Mismatch negativity

The mismatch negativity (MMN) is a change-related brain response described in the field of cognitive neuroscience. It is an auditory event-related potential (ERP) component, which is elicited task-independently by an infrequent change in a repetitive sound sequence. The MMN is elicited in response to violations of simple rules governing the properties of auditory information and is considered to reflect the automatic formation of a short-term neural model of the physical or abstract regularities in the auditory environment. The MMN is a fronto-central negative potential with sources in the primary and non-primary auditory cortex and a latency of 150-250 ms post-stimulus.

The mismatch negativity was first discovered and described by Risto Näätänen and colleagues.

Links

 * Cognitive Brain Research Unit at the University of Helsinki

Mismatch Negativity Негативность рассогласования