Xu Haoxuan, Huang Qianyue, Song Peirun, Chen Yanxin, Li Qiuyu, Zhai Yuying, Du Xinyu, Ye Hangting, Bao Xuehui, Mehmood Ishrat, Tanigawa Hisashi, Niu Wanqiu, Tu Zhiyi, Chen Pei, Zhang Tingting, Zhang Lingling, Zhao Xuan, Zhang Li, Wen Wanshun, Cao Liyu, Yu Xiongjie
Department of Anesthesia, Women's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Therapy for Major Gynecological Diseases, Women's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China.
Commun Biol. 2025 Jul 26;8(1):1109. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-08540-8.
Temporal integration, the process by which the auditory system combines sound information over a certain period to form a coherent auditory experience, is essential for auditory perception, yet its neural mechanisms remain underexplored. We use a "transitional click train" paradigm, which concatenates two click trains with slightly differing inter-click intervals (ICIs), to investigate temporal integration in the human brain. Using a 64-channel electroencephalogram (EEG), we recorded responses from healthy participants exposed to regular and irregular transitional click trains and conducted change detection tasks. Regular transitional click trains elicited significant change responses in the human brain, indicative of temporal integration, whereas irregular trains did not. These neural responses were modulated by length, contrast, and regularity of ICIs. Behavioral data mirrored EEG findings, showing enhanced detection for regular conditions compared to irregular conditions and pure tones. Furthermore, variations in change responses were associated with decision-making processes. Temporal continuity was critical, as introducing gaps between click trains diminished both behavioral and neural responses. In clinical assessments, 22 coma patients exhibited diminished or absent change responses, effectively distinguishing them from healthy individuals. Our findings identify distinct neural markers of temporal integration and highlight the potential of transitional click trains for clinical diagnostics.
时间整合是听觉系统在一定时期内组合声音信息以形成连贯听觉体验的过程，对听觉感知至关重要，但其神经机制仍未得到充分探索。我们使用一种“过渡性点击序列”范式，该范式将两个具有略微不同点击间隔（ICI）的点击序列连接起来，以研究人类大脑中的时间整合。我们使用64通道脑电图（EEG）记录了暴露于规则和不规则过渡性点击序列的健康参与者的反应，并进行了变化检测任务。规则的过渡性点击序列在人类大脑中引发了显著的变化反应，表明存在时间整合，而不规则序列则没有。这些神经反应受到ICI的长度、对比度和规则性的调节。行为数据反映了脑电图的结果，表明与不规则条件和纯音相比，规则条件下的检测能力增强。此外，变化反应的差异与决策过程有关。时间连续性至关重要，因为在点击序列之间引入间隙会减少行为和神经反应。在临床评估中，22名昏迷患者表现出变化反应减弱或缺失，这有效地将他们与健康个体区分开来。我们的研究结果确定了时间整合的独特神经标志物，并突出了过渡性点击序列在临床诊断中的潜力。
