Event Abstract Back to Event Dissociation of facilitatory and inhibitory auditory attention mechanisms after lateral prefrontal lesions in humans Aurélie Bidet-Caulet1*, Kelly G. Buchanan2, Humsini Viswanath2, Jessica Black2, Donatella Scabini2, Frédérique Bonnet-Brilhault3 and Robert T. Knight2, 4 1 Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR 5292, University Lyon 1, France 2 Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, United States 3 UMR INSERM U930, Université François-Rabelais de Tours, CHRU de Tours, France 4 Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley, United States The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) has been shown to be involved in executive control of goal-directed behaviour, including attention. More recently, some studies have provided evidence that selective attention relies on distinct facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms. To better dissociate these facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms, we investigated the role of the LPFC in auditory selective attention. We added to a classic dichotic paradigm a control condition in which attention was equally distributed to all sounds. Participants heard standard and deviant sounds in each ear, and had to detect deviants in the right or left ear, or binaural targets (neutral condition). We recorded scalp EEG signal in 9 patients with unilateral LPFC lesion and 9 matched control subjects. We compared event-related potentials (ERPs) to the same standard sounds when they were attended, ignored or in the neutral condition. In control subjects, we found that ERPs to attended sounds are enhanced from 150 ms to 250 ms relative to the neutral condition; whereas ERPs to ignored sounds are reduced from 250 ms up to 400 ms. Thus, consistent with our previous study in young healthy subjects, facilitatory mechanisms are recruited earlier than inhibitory processes. Moreover, in patients with unilateral LPFC lesions, we observed that the facilitatory component was reduced with the most prominent decreases over the lesioned hemisphere, whereas the inhibitory ERP component was not altered. These results show that the lateral PFC is specifically involved in the control of facilitatory mechanisms and not late inhibitory processes during auditory attention selection, providing evidence that independent facilitatory and inhibitory mechanisms support auditory selective attention. Funding: Supported by NINDS grants NS21135 and PO 40813. Keywords: Attention, EEG Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neurophysiology of Cognition and Attention Citation: Bidet-Caulet A, Buchanan KG, Viswanath H, Black J, Scabini D, Bonnet-Brilhault F and Knight RT (2011). Dissociation of facilitatory and inhibitory auditory attention mechanisms after lateral prefrontal lesions in humans. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00330 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 22 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Aurélie Bidet-Caulet, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR 5292, University Lyon 1, Lyon, France, aurelie.bidet-caulet@inserm.fr Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Aurélie Bidet-Caulet Kelly G Buchanan Humsini Viswanath Jessica Black Donatella Scabini Frédérique Bonnet-Brilhault Robert T Knight Google Aurélie Bidet-Caulet Kelly G Buchanan Humsini Viswanath Jessica Black Donatella Scabini Frédérique Bonnet-Brilhault Robert T Knight Google Scholar Aurélie Bidet-Caulet Kelly G Buchanan Humsini Viswanath Jessica Black Donatella Scabini Frédérique Bonnet-Brilhault Robert T Knight PubMed Aurélie Bidet-Caulet Kelly G Buchanan Humsini Viswanath Jessica Black Donatella Scabini Frédérique Bonnet-Brilhault Robert T Knight Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.