NEUROMAGNETIC MISMATCH FIELDS TO SINGLE AND PAIRED TONES

In 8 subjects we recorded multichannel magnetic responses to pitch changes in single 50 msec tones and in tone pairs (oddball paradigm; interstimulus interval 745 msec). Either "A" (1 kHz) was standard (90%) and "B" (1.2 kHz) deviant (10%), or "AA" was standard and "AB" deviant in pairs with onset asynchrony of 75 msec. Subject did not pay attention to the tones. A mismatch field (MMF) was evident in responses to deviants with an equivalent source in the supratemporal auditory cortex, about 1 cm anterior to that for N100m. The MM source was 3-fold stronger for tone pairs than for single tones.