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M Hoke

Publications and source records attributed to M Hoke.

78 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Relationship of transient and steady-state auditory evoked fields.

Transient and steady-state auditory evoked fields (AEFs) to brief tone pips were recorded over the left hemisphere at 7 different stimulus rates (0.125-39 Hz) using a 37-channel biomagnetometer. Previous observations of transient auditory gamma band response (GBR) activity were replicated. Similar rate characteristics and equivalent dipole locations supported the suggestion that the steady-state response (SSR) at about 40 Hz represents the summation of successive overlapping (10 Hz) middle latency responses (MLRs). On the other hand, differences in equivalent dipole locations and habituation effects suggest that the magnetically recorded GBR is a separate phenomenon which occurs primarily at low stimulus rates and is unrelated to either the magnetically recorded MRL or SSR.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

Tinnitus and event-related activity of the auditory cortex.

A neuromagnetic study in tinnitus patients and normal-hearing controls was performed with a modified contingent negative variation (CNV) paradigm. While the warning stimulus S1 was a tone burst at an intensity well above threshold, the imperative stimulus S2 was presented at a near threshold intensity because, in the majority of cases, the perceived loudness of tinnitus is very close to the threshold for a pure tone of the same frequency. Subjects had to respond to S2 by pressing a button until its offset was detected. In this case, instead of the usual sudden cut-off of the CNV after the perception of S2, a slow negative deflection develops, the post-imperative negative variation (PINV). Its initial portion probably indicates the development of a second initial CNV because the subject had to attend also to the offset of S2. The neuromagnetic data were analysed both in the time domain and in the frequency domain (short-time spectral analysis of the classical EEG bands). The time domain waveform as well as the spectrotemporal patterns of the MEG bands exhibited deviations from the normal pattern in several tinnitus subgroups, depending on the characteristics of tinnitus (tonal vs. noisiform, monaural vs. binaural) and on the stimulation conditions (tinnitus side vs. non-tinnitus side).

Adolescent↗

Frequency-specific threshold determination with the CERAgram method: basic principle and retrospective evaluation of data.

A method for the objective evaluation of the hearing threshold using cortical evoked response audiometry was developed. The method results in a kind of objective audiogram, visualizing the significance of an auditory evoked potential (AEP) in a scheme similar to a conventional audiogram. In the present implementation of the method, four frequencies are tested quasi-simultaneously (500, 1000, 2000 and 3000 Hz; intensity steps of 5 dB). The significance of an evoked potential is assessed by means of the Rayleigh test, which is applied to the phase values derived from certain time windows of the single-trial epochs. A retrospective analysis of 1, 920 threshold estimations in 240 subjects suggested that the detection threshold (lowest stimulus intensity yielding a significant response) was, on the average, 7.5 dB above the electrophysiological threshold (intensity where the AEP amplitude vanishes). The grand-average amplitude-intensity characteristic was approximated by the function a(1 - exp(-I/b)), with a = 6.25 microV, b = 22.3 dB and I representing the intensity (in decibels) relative to the electrophysiological threshold.

Auditory Perception↗

Neurophysiological correlate of the auditory after-image ('Zwicker tone').

The 'Zwicker tone' (ZT) is an auditory after-image that can be evoked most effectively when a band-suppressed noise (relative width of gap 1/3 octave) presented for a certain period of time has been switched off. The sensation of this purely monaural phenomenon is that of a pure tone with a frequency corresponding to the center frequency of the gap and an equivalent level of 10-15 dB above auditory threshold. The sensation decays gradually; it may last as long as 10 s depending on how long the evoking noise was presented. The search for a physiological correlate has been futile so far, probably because the search was confined to more peripheral levels of the auditory system (inferior colliculus). A neuromagnetic study was performed in normal-hearing subjects in order to look for a neurophysiological correlate of the ZT in the auditory cortex. With a stimulation paradigm especially designed for this study, we have been able to isolate poststimulus activity which appears to be related to the ZT and which originates in the supratemporal auditory cortex. It is a sustained neuromagnetic activity that shows a clear-cut dipolar field distribution, and it appears that this activity has certain similarities with the tone-evoked auditory sustained response. The hypothesis is put forward that during the sensation of the ZT a process takes place in the auditory cortex which is similar to that underlying the sustained response, and which gives rise to the sensation of the ZT. In contrast to the sustained response, however, which is due to neural activity evoked by an external acoustic stimulus, the sustained activity associated with the ZT is due to a temporary absolute or relative reduction of neural activity originating from those regions in which the ZT exciting stimulus caused an adaptation. These differences in neural activity cannot be distinguished by the auditory system from a corresponding external acoustic signal. Preliminary studies in patients suffering from tonal tinnitus yielded results which exhibit a certain similarity with those obtained in the ZT experiment.

Acoustic Stimulation↗