(Peter Heil, Heinrich Neubauer)

Reaction times constitute a major tool and source of information in human and animal psychophysics, in cognitive neuroscience, and in the clinic. Subjects are asked to press a response key as fast as possible upon detection or identification of a stimulus. We utilize simple reaction times in humans to study basic mechanisms of auditory pattern recognition, including temporal summation. Subjects are asked to press a piano key (Fig.) upon detection of auditory stimuli presented at irregular intervals via headphones. Stimuli differ, for example in shape of the temporal envelope, duration, and amplitude. Hundreds of reaction times are accumulated for each stimulus and subjects to unequivocal data and enable sophisticated statistical analyses.

Collaborations:
Andreas Tiefenau and Prof. Hellmut von Specht, Institute of Experimental Audiology and Medical Physics, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg

Key publications:

Tiefenau, A., Neubauer, H., von Specht, H. and Heil, P. (2006) Correcting for false alarms in a simple reaction time task. Brain Research 1122:99-115

Heil, P., Neubauer, H., Tiefenau, A., and von Specht, H. (2006) Comparison of absolute thresholds derived from an adaptive forced-choice procedure and from reaction probabilities and reaction times in a simple reaction time paradigm. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 7: 279-298