Sixth Conference on Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and its Clinical and Scientific Application

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The mismatch negativity is an electrical brain response that is recorded using electrodes placed on a person's scalp. These brain responses are the consequence of neural activity related to processing stimuli or events. A response referred to as the "mismatch negativity" is often used to evaluate brain responses to a sound change within the context of an ongoing background sound pattern. With support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Valerie Shafer, of the City University of New York, in collaboration with Dr. Elyse Sussman, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is leading a four-day conference to bring together a diverse group of scientists, clinicians, postdoctoral fellows, and students who use, or who are interested in using, the mismatch negativity brain response to sounds such as speech and music. They are interested in such fundamental questions as, to what extent does perception of speech differ from perception of non-speech sounds? How do people use environmental sounds to identify and localize objects? And how do people separate multiple sounds into different objects (e.g., a trumpet and a saxophone in music)? Mismatch negativity research is revealing how the properties of the sounds (e.g., pitch or timbre) compared to what a listener does with the sounds (e.g., pays attention to or ignores them) influence perception of sound objects. Research problems also include sound processing by individuals with clinical conditions, such as dyslexia, schizophrenia, autism, and coma. Work with clinical populations assists in understanding normal auditory functioning. For example, a longstanding question concerns the relationship between auditory processing and language learning, an issue that can be addressed by studying perception in individuals with hearing losses. Other areas being discussed include questions about how people learn sound patterns early in life compared to later in life (e.g., in second-language learning), and the extent to which plasticity for learning changes across the lifespan. This forum allows attendees, including students, to exchange ideas and foster collaborations, and to discuss and share recent research advances in using this brain response as a tool for scientific investigation. The conference comprises nine symposia, six keynote addresses,140 poster presentations, and workshops for professional skill development. The Conference on Mismatch Negativity serves as a forum for building a community of researchers with interests in how our brains work in directing how we interpret the sounds that we hear. This is the first time that the conference is being held in the United States, and a major goal is to increase the involvement of US researchers in this community. Bringing together this community of scientists has potentially broad consequences for advancing scientific theories of how we hear and interpret language, music, and environmental sounds. Research on clinical disorders that may be partially caused by or may have an impact on how we hear and interpret sound will also serve to refine theories of how brain mechanisms underpin normal processing. Through the workshops and the web blog, the conference provides training and encouragement for students and young researchers to engage in this area of important research. Publication of a special issue containing invited contributions that focus on neurodevelopment of auditory processing will make conference content available to a wider audience.