Sensory ERP effects in auditory distraction: did we miss the main event?

Abstract

Event-related potentials (ERPs) offer unique insights into processes related to involuntary attention changes triggered by rare, unpredictably occurring sensory events, that is, distraction. Contrasting ERPs elicited by distracters and frequent standard stimuli in oddball paradigms allowed the formulation of a three-stage model describing distractionrelated processing: First, the distracting event is highlighted by a sensory filter. Second, attention is oriented towards the event, and finally, the the task-optimal attention set is restored, or task priorities are changed. Although this model summarizes how distracting stimulus information is processed, not much is known about the cost of taking this exceptional route of processing. The present study demonstrates the impact of distraction on sensory processing. Participants performed a Go/NoGo tone-duration discrimination task, with infrequent pitch distracters. In the two parts of the experiment the duration-response mapping was reversed. Contrasts of distracter and standard ERPs revealed higher P3a-and reorienting negativity amplitudes for short than for long tones, independently from response type. To understand the cause of these asymmetries, short vs. long ERP contrasts were calculated. The ERP pattern showed that short standards elicited an attention-dependent offset-response, which was abolished for short distracters. That is, the apparent P3a-and RON enhancements were caused by the removal of a task-related attentional sensory enhancement. This shows that the disruption of task-optimal attention set precedes the elicitation of the P3a, which suggests that P3a does not reflect a process driving the initial distraction-related attention change.3

Sound offset-related brain potentials show retained sensory processing, but increased cognitive control activity in older adults

“…The long tone duration was 750 ms in all three conditions, whereas short tone duration was 150, 300, or 450 ms. As in previous studies (Horváth, 2014(Horváth, , 2016, tone offsets were followed by a consistent positive-negative (P1-N1) waveform pattern most distinctly observable at the temporal leads in both groups, which, in combination with the fact that offset-related waveforms peaked about 50 ms later than the typical onset-related P1-N1 waveforms, may indicate that these offset-related waveforms reflected mainly the T-complex (Wolpaw and Penry, 1975) of the auditory ERP. Although the fronto-centrally peaking onset-related P1-N1 waveform was larger in the older adult group in correspondence with most previous studies (see Introduction), no significant between-group differences were found for the offset-related P1, or the temporally measured offset-related N1.…”

“…As in previous studies (e.g., Berti and Schröger, 2001;Horváth, 2014Horváth, , 2016Volosin and Horváth, 2014), tone onsets were preceded by a negative-going ERP trend, suggesting that participants exploited the constant SOA to prepare for the tones. Tone onsets elicited the succession of P1, N1 and P2 waveforms, which were superimposed on the negative trend.…”

“…As in previous studies using fixed inter-onset-intervals in duration-or direction discrimination tasks (e.g., Berti and Schröger, 2001;Horváth, 2014Horváth, , 2016Volosin and Horváth, 2014), the stimulus onset was preceded by a negative ERP trend. The steepness of this pre-stimulus trend was calculated as the difference of the average amplitudes measured at in the 200-150 ms and the 50-0 ms intervals preceding tone onsets in each condition.…”

“…longer than 1 s, Näätänen and Picton, 1987). A recent set of studies, however, demonstrated that attended sound offsets elicit a positive-negative-positive waveform with similar temporal structure as the onset-related P1-N1-P2 ERP (Horváth, 2014). Although the between-deflection intervals were very similar to those observable in a typical onset-related waveform, the waveform itself was uniformly delayed by about 50 ms (i.e., the P1 peaked at about 100 ms, and the N1 at about 150 ms after the start of the offset transient).…”

Editorial for special issue: “Auditory attention: merging paradigms and perspectives”

“…The empirical contribution by Horváth (2014) rounds up the focus on attentional capture by task-irrelevant auditory signals. By means of event-related brain potentials (ERPs), the author investigates characteristics of the attentional orienting and reorienting processes assumed to underlie behavioral distraction by unexpected sounds.…”