The influence of stimulus spectral content on rise time effects in cortical-evoked responses

A tone burst with a fast rise time elicits a large-amplitude cortical response which reduces markedly as rise time is increased. This effect is not observed with white-noise bursts. It is suggested that where changes in rise time affect the spectral content of the stimulus, a change in response amplitude is encountered. The increase in the latency of the response with increase in rise time is found to be the same for both tone and noise bursts, hence independent of spectral composition.