Modulation of pre-attentive spectro-temporal feature processing in the human auditory system by HD-tDCS

Abstract

The present study examined the functional lateralization of the human auditory cortex (AC) for pre-attentive spectro-temporal feature processing. By using high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS), we systematically modulated neuronal activity of the bilateral AC. We assessed the influence of anodal and cathodal HD-tDCS delivered over the left or right AC on auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) in response to temporal as well as spectral deviants in 12 healthy subjects. The results showed that MMN to temporal deviants was significantly enhanced by anodal HD-tDCS applied over the left AC only. Our data indicate a left hemispheric dominance for the pre-attentive processing of low-level temporal information.