure in a network of anterior and posterior “attention control” areas, it does have a unique executiveattention role in actively maintaining access to stimulus representations and goals in interference-rich contexts.
Abstract: We provide an “executive-attention” framework for organizing the cognitive neuroscience research on the constructs of working-memory capacity (WMC), general fluid intelligence, and prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. Rather than provide a novel theory of PFC function, we synthesize a wealth of singlecell, brain-imaging, and neuropsychological research through the lens of our theory of normal individual differences in WMC and attention control (Engle, Kane, & Tuholski, 1999; Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999). Our critical review confirms the prevalent view that dorsolateral PFC circuitry is critical to executive-attention functions. Moreover, although the dorsolateral PFC is but one critical structure in a network of anterior and posterior “attention control” areas, it does have a unique executiveattention role in actively maintaining access to stimulus representations and goals in interference-rich contexts. Our review suggests the utility of an executive-attention framework for guiding future research on both PFC function and cognitive control.
2,075 citations
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TL;DR: New guidelines for recording ERPs are presented and criteria for publishing the results are presented, which allow different studies to be compared readily.
Abstract: Event-related potentials ~ERPs! recorded from the human scalp can provide important information about how the human brain normally processes information and about how this processing may go awry in neurological or psychiatric disorders. Scientists using or studying ERPs must strive to overcome the many technical problems that can occur in the recording and analysis of these potentials. The methods and the results of these ERP studies must be published in a way that allows other scientists to understand exactly what was done so that they can, if necessary, replicate the experiments. The data must then be analyzed and presented in a way that allows different studies to be compared readily. This paper presents guidelines for recording ERPs and criteria for publishing the results.
2,033 citations