Abstract\nBackground: In daily life, we are continuously exposed to temporally regular and irregular sounds. Previous studies\nhave demonstrated that the temporal regularity of sound sequences influences neural activity. However, it remains\nunresolved how temporal regularity affects neural activity in noisy environments, when attention of the listener is\nnot focused on the sound input.\nMethods: In the present study, using magnetoencephalography we investigated the effects of temporal regularity\nin sound signal sequencing (regular vs. irregular) in silent versus noisy environments during distracted listening.\nResults: The results demonstrated that temporal regularity differentially affected the auditory-evoked N1m response\ndepending on the background acoustic environment: the N1m amplitudes elicited by the temporally regular\nsounds were smaller in silence and larger in noise than those elicited by the temporally irregular sounds.\nConclusions: Our results indicate that the human auditory system is able to involuntarily utilize temporal regularity\nin sound signals to modulate the neural activity in the auditory cortex in accordance with the surrounding acoustic\nenvironment.
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