Using mismatch negativity to measure auditory temporal resolution thresholds

It has been hypothesized that poor auditory temporal resolution is related to language-learning problems in children as well as problems with speech perception in noise in the elderly. We show that the presence of occasional silent gaps between short tone pips elicits mismatch negativity (MMN) in young adults. We also measured gap-detection thresholds with MMN that agree well with behavioural thresholds. Near threshold, the MMN increases as the gap size increases millisecond by millisecond. The MMN methodology for measuring temporal resolution is not only robust, but can be applied identically across the life span as it does not require the attention of participants or a behavioural response. We are now in a position to examine temporal resolution in infancy.