Examining the Central Auditory Processing Using a Multi-Feature ERP Paradigm to Phonetic, Prosodic and Acoustic Features

Previous studies have shown that multi-feature paradigms can be used for the investigation of the central auditory processing. In this study, we developed a speech multi-feature paradigm with phonetic, prosodic, and acoustic changes. Our aim was to examine the participants’ involuntary discrimination of the changes of speech sound features while they were watching a movie without any sound or subtitles. All five deviant conditions (vowel, consonant, stress, intensity, frequency) elicited statistically significant MMN ERP responses which varied in amplitude depending on the condition; stress was also connected with the occurrence of the LDN component. With vowel, consonant and stress among the conditions that received the most statistically significant ERPs, we could suggest that the current multi-feature paradigm can be used to successfully elicit the MMN ERP component and potentially to assess phonological processing in children and adults.