Event-related desynchronization evoked by auditory stimuli

Event-Related Desynchronization (ERD) and Synchronization (ERS) of several EEG alpha frequencies was studied in 19 subjects during the presentation of linguistic and/or melodic auditory stimuli. The stimulus length was 1300 msec (+/-100 msec) and the interstimulus interval was 2000 msec. A significant ERD was found during auditory stimulation in the 8-10 Hz and 10-12 Hz alpha frequency bands, and there were also significant differences in the spatiotemporal pattern of the ERD between these frequency bands. Significant ERD was elicited also in the 10-11 and 11-12 Hz frequency bands by auditory stimulation. There were no significant differences between these one-hertz frequency bands. The subjects were assigned to two analysis groups according to their individual alpha peak frequency (10-11 or 11-12 Hz) at rest. The ERD in these groups reached statistical significance and there were significant differences between the groups. The ERD of the two groups differed significantly also when their EEG data was studied in the 10-12 Hz frequency band. The results from this study show that ERD is not modality-specific, i.e., it can be elicited also by auditory stimuli. Moreover, they indicate that it is important to control over interindividual variation in the EEG when studying the ERD phenomenon.