Automatic detection of irregular vanishing and reappearing parts of objects in two interwoven sequences: A visual mismatch negativity study

• Published in: The European journal of neuroscience Vol. 57; no. 10; pp. 1736 - 1747
• Main Authors: Csikós, Nóra, Petro, Bela, Kojouharova, Petia, Scheiling, Katalin, Gaál, Zsófia Anna, Czigler, István
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: France Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-05-2023
• Subjects: Cognitive ability; Electroencephalography; Evoked Potentials; Evoked Potentials, Visual; interwoven sequences; Localization; Mismatch negativity; OFF deviancy; ON deviancy; Photic Stimulation; Visual field; Visual Fields; visual mismatch negativity; Visual Perception - physiology; visual mismatch negativity; OFF deviancy; ON deviancy; interwoven sequences
• ISSN: 0953-816X; 1460-9568
• DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15977

The cognitive system automatically develops predictions on the basis of regularities of event sequences and reacts to the violation of these predictions. In the visual modality, the electrophysiological signature of this process is an event‐related potential component, the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN). So far, we have no data, whether the system underlying vMMN is capable of dealing with more than one event sequence simultaneously. To disclose this aspect of the capacity of the system, in a passive oddball paradigm, we presented two interwoven sequences. The stimuli were objects (diamond patterns with their diagonals), one of the sequences was presented to the left side and the other to the right side of the visual field. From time to time, two parallel lines of the diamonds disappeared (OFF event) and then reappeared (ON event). The frequently vanishing pair of lines on the left side (standard) was identical to the rarely vanishing lines of the objects on the right side (deviant) and vice versa. We found that deviant ON events elicited vMMN only for left‐side deviants and deviant OFF events elicited vMMN only for right‐side deviants. The standardized low resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) source localization showed vMMN sources both in posterior visual structures and in anterior locations, and activity was stronger in the hemisphere contralateral to the deviant event. According to the results, the system underlying vMMN is capable of dealing with two sequences, but within a sequence, it detected only one type (either OFF or ON) of deviancy.
In this study, we measured the visual mismatch negativity, an event‐related potential component that signals the brain noticing events in the nonattended space that violate sequential regularities. Two simultaneous, but independent event sequences were presented on the left and right sides of a screen to the participants in a passive oddball paradigm. Our results show that the visual mismatch negativity was elicited by both sequences, but not by the same type of stimuli.