Enhanced Neural Responses to Self-Name Stimuli Relative to Tone and Reversed Speech Deviants in the Auditory Oddball Paradigm
Preprints.org April 10, 2026 Fang Duan, Xiongping Cao, Zheng Yan et al. preprint
An auditory oddball paradigm that uses a participant's own name as a deviant stimulus produces stronger and more distinct neural responses than deviant stimuli that are a pure tone or reversed speech. Electroencephalography recordings from 38 participants showed that the self-name condition elicited a P300 amplitude of 3.95 μV and a mismatch negativity of -6.39 μV. Source reconstruction revealed that the self-name condition activated 12 significant clusters in a distributed salience–self network (including the insula and posterior cingulate cortex), whereas the tone and reversed-speech conditions activated 7 and 6 clusters, respectively, mainly in auditory and fronto-cingulate cortices. Classification analysis achieved roughly 80% accuracy for the self-name condition, indicating greater neural separability and robustness to individual differences.