Mechanisms of auditory selective attention

Abstract

Recent research on auditory attention addresses three main questions: (1) How early in the processing stream does attention influence the analysis of auditory signals?; (2) are the distinct features of an auditory object processed together or separately?; and (3) how does the attentional system enable task‐relevant information to be analyzed separately from task‐irrelevant information? The three questions are answered here using behavioral and electrophysiological evidence. First, psychophysical evidence suggests that attention operates early, modulating auditory filters (critical bands). Yet, little physiological evidence has been found for attentional effects on a peripheral auditory system. Such evidence suggests instead that the effects of attention are confined mainly to cortical regions outside the primary auditory cortex. Second, information theory and signal‐detection models suggest that auditory dimensions are integral, with features quickly bound into auditory objects. However, physiological evidence reveals that separate auditory features are processed in parallel and exhaustively from the earliest stages. Finally, electrophysiological evidence indicates that auditory selection involves a duality of processes: Excitation of task‐relevant features and inhibition of task‐irrelevant features. The magnitude of selection failure is mainly determined by the degree of psychophysical change in distractors (tectonic theory), rather than their physical similarity to targets (biased competition and attentional‐trace theory).