The time course of N1m decline caused by exposure to noise with strong spectral contrasts

Stimulating with a noise with strong spectral contrasts resulted in different responsiveness for two types of test stimuli presented after release of the noise. The magnetoencephalographically recorded N1m response to an auditory stimulus, spectrally corresponding to the stop-bands (SB), was decreased more by the noise than a stimulus corresponding to the pass-band (PB) frequencies of the noise. This effect was explained with lateral inhibition in the auditory cortex. The results give important evidence for a decay of the lateral inhibition effect over several seconds.