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Evoked potentials of the human cerebral cortex to perceptible and imperceptible sound stimuli

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Abstract

Evoked potentials averaged with the help of an electronic computer (AEP) to brief sound stimuli of subthreshold (3–10 dB below the threshold of the signal's audibility), threshold, and superthreshold (10–60 dB above the threshold) intensity were recorded from the vertex and occipital region of the cranium in healthy people. The dynamics of the changes in the AEP with an increase in the intensity of the sound from subthreshold to superthreshold (60 dB) values was shown. The time and amplitude parameters of AEP to imperceptible and perceptible sound stimuli differed significantly. The most constant, and in many cases the only component of the AEP to an imperceptible stimulus was a long-latent, low-amplitude, slow positive oscillation. The participation of the cerebral cortex in the neural mechanisms of reactions to imperceptible sound stimuli is discussed.

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V. P. Serbskii Central Scientific-Research Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, Moscow. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 115–122, March–April, 1971.

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Kostandov, É.A., D'yachkova, G.I. Evoked potentials of the human cerebral cortex to perceptible and imperceptible sound stimuli. Neurophysiology 3, 85–91 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065608

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065608

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