Mismatch negativity

What is mismatch negativity?

Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an auditory event-related potential that is generated when a stimulus feature deviates from the regularity of previous auditory stimuli. This deviance can be a simple physical characteristic, such as tone duration, intensity, frequency or location; or more abstract presentation characteristics, such as a lower tone in a series of ascending tones. In this way, MMN generation relies on the creation of an auditory (echoic) memory trace for the preceding tones, in order to identify the subsequent deviance. MMN is thought to be an automatic, pre-attentional process and functions as an index of auditory discrimination and echoic memory integrity. MMN is observed as the difference in ERP wave response to the standard stimuli and the deviant stimulus. Larger differences between standard and deviant stimuli and lower probability of deviant occurrence are both associated with larger MMN amplitude.

What is the evidence for mismatch negativity in people with bipolar disorder?

High quality evidence shows a medium-sized effect of reduced MMN amplitude in frontal regions of people with bipolar disorder compared to controls without any psychiatric disorder.

December 2021

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Last updated at: 5:25 pm, 12th December 2021
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