Interaction of Self-Regulation and Contextual Effects on Pre-attentive Auditory Processing: A Combined EEG/ECG Study

Environmental changes are not always within the focus of our attention, and sensitive reactions (i.e., quicker and stronger responses) can be essential for an organism's survival and adaptation. Here we report that neurophysiological responses to sound changes that are not in the focus of attention are related to both ambient acoustic contexts and regulation ability. We assessed electroencephalograph (EEG) mismatch negativity (MMN) latency and amplitude in response to sound changes in two contexts: ascending and descending pitch sequences while participants were instructed to attend to muted videos. Prolonged latency and increased amplitude of MMN at fronto-central region occurred in ascending pitch sequences relative to descending sequences. We also assessed how regulation related to the contextual effects on MMN. Reactions to changes in the ascending sequence were observed with the attention control (frontal EEG theta/beta ratio) indicating speed of reaction, and the autonomous regulation (heart-rate variability) indicating intensity of reaction. Moreover, sound changes in the ascending context were associated with more activation of anterior cingulate cortex and insula, suggesting arousal effects and regulation processes. These findings suggest that the relation between speed and intensity is not fixed and may be modified by contexts and self-regulation ability. Specifically, cortical and cardiovascular indicators of self-regulation may specify different aspects of response sensitivity in terms of speed and intensity.