Distractor-induced deafness: The effect of multiple auditory distractors on conscious target processing

Cortex ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 134 ◽  
pp. 181-194
Author(s):  
Lea Kern ◽  
Michael Niedeggen
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Distractors

scholarly journals The Strength of the Medial Olivocochlear Reflex in Chinchillas Is Associated With Delayed Response Performance in a Visual Discrimination Task With Vocalizations as Distractors

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Vicencio-Jimenez ◽  
Giuliana Bucci-Mansilla ◽  
Macarena Bowen ◽  
Gonzalo Terreros ◽  
David Morales-Zepeda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Visual Discrimination Task ◽  
Medial Olivocochlear ◽  
Stimulus Offset ◽  
Auditory Distractors ◽  
Delayed Responses

The ability to perceive the world is not merely a passive process but depends on sensorimotor loops and interactions that guide and actively bias our sensory systems. Understanding which and how cognitive processes participate in this active sensing is still an open question. In this context, the auditory system presents itself as an attractive model for this purpose as it features an efferent control network that projects from the cortex to subcortical nuclei and even to the sensory epithelium itself. This efferent system can regulate the cochlear amplifier sensitivity through medial olivocochlear (MOC) neurons located in the brainstem. The ability to suppress irrelevant sounds during selective attention to visual stimuli is one of the functions that have been attributed to this system. MOC neurons are also directly activated by sounds through a brainstem reflex circuit, a response linked to the ability to suppress auditory stimuli during visual attention. Human studies have suggested that MOC neurons are also recruited by other cognitive functions, such as working memory and predictability. The aim of this research was to explore whether cognitive processes related to delayed responses in a visual discrimination task were associated with MOC function. In this behavioral condition, chinchillas held their responses for more than 2.5 s after visual stimulus offset, with and without auditory distractors, and the accuracy of these responses was correlated with the magnitude of the MOC reflex. We found that the animals’ performance decreased in presence of auditory distractors and that the results observed in MOC reflex could predict this performance. The individual MOC strength correlated with behavioral performance during delayed responses with auditory distractors, but not without them. These results in chinchillas, suggest that MOC neurons are also recruited by other cognitive functions, such as working memory.

scholarly journals The olivocochlear reflex strength in awake chinchillas is relevant for behavioural performance during visual selective attention with auditory distractors

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Macarena Bowen ◽  
Gonzalo Terreros ◽  
Felipe N. Moreno-Gómez ◽  
Macarena Ipinza ◽  
Sergio Vicencio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Broad Band ◽  
Visual Selective Attention ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Distortion Product ◽  
Band Noise ◽  
Behavioural Performance ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Auditory Distractors

Abstract The auditory efferent system comprises descending projections from the cerebral cortex to subcortical nuclei, reaching the cochlear receptor through olivocochlear fibres. One of the functions attributed to this corticofugal system is to suppress irrelevant sounds during selective attention to visual stimuli. Medial olivocochlear neurons can also be activated by sounds through a brainstem reflex circuit. Whether the individual variability of this reflex is related to the cognitive capacity to suppress auditory stimuli is still controversial. Here we propose that the individual strength per animal of the olivocochlear reflex is correlated with the ability to suppress auditory distractors during visual attention in awake chinchillas. The olivocochlear reflex was elicited with a contralateral broad-band noise at ~ 60 dB and ipsilateral distortion product otoacoustic emissions were obtained at different frequencies (1–8 kHz). Fourteen chinchillas were evaluated in a behavioural protocol of visual attention with broad-band noise and chinchilla vocalizations as auditory distractors. Results show that the behavioural performance was affected by both distractors and that the magnitudes of the olivocochlear reflex evaluated at multiple frequencies were relevant for behavioural performance during visual discrimination with auditory distractors. These results stress the ecological relevance of the olivocochlear system for suppressing natural distractors.

Behavioral Distraction by Auditory Deviance Is Mediated by the Sound’s Informational Value *Li and Parmentier share the first authorship of this study.

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 260-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biqin Li ◽  
Fabrice B.R. Parmentier ◽  
Ming Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Information ◽  
Target Information ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Oddball Task ◽  
Event Information ◽  
Information Event ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
First Time ◽  
Auditory Oddball Task ◽  
Auditory Distractors

Sounds deviating from an otherwise repetitive background in some task-irrelevant respect (deviant sounds among standard sounds) capture attention in an obligatory fashion and result in behavioral distraction in an ongoing task. Traditionally, such distraction has been considered as the ineluctable consequence of the deviant sound’s low probability of occurrence relative to that of the standard. Recent evidence from a cross-modal oddball task challenged this idea by showing that deviant sounds only yield distraction in a visual task when auditory distractors (standards and deviants) announce with certainty the imminent presentation of a target stimulus (event information), regardless of whether they predict the target’s temporal onset (temporal information). The present study sought to test for the first time whether this finding may be generalized to a purely auditory oddball task in which distractor and target information form part of the same perceptual stimulus. Participants were asked to judge whether a sound starting from a central location moved left or right while ignoring rare and unpredictable changes in the sound’s identity. By manipulating the temporal and probabilistic relationship between sound onset and movement onset, we disentangled the roles of event and temporal information and found that, as in the auditory-visual oddball task, deviance distraction is mediated by the extent to which distractor information harbingers the presentation of the target information (event information). This finding suggests that the provision of event information by auditory distractors is a fundamental prerequisite of behavioral deviance distraction.

Responses to auditory distractors during a class depend on participant’s enjoyment: An eye-tracking and skin conductance study.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-484
Author(s):  
Luana L. Righi ◽  
Gilberto F. Xavier ◽  
Marcus V. C. Baldo ◽  
Hamilton Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Auditory Distractors

scholarly journals The effect of background music and noise on the cognitive test performance of Chinese introverts and extraverts

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siyi Kou ◽  
Alastair McClelland ◽  
Adrian Furnham
Keyword(s):  
Test Performance ◽  
Cognitive Test ◽  
Background Music ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Partial Replication ◽  
Noisy Environments ◽  
Distraction Condition ◽  
Cognitive Test Performance ◽  
Auditory Distractors

Previous research has shown that background auditory distractors (music and sound/noise) have a more severe impact on introverts’ performances on complex cognitive tasks than extraverts (Dobbs, Furnham, & McClelland, 2011). The present study is a partial replication of Dobbs et al., but involving Chinese rather than English participants. Ninety-two Chinese participants (59 female) carried out three cognitive tasks with the presence of Chinese pop songs, background office noise, and silence. The results did not reveal any differences in performance as a function of the distraction condition, nor was there a difference in performance between extraverts and introverts. The failure to replicate is explained in terms of habituation to noisy environments among Chinese participants.

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