scholarly journals Causal links between parietal alpha activity and spatial auditory attention

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqi Deng ◽  
Robert M. G. Reinhart ◽  
Inyong Choi ◽  
Barbara Shinn-Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Specific Effect ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
High Definition ◽  
Auditory Spatial Attention

AbstractBoth visual and auditory spatial selective attention result in lateralized alpha (8-14 Hz) oscillatory power in parietal cortex: alpha increases in the hemisphere ipsilateral to attentional focus. Brain stimulation studies suggest a causal relationship between parietal alpha and suppression of the representation of contralateral visual space. However, there is no evidence that parietal alpha controls auditory spatial attention. Here, we performed high definition transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD-tACS) on human subjects performing an auditory task in which they attended either spatial or nonspatial features. Alpha (10 Hz) but not theta (6 Hz) HD-tACS of right parietal cortex interfered with attending left but not right auditory space. Parietal stimulation had no effect for nonspatial auditory attention. Moreover, performance in post-stimulation trials returned rapidly to baseline. These results demonstrate a causal, frequency-, hemispheric-, and task-specific effect of parietal alpha brain stimulation on top-down control of auditory spatial attention.

scholarly journals Causal links between parietal alpha activity and spatial auditory attention

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqi Deng ◽  
Robert MG Reinhart ◽  
Inyong Choi ◽  
Barbara G Shinn-Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Specific Effect ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Auditory Task ◽  
High Definition ◽  
Auditory Spatial Attention

Both visual and auditory spatial selective attention result in lateralized alpha (8–14 Hz) oscillatory power in parietal cortex: alpha increases in the hemisphere ipsilateral to attentional focus. Brain stimulation studies suggest a causal relationship between parietal alpha and suppression of the representation of contralateral visual space. However, there is no evidence that parietal alpha controls auditory spatial attention. Here, we performed high definition transcranial alternating current stimulation (HD-tACS) on human subjects performing an auditory task in which they directed attention based on either spatial or nonspatial features. Alpha (10 Hz) but not theta (6 Hz) HD-tACS of right parietal cortex interfered with attending left but not right auditory space. Parietal stimulation had no effect for nonspatial auditory attention. Moreover, performance in post-stimulation trials returned rapidly to baseline. These results demonstrate a causal, frequency-, hemispheric-, and task-specific effect of parietal alpha brain stimulation on top-down control of auditory spatial attention.

scholarly journals Topographic specificity of alpha power during auditory spatial attention

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqi Deng ◽  
Inyong Choi ◽  
Barbara Shinn-Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Spectral Band ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Target Sequence ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Topographical Distribution ◽  
Subject Specific

AbstractVisual and somatosensory spatial attention both induce parietal alpha (7-14 Hz) oscillations whose topographical distribution depends on the direction of spatial attentional focus. In the auditory domain, contrasts of parietal alpha power for leftward and rightward attention reveal a qualitatively similar lateralization; however, it is not clear whether alpha lateralization changes monotonically with the direction of auditory attention as it does for visual spatial attention. In addition, most previous studies of alpha oscillation did not consider subject-specific differences in alpha frequency, but simply analyzed power in a fixed spectral band. Here, we recorded electroencephalography in human subjects when they directed attention to one of five azimuthal locations. After a cue indicating the direction of an upcoming target sequence of spoken syllables (yet before the target began), alpha power changed in a task specific manner. Subject-specific peak alpha frequencies differed consistently between frontocentral electrodes and parieto-occipital electrodes, suggesting multiple neural generators of task-related alpha. Parieto-occipital alpha increased over the hemisphere ipsilateral to attentional focus compared to the contralateral hemisphere, and changed systematically as the direction of attention shifted from far left to far right. These results showing that parietal alpha lateralization changes smoothly with the direction of auditory attention as in visual spatial attention provide further support to the growing evidence that the frontoparietal attention network is supramodal.

scholarly journals Probing the limits of alpha power lateralization as a neural marker of selective attention in middle-aged and older listeners

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Tune ◽  
Malte Wöstmann ◽  
Jonas Obleser
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Hemispheric Lateralization ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Auditory Spatial Attention ◽  
Neural Marker

AbstractIn recent years, hemispheric lateralization of alpha power has emerged as a neural mechanism thought to underpin spatial attention across sensory modalities. Yet, how healthy aging, beginning in middle adulthood, impacts the modulation of lateralized alpha power supporting auditory attention remains poorly understood. In the current electroencephalography (EEG) study, middle-aged and older adults (N = 29; ~40-70 years) performed a dichotic listening task that simulates a challenging, multi-talker scenario. We examined the extent to which the modulation of 8-12 Hz alpha power would serve as neural marker of listening success across age. With respect to the increase in inter-individual variability with age, we examined an extensive battery of behavioral, perceptual, and neural measures. Similar to findings on younger adults, middle-aged and older listeners′ auditory spatial attention induced robust lateralization of alpha power, which synchronized with the speech rate. Notably, the observed relationship between this alpha lateralization and task performance did not co-vary with age. Instead, task performance was strongly related to an individual’s attentional and working memory capacity. Multivariate analyses revealed a separation of neural and behavioral variables independent of age. Our results suggest that in age-varying samples as the present one, the lateralization of alpha power is neither a sufficient nor necessary neural strategy for an individual’s auditory spatial attention, as higher age might come with increased use of alternative, compensatory mechanisms. Our findings emphasize that explaining inter-individual variability will be key to understanding the role of alpha oscillations in auditory attention in the aging listener.

Parietal Damage and Narrow “Spotlight” Spatial Attention

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne Townsend ◽  
Eric Courchesne
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Clinical Observations ◽  
Sensory Enhancement ◽  
Sensory Responses

Patients with parietal volume loss showed electrophysiological and behavioral signs of abnormally narrow regions of enhancement of sensory stimulation at an attended location. On a test of focused spatial attention, when compared to normal control subjects and patients without parietal abnormality, patients with abnormalities of parietal cortex demonstrated (1) faster button press RTs to targets, (2) earlier P3b event-related potential (ERP) latencies to targets, and (3) larger than normal P1 ERP attention effects (i.e., greater than normal enhancement of sensory responses at an attended location). These data are evidence for visual attention distributed as a spotlight at the attentional focus with little surrounding processing enhancement. This dysfunctional attentional map facilitates simple responses within the attentional beam quite well, but could hinder responses outside the beam. Severely gated sensory responses outside the immediate attentional focus are likely to result in severely delayed responses to information in those locations. This would be consistent with the response delays seen in patients with parietal damage following an incorrect spatial cue (extinction-like pattern), and also with clinical observations of inattention in such patients. The patterns of sensory enhancement seen in these data suggest a mechanism that may underlie the impairments in spatial attention that follow damage to parietal cortex, and help to specify the role of parietal cortex in spatial attention.

Auditory spatial attention gradients and cognitive control as a function of vigilance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J. Golob ◽  
Jeremy T. Nelson ◽  
Jaelle Scheuerman ◽  
Kristen B. Venable ◽  
Jeffrey R. Mock
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Auditory Spatial Attention

scholarly journals Effects of practice on visuo-spatial attention in a wayfinding task

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mai Geisen ◽  
Kyungwan Kim ◽  
Stefanie Klatt ◽  
Otmar Bock
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Recall Test ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Fixation Time ◽  
Dynamic Changes ◽  
Virtual City

AbstractSeveral studies have evaluated the distribution of visuo-spatial attention in a wayfinding task, using gaze direction as an indicator for the locus of attention. We extended that work by evaluating how visuo-spatial attention is modified by wayfinding practice. Young and older participants followed prescribed routes through a virtual city on six trials. Each trial was followed by a route recall test, where participants saw screenshots of intersections encountered, and had to indicate which way to proceed. Behavioral and gaze data were registered in those tests. Wayfinding accuracy increased from trial to trial, more so in young than in older persons. Total gaze time, mean fixation time, and the vertical scatter of fixations decreased from trial to trial, similarly in young and older persons. The horizontal scatter of fixations did not differ between trials and age groups. The incidence of fixations on the subsequently chosen side also did not differ between trials, but it increased in older age. We interpret these findings as evidence that as wayfinding practice increased, participants gradually narrowed their attentional focus to the most relevant screenshot area, processed information within this focus more efficiently, reduced the total time in which attention dwelled on the rejected side of the screenshot, but maintained the total time on the chosen side. These dynamic changes of visuo-spatial attention were comparable in young and older participants. However, it appears that decision-making differed between age groups: older persons’ attention dwelled longer on the chosen side before they made their choice.

scholarly journals Rapid orienting of spatial attention toward and away from aggressive voices

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Burra ◽  
Dirk Kerzel ◽  
David Munoz ◽  
Didier Grandjean ◽  
Leonardo Ceravolo
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Auditory Modality ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Auditory Spatial Attention ◽  
Vocal Signals

Salient vocalizations, especially aggressive voices, are believed to attract attention due to an automatic threat detection system. However, studies assessing the temporal dynamics of auditory spatial attention to aggressive voices are missing. Using event-related potential markers of auditory spatial attention (N2ac and LPCpc), we show that attentional processing of threatening vocal signals is enhanced at two different stages of auditory processing. As early as 200 ms post stimulus onset, attentional orienting/engagement is enhanced for threatening as compared to happy vocal signals. Subsequently, as early as 400 ms post stimulus onset, the reorienting of auditory attention to the center of the screen (or disengagement from the target) is enhanced. This latter effect is consistent with the need to optimize perception by balancing the intake of stimulation from left and right auditory space. Our results extend the scope of theories from the visual to the auditory modality by showing that threatening stimuli also bias early spatial attention in the auditory modality. Although not the focus of the present work, we observed that the attentional enhancement was more pronounced in female than male participants.

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