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

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.

Download Full-text

Topographic specificity of alpha power during auditory spatial attention

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116360 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 207 ◽

pp. 116360 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Yuqi Deng ◽

Inyong Choi ◽

Barbara Shinn-Cunningham

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Alpha Power ◽

Auditory Spatial Attention

Download Full-text

Modular reconfiguration of an auditory control brain network supports adaptive listening behavior

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1815321116 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 116 (2) ◽

pp. 660-669 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Mohsen Alavash ◽

Sarah Tune ◽

Jonas Obleser

Keyword(s):

Spatial Attention ◽

Resting State ◽

Brain Networks ◽

Brain Network ◽

Control Network ◽

Speech Comprehension ◽

Individual Level ◽

Auditory Spatial Attention ◽

The Individual ◽

Listening Task

Speech comprehension in noisy, multitalker situations poses a challenge. Successful behavioral adaptation to a listening challenge often requires stronger engagement of auditory spatial attention and context-dependent semantic predictions. Human listeners differ substantially in the degree to which they adapt behaviorally and can listen successfully under such circumstances. How cortical networks embody this adaptation, particularly at the individual level, is currently unknown. We here explain this adaptation from reconfiguration of brain networks for a challenging listening task (i.e., a linguistic variant of the Posner paradigm with concurrent speech) in an age-varying sample of n = 49 healthy adults undergoing resting-state and task fMRI. We here provide evidence for the hypothesis that more successful listeners exhibit stronger task-specific reconfiguration (hence, better adaptation) of brain networks. From rest to task, brain networks become reconfigured toward more localized cortical processing characterized by higher topological segregation. This reconfiguration is dominated by the functional division of an auditory and a cingulo-opercular module and the emergence of a conjoined auditory and ventral attention module along bilateral middle and posterior temporal cortices. Supporting our hypothesis, the degree to which modularity of this frontotemporal auditory control network is increased relative to resting state predicts individuals’ listening success in states of divided and selective attention. Our findings elucidate how fine-tuned cortical communication dynamics shape selection and comprehension of speech. Our results highlight modularity of the auditory control network as a key organizational principle in cortical implementation of auditory spatial attention in challenging listening situations.

Download Full-text