Visual mismatch negativity to disappearing parts of objects and textures

Abstract

Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN), an event-related signature of automatic detection of events violating sequential regularities is traditionally investigated to the onset of frequent (standard) and rare (deviant) events. In a previous study [4] we obtained vMMN to vanishing parts of continuously presented objects (diamonds with diagonals), and we concluded that the offset-related vMMN is a model of sensitivity to irregular partial occlusion of objects. In the present study we replicated the previous results, but to test the object-related interpretation we applied a new condition with a set of separate visual stimuli: a texture of bars with two orientations. In the texture condition (offset of bars with irregular vs. regular orientation) we obtained vMMN, showing that the continuous presence of objects is unnecessary for offset-related vMMN. However, unlike in the object-related condition, reappearance of the previously vanishing lines also elicited vMMN. In a formal way reappearance of the stimuli is an event with probability 1.0, and according to the results, object condition reappearance is an expected event. However, offset and onset of texture elements seems to be treated separately by the system underlying vMMN. As an advantage of the present method, the whole stimulus set during the inter-stimulus interval saturates the visual structures sensitive to stimulus input. Accordingly, the offset-related vMMN is less sensitive to low-level adaptation difference between the deviant and standard stimuli.