PREATTENTIVE AUDITORY CHANGE DETECTION RELIES ON UNITARY SENSORY MEMORY REPRESENTATIONS

EVENT-RELATED potentials (ERPs) were recorded to series of frequent (s tandard) and three types of rare (deviant) tones differing from the st andard in frequency, duration, or in both features. All deviants elici ted the mismatch negativity (MMN) ERP component, indexing the deviatio n of a sound from the transient auditory memory trace of the standard. Duration deviance could be detected only after the offset of the dura tion deviant delaying the MMN to this deviant by 70 ms compared with t he MMN of the frequency deviant. The MMN to the double deviant extende d only to the latency range of the frequency MMN, revealing that featu re-MMNs were coordinated by a memory trace integrating the outcome of the various feature analysers.