Abstract
Auditory selective attention can be directed toward spatial and non-spatial stimulus features. Here, we studied electrophysiological correlates of spatial attention under spatially-specific and purely feature-based demands. Using an auditory search paradigm, in which participants performed a target localization (left versus right) and a target detection task (present versus absent), we investigated whether attentional selection of a relevant sound from a two- or four-sound array necessarily involves the processing of spatial sound information. While the early N2 anterior contralateral component occurred irrespective of task, the subsequent lateralization of alpha power oscillations (8–12 Hz) over parieto-occipital scalp was modulated by the task-relevance of spatial information. Thus, the two correlates appear to reflect differential aspects of attentional orienting: We propose that the N2ac reflects an initial, modality-specific focusing of attention onto a lateralized target, while the subsequent alpha lateralization appears associated with the spatiotopic access to presumably supramodal representations of the sound array.
Published Version
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