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Updated: Jun 29, 2025
High-resolution Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Methods for Human Midbrain
Published on: May 10, 2012
Auditory oddball responses in the human subthalamic nucleus and substantia nigra pars reticulata
Dallas Leavitt1, Frhan I Alanazi2, Tameem M Al-Ozzi2
1Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada; University of Toronto - Max Planck Centre for Neural Science and Technology, University of Toronto, Canada; Krembil Brain Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.
Abstract:
The auditory oddball is a mainstay in research on attention, novelty, and sensory prediction. How this task engages subcortical structures like the subthalamic nucleus and substantia nigra pars reticulata is unclear. We administered an auditory OB task while recording single unit activity (35 units) and local field potentials (57 recordings) from the subthalamic nucleus and substantia nigra pars reticulata of 30 patients with Parkinson's disease undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. We found tone modulated and oddball modulated units in both regions. Population activity differentiated oddball from standard trials from 200 ms to 1000 ms after the tone in both regions. In the substantia nigra, beta band activity in the local field potential was decreased following oddball tones. The oddball related activity we observe may underlie attention, sensory prediction, or surprise-induced motor suppression.
