The spatial distribution of auditory attention in early blindness

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Elodie Lerens ◽  
Laurent Renier ◽  
Anne De Volder
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Target Detection ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Auditory Information ◽  
Blind People ◽  
Tone Frequency ◽  
Attention Task

Early blind people compensate for their lack of vision by developing superior abilities in the remaining senses such as audition (Collignon et al., 2006; Gougoux et al., 2004; Wan et al., 2010). Previous studies reported supra-normal abilities in auditory spatial attention, particularly for the localization of peripheral stimuli in comparison with frontal stimuli (Lessard et al., 1998; Röder et al., 1999). However, it is unknown whether this specific supra-normal ability extends to the non-spatial attention domain. Here we compared the performance of early blind subjects and sighted controls, who were blindfolded, during an auditory non-spatial attention task: target detection among distractors according to tone frequency. We paid a special attention to the potential effect of the sound source location, comparing the accuracy and speed in target detection in the peripheral and frontal space. Blind subjects displayed shorter reaction times than sighted controls for both peripheral and frontal stimuli. Moreover, in the two groups of subjects, we observed an interaction effect between the target location and the distractors location: the target was detected faster when its location was different from the location of the distractors. However, this effect was attenuated in early blind subjects and even cancelled in the condition with frontal targets and peripheral distractors. We conclude that early blind people compensate for the lack of vision by enhancing their ability to process auditory information but also by changing the spatial distribution of their auditory attention resources.

scholarly journals Rhythmic neural spiking and attentional sampling arising from cortical receptive field interactions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Kienitz ◽  
Joscha T. Schmiedt ◽  
Katharine A. Shapcott ◽  
Kleopatra Kouroupaki ◽  
Richard C. Saunders ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Receptive Field ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Receptive Fields ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
List Type ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Area V4 ◽  
Fixational Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Cortical Area

SummaryGrowing evidence suggests that distributed spatial attention may invoke theta (3-9 Hz) rhythmic sampling processes. The neuronal basis of such attentional sampling is however not fully understood. Here we show using array recordings in visual cortical area V4 of two awake macaques that presenting separate visual stimuli to the excitatory center and suppressive surround of neuronal receptive fields elicits rhythmic multi-unit activity (MUA) at 3-6 Hz. This neuronal rhythm did not depend on small fixational eye movements. In the context of a distributed spatial attention task, during which the monkeys detected a spatially and temporally uncertain target, reaction times (RT) exhibited similar rhythmic fluctuations. RTs were fast or slow depending on the target occurrence during high or low MUA, resulting in rhythmic MUA-RT cross-correlations at at theta frequencies. These findings suggest that theta-rhythmic neuronal activity arises from competitive receptive field interactions and that this rhythm may subserve attentional sampling.HighlightsCenter-surround interactions induce theta-rhythmic MUA of visual cortex neuronsThe MUA rhythm does not depend on small fixational eye movementsReaction time fluctuations lock to the neuronal rhythm under distributed attention

Developmental Differences in Visual and Auditory Attention: a Cross-Sectional Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Günther ◽  
Kerstin Konrad ◽  
Joachim Häusler ◽  
Hafida Saghraoui ◽  
Klaus Willmes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Performance Variables ◽  
Attention Tasks

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to compare performance on visual and auditory attention tasks along with the developmental trajectories of these systems. Participants between 7 and 77 years of age were examined: 490 subjects (229 males and 261 females) completed the visual and auditory part of a focused-attention task, and 688 subjects (320 males and 368 females) were tested with an alertness task in the two different modalities. Shorter reaction times were observed in the visual condition compared to the auditory condition. This difference was particularly large for children and for the more complex, focused-attention task. However, the gap between the two modalities decreased with age, resulting in significant interaction effects between age and modality for both attention tasks. Attentional performance increased with age, and maximum performance was achieved in early adulthood. For nearly all performance variables, no decrease could be detected with increasing age. In addition, the results of a principal components analysis suggest that, independent of modality, all alertness variables load on one component, whereas the performance variables of the visual and the auditory focused-attention task load on two separate components. Thus, our data suggest that visual and auditory attention rely on distinct attentional systems within the selectivity domain of attention and have distinct developmental trajectories.

Attention and Sensory Gain Control: A Peripheral Visual Process?

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 1936-1949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd C. Handy ◽  
Wayne Khoe
Keyword(s):  
Striate Cortex ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Stimulus Contrast ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Sensory Evoked ◽  
Target Locations

Attention-related sensory gain control in human extra-striate cortex is believed to improve the acuity of visual perception. Yet given wide variance in the spatial resolution of vision across the retina, it remains unclear whether sensory gain operates homogenously between foveal and nonfoveal retinotopic locations. To address this issue, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) in a variant of the canonical spatial attention task. Participants were cued to expect targets at either fixation (foveal targets) or at a location several degrees above fixation (parafoveal targets). At both target locations, manual reaction times were shorter for cued relative to uncued targets, indicating that attention was consistently oriented to the cued location. Nevertheless, attention-related increases in sensory-evoked cortical activity were only observed at the parafoveal target location, as measured by the amplitude of the lateral occipital P1 ERP component. A second experiment replicated this data pattern using targets with lower stimulus contrast, indicating that the absence of a P1 effect for foveal targets could not be attributed to a saturated P1 response under higher-contrast stimulus conditions. When considered in light of retinogeniculate projections to cortex showing systematic changes in their physiological organization beginning within a degree of visual angle of the fovea, our findings support the proposal that the strategic functions of visual attention may vary with the retinotopic location involved.

scholarly journals Non-spatial features reduce the reliance on sustained spatial auditory attention

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia M. Bonacci ◽  
Scott Bressler ◽  
Barbara G. Shinn-Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Auditory Attention ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Target Sound ◽  
Spatial Features ◽  
Auditory Cue ◽  
Pitch Information

AbstractTop-down spatial attention is effective at selecting a target sound from a mixture. However, non-spatial features often distinguish sources in addition to location. This study explores whether redundant non-spatial features are used to maintain selective auditory attention for a spatially defined target. We recorded electroencephalography (EEG) while subjects focused attention on one of three simultaneous melodies. In one experiment, subjects (n = 17) were given an auditory cue indicating both the location and pitch of the target melody. In a second experiment (n = 17 subjects), the cue only indicated target location, and we compared two conditions: one in which the pitch separation of competing melodies was large, and one in which this separation was small. In both experiments, responses evoked by onsets of events in sound streams were modulated equally as strong by attention, suggesting that the target stimuli were correctly selected regardless of the cue or pitch information available. In all cases, parietal alpha was lateralized following the cue, but prior to melody onset, indicating that subjects always initially focused attention in space. During the stimulus presentation, however, this lateralization weakened when pitch cues were strong, suggesting that strong pitch cues reduced reliance on sustained spatial attention. These results demonstrate that once a well-defined target stream at a known location is selected, top-down spatial attention is unnecessary to filter out a segregated competing stream.

A Subliminal Effect in a Colour-Discrimination Task and its Modulation by Spatial Attention

Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 343-343
Author(s):  
Y Sakaguchi ◽  
H E Pashler
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Motor Response ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Spatial Relation ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Backward Masking ◽  
Colour Discrimination

Three experiments were performed to examine the effects of masked colour stimuli on the response to masking stimuli. In experiment 1, two coloured squares were presented successively at the same position so that the first one could not be perceived owing to backward masking. The task was to respond to the colour of the second square as quickly as possible. The results showed that the subject's response was affected by the unperceived first square: both error rate and reaction time increased when the two squares had different colours. It was also found that reaction times for wrong responses were shorter than those for correct responses; this suggests that wrong responses occurred when the neural activation representing the first square succeeded in triggering a motor response before being suppressed. In experiment 2 we examined whether spatial attention modulated this effect or not. Eight squares (one coloured and seven white) were displayed and the spatial relation between the coloured square in the first frame (prime) and that in the second frame (target) was varied. The performance of subjects when the target location was pre-cued and when no cue was given was compared. The results indicate that in the no-cue condition the subliminal effect was observed uniformly irrespective of the spatial relation. In contrast, in the pre-cue condition the effect was diminished when prime and target occupied different positions, that is when the prime appeared outside the attended region. The result of experiment 3, with another stimulus configuration, showed a similar attentional modulation. The underlying mechanism is discussed.

Visual Spatial Attention in Migraine Sufferers in Postictal and Interictal Phases: An Event-Related Potential Study

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.H. de Koning ◽  
J.C. Woestenburg ◽  
M. Elton
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Migraine Attack ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Significant Enhancement ◽  
Pathophysiological Mechanism ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial

Migraineurs with and without aura (MWAs and MWOAs) as well as controls were measured twice with an interval of 7 days. The first session of recordings and tests for migraineurs was held about 7 hours after a migraine attack. We hypothesized that electrophysiological changes in the posterior cerebral cortex related to visual spatial attention are influenced by the level of arousal in migraineurs with aura, and that this varies over the course of time. ERPs related to the active visual attention task manifested significant differences between controls and both types of migraine sufferers for the N200, suggesting a common pathophysiological mechanism for migraineurs. Furthermore, migraineurs without aura (MWOAs) showed a significant enhancement for the N200 at the second session, indicating the relevance of time of measurement within migraine studies. Finally, migraineurs with aura (MWAs) showed significantly enhanced P240 and P300 components at central and parietal cortical sites compared to MWOAs and controls, which seemed to be maintained over both sessions and could be indicative of increased noradrenergic activity in MWAs.

An ERP study of visual spatial attention and letter target detection for isoluminant and nonisoluminant stimuli

1997 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALBERTUS A. WIJERS ◽  
JAN J. LANGE ◽  
GIJSBERTUS MULDER ◽  
LAMBERTUS J. M. MULDER
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Target Detection ◽  
Letter Target ◽  
Visual Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Spatial

Do Children With Focal Cerebellar Lesions Show Deficits in Shifting Attention?

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (3) ◽  
pp. 1856-1866 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Schoch ◽  
B. Gorissen ◽  
S. Richter ◽  
A. Ozimek ◽  
O. Kaiser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Motor Deficits ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Original Proposal ◽  
Cerebellar Damage ◽  
Mri Scans ◽  
Significant Impairment ◽  
Cerebellar Lesions ◽  
Degenerative Disorder ◽  
Shifting Attention

More recent findings suggest a possible role of the cerebellum in nonmotor functions. Disability of individuals with cerebellar damage in rapidly shifting attention is one frequently used example to support cerebellar involvement in mental skills. The original proposal was based on findings in five children with chronic surgical lesions of the cerebellum and a young adult with a degenerative disorder. The aim of the present study was to repeat Akshoomoff and Courchesne's initial findings in a larger group of children with focal cerebellar lesions. Ten children with cerebellar lesions and 10 age- and sex-matched controls were tested. Neocerebellar areas were affected in all children with cerebellar damage except one based on detailed analysis of MRI scans. Subjects had to perform a focus and a shift attention task. Two visual and two auditory stimuli were presented in a pseudorandom order. An ellipse and a high-pitched tone were presented less frequently than a circle and a low-pitched tone. Rare stimuli were presented at five different time intervals. In the focus tasks, subjects had to react to the same rare stimulus of one of the two modalities. In the shift task, subjects had to switch between the two rare stimuli. Motor deficits based on reaction times were small in cerebellar children compared with controls. The ability of target detection did not significantly differ in the children with cerebellar lesions compared with the control children in both the focus and the shift attention task. In particular, children with cerebellar damage showed no significant impairment in rapid (<2 s) shifts of attention. The present findings indicate that the cerebellum may be less critical in attention related processes than suggested previously.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document