Two separate codes for missing-fundamental pitch in the human auditory cortex

摘要: Two auditory event-related potential components, the supratemporal N1 and mismatch negativity (MMN), index traces encoding missing-fundamental pitch. The present results suggest that these two codes derive from separate pitch extraction processes. Frequent 300-Hz infrequent 600-Hz tones were presented, in some stimulus blocks with short (150 ms), others, long (500 ms) durations. MMN, reflecting a preattentive change detection process, was elicited by only long-duration condition. Correspondingly, subjects able to detect high-pitch amongst similar low-pitch ones when duration long. In addition, MMN response peaked ca. 120 ms later for than pure of fundamental frequency suggesting resolving took substantially longer extracting spectral contrast, differential found both durations, no substantial difference peak latency between tones. contrasting features cortical support notion mechanisms.