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Evidence for modality-specific but not frequency-specific modulation of human primary auditory cortex by attention
P E Gander1, D J Bosnyak, L E Roberts
1Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. pgander@mcmaster.ca
Hearing Research
|June 16, 2010
Summary
Top-down attention modulates the auditory cortex. Auditory attention enhances the 40-Hz auditory steady-state response (ASSR), but frequency-specific attention did not modulate the primary auditory cortex (A1).
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Auditory Perception
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- The 40-Hz auditory steady-state response (ASSR) is a reliable electrophysiological marker localized to the primary auditory cortex (A1).
- Top-down attention is known to modulate sensory processing, but its specific effects on the human auditory cortex, particularly at the level of frequency specificity, remain under investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how top-down attention modulates the primary auditory cortex (A1) using the 40-Hz ASSR.
- To determine if auditory attention is modality-specific and if it can be frequency-specific within the auditory cortex.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Presented simultaneous amplitude-modulated (AM) auditory and visual stimuli (40 Hz and 16 Hz, respectively) while participants attended to targets in one modality for brief or long intervals.
- Experiment 2: Presented two simultaneous auditory streams with different carrier frequencies (250 Hz and 4100 Hz) and AM rates (37 Hz and 41 Hz), assessing frequency-specific auditory attention using inverse modeling.
Main Results:
- ASSR amplitude increased during auditory attention but not visual attention, indicating modality-specific auditory attention, particularly for brief attention intervals.
- Visual attention showed modality-specific effects at both brief and long intervals.
- Despite conditions favoring frequency specificity, no frequency-specific modulation of ASSR amplitude was observed in either experiment.
Conclusions:
- Modulation of the primary auditory cortex by attention is modality-specific.
- Frequency-specific modulation of A1 may depend on re-entrant feedback from higher auditory areas processing spectrally distinct attended percepts.
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