The contribution of selective spatial attention to sound detection and sound localization: Evidence from event-related potentials and lateralized alpha oscillations

Biological Psychology
Laura-Isabelle KlattDaniel Schneider

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.

Citations

Jan 2, 2021·Brain Research·Lidia B ShestopalovaNikolay I Nikitin
Nov 25, 2019·NeuroImage·Yuqi DengBarbara Shinn-Cunningham
May 25, 2020·NeuroImage·Jacqueline ZimmermannClaude Alain

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