Biology subjects

Nave, K. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Nave, K. M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Registered Report: Replication and Extension of Nozaradan, Peretz, Missal and Mouraux (2011)

Cognitive neuroscience has long sought to disentangle stimulus-driven processing from conscious perceptual processing. Some prior evidence for neural processing of perceived musical beat (periodic pulse) may be confounded by stimulus-driven activity. Notably, Nozaradan et al. (2011) controlled for stimulus factors and used frequency tagging to show increased brain activity at imagery-related frequencies when listeners imagined a beat pattern during an isochronous stimulus. However, it remains unclear whether this effect is replicable and whether it reliably reflects conscious beat perception. This registered report presents 13 independent replications using the same vetted protocol. Listeners performed the same experimental paradigm as in Nozaradan et al. (2011), with an added behavioral task on each trial to assess conscious perception of the imagined beat. Pre-registered meta-analyses revealed smaller raw effect sizes of imagery condition (Binary: 0.03 {micro}V, Ternary: 0.03 {micro}V) than the original study (Binary: 0.12 {micro}V, Ternary: 0.20 {micro}V), with confidence intervals all overlapping with 0. Differences in full-sample estimated effect sizes (this study: n = 152, p2 = .03-.04; 2011 study: n = 8, p2 = .62- .76) suggest larger sample sizes are necessary to detect these effects reliably, if they exist. Additionally, only neural activity at the stimulus frequency predicted imagery task accuracy, contradicting our hypothesis that beat-related frequencies would predict performance. Our findings suggest an overall failure to replicate all main effects from the original study. We discuss potential reasons for discrepancies with the original study as well as implications for the utility of frequency tagging for studying beat perception.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Auditory working memory mediates the relationship between musicianship and auditory stream segregation

This study investigates the interactions between musicianship and two auditory cognitive mechanisms: auditory working memory (AWM) and stream segregation. The primary hypothesis is that AWM mediates the relationship between musical training and enhanced stream segregation capabilities. Two groups of listeners were tested, the first to establish the relationship between the two variables and the second to replicate the effect in an independent sample. Music history and behavioural data were collected from a total of 145 healthy young adults with normal binaural hearing. They performed a task that requires manipulation of tonal patterns in working memory, and the Music-in-Noise Task (MINT), which measures stream segregation abilities in a musical context. The MINT task expands measurements beyond traditional Speech-in-Noise (SIN) assessments by capturing auditory subskills (e.g., rhythm, visual, spatial, prediction) relevant to stream segregation. Our results showed that musical training is associated with enhanced AWM and MINT task performance, and that this effect is replicable across independent samples. Moreover, we found in both samples that the enhancement of stream segregation was largely mediated by AWM capacity. The results suggest that musical training and/or aptitude enhances music-in-noise perception by way of improved AWM capacity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Neural correlates of perceptual switching while listening to bistable auditory streaming stimuli

Understanding the neural underpinning of conscious perception remains one of the primary challenges of cognitive neuroscience. Theories based mostly on studies of the visual system differ according to whether the neural activity giving rise to conscious perception occurs in modality-specific sensory cortex or in associative areas, such as the frontal and parietal cortices. Here, we search for modality-specific conscious processing in the auditory cortex using a bistable stream segregation paradigm that presents a constant stimulus without the confounding influence of physical changes to sound properties. ABA_ triplets (i.e., alternating low, A, and high, B, tones, and _ gap) with a 700 ms silent response period after every third triplet were presented repeatedly, and human participants reported nearly equivalent proportions of 1- and 2-stream percepts. The pattern of behavioral responses was consistent with previous studies of visual and auditory bistable perception. The intermittent response paradigm has the benefit of evoking spontaneous perceptual switches that can be attributed to a well-defined stimulus event, enabling precise identification of the timing of perception-related neural events with event-related potentials (ERPs). Significantly more negative ERPs were observed for 2-streams compared to 1-stream, and for switches compared to non-switches during the sustained potential (500-1000 ms post-stimulus onset). Further analyses revealed that the negativity associated with switching was independent of switch direction, suggesting that spontaneous changes in perception have a unique neural signature separate from the observation that 2-streams has more negative ERPs than 1-stream. Source analysis of the sustained potential showed activity associated with these differences originating in anterior superior temporal gyrus, indicating involvement of the ventral auditory pathway that is important for processing auditory objects.\n\nSignificance StatementWhen presented with ambiguous stimuli, the auditory system takes the available information and attempts to construct a useful percept. When multiple percepts are possible from the same stimuli, however, perception fluctuates back and forth between alternating percepts in a bistable manner. Here, we examine spontaneous switches in perception using a bistable auditory streaming paradigm with a novel intermittent stimulus paradigm, and measure sustained electrical activity in anterior portions of auditory cortex using event-related potentials. Analyses revealed enhanced sustained cortical activity when perceiving 2-streams compared to 1-stream, and when a switch occurred regardless of switch direction. These results indicate that neural responses in auditory cortex reflect both the content of perception and neural dynamics related to switches in perception.

neuroscience↗