Irrelevant Predictions: Distractor Rhythmicity Modulates Neural Encoding in Auditory Cortex

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.1101/2020.01.27.920728 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Shiri Makov ◽

Elana Zion-Golumbic

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Sensory Response ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Neural Encoding ◽

Attention Task ◽

Baseline Activity ◽

Temporal Predictability ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

Open Question ◽

Predictive Processes

AbstractDynamic Attending Theory suggests that predicting the timing of upcoming sounds can assist in focusing attention towards them. However, whether similar predictive processes are also applied to background noises and assist in guiding attention away from potential distractors, remains an open question. Here we address this question by manipulating the temporal predictability of distractor sounds in a dichotic listening selective attention task. We tested the influence of distractors’ temporal predictability on performance and on the neural encoding of sounds, by comparing the effects of Rhythmic vs. Non-rhythmic distractors. Using Magnetoencephalography (MEG) we found that, indeed, the neural responses to both attended and distractor sounds were affected by distractors’ rhythmicity. Baseline activity preceding the onset of Rhythmic distractor sounds was enhanced relative to Non-rhythmic distractor sounds, and sensory response were suppressed. Moreover, when distractors were Rhythmic, responses to attended sounds were more strongly lateralized to the contra-lateral hemisphere. Behavioral performance also improved in the Rhythmic condition. These combined behavioral and neural results suggest that not only are temporal predictions formed for task-irrelevant sounds, but that these predictions bear functional significance for promoting selective attention and reducing distractibility.

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Irrelevant Predictions: Distractor Rhythmicity Modulates Neural Encoding in Auditory Cortex

Cerebral Cortex ◽

10.1093/cercor/bhaa153 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (11) ◽

pp. 5792-5805 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shiri Makov ◽

Elana Zion Golumbic

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Auditory Cortex ◽

Sensory Response ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Neural Encoding ◽

Attention Task ◽

Baseline Activity ◽

Temporal Predictability ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

Predictive Processes

Abstract Dynamic attending theory suggests that predicting the timing of upcoming sounds can assist in focusing attention toward them. However, whether similar predictive processes are also applied to background noises and assist in guiding attention “away” from potential distractors, remains an open question. Here we address this question by manipulating the temporal predictability of distractor sounds in a dichotic listening selective attention task. We tested the influence of distractors’ temporal predictability on performance and on the neural encoding of sounds, by comparing the effects of Rhythmic versus Nonrhythmic distractors. Using magnetoencephalography we found that, indeed, the neural responses to both attended and distractor sounds were affected by distractors’ rhythmicity. Baseline activity preceding the onset of Rhythmic distractor sounds was enhanced relative to nonrhythmic distractor sounds, and sensory response to them was suppressed. Moreover, detection of nonmasked targets improved when distractors were Rhythmic, an effect accompanied by stronger lateralization of the neural responses to attended sounds to contralateral auditory cortex. These combined behavioral and neural results suggest that not only are temporal predictions formed for task-irrelevant sounds, but that these predictions bear functional significance for promoting selective attention and reducing distractibility.

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Global Effects of Feature-based Attention Depend on Surprise

10.1101/747204 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Cooper A. Smout ◽

Marta I. Garrido ◽

Jason B. Mattingley

Keyword(s):

Sensory Information ◽

Focus Of Attention ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Visual Modality ◽

Recent Theory ◽

Prediction Errors ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Attention Task ◽

Feature Based ◽

Task Irrelevant

AbstractRecent studies have shown that prediction and attention can interact under various circumstances, suggesting that the two processes are based on interdependent neural mechanisms. In the visual modality, attention can be deployed to the location of a task-relevant stimulus (‘spatial attention’) or to a specific feature of the stimulus, such as colour or shape, irrespective of its location (‘feature-based attention’). Here we asked whether predictive processes are influenced by feature-based attention outside the current spatial focus of attention. Across two experiments, we recorded neural activity with electroencephalography (EEG) as human observers performed a feature-based attention task at fixation and ignored a stream of peripheral stimuli with predictable or surprising features. Central targets were defined by a single feature (colour or orientation) and differed in salience across the two experiments. Task-irrelevant peripheral patterns usually comprised one particular conjunction of features (standards), but occasionally deviated in one or both features (deviants). Consistent with previous studies, we found reliable effects of feature-based attention and prediction on neural responses to task-irrelevant patterns in both experiments. Crucially, we observed an interaction between prediction and feature-based attention in both experiments: the neural effect of feature-based attention was larger for surprising patterns than it was for predicted patterns. These findings suggest that global effects of feature-based attention depend on surprise, and are consistent with the idea that attention optimises the precision of predictions by modulating the gain of prediction errors.Significance StatementTwo principal mechanisms facilitate the efficient processing of sensory information: prediction uses prior information to guide the interpretation of sensory events, whereas attention biases the processing of these events according to their behavioural relevance. A recent theory proposes to reconcile attention and prediction under a unifying framework, casting attention as a ‘precision optimisation’ mechanism that enhances the gain of prediction errors. Crucially, this theory suggests that attention and prediction interact to modulate neural responses, but this hypothesis remains to be tested with respect to feature-based attention mechanisms outside the spatial focus of attention. Here we show that global effects of feature-based attention are enhanced when stimuli possess surprising features, suggesting that feature-based attention and prediction are interdependent neural mechanisms.

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The neural response to the temporal fine structure of continuous musical pieces is not affected by selective attention

10.1101/2021.01.27.428483 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Octave Etard ◽

Rémy Ben Messaoud ◽

Gabriel Gaugain ◽

Tobias Reichenbach

Keyword(s):

Fine Structure ◽

Selective Attention ◽

Population Level ◽

Neural Response ◽

Temporal Fine Structure ◽

Neural Responses ◽

Neural Encoding ◽

Human Volunteers ◽

Eeg Recordings ◽

Single Instrument

AbstractSpeech and music are spectro-temporally complex acoustic signals that a highly relevant for humans. Both contain a temporal fine structure that is encoded in the neural responses of subcortical and cortical processing centres. The subcortical response to the temporal fine structure of speech has recently been shown to be modulated by selective attention to one of two competing voices. Music similarly often consists of several simultaneous melodic lines, and a listener can selectively attend to a particular one at a time. However, the neural mechanisms that enable such selective attention remain largely enigmatic, not least since most investigations to date have focussed on short and simplified musical stimuli. Here we study the neural encoding of classical musical pieces in human volunteers, using scalp electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. We presented volunteers with continuous musical pieces composed of one or two instruments. In the latter case, the participants were asked to selectively attend to one of the two competing instruments and to perform a vibrato identification task. We used linear encoding and decoding models to relate the recorded EEG activity to the stimulus waveform. We show that we can measure neural responses to the temporal fine structure of melodic lines played by one single instrument, at the population level as well as for most individual subjects. The neural response peaks at a latency of 7.6 ms and is not measurable past 15 ms. When analysing the neural responses elicited by competing instruments, we find no evidence of attentional modulation. Our results show that, much like speech, the temporal fine structure of music is tracked by neural activity. In contrast to speech, however, this response appears unaffected by selective attention in the context of our experiment.

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It’s Not All About the Face: Variability Reveals Asymmetric Obligatory Processing of Faces and Bodies in Whole-Body Contexts

Perception ◽

10.1177/0301006618771270 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 47 (6) ◽

pp. 626-646 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Catherine L. Reed ◽

Cindy M. Bukach ◽

Matthew Garber ◽

Daniel N. McIntosh

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Body Posture ◽

Holistic Processing ◽

Whole Body ◽

Focused Attention ◽

Attention Task ◽

The Face ◽

Open Question ◽

Processing Mechanisms ◽

Inverted Face

Researchers have sought to understand the specialized processing of faces and bodies in isolation, but recently they have considered how face and body information interact within the context of the whole body. Although studies suggest that face and body information can be integrated, it remains an open question whether this integration is obligatory and whether contributions of face and body information are symmetrical. In a selective attention task with whole-body stimuli, we focused attention on either the face or body and tested whether variation in the irrelevant part could be ignored. We manipulated orientation to determine the extent to which inversion disrupted obligatory face and body processing. Obligatory processing was evidenced as performance changes in discrimination that depended on stimulus orientation when the irrelevant region varied. For upright but not inverted face discrimination, participants could not ignore body posture variation, even when it was not diagnostic to the task. However, participants could ignore face variation for upright body posture discrimination but not for inverted posture discrimination. The extent to which face and body information necessarily influence each other in whole-body contexts appears to depend on both domain-general attentional and face- or body-specific holistic processing mechanisms.

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Choice-related activity and neural encoding in primary auditory cortex and lateral belt during feature selective attention

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00406.2020 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer Leigh Mohn ◽

Joshua D Downer ◽

Kevin N. O'Connor ◽

Jeffrey Scott Johnson ◽

Mitchell L Sutter

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Auditory Cortex ◽

Rhesus Macaques ◽

Primary Auditory Cortex ◽

Motor Preparation ◽

Broadband Noise ◽

Neural Encoding ◽

Related Activity ◽

Attention Task ◽

The Relationship

Selective attention is necessary to sift through, form a coherent percept of, and make behavioral decisions on the vast amount of information present in most sensory environments. How and where selective attention is employed in cortex and how this perceptual information then informs the relevant behavioral decisions is still not well understood. Studies probing selective attention and decision making in visual cortex have been enlightening as to how sensory attention might work in that modality; whether or not similar mechanisms are employed in auditory attention is not yet clear. Therefore, we trained rhesus macaques on a feature selective attention task, where they switched between reporting changes in temporal (amplitude modulation, AM) and spectral (carrier bandwidth) features of a broadband noise stimulus. We investigated how the encoding of these features by single neurons in primary (A1) and secondary (middle lateral belt, ML) auditory cortex were affected by the different attention conditions. We found that neurons in A1 and ML showed mixed-selectivity to the sound and task features. We found no difference in AM encoding between the attention conditions. We found that choice-related activity in both A1 and ML neurons shifts between attentional conditions. This finding suggests that choice-related activity in auditory cortex does not simply reflect motor preparation or action, and supports the relationship between reported choice-related activity and the decision and perceptual process.

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Hierarchical effects of choice-related activity and neural encoding during feature selective attention

10.1101/2020.03.10.986349 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer L. Mohn ◽

Joshua D. Downer ◽

Kevin N. O’Connor ◽

Jeffrey S. Johnson ◽

Mitchell L. Sutter

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Auditory Cortex ◽

Rhesus Macaques ◽

Motor Preparation ◽

Broadband Noise ◽

Single Neurons ◽

Neural Encoding ◽

Related Activity ◽

Attention Task ◽

The Relationship

AbstractSelective attention is necessary to sift through, form a coherent percept of, and make behavioral decisions on the vast amount of information present in most sensory environments. How and where selective attention is employed in cortex and how this perceptual information then informs the relevant behavioral decisions is still not well understood. Studies probing selective attention and decision making in visual cortex have been enlightening as to how sensory attention might work in that modality; whether or not similar mechanisms are employed in auditory attention is not yet clear. Therefore, we trained rhesus macaques on a feature selective attention task, where they switched between reporting changes in temporal (amplitude modulation, AM) and spectral (carrier bandwidth) features of a broadband noise stimulus. We investigated how the encoding of these features by single neurons in primary (A1) and secondary (lateral belt, ML) auditory cortex were affected by the different attention conditions. We found that neurons in A1 and ML showed mixed-selectivity to the sound and task features. We found no difference in AM encoding between the attention conditions. We found that choice-related activity in both A1 and ML neurons shifts between attentional conditions. This finding suggests that choice-related activity in auditory cortex does not simply reflect motor preparation or action, and supports the relationship between reported choice-related activity and the decision and perceptual process.New & NoteworthyWe recorded from primary and secondary auditory cortex while monkeys performed a non-spatial feature attention task. Both areas exhibited rate-based choice-related activity. The manifestation of choice-related activity was attention-dependent, suggesting that choice-related activity in auditory cortex does not simply reflect arousal or motor influences, but relates to the specific perceptual choice. The lack of temporal-based choice activity is consistent with growing evidence that subcortical, but not cortical, single neurons inform decisions through temporal envelope following.

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Cognitive and affective benefits of colouring: Two randomized controlled crossover studies

10.31234/osf.io/r6w8v ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Nicola Jane Holt ◽

Leah Furbert ◽

Emily Sweetingham

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Performance Measures ◽

Divergent Thinking ◽

Attention Task ◽

Creative Cognition ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Mindful Attention ◽

Crossover Studies ◽

And Performance ◽

Implicit Mood

The current research sought to replicate and extend work suggesting that coloring can reduce anxiety, asking whether coloring can improve cognitive performance. In two experiments undergraduates (N = 47; N = 52) colored and participated in a control condition. Subjective and performance measures of mood and mindfulness were included: an implicit mood test (Experiment 1) and a selective attention task (Experiment 2) along with a divergent thinking test. In both experiments coloring significantly reduced anxiety and increased mindfulness compared with control and baseline scores. Following coloring participants scored significantly lower on implicit fear, than the control condition, and significantly higher on selective attention and original ideation. Coloring may not only reduce anxiety, but also improve mindful attention and creative cognition.

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