Auditory information is initially retained in short auditory storage through the integration system depending on the temporal window of integration (TWI). The MMN to the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) change (22 ms) was recorded to examine whether the TWI was formed by each stimulus onset or not. The stimuli consisted of three 22 ms tone bursts with a 22 ms pause in between. Furthermore, a standard ISI was manipulated in different blocks (66, 88, 110, 132, and 198 ms). If the TWI was formed by each stimulus, the MMN should be elicited even in the condition with longer ISI. As a result, the MMN was elicited by the contraction in ISI, but not by the expansion, in all ISI conditions. These results indicate that the duration of a TWI is variable in different blocks, whereas it is fixed within the block depending on the standard ISI. It is subsequently suggested that the TWI is operated flexibly in short auditory storage.

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This study examined whether an irrelevant probe technique, in which no response was required to probe stimuli, can evaluate the amount of attentional resources allocated to a computer game task. Eight undergraduate students performed a go-kart riding game while electrical probe stimuli were presented on their shoulders so as not to interfere with the game operation. The standard stimuli were presented with a probability of .80 to one shoulder and the deviant stimuli were presented on the other shoulder with a probability of .20. The amplitude of a late positive wave (P300) elicited by the deviant stimuli decreased while participants performed a difficult task compared to when the task was easy. The present study proposes a useful technique to evaluate mental workloads in complex everyday circumstances without interference with input of information and performance.

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A relatively unknown fact is that in Japan, “O” (circle) and “X” (cross) symbolize a “good” and “bad” sign respectively. From when Japanese began understanding symbols, and links between symbols and their meanings have been hyperexperienced in their everyday lives. This study explored whether neural processing of such links in the evaluation of events is characteristic. Two gambling tasks were conducted to investigate this issue by using feedback-related negativity (FRN)--an event-related potential (ERP) component that reflects whether the outcome is good or bad. In the symbol task, we associated “O”/“X” with Gain/Loss (congruent) and Loss/Gain (incongruent). In the graphic task, we used graphics that were neutral in meaning and associated a rhombus/hexagon with Gain/Loss (rhombus gain) and Loss/Gain (hexagon gain). The results showed that the FRN was elicited by "loss" feedback in both tasks and conditions. Moreover, in the congruent condition, the FRN was smaller than that in the other conditions. This suggests that the hyper-experienced link between the symbol and event has an effect on the evaluative processing of the outcome.

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People are sensitive about whether they are accepted by others. Although social exclusion has adverse effects on a person's feelings and behavior, it remains unclear whether a similar response occurs when he or she is not chosen by others in a group to which the person believes that they belong. Here we report an event-related potential (ERP) study on the cognitive processes in response to such a micro-rejection using a simple computerized ball-tossing game called Cyberball. We found that a negative ERP component, feedback error-related negativity (fERN), was elicited around 200 ms after a ball toss when the ball did not come to a participant (micro-rejection) as compared to when the ball came to them (inclusion). As the fERN is known to occur when the event is worse than expected, our findings suggest that not being chosen by others in a group is perceived negatively.

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It has been suggested that positive moods broaden and negative moods narrow the breadth of attention. However, which processing stages are responsible for these effects is still unclear. In this paper, we review previous behavioral and electrophysiological studies that addressed the effect of moods on the breadth of attention. First, we summarize the definition of moods and several procedures of inducing and measuring moods. Second, we describe behavioral studies that examined how positive and negative moods modulate the breadth of attention. Third, we review studies in which event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured to examine the processing stages that were responsible for these effects. Finally, we propose future research directions for understanding the mutual influence process between moods and attention.

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Since the discovery of auditory mismatch negativity (auditory MMN), an event-related brain potential (ERP) component, by Näätänen, Gaillard, & Mäntysalo (1978), there has been a long-lasting debate regarding the existence of its counterparts in other sensory modalities. Recently, several empirical studies confirmed the existence of mismatch negativity in the visual domain (visual MMN) and suggested its association with prediction of visual sensory events. The present paper reviews basic characteristics of visual MMN and prediction-related findings reported from visual MMN studies. Also, possible relationships to other prediction studies and possible roles of visual MMN in the future prediction studies will be discussed.

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