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

不匹配负波是一种大脑的电反应，它是用放置在人头皮上的电极记录下来的。这些大脑反应是与处理刺激或事件相关的神经活动的结果。一种被称为“失配负性”的反应经常被用来评估大脑对正在进行的背景声音模式中的声音变化的反应。在国家科学基金会的支持下，纽约城市大学的Valerie Shafer博士与阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦医学院的Elyse Sussman博士合作，领导了一个为期四天的会议，将不同群体的科学家、临床医生、博士后研究员和使用或有兴趣使用不匹配的负面大脑对语音和音乐等声音反应的学生聚集在一起。他们对这样的基本问题感兴趣，比如，对语言的感知与对非语言声音的感知有多大的不同？人们如何使用环境声音来识别和定位物体？以及人们如何将多种声音分成不同的对象(例如，音乐中的小号和萨克斯管)？失配负性研究揭示了声音的特性(例如，音高或音色)与听者对声音的处理(例如，注意或忽略它们)相比如何影响对声音对象的感知。研究问题还包括有临床症状的个人的声音处理，如诵读困难、精神分裂症、自闭症和昏迷。与临床人群的合作有助于了解正常的听觉功能。例如，一个由来已久的问题涉及听觉处理和语言学习之间的关系，这个问题可以通过研究听力损失患者的知觉来解决。讨论的其他领域包括人们在生命早期(例如，在第二语言学习中)是如何学习声音模式的，以及学习的可塑性在一生中发生了多大的变化。这个论坛允许与会者，包括学生，交流想法和促进合作，并讨论和分享将这种大脑反应作为科学研究工具的最新研究进展。会议包括9个研讨会、6个主旨演讲、140个海报演示和专业技能发展工作坊。负向失配会议是一个论坛，用来建立一个研究人员社区，他们对我们的大脑如何工作来指导我们如何解释我们听到的声音感兴趣。这是该会议首次在美国举行，一个主要目标是增加美国研究人员在这个社区的参与。将这个科学家社区聚集在一起，可能会对推进我们如何听到和解释语言、音乐和环境声音的科学理论产生广泛的影响。对临床疾病的研究可能部分由我们听到和解释声音的方式引起或可能对其产生影响，这也将有助于完善大脑机制如何支撑正常处理的理论。通过研讨会和网络博客，会议为学生和青年研究人员提供了从事这一重要研究领域的培训和鼓励。出版一期特刊，其中载有侧重于听觉处理的神经发育的特邀稿件，将使更广泛的受众能够获得会议内容。

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.