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Predictive Regularity Representations in Violation Detection and Auditory Stream Segregation: From Conceptual to Computational Models

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Abstract

Predictive accounts of perception have received increasing attention in the past 20 years. Detecting violations of auditory regularities, as reflected by the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) auditory event-related potential, is amongst the phenomena seamlessly fitting this approach. Largely based on the MMN literature, we propose a psychological conceptual framework called the Auditory Event Representation System (AERS), which is based on the assumption that auditory regularity violation detection and the formation of auditory perceptual objects are based on the same predictive regularity representations. Based on this notion, a computational model of auditory stream segregation, called CHAINS, has been developed. In CHAINS, the auditory sensory event representation of each incoming sound is considered for being the continuation of likely combinations of the preceding sounds in the sequence, thus providing alternative interpretations of the auditory input. Detecting repeating patterns allows predicting upcoming sound events, thus providing a test and potential support for the corresponding interpretation. Alternative interpretations continuously compete for perceptual dominance. In this paper, we briefly describe AERS and deduce some general constraints from this conceptual model. We then go on to illustrate how these constraints are computationally specified in CHAINS.

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Notes

  1. These correspond to auditory sensory memory representations of the classical MMN model (e.g. Näätänen 1990). We prefer the term auditory stimulus event representations as a stimulus event is represented.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Lendület project, LP2012-36/2012 to IW), by the Reinhart Koselleck grant of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG, SCH 375/20-1 to ES), by the DFG Cluster of Excellence 1077 “Hearing4all”, by the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdient, DAAD, Project 56265741), and by the Hungarian Scholarship Board (Magyar Ösztöndíj Bizottság, MÖB, Project 39589).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Erich Schröger & Alexandra Bendixen

  2. Auditory Psychophysiology Lab, Department of Psychology, Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4all”, European Medical School, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany

    Alexandra Bendixen

  3. Cognition Institute and School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    Susan L. Denham

  4. MRC Institute of Hearing Research, Nottingham, UK

    Robert W. Mill

  5. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Tamás M. Bőhm & István Winkler

  6. Institute of Psychology, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

    István Winkler

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  1. Erich Schröger
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  2. Alexandra Bendixen
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  3. Susan L. Denham
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  4. Robert W. Mill
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  5. Tamás M. Bőhm
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  6. István Winkler
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Correspondence to Erich Schröger.

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This is one of several papers published together in Brain Topography in the “Special Issue: Mismatch Negativity”.

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Schröger, E., Bendixen, A., Denham, S.L. et al. Predictive Regularity Representations in Violation Detection and Auditory Stream Segregation: From Conceptual to Computational Models. Brain Topogr 27, 565–577 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-013-0334-6

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