Learning-related improvements in auditory detection sensitivities correlate with neural changes observable during active and passive sound processing

• Published in: Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics Vol. 30; no. 1
• Main Authors: Ball, Natalie J., Wisniewski, Matthew G., Zakrzewski, Alexandria C., Iyer, Nandini, Simpson, Brian D., Seccia, Amanda, Thompson, Eric R., Spencer, Nathan
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: 25.06.2017
• ISSN: 1939-800X
• DOI: 10.1121/2.0000630

Auditory detection can improve with training. Though the majority of theorists posit that such improvements relate to dynamics of selective attention, longer-term sensory plasticity may also play a role (e.g., increased cortical processing for trained sounds). Here, listeners were trained in a single session to detect either an 861-Hz or 1058-Hz tone (counterbalanced across participants) presented in a frozen white noise masker. On the following day, EEG was collected while listeners: 1) attempted to detect 861-Hz and 1058-Hz tones at an SNR of -21 dB, and 2) passively heard the same tones presented in quiet. Listeners were significantly better at detecting tones at their trained frequency. In addition, P3 amplitudes were larger for trained than for untrained tones during the active detection task. During passive exposure to the same tones, P2 amplitudes were similarly larger for trained than for untrained tones. The difference in P3 amplitudes suggests that training leads to more efficient post-sensory processing related to decision-making. Differences in P2 amplitudes may reflect training-induced sensory cortical plasticity. Further, since the P2 effect was obtained during passive exposure, training induced improvements in detection may not be solely related to attention.