Wavelet Decomposition-Based Analysis of Mismatch Negativity Elicited by a Multi-Feature Paradigm

In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) collected from normally hearing subjects and elicited by a multi-feature paradigm were investigated, and mismatch negativity (MMN) was detected. Standard stimuli and five types of deviant stimuli were presented in a specified sequence, while EEG data were recorded digitally at a 1024 sec(-1) sampling rate. Two wavelet analyses were compared with a traditional difference-wave (DW) method. The Reverse biorthogonal wavelet ot the order of 6.8 and the quadratic B-Spline wavelet were applied for seven-level decomposition. The sixth-level approximation coefficients were appropriate for extracting the MMN from the averaged trace. The results obtained showed that wavelet decomposition (WLD) methods extract MMN as well as a band-pass digital filter (DF). The differences of the MMN peak latency between deviant types elicited by B-Spline WLD were more significant than those extracted by the DW, DF, or Reverse biorthogonal WLD. Also, wavelet coefficients of the delta-theta range indicated good discrimination between some combinations of the deviant types.