Event Abstract Back to Event Distractibility and top-down attentional control in children using a cochlear implant Marc R. Kamke1*, Jeanette Van Luyn2 and Jill Harris1, 3 1 The University of Queensland, The Queensland Brain Institute, Australia 2 The University of Queensland, School of Psychology, Australia 3 The University of Queensland, Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre, Sustainable Minerals Institute, Australia Early auditory deprivation induces changes in visual perception, cognition and attention. While such changes in visual perception may act to compensate for a hearing loss, evidence suggests that these changes may also negatively influence adaptation to a cochlear implant. In this study, we investigated whether task demands influence attentional capture by salient visual stimuli in children who use a cochlear implant. Thirteen children with a cochlear implant (aged 8 – 16 years) and age-matched normally hearing children were presented with a rapid sequence of visual and auditory events. The participants’ task was to search for and identify numbers presented in a specified target colour, or to identify a change in the tonal frequency. Prior to each target a visual distractor was presented on one side of the central visual stream. Compared to trials in which the distractor was in a different colour to the target, or rotated on its axis, significant decrements in visual performance were found when the distractor was the same colour as the target. These contingent attentional capture effects did not differ between the groups. There was no difference across the visual distractor types or groups in performance on the auditory task. These results show that attentional capture by salient stimuli in proficient cochlear implant users depends on top-down attentional control settings, as it does in normally hearing children. The results therefore suggest that successful use of a cochlear implant is associated with normal attentional control and distractibility. Acknowledgements This work was supported by a Project Grant from the Garnette Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge the Hear and Say Centre, Auchenflower, Brisbane, Australia for their assistance in recruiting children with a cochlear implant to take part in the study. Keywords: selective attention, contingent capture, cochlear implant, Visual Perception, Hearing Loss Conference: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 29 Nov - 2 Dec, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Attention Citation: Kamke MR, Van Luyn J and Harris J (2012). Distractibility and top-down attentional control in children using a cochlear implant. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2012 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00154 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: 10 Oct 2012; Published Online: 17 Nov 2012. * Correspondence: Dr. Marc R Kamke, The University of Queensland, The Queensland Brain Institute, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia, m.kamke@uq.edu.au 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 Marc R Kamke Jeanette Van Luyn Jill Harris Google Marc R Kamke Jeanette Van Luyn Jill Harris Google Scholar Marc R Kamke Jeanette Van Luyn Jill Harris PubMed Marc R Kamke Jeanette Van Luyn Jill Harris 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.