Auditory Selective Attention Research Articles

Attention Effects on Distortion-Product Otoacoustic Emissions with Contralateral Speech Stimuli

This study investigated the effect of selective attention on the distortion-product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) level through the use of environmentally meaningful, contralateral auditory stimuli. Four different conditions were used for measurement: quiet, contralateral noise, contralateral speech (unattended), and contralateral speech (attended). A statistically significant suppression effect for both the noise and speech conditions was found. However, there was no support for an auditory selective attention effect on the distortion-product amplitude.

Event-related potential indices of auditory selective attention in dependent amphetamine users

Background: The aim of the present study was to further investigate a previously reported attention-related impairment in dependent amphetamine users using event-related potential (ERP) indices of selective attention. Methods: ERPs were recorded during an auditory selective attention task (SAT) that involved detecting infrequent long-duration target tones presented among short-duration tones that varied in location (left vs. right ear) and pitch (low vs. high). Amphetamine users ( n = 19) were divided into two groups, high dependence ( n = 10) and low dependence ( n = 10), based on amphetamine Severity of Dependence Scale scores, and compared to an age-matched control group ( n = 9). Results: The high-dependence group showed slowed reaction time and reduced early processing negativity and peak N1 amplitude to location-relevant nontarget stimuli. Poor performance on the SAT was highly correlated with deficits in early processing, which were also related to poor performance on the Wechsler Memory Scale Attention/Concentration index. Conclusions: It is suggested that severely dependent users suffer an inability to selectively enhance the sensory processing of relevant auditory information. This may produce poor automatic preferential processing of relevant information and increase load on limited attentional resources.

The cognitive psychology of auditory distraction: The 1997 BPS Broadbent Lecture

Recent research extending Broadbent's work on selective auditory attention is described through the medium of the irrelevant sound effect (the loss of efficiency when irrelevant sound is played during a serial short‐term memory task). This breakdown of selective attention cannot be explained by interference at encoding, but rather as disruption following some obligatory entry of sound into memory. Within memory, interference does not arise as a result of the conflict between the contents of memory and the irrelevant sound, since neither phonological nor semantic similarity predicts its extent. Instead, the interference seems to be a product of the similarity in process ‐ the degree of seriation ‐ between rehearsal in short‐term memory and the perceptual organization of the irrelevant sound. This type of breakdown in selectivity is likely to have relatively great practical impact, particularly since it is relatively insensitive to loudness and does not appear to diminish with repeated exposure.

Human brain specialization for phonetic attention

The effects of auditory selective attention on event related potentials (ERPs) to speech sounds were examined in subjects attending to vowel-consonant-vowels (VCVs) in one ear while ignoring VCVs in the opposite ear. In one condition, subjects discriminated phonetic changes in the VC, CV, or both formant-transition regions. In another condition, they discriminated equally difficult intensity changes in the same VCV regions. Attention-related negative difference waves showed enhanced early and late components (Nde and Ndl) during phoneme-discrimination conditions. Hemispheric asymmetries developed only during the Ndl and were more pronounced during phoneme discrimination. The results suggest that auditory areas of both hemispheres are specialized for phonetic analysis, with hemispherically specialized mechanisms engaged primarily during the final stages of phoneme processing.

Selective attention is impaired in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—a study of event-related EEG potentials

In humans, selective attention is assumed to be under control of the frontal lobe. A significant proportion of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) shows impairments in various tasks touching frontal lobe function. We, therefore, undertook a study of event-related EEG potentials (ERPs) in eight non-demented ALS patients in order to investigate a possible deficit of auditory selective attention: tones were presented in random sequence to the left or right ear, one of which was to be attended. The negative shift of the ERPs evoked by attended tones in relation to unattended tones (`processing negativity': PN) was smaller in ALS patients than in age-matched healthy control persons. This was true for Fz and Cz and for both a slow and a fast presentation rate of the tones. In the patients, reduced PN amplitude correlated with functional motor impairment. The utility of ERP testing to assess impaired frontal lobe function is shown for the first time in ALS patients. The results of our study fit to recent positron emission tomography (PET) and fMRI data.

Preattentive Control of Serial Auditory Processing in Dichotic Listening

Dichotic listening performance was examined in an auditory selective attention task where subjects responded to occasional consonant-vowel (CV) or shaped broadband noise-burst (NB) targets in rapid serial auditory presentation (RASP). Trial types were randomized and included monaural CVs and NBs as well as dichotic CV-CV and CV-NB pairings. CVs were spoken by two different voices (male and female), and the two NB stimuli differed in their filter slopes at higher frequencies. The target was designated by stimulus category (/ba/, /da/, /ga/, or NB) and voice (e.g., “female /ba/”). Performance was compared for targets in the left and right ears on monaural and dichotic trials using accuracy and reaction time (RT) measures. Right ear advantages (REAs) were present for CV targets with either CV or NB distractors, but not for monaural CVs. The REA found for monaural NB targets was eliminated by CV distractors, yielding a left ear advantage (LEA) for the distractor effect of CVs on NB targets. The pattern of results suggests initial preprocessing of speech stimuli through phonetic feature analysis, followed by serial attentional processing of the objects in the auditory field. REAs are attributed to a rightward asymmetry in the preattentive control of auditory attention similar to that found in visual search.

Mechanisms of perceptual organization and auditory selective attention: The role of pattern structure.

Five experiments were conducted to determine whether unpracticed listeners shift auditory attention in an anticipatory fashion in accordance with the Frequency x Time structure of a rapid sequence of tones. Listeners were presented on each trial with a series of pure tones either ascending or descending in frequency in a predictable manner. In all experiments, judgments were made more quickly and accurately for targets that were inconsistent with pattern structure. Performance was shown to depend on the magnitude of the frequency violation, with better performance for larger violations. Further, the strength of this effect was attenuated when overall pattern predictability was reduced. These results suggest strongly that unpracticed listeners do not automatically allocate attention in accordance with pattern structure. Rather, it appears that a preattentive perceptual process acts to integrate information likely to have arisen from the same source and that this early perceptual processing imposes constraints on selection.

Effects of inter- and intramodal selective attention to non-spatial visual stimuli: an event-related potential analysis

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to trains of rapidly presented auditory and visual stimuli. ERPs in conditions in which subjects attended to different features of visual stimuli were compared with ERPs to the same type of stimuli when subjects attended to different features of auditory stimuli. This design permitted us to study effects of variations in both intramodal and intermodal visual attention on the timing and topography of ERP components in the same experiment. There were no indications that exogenous N110, P140 and N180 components to line gratings of high and low spatial frequencies were modulated by either intra- or intermodal forms of attention. Furthermore, intramodal and intermodal attention effects on ERPs showed similar topographical distributions. These combined findings suggest that the same neural generators in extrastriate occipital areas are involved in both forms of attention. Visual ERPs elicited in the condition in which subjects were engaged in auditory selective attention showed a large positive displacement at the occipital scalp sites relative to ERPs to attended and unattended stimuli in the visual condition. The early onset of this positivity might be associated with a highly confident and early rejection of the irrelevant visual stimuli, when these stimuli are presented among auditory stimuli. In addition, the later onset of selection potentials in the intramodal condition suggests that a more precise stimulus selection is needed when features of visual stimuli are rejected among other features of the same stimulus pattern, than when visual stimuli are rejected among stimuli of another modality.

Role of the primary auditory cortex in auditory selective attention studied by whole-head neuromagnetometer

In order to identify the human cortical areas involved in the auditory attention, neuromagnetic fields were recorded from 12 healthy adults with a 122-channel whole-head magnetometer while the subjects performed the auditory selective attention task. Randomized sequence of 900 Hz ( P=0.9) and 950 Hz ( P=0.1) tones was presented to each ear with random interstimulus intervals across ears ranging from 300 to 500 ms. Subjects were asked to pay attention to the designated ear (attended ear) and to count the number of the 950 Hz tones presented to the attended ear. Twelve sessions were performed for each subject, among which the attended ear was changed alternately in a counterbalanced order among subjects. In seven out of twelve subjects, averaged neuromagnetic fields in response to frequent tones presented to the attended ear showed attention-related deflection over the bilateral temporal areas starting at around 100 ms after the stimulus presentation. Although the dipole moment for N100m in the attended condition showed significant increase compared to that in the non-attended condition, locations of the two equivalent current dipoles in the auditory cortex were not significantly different from each other. Moreover, a simulation study supported the enhancement of N100m rather than participation of additional dipoles in the auditory selective attention task. These results suggest that the primary auditory cortex plays a main role in the auditory selective attention starting as early as 100 ms after the stimulus presentation.

187 Auditory selective attention in comorbid ADHD children

187 Auditory selective attention in comorbid ADHD children

521 Auditory selective attention impairment after a 4-MG single dose of dextrochlorpheniramine in the absence of awareness

521 Auditory selective attention impairment after a 4-MG single dose of dextrochlorpheniramine in the absence of awareness

420 Visual and auditory event related potentials in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

In humans, selective attention is assumed to be under control of the frontal lobe. A significant proportion of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) shows impairments in various tasks touching frontal lobe function. We, therefore, undertook a study of event-related EEG potentials (ERPs) in eight non-demented ALS patients in order to investigate a possible deficit of auditory selective attention: tones were presented in random sequence to the left or right ear, one of which was to be attended. The negative shift of the ERPs evoked by attended tones in relation to unattended tones (`processing negativity': PN) was smaller in ALS patients than in age-matched healthy control persons. This was true for Fz and Cz and for both a slow and a fast presentation rate of the tones. In the patients, reduced PN amplitude correlated with functional motor impairment. The utility of ERP testing to assess impaired frontal lobe function is shown for the first time in ALS patients. The results of our study fit to recent positron emission tomography (PET) and fMRI data.

Inhibitory processes in auditory selective attention: evidence of location-based and frequency-based inhibition of return.

The possibility that there is an inhibitory component to auditory covert orienting was addressed. Each trial consisted of a cue followed by a target, and listeners were required to detect, localize, or identify the frequency of the target. At 150-msec stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), performance was best when stimuli sounded from the same location or were of the same frequency. However, at 750-msec SOA, performance was best when stimuli differed in location or were of different frequencies. These results document the existence of both location-based and frequency-based auditory inhibition of return.

Mechanisms of perceptual organization and auditory selective attention: the role of pattern structure.

Five experiments were conducted to determine whether unpracticed listeners shift auditory attention in an anticipatory fashion in accordance with the Frequency x Time structure of a rapid sequence of tones. Listeners were presented on each trial with a series of pure tones either ascending or descending in frequency in a predictable manner. In all experiments, judgments were made more quickly and accurately for targets that were inconsistent with pattern structure. Performance was shown to depend on the magnitude of the frequency violation, with better performance for larger violations. Further, the strength of this effect was attenuated when overall pattern predictability was reduced. These results suggest strongly that unpracticed listeners do not automatically allocate attention in accordance with pattern structure. Rather, it appears that a preattentive perceptual process acts to integrate information likely to have arisen from the same source and that this early perceptual processing imposes constraints on selection.

Activation of duration-sensitive auditory cortical fields in humans

The influence of stimulus duration on auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) was examined for tones varying randomly in duration, location, and frequency in an auditory selective attention task. Stimulus duration effects were isolated as duration difference waves by subtracting AEPs to short duration tones from AEPs to longer duration tones of identical location, frequency and rise time. This analysis revealed that AEP components generally increased in amplitude and decreased in latency with increments in signal duration, with evidence of longer temporal integration times for lower frequency tones. Different temporal integration functions were seen for different N1 subcomponents. The results suggest that different auditory cortical areas have different temporal integration times, and that these functions vary as a function of tone frequency.

EEG slow waves, auditory (P300) selective attention and catecholamine levels

EEG slow waves, auditory (P300) selective attention and catecholamine levels

The transient 40-Hz response, mismatch negativity, and attentional processes in humans

1. 1. Recent experimental studies on the neurophysiological basis of auditory selective attention and sensory memory forming the sensory-data basis for tuning the selective-attention system in humans are reviewed. 2. 2. The results demonstrate that the transient 40-Hz response is enhanced by selective attention, attenuated in the course of long-term stimulation, but is not affected by changes in auditory stimuli. 3. 3. Therefore, the 40-Hz response seems to be closely related to selective and sustained attention, whereas it does not seem to be associated with passive attention, as it does not reflect the detection of changes in auditory stimuli. 4. 4. Changes in auditory stimulation are registered by pre-attentive sensory memory, indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN), a change-specific component of the event-related potentials (ERPs). By this time, the transient 40-Hz response has already terminated. The magnitude of stimulus change is reflected in MMN latency. These latency changes predict changes in attentive reaction time (RT). 5. 5. Thus, the pre-attentive memory mechanism seems to govern attentive detection of changes in the auditory environment. 6. 6. It is concluded that the transient 40-Hz response is related to active attention and MMN is related to passive attention.

Activation of the temporal area in the auditory selective attention task detected by whole-head magnetometer

Activation of the temporal area in the auditory selective attention task detected by whole-head magnetometer

Selective versus sustained attention: A continuous performance test revisited

The selective-set paradigm has dominated the measurement of visual selective attention in cognitive neuroscience. Previous auditory selective attention tests, the continuous performance tests (CPT), actually measure sustained attention, while auditory filtering paradigms require “bottom-up” perceptual processing. The development of the Auditory Selective Attention Test (ASAT) was based on selective-set theory. An age effect was found in subjects between 19–94 years of age who were over age 60. The probability foils were effective in discriminating impairment in four adult neurological groups (dementia, mild head injury, multiple sclerosis, learning disability). Impairment in discrimination (omission errors) but not response bias suggests that the ASAT requires cognitive search as defined by selective-set theory, which differentiates it from CPT and filtering paradigms. Associations with cognitive complexity and working memory are posited.

Functional Anatomy of Human Auditory Attention Studied with PET

Positron emission tomography was used to investigate the functional anatomy of selective auditory attention in 17 right-handed male volunteers who submitted to different tasks: silent rest (REST), listening to frequent low- or rare high-pitched tones (LIS) delivered randomly to the right or the left ear, selective auditory attention where subjects had to attend to deviants in one ear, right (ATTR) or left (ATTL). Six subjects had the series REST, LIS, ATTR twice, eight subjects the series REST, LIS, ATTL, and the last three subjects the series REST, ATTR, ATTL. Event-related potentials were simultaneously recorded with PET and showed significant task and electrode site effects on the N100 amplitude. When compared to REST, LIS elicited bilateral temporal activations of the Heschl's gyri and theplanum temporale,with a significant rightward asymmetry, and of the posterior part of the superior temporal gyrus. Significant right precentral and anterior cingulate gyri normalized regional cerebral blood flow increases were observed in the frontal lobe. Both the ATTR and the ATTL conditions, compared to LIS, activated the supplementary motor area, bilateral precentral, and left postcentral cortices without any temporal cortex activation. In addition, the ATTL condition resulted in a right prefrontal cortex activation. Pooling the 14 subjects revealed an asymmetry in the superior temporal gyrus favoring the cortex contralateral to the attended ear. Two major networks seem thus to be involved during selective auditory attention: (1) a local temporal network, on which selective attention produces a modulation of the functional lateralization, and (2) a frontal network that could mediate the temporal cortex modulation by attention.