Modeling neural correlates of auditory attention in evoked potentials using corticothalamic feedback dynamics

Auditory evoked cortical potentials (AECP) are well established as diagnostic tool in audiology and gain more and more impact in experimental neuropsychology, neuro-science, and psychiatry, e.g., for the attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia, or for studying the tinnitus decompensation. The modulation of AECP due to exogenous and endogenous attention plays a major role in many clinical applications and has experimentally been studied in neuropsychology. However the relation of corticothalamic feedback dynamics to focal and non-focal attention and its large-scale effect reflected in AECPs is far from being understood. In this paper, we model neural correlates of auditory attention reflected in AECPs using corticothalamic feedback dynamics. We present a mapping of a recently developed multiscale model of evoked potentials to the hearing path and discuss for the first time its neurofunctionality in terms of corticothalamic feedback loops related to focal and non-focal attention. Our model reinforced recent experimental results related to online attention monitoring using AECPs with application as objective tinnitus decompensation measure. It is concluded that our model presents a promising approach to gain a deeper understanding of the neurodynamics of auditory attention and might be use as an efficient forward model to reinforce hypotheses that are obtained from experimental paradigms involving AECPs.