Auditory Selective Attention Research Articles

Object continuity enhances selective auditory attention

In complex scenes, the identity of an auditory object can build up across seconds. Given that attention operates on perceptual objects, this perceptual buildup may alter the efficacy of selective auditory attention over time. Here, we measured identification of a sequence of spoken target digits presented with distracter digits from other directions to investigate the dynamics of selective attention. Performance was better when the target location was fixed rather than changing between digits, even when listeners were cued as much as 1 s in advance about the position of each subsequent digit. Spatial continuity not only avoided well known costs associated with switching the focus of spatial attention, but also produced refinements in the spatial selectivity of attention across time. Continuity of target voice further enhanced this buildup of selective attention. Results suggest that when attention is sustained on one auditory object within a complex scene, attentional selectivity improves over time. Similar effects may come into play when attention is sustained on an object in a complex visual scene, especially in cases where visual object formation requires sustained attention.

An exploration of attentional monitoring of isochronous asynchronous streams in deviant detection and sensorimotor synchronization

Past studies of auditory selective attention focused on location and/or pitch cues in stream segregation. In this study, two perceptually-segregated streams competed for attention in a perceptual-judgment task based on timbre cues and a sensorimotor task (tapping to the sounds of one stream). Both streams shared the same temporal structure (isochronous 100-ms events at 1.67 Hz) but were asynchronous (target-distractor asynchronies of -200, -100, 100, 200 ms), differed in pitch (712 or 1000 Hz) and could share or not their perceived location (diotic vs. dichotic). Deviants were amplitude modulated at 25 or 50 Hz and varied in temporal envelopes. Attentional filtering (distracting stream constant) was done using a discrimination task requiring pressing one of two keys upon hearing one of two deviants (Experiment 1) and a synchronization task requiring selective tapping to the high-pitch or low-pitch sounds (Experiment 3). Attentional monitoring (distracting stream varies) required maintaining attention to the same stream upon hearing slow-modulated deviants and switching attention to the other stream upon hearing the fast-modulated deviants. This was done for the discrimination task (Experiment 2) and synchronization task (Experiment 4). Perceptual and perceptuo-motor results suggest attentional-filtering and attentional-monitoring costs. Surprisingly, the mere presence of a non-concurrent stream in a different frequency band interferes with deviant-discrimination and synchronization-tapping performance.

Neural mechanisms of selective auditory attention are enhanced by computerized training: Electrophysiological evidence from language-impaired and typically developing children

Recent proposals suggest that some interventions designed to improve language skills might also target or train selective attention. The present study examined whether six weeks of high-intensity (100 min/day) training with a computerized intervention program designed to improve language skills would also influence neural mechanisms of selective auditory attention previously shown to be deficient in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Twenty children received computerized training, including 8 children diagnosed with SLI and 12 children with typically developing language. An additional 13 children with typically developing language received no specialized training (NoTx control group) but were tested and retested after a comparable time period to control for maturational and test–retest effects. Before and after training (or a comparable delay period for the NoTx control group), children completed standardized language assessments and an event-related brain potential (ERP) measure of selective auditory attention. Relative to the NoTx control group, children receiving training showed increases in standardized measures of receptive language. In addition, children receiving training showed larger increases in the effects of attention on neural processing following training relative to the NoTx control group. The enhanced effect of attention on neural processing represented a large effect size (Cohen's d = 0.8), and was specific to changes in signal enhancement of attended stimuli. These findings indicate that the neural mechanisms of selective auditory attention, previously shown to be deficient in children with SLI, can be remediated through training and can accompany improvements on standardized measures of language.

The effects of interstimulus interval on event-related indices of attention: An auditory selective attention test of perceptual load theory

ObjectiveWe examined the impact of perceptual load by manipulating interstimulus interval (ISI) in two auditory selective attention studies that varied in the difficulty of the target discrimination. MethodsIn the paradigm, channels were separated by frequency and target/deviant tones were softer in intensity. Three ISI conditions were presented: fast (300ms), medium (600ms) and slow (900ms). Behavioral (accuracy and RT) and electrophysiological measures (Nd, P3b) were observed. ResultsIn both studies, participants evidenced poorer accuracy during the fast ISI condition than the slow suggesting that ISI impacted task difficulty. However, none of the three measures of processing examined, Nd amplitude, P3b amplitude elicited by unattended deviant stimuli, or false alarms to unattended deviants, were impacted by ISI in the manner predicted by perceptual load theory. ConclusionsThe prediction based on perceptual load theory, that there would be more processing of irrelevant stimuli under conditions of low as compared to high perceptual load, was not supported in these auditory studies. SignificanceTask difficulty/perceptual load impacts the processing of irrelevant stimuli in the auditory modality differently than predicted by perceptual load theory, and perhaps differently than in the visual modality.

Multiscale modeling of attention and habituation effects in the tinnitus decompensation

Event Abstract Back to Event Multiscale modeling of attention and habituation effects in the tinnitus decompensation C. Trenado1, Yin Fen Low1*, L. Haab1, W. Delb1, 2 and D.J. Strauss1, 3 1 Saarland University Hospital and Saarland University of Applied Sciences , Germany 2 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Saarland University Hospital, Germany 3 Leibniz-Institute for New Materials, Germany Tinnitus has become one of the most common symptoms affecting people all over the world. Extensive research has been carried out to study the neurophysiological mechanisms that are engaged in the tinnitus decompensation. In particular, many effcorts have been related to selective attention and habituation, which correspondingly play a major part in many of the existing tinnitus therapies. Regardless of an apparently clear interaction between selective attention and the tinnitus decompensation, it is still little knowledge on what are the neurophysiological mechanisms involved in such relation and whether it is possible to provide a neurophysiological framework linking them with respect to large-scale neural correlates of (auditory) selective attention. In relation to the later, we propose a bidirectional bottom-up top-down Multiscale model for large-scale neural correlates of selective attention in the tinnitus decompensation. The results of our simulations are compared with experimental auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) so that hypothesis is validated. Such framework is accordingly linked to tinnitus decompensation neural correlates under the light of a recently proposed synchronization stability measure. In our model, exogenous attention, which acts under mainly the in?uence of external stimuli, takes place on the bottom-up direction. A hybrid dynamic attention exerts its in?uence in the top-down direction. An essential notion in our model is that processing of auditory stimuli is carried out by following the principles of auditory scene analysis (ASA). To be exact, in the bottom-up direction a partition of the sensory input is followed by a top-down schema-driven segregation of the input based on store representations which depend on factors such as experience, knowledge, and possibly emotions. As part of such top–down processing, our selective attention model endows the segregated streams with a ?exible background stochastic weights, which intrinsically re?ect the human biasing of stimuli within the process of selective attention. Focusing on the architectureofour model, the auditory streams corresponding to auditory stimuli are determined and modulated directly by the corticofugal gains and indirectly by the intrathalamic gain. By realizing the proposed methodology, auditory selective attention nerual correlates for single sweeps in an auditory attention paradigm were reproduced. Habituation effects were also intergrated within the framework which shown by the decrease of the mean phase stability measure. We conclude that our model represents a novel unified approach that could give insight into the neurodynamics of auditory selective attention, habituation, and the tinnitus decompensation. Conference: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Attention Citation: Trenado C, Low Y, Haab L, Delb W and Strauss D (2008). Multiscale modeling of attention and habituation effects in the tinnitus decompensation. Conference Abstract: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.110 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: 03 Dec 2008; Published Online: 03 Dec 2008. * Correspondence: Yin Fen Low, Saarland University Hospital and Saarland University of Applied Sciences, Homburg/Saarbruecken, Germany, yinfen@cdb-unit.de 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 C. Trenado Yin Fen Low L. Haab W. Delb D.J. Strauss Google C. Trenado Yin Fen Low L. Haab W. Delb D.J. Strauss Google Scholar C. Trenado Yin Fen Low L. Haab W. Delb D.J. Strauss PubMed C. Trenado Yin Fen Low L. Haab W. Delb D.J. Strauss 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.

Children's event-related potentials of auditory selective attention vary with their socioeconomic status.

Past research suggests a link between socioeconomic status (SES) and brain processes in children, but direct evidence from neuroimaging is scarce. The authors investigated the relationships among SES, performance, and the neural correlates of auditory selective attention, by comparing event-related potentials (ERPs) in lower- and higher-SES preadolescent children during a task in which they attended to two types of pure tones but ignored two other types. Our hypothesis was that, at comparable performance levels, higher-SES children ignore distracters (the unattended, irrelevant tones) while lower-SES children attend equally to distracters and to targets (the attended, relevant tones). The authors found that ERP waveform differences between attended and unattended tones (Nd, difference negativity) were significant in the higher-SES but not in the lower-SES group. However, the groups did not differ in reaction times or accuracy. Electroencephalographic power analysis revealed a differential pattern of theta activity concomitant with irrelevant tones for the two groups, indicating that although they performed similarly the children from these groups recruited different neural processes. Lower-SES children, the authors suggest, deployed supplementary resources to also attend to irrelevant information.

Future for Tinnitus Therapies: Neurofeedback by neural correlates of auditory selective attention

Future for Tinnitus Therapies: Neurofeedback by neural correlates of auditory selective attention

Divergent effects of increased serotonergic activity on psychophysiological parameters of human attention

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are frequently combined to the antipsychotic medication of schizophrenia patients, to treat their depressed, cognitive or negative symptoms. No convincing neurochemical theory exists for this combination. The role of serotonin in those psychophysiological parameters of attention that are already found to be disturbed in schizophrenia, e.g. processing negativity (PN), mismatch negativity (MMN) and P300 amplitude, is poorly understood. In the present study the effects of increased serotonergic activity on these psychophysiological parameters is investigated. In a balanced, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over experiment 18 healthy male volunteers received an oral dose of either placebo or of 10 mg escitalopram (a highly specific SSRI) on two separate test days, after which they were tested in an auditory selective attention paradigm and a MMN paradigm. Escitalopram significantly increased PN and MMN compared to placebo, without affecting the P300 amplitude. Furthermore, administration of escitalopram resulted in a small, yet significant, reduction of task performance in the selective attention paradigm compared to placebo, while it did not affect reaction time. Contrary to what was expected, escitalopram enhanced PN and MMN, without affecting the P300 amplitude. The results are discussed in the light of dosage issues and subtypes of serotonergic receptors.

Evaluation of a technique to measure latency jitter in event-related potentials

Auditory selective attention results in larger event-related potentials (ERPs) than those recorded to unattended stimuli. Larger ERPs arise from either a greater number of neurons being stimulated or the same number of neurons with better synchrony. The synchrony aspect was studied in an attention experiment recording the N1 response and showed that the latency jitter was significantly less ( p = 0.002) for the responses to attended stimuli compared with those to unattended stimuli. Here the improved technique to measure latency jitter is the focus of study. Simulated responses were used to evaluate the technique's performance at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and compare it to the standard technique. Checks that the technique had performed satisfactorily in each case were achieved and a measure of reliability for each result was developed. The parameters defining the technique were varied and the optimum values chosen. This new technique opens the way for researchers to investigate the latency properties of lower SNR ERPs and gives a new insight into auditory selective attention.

Selective attention increases both gain and feature selectivity of the human auditory cortex.

BackgroundAn experienced car mechanic can often deduce what's wrong with a car by carefully listening to the sound of the ailing engine, despite the presence of multiple sources of noise. Indeed, the ability to select task-relevant sounds for awareness, whilst ignoring irrelevant ones, constitutes one of the most fundamental of human faculties, but the underlying neural mechanisms have remained elusive. While most of the literature explains the neural basis of selective attention by means of an increase in neural gain, a number of papers propose enhancement in neural selectivity as an alternative or a complementary mechanism.Methodology/Principal FindingsHere, to address the question whether pure gain increase alone can explain auditory selective attention in humans, we quantified the auditory cortex frequency selectivity in 20 healthy subjects by masking 1000-Hz tones by continuous noise masker with parametrically varying frequency notches around the tone frequency (i.e., a notched-noise masker). The task of the subjects was, in different conditions, to selectively attend to either occasionally occurring slight increments in tone frequency (1020 Hz), tones of slightly longer duration, or ignore the sounds. In line with previous studies, in the ignore condition, the global field power (GFP) of event-related brain responses at 100 ms from the stimulus onset to the 1000-Hz tones was suppressed as a function of the narrowing of the notch width. During the selective attention conditions, the suppressant effect of the noise notch width on GFP was decreased, but as a function significantly different from a multiplicative one expected on the basis of simple gain model of selective attention.Conclusions/SignificanceOur results suggest that auditory selective attention in humans cannot be explained by a gain model, where only the neural activity level is increased, but rather that selective attention additionally enhances auditory cortex frequency selectivity.

The influence of attention deficits on functional recovery post stroke during the first 12 months after discharge from hospital

Background:Attention deficits have been linked to poor recovery after stroke and may predict outcome. We explored the influence of attention on functional recovery post stroke in the first 12 months...

Effects of Selective Attention on the Electrophysiological Representation of Concurrent Sounds in the Human Auditory Cortex

In noisy environments, we use auditory selective attention to actively ignore distracting sounds and select relevant information, as during a cocktail party to follow one particular conversation. The present electrophysiological study aims at deciphering the spatiotemporal organization of the effect of selective attention on the representation of concurrent sounds in the human auditory cortex. Sound onset asynchrony was manipulated to induce the segregation of two concurrent auditory streams. Each stream consisted of amplitude modulated tones at different carrier and modulation frequencies. Electrophysiological recordings were performed in epileptic patients with pharmacologically resistant partial epilepsy, implanted with depth electrodes in the temporal cortex. Patients were presented with the stimuli while they either performed an auditory distracting task or actively selected one of the two concurrent streams. Selective attention was found to affect steady-state responses in the primary auditory cortex, and transient and sustained evoked responses in secondary auditory areas. The results provide new insights on the neural mechanisms of auditory selective attention: stream selection during sound rivalry would be facilitated not only by enhancing the neural representation of relevant sounds, but also by reducing the representation of irrelevant information in the auditory cortex. Finally, they suggest a specialization of the left hemisphere in the attentional selection of fine-grained acoustic information.

Functional sex differences in human primary auditory cortex

BackgroundWe used PET to study cortical activation during auditory stimulation and found sex differences in the human primary auditory cortex (PAC). Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured in 10 male and 10 female volunteers while listening to sounds (music or white noise) and during a baseline (no auditory stimulation).Results and discussionWe found a sex difference in activation of the left and right PAC when comparing music to noise. The PAC was more activated by music than by noise in both men and women. But this difference between the two stimuli was significantly higher in men than in women. To investigate whether this difference could be attributed to either music or noise, we compared both stimuli with the baseline and revealed that noise gave a significantly higher activation in the female PAC than in the male PAC. Moreover, the male group showed a deactivation in the right prefrontal cortex when comparing noise to the baseline, which was not present in the female group. Interestingly, the auditory and prefrontal regions are anatomically and functionally linked and the prefrontal cortex is known to be engaged in auditory tasks that involve sustained or selective auditory attention. Thus we hypothesize that differences in attention result in a different deactivation of the right prefrontal cortex, which in turn modulates the activation of the PAC and thus explains the sex differences found in the activation of the PAC.ConclusionOur results suggest that sex is an important factor in auditory brain studies.

Behavioral and electrophysiological effects of distractor variation on auditory selective attention

Two experiments investigated the effects on auditory selection of varying distractor values in memory. Participants performed a set of control (single distractor) and distractor-variation (multiple distractors) tasks, classifying targets by pitch (Experiments 1A and 2) or loudness (Experiment 1B) while ignoring previously presented (and spatially separate) distractors. When both targets and distractors varied in pitch, the degree of variation among the distractors increasingly disrupted classification accuracy and reaction time to the targets. Physiologically, the degree of distractor variation boosted the N1 response to distractors, the P2 response to both targets and distractors, and the slow-wave response to targets (400–600 ms after stimulus onset). The results suggest that target representations are diminished in distinctiveness as distractors activate a wider range of the task-relevant continuum in working memory.

Temperamental contributions to children’s performance in an emotion-word processing task: A behavioral and electrophysiological study

Seven-year-old children ( N = 65) participating in a study of the influence of infant temperament on socioemotional development performed an auditory selective attention task involving words that varied in both affective (positive vs. negative) and social (social vs. nonsocial) content. Parent report of contemporaneous child temperament was also collected, and individual differences in self-regulation in the affective (soothability) and cognitive (attentional control) domains were noted. Overall, children showed slower responses to stimuli that were either social or negative in content, with the largest effect elicited by words that possessed both traits. Children rated high in soothability and attentional control showed slower responses to social negative words. The other children showed little to no differential response patterns across the word categories. ERPs collected during the task indicated that processing differences were evident in the later more cognitive components of the ERP, especially in children low in attentional control. These findings indicate that performance on an auditory selective attention task can assist in identifying underlying patterns of affective processing.

Development of auditory selective attention: Event‐related potential measures of channel selection and target detection

In this study, we examined developmental changes in auditory selective attention using both electrophysiological (Nd, P3b) and behavioral measures while two groups of children (9- and 12-year-olds) and adults were engaged in a two-channel selective attention task. Channel was determined by frequency (1000 or 2000 Hz). Targets in one condition were shorter than the standards (duration target) and in the other were softer (intensity target). We found that the Nd onset and peak latencies for the children were significantly longer than for the adults. Nd amplitude, however, did not differ between the groups. Further, all groups evidenced P3b to attended targets but not to unattended deviants. Hits, reaction times, and false alarms to unattended deviants continued to evidence improvements through adolescence. Taken together, our data are most consistent with a model of developmental improvement in the speed and efficiency of attention allocation.

Atenção seletiva: PSI em crianças com distúrbio de aprendizagem

A atenção seletiva é importante para o aprendizado da leitura e escrita. OBJETIVO: Estudar os processos de atenção seletiva de crianças com e sem distúrbio de aprendizagem. MATERIAL E MÉTODO: O Grupo I foi constituído de quarenta indivíduos com idades entre nove anos e seis meses a dez anos e 11 meses, que apresentavam baixo risco para alteração no desenvolvimento das habilidades auditivas, linguagem e aprendizagem. O Grupo II foi constituído de 20 indivíduos com idades entre nove anos e cinco meses a 11 anos e dez meses, diagnosticados como portadores de distúrbio de aprendizagem. Foi realizado estudo prospectivo através do Teste Pediátrico de Inteligibilidade de Fala (PSI). RESULTADO: O teste PSI com mensagem competitiva ipsilateral, à orelha direita, na relação fala/ruído 0 e -10 foi apropriado para diferenciar o Grupo I e o Grupo II de forma estatisticamente significante. Atenção ao desempenho do Grupo II na performance da primeira orelha testada deve ser dada, por subsidiar características importantes de desempenho e reabilitação. CONCLUSÃO: O PSI foi adequado para diferenciar os grupos, havendo uma associação com o grupo com distúrbio de aprendizagem, que revelou alteração nos processos de atenção seletiva.

Selective attention - psi performance in children with learning disabilities

SummarySelective attention is essential for learning how to write and read. Aim: The objective of this study was to examine the process of selective auditory attention in children with learning disabilities. Material and Method: Group I included forty subjects aged between 9 years and six months and 10 years and eleven months, who had a low risk of altered hearing, language and learning development. Group II included 20 subjects aged between 9 years and five months and 11 years and ten months, who presented learning disabilities. A prospective study was done using the Pediatric Speech Intelligibility Test (PSI). Result: Right ear PSI with an ipsilateral competing message at speech/noise ratios of 0 and -10 was sufficient to differentiate Group I and Group II. Special attention should be given to the performance of Group II on the first tested ear, which may substantiate important signs of improvements in performance and rehabilitation. Conclusion: The PSI - MCI of the right ear at speech/noise ratios of 0 and -10 was appropriate to differentiate Groups I and II. There was an association with the group that presented learning disabilities: this group showed problems in selective attention.

Mechanisms of auditory selective attention

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).

Auditory measures of selective and divided attention in young and older adults using single-talker competition

In this study, two experiments were conducted on auditory selective and divided attention in which the listening task involved the identification of words in sentences spoken by one talker while a second talker produced a very similar competing sentence. Ten young normal-hearing (YNH) and 13 elderly hearing-impaired (EHI) listeners participated in each experiment. The type of attention cue used was the main difference between experiments. Across both experiments, several consistent trends were observed. First, in eight of the nine divided-attention tasks across both experiments, the EHI subjects performed significantly worse than the YNH subjects. By comparison, significant differences in performance between age groups were only observed on three of the nine selective-attention tasks. Finally, there were consistent individual differences in performance across both experiments. Correlational analyses performed on the data from the 13 older adults suggested that the individual differences in performance were associated with individual differences in memory (digit span). Among the elderly, differences in age or differences in hearing loss did not contribute to the individual differences observed in either experiment.