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Determinants of Variation in Rapid Temporal Processing Ability: How do Behaviour, Function, and Structure Relate?

Jesse Bourke1* and Juanita Todd1
  • 1 University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Australia

Abstract Effective processing of rapid temporal cues in sound is essential for accurate perception of auditory stimuli, particularly for speech (Zatorre & Gandour, 2008). Poor rapid temporal processing (RTP) ability has been widely linked with disorders of speech and language processing (e.g., Cardy, Flagg, Roberts, Brian, & Roberts, 2005; Farmer & Klein, 1995). Todd, Finch, Smith, Budd, and Schall (2011) demonstrated that pre-attentive psychophysiological processing of RTP cues typically produces a right ear-advantage, depending on the individual’s behavioural ability to consciously discriminate RTP cues. A mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm and gap detection threshold task (GDT) was used to measure behaviour and function respectively. Although neuroanatomical substrates of these effects have not yet been established, leftward structural lateralisations of the planum temporale (PT) may be a potential determinant (Elmer, Hänggi, Meyer, & Jäncke, 2013; Griffiths & Warren, 2002). In the present study we extended Todd et al.’s study by comparing behavioural and functional indices of RTP, with measures of the PT using structural MRI. Preliminary results have shown significant correlation of left-hemisphere PT surface area with RTP ability for stimuli presented to the right ear. Furthermore, more pronounced leftward laterality of the PT was correlated with larger MMN elicited to gap-deviants presented to the right-ear. Behavioural and structural measures were shown to be significant covariates for MMN at these frontal sites, but not for an observed polarity inversion at the mastoids. Overall, these findings affirm that the PT are a neuroanatomical substrate of the relationship between behavioural and functional RTP.

References

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Keywords: gap detection, mismatch negativity, planum temporale, dichotic listening, asymmetry

Conference: ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology, Sydney, Australia, 2 Dec - 4 Dec, 2015.

Presentation Type: Oral Presentation

Topic: Psychophysiology

Citation: Bourke J and Todd J (2015). Determinants of Variation in Rapid Temporal Processing Ability: How do Behaviour, Function, and Structure Relate?. Conference Abstract: ASP2015 - 25th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.219.00008

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Received: 24 Oct 2015; Published Online: 30 Nov 2015.

* Correspondence: Mr. Jesse Bourke, University of Newcastle, School of Psychology, Newcastle, Australia, jesse.d.bourke@newcastle.edu.au