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Updated: Oct 19, 2025

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique
Published on: September 7, 2022
Crossmodal processing of environmental sounds and everyday life actions: An ERP study
Mirella Manfredi1, Pamella Sanchez Mello de Pinho2, Lucas Murrins Marques2
1Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Abstract:
To investigate the processing of environmental sounds, previous researchers have compared the semantic processing of words and sounds, yielding mixed results. This study aimed to specifically investigate the electrophysiological mechanism underlying the semantic processing of environmental sounds presented in a naturalistic visual scene. We recorded event-related brain potentials in a group of young adults over the presentation of everyday life actions that were either congruent or incongruent with environmental sounds. Our results showed that incongruent environmental sounds evoked both a P400 and an N400 effect, reflecting sensitivity to physical and semantic violations of environmental sounds' properties, respectively. In addition, our findings showed an enhanced late positivity in response to incongruous environmental sounds, probably reflecting additional reanalysis costs. In conclusion, these results indicate that the crossmodal processing of the environmental sounds might require the simultaneous involvement of different cognitive processes.
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