Brain Networks of Novelty-Driven Involuntary and Cued Voluntary Auditory Attention Shifting
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: In everyday life, we need a capacity to flexibly shift attention between alternative sound sources. However, relatively little work has been done to elucidate the mechanisms of attention shifting in the auditory domain. Here, we used a mixed event-related/sparse-sampling fMRI approach to investigate this essential cognitive function. In each 10-sec trial, subjects were instructed to wait for an auditory "cue" signaling the location where a subsequent "target" sound was likely to be presented. The target was occasionally replaced by an unexpected "novel" sound in the uncued ear, to trigger involuntary attention shifting. To maximize the attention effects, cues, targets, and novels were embedded within dichotic 800-Hz vs. 1500-Hz pure-tone "standard" trains. The sound of clustered fMRI acquisition (starting at t = 7.82 sec) served as a controlled trial-end signal. Our approach revealed notable activation differences between the conditions. Cued voluntary attention shifting activated the superior intra--parietal sulcus (IPS), whereas novelty-triggered involuntary orienting activated the inferior IPS and certain subareas of the precuneus. Clearly more widespread activations were observed during voluntary than involuntary orienting in the premotor cortex, including the frontal eye fields. Moreover, we found -evidence for a frontoinsular-cingular attentional control network, consisting of the anterior insula, inferior frontal cortex, and medial frontal cortices, which were activated during both target discrimination and voluntary attention shifting. Finally, novels and targets activated much wider areas of superior temporal auditory cortices than shifting cues.
Source: PLoS ONE
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,382
Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Center for Research Resources, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G2227408383, Catagorizing Parallel Human Auditory Pathways by Spatiotemporally Focused TMS, G4759711736, Spatiotemporal Brain Imaging of Human Auditory Cognition, Center for Functional Imaging Technologies, Computeserver Structural &Functional Image Analysis, Dynamic imaging of oscillatory brain networks controlling selective attention, G653110949, Spatiotemporal Imaging of Human Visual System Processing, A Siemens MAGNETOTOM Trio 3 Tesla MRI System, A Storage Area Network for Structural and Functional Image Analysis, G974088082
OpenAlex ID: W2111469395