Sensory gating of auditory evoked and induced gamma band activity in intracranial recordings

Oscillatory activity in the gamma band range (30–50 Hz) and its functional relation to auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) is yet poorly understood. In the current study, we capitalized on the advantage of intracranial recordings and studied gamma band activity (GBA) in an auditory sensory gating experiment. Recordings were obtained from the lateral surface of the temporal lobe in 34 epileptic patients undergoing presurgical evaluation. Two kinds of activity were differentiated: evoked (phase locked) and induced (not phase locked) GBA. In 18 patients, an intracranial P50 was observed. At electrodes with maximal P50, evoked GBA occurred with a similar peak latency as the P50. However, the intensities of P50 and evoked GBA were only modestly correlated, suggesting that the intracranial P50 does not represent a subset of evoked GBA. The peak frequency of the intracranial evoked GBA was on average relatively low (∼25 Hz) and is, therefore, probably not equivalent to extracranially recorded GBA which has normally a peak frequency of ∼40 Hz. Induced GBA was detected in 10 subjects, nearly exclusively in the region of the superior temporal lobe. The induced GBA was increased after stimulation for several hundred milliseconds and encompassed frequencies up to 200 Hz. Single-trial analysis revealed that induced GBA occurred in relatively short bursts (mostly ≪100 ms), indicating that the duration of the induced GBA in the averages originates from summation effects. Both types of gamma band activity showed a clear attenuation with stimulus repetition.