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Brain activity during divided and selective attention to auditory and visual sentence comprehension tasks
Mona Moisala1, Viljami Salmela2, Emma Salo3
1Division of Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland ; Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|March 7, 2015
Summary
Dividing attention between visual and auditory tasks impairs performance due to brain region overlap, not new area recruitment. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study highlights interference in semantic processing during dual-tasking.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Multimodal processing involves integrating information from different sensory inputs.
- Divided attention research investigates cognitive load and resource allocation.
- Understanding brain activity during simultaneous sensory tasks is crucial for cognitive models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate brain activity patterns during simultaneous visual and auditory sentence processing.
- To determine if dual-tasking recruits additional brain regions compared to single-tasking.
- To examine the neural basis of performance decrements in divided attention tasks.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.
- Participants performed sentence congruence judgment tasks in visual, auditory, or both modalities.
- Performance was compared between selective attention (single modality) and divided attention (dual modality).
Main Results:
- Significant performance decrements occurred when attention was divided between modalities.
- Divided attention increased activity in frontal regions but did not recruit new cortical areas.
- Semantic language processing areas in the left lateral prefrontal cortex showed increased activity during divided attention.
Conclusions:
- Performance decrements in dual-tasking arise from interference within shared cortical regions.
- Simultaneous semantic processing does not necessitate additional brain areas beyond those used in single tasks.
- No crossmodal inhibition was observed in sensory cortices during intermodal divided attention.
