Consonance/dissonance (C/D) is an important feature in music; it mainly arises from the relation of fundamental frequencies (f0) within chords or dyads. The current magnetoencephalography study investigated early cortical and subcortical C/D correlates and their robustness against (1) the physical presence of f0 and listener's propensity for f0-based pitch processing, (2) active vs. passive listening, and (3) the listener's musical expertise. A sample of N = 39 normal-hearing adults underwent psychometric testing for individual pitch perception preference and musical aptitude. They also listened to consonant and dissonant dyads with and without physically present f0 while their cortical auditory evoked fields and brainstem-level frequency-following responses (FFRs) were simultaneously recorded, in a paradigm comprising both active- and passive-listening conditions. Consonant dyads elicited earlier transient cortical activity than dissonant dyads and stronger FFRs to the f0 of the high dyad component. Moreover, the C/D-related transient responses evolved comparably for dyads with vs. without f0 and were unchanged by active listening, musical aptitude, or individual pitch perception preference. Active listening, in turn, went with larger amplitudes in the continuous subcortical and cortical activity, reflecting top-down attentional gain. Listeners with more f0-based pitch perception showed worse behavioral performance in dyads with missing f0. Both active listening and the processing of missing f0 information were unrelated to the listener's musical aptitude. Together, our results show how active listening and missing f0 processing are reflected in psychophysiological responses; however, early neural C/D correlates appear largely robust against these variables.

A key feature of vowels in spoken language is that their fundamental frequency (f0), which underlies perceived pitch, can change dynamically over time. However, it remains elusive how such prosodic glides shape the neural response in the auditory cortex. The current magnetoencephalography (MEG) experiment was designed to study the transient and sustained neuromagnetic correlates of prosodic contour information in vowels, with a particular focus on the P2 component. Twenty-four normal-hearing participants passively listened to vowel sequences in which both vowel type and prosodic contour were either unchanged or varied between successive vowels. At the level of single vowels, the results showed that falling contours elicit larger and earlier P2 responses than rising and flat prosodic contours. At the level of vowel triplets, the P2 was larger in response to stimulus sequences in which prosodic contour was varied across stimuli. The data indicate that the P2 might be a neural correlate of the early processing of prosodic contour information; moreover, they suggest that the P2 might be particularly sensitive to pitch glides, possibly due to longer time constants that are encompassed within the P2.

Emotion dysregulation is a central feature in trauma-associated disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, it remains unclear whether emotion dysregulation is a transdiagnostic phenomenon closely linked to childhood trauma, or if disorder-specific alterations in emotion processing exist. Following a multimethodological approach, we aimed to assess and compare the reactivity to and regulation of emotions between patients with BPD and PTSD, as well as healthy controls, and identify associations with childhood trauma. A total of 135 women, 43 healthy controls, 43 with BPD and 49 with PTSD, took part in a multimethodological assessment of emotional reactivity and regulation. Self-report measures were used to assess childhood trauma and emotion dysregulation. Additionally, participants performed a classic emotion regulation (ER) paradigm. Subjective emotional valence ratings and neurophysiological responses (P3 and late positive potential, LPP) were measured in response to negative, positive, and neutral pictures (emotional reactivity) and during active regulation vs. passive viewing of negative pictures (ER). Regarding emotional reactivity, during the experimental paradigm both patient groups reported lower emotional valence after viewing positive or neutral pictures compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, P3 amplitudes in response to neutral pictures were reduced in both patient groups and in response to negative pictures, specifically in patients with PTSD. Regarding ER, while both patient groups self-reported significant disturbances in ER, neither valence ratings nor neurophysiological responses assessed during the ER task (P3, LPP) differed from healthy controls. Across groups, childhood trauma was related to decreased emotional valence ratings on neutral and positive pictures and higher self-reported emotion dysregulation. Patients with BPD and PTSD exhibited a reduced emotional reactivity in response to positive and neutral information. Specifically, patients with PTSD demonstrated hypo-reactivity to neutral and trauma-unrelated negative stimuli, which might be due to altered attentional resource allocation following trauma. Although patients reported using adaptive ER strategies less frequently in daily life, they effectively implemented them when instructed to, highlighting important clinical and theoretical implications.

Classical trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a severe chronic pain disorder characterized by sudden, intense facial pain attacks and represents a major burden for affected individuals. Microvascular decompression (MVD) can provide pain relief, yet not all patients benefit equally. A key challenge in selecting candidates for MVD lies in the limited predictive accuracy of current diagnostics, which mainly rely on subjective pain history and structural MRI findings. Since many asymptomatic individuals show neurovascular contact on imaging, its prognostic value remains limited. Electrophysiological measures, particularly cortical oscillations, may offer more objective insights into nociceptive system function. In this case series, we investigated 15 TN patients scheduled for MVD using magnetoencephalography prior to surgery to assess laser-evoked fields. Noxious stimuli were applied to the symptomatic and contralateral trigeminal dermatome. Ten patients achieved complete postoperative pain relief (responders), while five patients reported persistent symptoms (non-responders). Source reconstruction showed activation in the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex in all participants. Responders exhibited reduced low-frequency oscillatory activity at the pain site, whereas non-responders displayed increased activity in the same frequency band. Group-level analysis revealed distinct differences in oscillatory dynamics between responders and non-responders. These findings indicate altered cortical processing in TN and suggest that oscillatory activity patterns might serve as functional biomarkers. Incorporating these measures could improve preoperative stratification and guide treatment decisions for patients undergoing MVD.

The event-related P3 is evoked by most task-relevant or salient stimuli, but its neural generators have remained controversial, limiting the integration of P3 with functional neuroimaging. Here we reevaluate the role of hippocampus and retro-splenial cortex as potential generators of the P3. Combined magneto- and electroencephalography signals were recorded during a visual oddball paradigm. Observers were instructed to respond to rare targets of a deviant shape and ignore rare non-targets of a deviant color. Source analysis was based on noise-normalized minimum-norm estimates in an individual, MRI-based source space. Critically, the cortical source space was extended to include the cornu ammonis of the hippocampus. Source analysis at the P3 peak showed strong sources in retrosplenial cortex and a weaker source in hippocampus. Activity in left somatosensory cortex was related to the button presses indicating target detection. Subsequent activity was observed in insula and anterior mid-cingulate cortex. Further stimulation studies were used to probe the spread of these sources and the plausibility of their combination to explain the data. In these models, EEG was dominated by retro-splenial cortex, while MEG was dominated by activity in primary somatosensory cortex. Except for somatosensory cortex, EEG showed better signal-to-noise ratio than MEG, but the combination of MEG and EEG increased the signal-to-noise ratio and specificity at the source level. Overall, these data support an interpretation of the P3 as physiological indicator of activity in the limbic system for target and distractor stimuli.

The perception of musical consonance/dissonance (C/D) relies on basic properties of the auditory system, and prior investigations have shown that C/D sounds elicit strongly divergent neurophysiological activity in human auditory cortex. However, studies are missing that assess transient (P1, N1, P2) and sustained cortical C/D representations within a harmonic context, together with the corresponding patterns of neural adaptation. The present magnetoencephalography experiment applied spatio-temporal source analysis to study the early transient and sustained neuromagnetic processing of C/D at the start and within brief harmonic sequences. A total of n = 40 adult listeners (among them numerous amateur musicians) participated in the experiment; the harmonic sequences comprised different blends of C/D dyads with balanced probabilities, in an effort to access simple C/D relations and neural adaptation at an early stage of the processing hierarchy. Consistent with earlier findings, the transient cortical activity was found to reflect vertical (i.e., absolute) C/D aspects in response to the sequence's first dyad, but it mirrored more horizontal aspects (i.e., C/D relations) at the subsequent dyad transitions; moreover, the neuromagnetic responses (particularly, the N1 and P2 waves) exhibited adaptation with different time constants, parts of which pertained to C/D-associated processing. Surprisingly, only few observations appeared to be influenced by the listener's musical expertise, likely due to the high overall level of musicality in our sample. In summary, our data indicate that early neuromagnetic activity reflects not only vertical, but also horizontal, aspects of C/D perception, together with corresponding adaptive mechanisms.

The P2 component of the auditory evoked potential has previously been shown to depend on the acoustic stimulus properties and prior exposure to the materials. Here, we show that it is also affected by acoustic changes, as P2 amplitudes were strongly enhanced in response to voice pitch changes with a stepwise pattern compared to dynamic pitch changes typical for natural speech, and also reflected the magnitude of these pitch changes. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that neither the P2 nor any other component is affected by the harmonicity of the materials. Despite no prior exposure and a weaker pitch, artificially created inharmonic versions of the materials elicited similar activity throughout the auditory cortex. This suggests that so-called harmonic template neurons observed in animal studies are either absent or do not exist in sufficient number in the human auditory cortex to detect their activity extracranially. Crucially, morphology as well as scalp maps and source reconstructions of the EEG data showed that the P2 appears to consist of two separate subcomponents. While the "P2a" was localised to the auditory cortex, the subsequent "P2b" included generators spread across the auditory cortex and association areas. The two subcomponents thus likely reflect processing at different stages of the auditory pathway.

IntroductionMusical roundness perception relies on consonance/dissonance within a rule-based harmonic context, but also on individual characteristics of the listener. The present work tackles these aspects in a combined psychoacoustic and neurophysiological study, taking into account participant’s musical aptitude.MethodsOur paradigm employed cadence-like four-chord progressions, based on Western music theory. Chord progressions comprised naturalistic and artificial sounds; moreover, their single chords varied regarding consonance/dissonance and harmonic function. Thirty participants listened to the chord progressions while their cortical activity was measured with magnetoencephalography; afterwards, they rated the individual chord progressions with respect to their perceived roundness.ResultsRoundness ratings differed according to the degree of dissonance in the dominant chord at the progression’s third position; this effect was pronounced in listeners with high musical aptitude. Interestingly, a corresponding pattern occurred in the neuromagnetic N1m response to the fourth chord (i.e., at the progression’s resolution), again with somewhat stronger differentiation among musical listeners. The N1m magnitude seemed to increase during chord progressions that were considered particularly round, with the maximum difference after the final chord; here, however, the musical aptitude effect just missed significance.DiscussionThe roundness of chord progressions is reflected in participant’s psychoacoustic ratings and in their transient cortical activity, with stronger differentiation among listeners with high musical aptitude. The concept of roundness might help to reframe consonance/dissonance to a more holistic, gestalt-like understanding that covers chord relations in Western music.

Objective In case of severe hearing loss early in life or congenital deafness, cochlear implants (CIs) represent the method of choice to restore hearing and enable language acquisition. While it is generally agreed upon that speech perception is positively influenced by early CI implantation, the neuroplastic changes following implantation are poorly understood. This study was designed to gain insights into the underlying neurophysiological processes.

AIM:To compare the predictive values of the General Movements Assessment (GMA) and the Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA) neurological scale for atypical neurodevelopmental outcome in 3-month-old at-risk infants. METHOD:A total of 109 infants (gestational age 30 weeks; range: 24-41; 52 males) attending a non-academic outpatient clinic were assessed with the GMA and the SINDA at 3 (2-4) months corrected age. The GMA pays attention to the complexity of general movements and presence of fidgety movements. Atypical neurodevelopmental outcome at 24 months corrected age (and older) implied cerebral palsy (CP) or a Bayley Mental Development Index or Bayley Psychomotor Development Index lower than 70. RESULTS:At 24 months corrected (and older) age, 16 children had an atypical outcome, including 14 children with CP. Regarding markedly reduced general movement complexity in combination with absent or sporadic fidgety movements, the GMA predicted an atypical outcome with specificity, positive, and negative predictive values greater than 0.900, and sensitivity of 0.687 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.460-0.915). SINDA predicted an atypical outcome with sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value greater than 0.900 and a positive predictive value of 0.652 (95% CI = 0.457-0.847). Regarding absent fidgety movements only or markedly reduced general movement complexity, the GMA predicted the outcome less well than both general movement criteria. INTERPRETATION:The SINDA and GMA both predict neurodevelopmental outcome well, but SINDA is easier to learn than the GMA; being a non-video-based assessment, it allows caregiver feedback during the consultation whereas the GMA usually does not. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS:The General Movements Assessment (GMA) and Standardized Infant NeuroDevelopmental Assessment (SINDA) neurological scale predict atypical neurodevelopmental outcome equally well. The GMA and SINDA neurological scale predict CP and atypical neurodevelopmental outcome well. The GMA works best to predict neurodevelopmental outcome when based on both general movement complexity and fidgety movements.

In case of severe hearing loss early in life or congenital deafness, cochlear implants (CIs) represent the method of choice to restore hearing and enable language acquisition. While speech intelligibility has been shown to improve during the first year after implantation to then reach a plateau, the underlying neuroplastic changes are poorly understood. Here, we longitudinally compared the cortical processing of speech stimuli in a case-control design with two groups of pre-lingually deafened CI users (4.4 vs. 25.8 months of CI experience) and an age-matched control group with normal hearing (NH; mean group ages ∼9 years). In two experiments, participants were presented with running speech and vowel sequences while fNIRS and EEG data were obtained simultaneously. Despite trends in this direction, cortical activity did not increase significantly with more CI experience and did not approach the higher levels observed in the NH controls. However, in the speech experiment, the less experienced CI group showed an abnormal shift of activity to the right hemisphere not observed in the other two groups. These results hence imply that adaptation to CI-based hearing is not characterised by a gradual increase of activity in left-hemispheric language network, but a reduction of abnormal activity elsewhere.### Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.* CI : Cochlear implant EEG : Electroencephalography ERPs : Event-related potentials FDR : False discovery rate fNIRS : Functional near-infrared spectroscopy GLM : General linear model HbO : Oxygenated haemoglobin HbR : De-oxygenated haemoglobin HRF : Haemodynamic response function NH : Normal-hearing PET : Positron emission tomography ROI : Region of interest SACF : Summary autocorrelation function SCI : Scalp coupling index SP : Sustained potential SPM : Statistical parametric mapping STC : Superior temporal cortex STG : Superior temporal gyrus STS : Superior temporal sulcus TRF : Temporal response function VAN : Ventral attention network

Although spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is widely used in the treatment of refractory neuropathic pain, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In particular, it is not known how spinal stimulation affects supraspinal brain centers and influences pain processing. Objective markers for therapy efficacy are lacking. Therefore, this project focuses on investigation of the functional network activity of the nociceptive system in patients with refractory neuropathic pain under SCS therapy.

ABSTRACT The P2 component of the auditory evoked potential is commonly thought to reflect acoustic stimulus properties as well as prior exposure to the materials, rather than change-related cortical activity. Here, we challenge this view by showing that the P2 is strongly increased in response to voice pitch changes with a stepwise pattern compared to changes in dynamic pitch contours typical for natural speech, and also reflects the magnitude of these pitch changes. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that neither the P2 nor any other component are affected by the harmonicity of the materials. Despite no prior exposure, artificially created inharmonic versions of the speech materials elicited similar activity throughout auditory cortex. This suggests that so-called harmonic template neurons observed in animal studies are either absent or do not exist in sufficient number in human auditory cortex to detect their activity extracranially. Crucially, both morphology and source reconstructions of the EEG data showed that the P2 appears to consist of two separate subcomponents. Whereas source activity for the “P2a” was strongest in right auditory cortex, the subsequent “P2b” included generators spread across auditory cortex and association areas, bilaterally. The two subcomponents thus likely reflect processing at different stages of the auditory pathway.

Brainstem degeneration is a prominent feature of spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3), involving structures that execute binaural synchronization with microsecond precision. As a consequence, auditory processing may deteriorate during the course of disease. We tested whether the binaural “Huggins pitch” effect is suitable to study the temporal precision of brainstem functioning in SCA3 mutation carriers. We expected that they would have difficulties perceiving Huggins pitch at high frequencies, and that they would show attenuated neuromagnetic responses to Huggins pitch. The upper limit of Huggins pitch perception was psychoacoustically determined in 18 pre-ataxic and ataxic SCA3 mutation carriers and in 18 age-matched healthy controls. Moreover, the cortical N100 response following Huggins pitch onset was acquired by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG). MEG recordings were analyzed using dipole source modeling and comprised a monaural pitch condition and a no-pitch condition with simple binaural correlation changes. Compared with age-matched controls, ataxic but not pre-ataxic SCA3 mutation carriers had significantly lower frequency limits up to which Huggins pitch could be heard. Listeners with lower frequency limits also showed diminished MEG responses to Huggins pitch, but not in the two control conditions. Huggins pitch is a promising tool to assess brainstem functioning in ataxic SCA3 patients. Future studies should refine the psychophysiological setup to capture possible performance decrements also in pre-ataxic mutation carriers. Longitudinal observations will be needed to prove the potential of the assessment of Huggins pitch as a biomarker to track brainstem functioning during the disease course in SCA3.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG) data were simultaneously obtained from normal-hearing listeners presented with continuous natural vowel sequences to study the interrelation of the haemodynamic and electrophysiological cortical responses evoked by voice pitch changes. fNIRS topographies and distributed ERP source reconstructions both indicated additional activity in the right superior temporal cortex if the prosodic contours varied between successive vowels, rather than being the same throughout the sequences. The source-level ERPs furthermore revealed two temporally and spatially separable adaptation processes in superior temporal cortex: Firstly, the early P1 component was bilaterally attenuated when vowels with the same prosodic contours were presented repeatedly, reflecting sensory adaptation. Secondly, the later P2 and sustained potential components were smaller in the right hemisphere during sequences without prosodic changes, which is taken to represent an attention-based adaptation effect. The present results demonstrate the convergence of both methods and demonstrate which ERPs underlie the right-lateralised activity in superior temporal cortex evoked in response to pitch changes that has been observed in many neuroimaging studies.

Emotional dysregulation is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD); it is, for example, known to influence one's ability to read other people's facial expressions. We investigated behavioral and neurophysiological foundations of emotional face processing in individuals with BPD and in healthy controls, taking participants' sex into account. 62 individuals with BPD (25 men, 37 women) and 49 healthy controls (20 men, 29 women) completed an emotion classification task with faces depicting blends of angry and happy expressions while the electroencephalogram was recorded. The cortical activity (late positive potential, P3/LPP) was evaluated using source modeling. Compared to healthy controls, individuals with BPD responded slower to happy but not to angry faces; further, they showed more anger ratings in happy but not in angry faces, especially in those with high ambiguity. Men had lower anger ratings than women and responded slower to angry but not happy faces. The P3/LPP was larger in healthy controls than in individuals with BPD, and larger in women than in men; moreover, women but not men produced enlarged P3/LPP responses to angry vs. happy faces. Sex did not interact with behavioral or P3/LPP-related differences between healthy controls and individuals with BPD. Together, BPD-related alterations in behavioral and P3/LPP correlates of emotional face processing exist in both men and women, supposedly without sex-related interactions. Results point to a general 'negativity bias' in women. Source modeling is well suited to investigate effects of participant and stimulus characteristics on the P3/LPP generators.

EDITORIAL article Front. Hum. Neurosci., 12 December 2022Sec. Sensory Neuroscience Volume 16 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.1109500

The pattern of ups and downs in a sequence with varying pitch can be heard as a melodic contour. Contrary to single pitch, the neural representation of melodic contour information in the auditory cortex is rarely investigated, and it is not clear whether the processing entails a hemispheric asymmetry. The present magnetoencephalography study assessed the neuromagnetic responses of N = 18 normal-hearing adults to four-note sequences with fixed vs. varying pitch that were presented either monaurally or diotically; data were analyzed using minimum-norm reconstructions. The first note of the sequences elicited prominent transient activity in posterior auditory regions (Planum temporale), especially contralateral to the ear of entry. In contrast, the response to the subsequent notes originated from more anterior areas (Planum polare) and was larger for melodic contours than for fixed pitch sequences, independent from the ear of entry and without hemispheric asymmetry. Together, the results point to a gradient in the early cortical processing of melodic contours, both in spatial and functional terms, where posterior auditory activity reflects the onset of a pitch sequence and anterior activity reflects its subsequent notes, including the difference between sequences with fixed pitch and melodic contours.