Faster gait speeds suppress human auditory electrocortical responses Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • To study the effects of gait speed on human auditory electrocortical processing, we recruited healthy subjects to walk at a range of speeds while identifying contrasting auditory tones. We used an auditory go/no-go task to detect electrocortical responses while recording high density mobile EEG from subjects who were asked to press or not press a handheld button in response to target sounds. To overcome limitations associated with EEG motion artifact contamination at fast gait speeds, we used mobile dual layer EEG hardware and signal processing methods for artifact removal. Dual layer EEG processing allowed us to identify the involvement of sensory, motor, and cognitive cortical processing centers during the task. Activity from left auditory cortex and anterior cingulate cortex showed spectral power synchronizations in delta, theta, and alpha bands immediately following the auditory tone and this activity peaked approximately 160ms later. Left auditory cortex spectral power desynchronizations in alpha and beta bands occurred within approximately 300ms of the tone and lasted for nearly 350ms. At faster gait speeds, auditory electrocortical responses showed limited spectral power fluctuations and reduced ERP component amplitudes, possibly due to motor-related cortical suppression and selective auditory processing with increased sensory feedback.

name of conference

  • 2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC)

published proceedings

  • 2019 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC)

author list (cited authors)

  • A. D. Nordin, .., W. D. Hairston, .., & D. P. Ferris.

citation count

  • 2

complete list of authors

publication date

  • January 2019