The detection of sensory change is important for survival. A change-detection system requires a comparison with the past status. Therefore, the system does not only rely on the peripheral stimulus but also reflects the magnitude of deviance between a past sensory status and new sensory inputs and the accumulation of sensory history prior to the change. In this review, recent progress made in the study of human change-detection systems using electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography has been described. We have also discussed the possibility that an activity consistent with the simple onset paradigm, which has been used in many studies, may be involved in the change-detection system. As change-detection-related activity represents a preattentive automatic process with good reproducibility, it may be considered useful for clinical assessment.
