Effects of a Manual Response Requirement on Early and Late Correlates of Auditory Awareness

In hearing, two neural correlates of awareness are the auditory awareness negativity (AAN) and the late positivity (LP). These correlates of auditory awareness are typically observed with tasks in which subjects are required to report their awareness with manual responses. Thus, the correlates may be confounded by this manual response requirement. We manipulated the response requirement in a tone detection task (N = 52). Tones were presented at each subject’s individual awareness threshold while high-density electroencephalography (EEG) activity was recorded. In one response condition, subjects pushed a button if they were aware of the tone and withheld responding if they were unaware of the tone. In the other condition, subjects pushed a button if they were unaware of the tone and withheld responding if they were aware of the tone. To capture AAN and LP, difference waves were computed between aware and unaware trials, separately for trials in which responses were required and trials in which responses were not required. Results suggest that AAN and LP are unaffected by the response requirement. These findings imply that in hearing, early and late correlates of awareness are not confounded by a manual response requirement. Furthermore, the results suggest that AAN originates from bilateral auditory cortices, supporting the view that AAN is a neural correlate of localized recurrent processing in early sensory areas.