Journal article
Selective attention to sound features mediates cross-modal activation of visual cortices.
- Retsa C The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Radiology Department, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland; The EEG Brain Mapping Core, Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: chrysa.retsa@gmail.com.
- Matusz PJ The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Radiology Department, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland; Information Systems Institute at the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais), 3960, Sierre, Switzerland; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
- Schnupp JWH Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, To Yuen Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong; Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PT, UK.
- Murray MM The LINE (Laboratory for Investigative Neurophysiology), Radiology Department, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland; The EEG Brain Mapping Core, Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Ophthalmology, University of Lausanne, Fondation Asile des Aveugles, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- 2020-05-23
Published in:
- Neuropsychologia. - 2020
English
Contemporary schemas of brain organization now include multisensory processes both in low-level cortices as well as at early stages of stimulus processing. Evidence has also accumulated showing that unisensory stimulus processing can result in cross-modal effects. For example, task-irrelevant and lateralised sounds can activate visual cortices; a phenomenon referred to as the auditory-evoked contralateral occipital positivity (ACOP). Some claim this is an example of automatic attentional capture in visual cortices. Other results, however, indicate that context may play a determinant role. Here, we investigated whether selective attention to spatial features of sounds is a determining factor in eliciting the ACOP. We recorded high-density auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) while participants selectively attended and discriminated sounds according to four possible stimulus attributes: location, pitch, speaker identity or syllable. Sound acoustics were held constant, and their location was always equiprobable (50% left, 50% right). The only manipulation was to which sound dimension participants attended. We analysed the AEP data from healthy participants within an electrical neuroimaging framework. The presence of sound-elicited activations of visual cortices depended on the to-be-discriminated, goal-based dimension. The ACOP was elicited only when participants were required to discriminate sound location, but not when they attended to any of the non-spatial features. These results provide a further indication that the ACOP is not automatic. Moreover, our findings showcase the interplay between task-relevance and spatial (un)predictability in determining the presence of the cross-modal activation of visual cortices.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107498
- PMID 32442445
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/291277
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