The N1 hypothesis and irrelevant sound: evidence from token set size effects

This study investigated how increases in the number of different types of sound (token set size) within a heard but ignored sequence influence brain activity and performance in a serial recall task (the irrelevant sound effect). We tested the hypothesis that brain processes affected by the refractory state of the neuronal populations involved in generating the auditory N1 play a role in the memory disruption produced by irrelevant sound. Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded when volunteers performed a serial recall task that required remembering lists of visually presented numbers that were followed by a distractor-filled retention interval. The results showed that both increments in set size from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 5 elicited an increase of the N1 amplitude. Furthermore, increases in set size from 2 to 5, but not from 1 to 2, caused a significant decrease of the serial recall performance. This result suggested that, if N1 were to play a role in the disruption produced by irrelevant sound, the processes underlying the N1 wave may only serve as a necessary rather than a sufficient condition for disruption.