Trejo, L. J., Ryan-Jones, D. L., & Kramer, A. F.

We examined the auentional ensitivity of the frequency-change mismatch negativity (MMN). Subjects listened to a binaural mixture of a narrative and a series of tone bursts that included 1200-Hz tandards and two deviants (1000 and 1400Hz). In the attend-tones condition , subjects responded to one deviant and ignored the narrative. In the attend-words condition, subjects responded to target words in the narrative and ignored the tones. Eventrelated potentials (ERPs) were recorded for the tones, and difference waves (deviant ERPs minus standard ERPs) were computed. Two negative peaks in the difference waves, DNI (100- 180 ms) and DN2 (200-300 ms), overlapped the known scalp distribution and latency of the MMN. Mean DNl and DN2 amplitudes were greater in the attend-tones condition than in the attend-words condition . These data uggest that the frequency-change MMN is modulated by nonspatial shifts of auditory attention.