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Attout L, Capizzi M, Charras P. Enhancing rhythmic temporal expectations: The dominance of auditory modality under spatial uncertainty. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024:10.3758/s13414-024-02898-3. [PMID: 38777989 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02898-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
To effectively process the most relevant information, the brain anticipates the optimal timing for allocating attentional resources. Behavior can be optimized by automatically aligning attention with external rhythmic structures, whether visual or auditory. Although the auditory modality is known for its efficacy in representing temporal information, the current body of research has not conclusively determined whether visual or auditory rhythmic presentations have a definitive advantage in entraining temporal attention. The present study directly examined the effects of auditory and visual rhythmic cues on the discrimination of visual targets in Experiment 1 and on auditory targets in Experiment 2. Additionally, the role of endogenous spatial attention was also considered. When and where the target was the most likely to occur were cued by unimodal (visual or auditory) and bimodal (audiovisual) signals. A sequence of salient events was employed to elicit rhythm-based temporal expectations and a symbolic predictive cue served to orient spatial attention. The results suggest a superiority of auditory over visual rhythms, irrespective of spatial attention, whether the spatial cue and rhythm converge or not (unimodal or bimodal), and regardless of the target modality (visual or auditory). These findings are discussed in terms of a modality-specific rhythmic orienting, while considering a single, supramodal system operating in a top-down manner for endogenous spatial attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucie Attout
- Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPSYLON, 4556, F34000, Montpellier, EA, France.
| | - Mariagrazia Capizzi
- Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
| | - Pom Charras
- Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPSYLON, 4556, F34000, Montpellier, EA, France
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Zimmer U, Wendt M, Pacharra M. Enhancing allocation of visual attention with emotional cues presented in two sensory modalities. BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN FUNCTIONS : BBF 2022; 18:10. [PMID: 36138461 PMCID: PMC9494825 DOI: 10.1186/s12993-022-00195-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 08/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Background Responses to a visual target stimulus in an exogenous spatial cueing paradigm are usually faster if cue and target occur in the same rather than in different locations (i.e., valid vs. invalid), although perceptual conditions for cue and target processing are otherwise equivalent. This cueing validity effect can be increased by adding emotional (task-unrelated) content to the cue. In contrast, adding a secondary non-emotional sensory modality to the cue (bimodal), has not consistently yielded increased cueing effects in previous studies. Here, we examined the interplay of bimodally presented cue content (i.e., emotional vs. neutral), by using combined visual-auditory cues. Specifically, the current ERP-study investigated whether bimodal presentation of fear-related content amplifies deployment of spatial attention to the cued location. Results A behavioral cueing validity effect occurred selectively in trials in which both aspects of the cue (i.e., face and voice) were related to fear. Likewise, the posterior contra-ipsilateral P1-activity in valid trials was significantly larger when both cues were fear-related than in all other cue conditions. Although the P3a component appeared uniformly increased in invalidly cued trials, regardless of cue content, a positive LPC deflection, starting about 450 ms after target onset, was, again, maximal for the validity contrast in trials associated with bimodal presentation of fear-related cues. Conclusions Simultaneous presentation of fear-related stimulus information in the visual and auditory modality appears to increase sustained visual attention (impairing disengagement of attention from the cued location) and to affect relatively late stages of target processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrike Zimmer
- Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany. .,ICAN Insitute of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Mike Wendt
- Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.,ICAN Insitute of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, MSH Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Marlene Pacharra
- Faculty of Psychology, Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
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Wang Y, Tang Z, Zhang X, Yang L. Auditory and cross-modal attentional bias toward positive natural sounds: Behavioral and ERP evidence. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:949655. [PMID: 35967006 PMCID: PMC9372282 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.949655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, researchers have expanded the investigation into attentional biases toward positive stimuli; however, few studies have examined attentional biases toward positive auditory information. In three experiments, the present study employed an emotional spatial cueing task using emotional sounds as cues and auditory stimuli (Experiment 1) or visual stimuli (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3) as targets to explore whether auditory or visual spatial attention could be modulated by positive auditory cues. Experiment 3 also examined the temporal dynamics of cross-modal auditory bias toward positive natural sounds using event-related potentials (ERPs). The behavioral results of the three experiments consistently demonstrated that response times to targets were faster after positive auditory cues than they were after neutral auditory cues in the valid condition, indicating that healthy participants showed a selective auditory attentional bias (Experiment 1) and cross-modal attentional bias (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3) toward positive natural sounds. The results of Experiment 3 showed that N1 amplitudes were more negative after positive sounds than they were after neutral sounds, which further provided electrophysiological evidence that positive auditory information enhances attention at early stages in healthy adults. The results of the experiments performed in the present study suggest that humans exhibit an attentional bias toward positive natural sounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanmei Wang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhenwei Tang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaoxuan Zhang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Libing Yang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
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Nazaré CJ, Oliveira AM. Effects of Audiovisual Presentations on Visual Localization Errors: One or Several Multisensory Mechanisms? Multisens Res 2021; 34:1-35. [PMID: 33882452 DOI: 10.1163/22134808-bja10048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2020] [Accepted: 03/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The present study examines the extent to which temporal and spatial properties of sound modulate visual motion processing in spatial localization tasks. Participants were asked to locate the place at which a moving visual target unexpectedly vanished. Across different tasks, accompanying sounds were factorially varied within subjects as to their onset and offset times and/or positions relative to visual motion. Sound onset had no effect on the localization error. Sound offset was shown to modulate the perceived visual offset location, both for temporal and spatial disparities. This modulation did not conform to attraction toward the timing or location of the sounds but, demonstrably in the case of temporal disparities, to bimodal enhancement instead. Favorable indications to a contextual effect of audiovisual presentations on interspersed visual-only trials were also found. The short sound-leading offset asynchrony had equivalent benefits to audiovisual offset synchrony, suggestive of the involvement of early-level mechanisms, constrained by a temporal window, at these conditions. Yet, we tentatively hypothesize that the whole of the results and how they compare with previous studies requires the contribution of additional mechanisms, including learning-detection of auditory-visual associations and cross-sensory spread of endogenous attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Jordão Nazaré
- Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, ESTESC - Coimbra Health School, Audiologia, Coimbra, Portugal
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5
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Zumer JM, White TP, Noppeney U. The neural mechanisms of audiotactile binding depend on asynchrony. Eur J Neurosci 2020; 52:4709-4731. [PMID: 32725895 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14928] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2020] [Revised: 07/06/2020] [Accepted: 07/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Asynchrony is a critical cue informing the brain whether sensory signals are caused by a common source and should be integrated or segregated. This psychophysics-electroencephalography (EEG) study investigated the influence of asynchrony on how the brain binds audiotactile (AT) signals to enable faster responses in a redundant target paradigm. Human participants actively responded (psychophysics) or passively attended (EEG) to noise bursts, "taps-to-the-face" and their AT combinations at seven AT asynchronies: 0, ±20, ±70 and ±500 ms. Behaviourally, observers were faster at detecting AT than unisensory stimuli within a temporal integration window: the redundant target effect was maximal for synchronous stimuli and declined within a ≤70 ms AT asynchrony. EEG revealed a cascade of AT interactions that relied on different neural mechanisms depending on AT asynchrony. At small (≤20 ms) asynchronies, AT interactions arose for evoked response potentials (ERPs) at 110 ms and ~400 ms post-stimulus. Selectively at ±70 ms asynchronies, AT interactions were observed for the P200 ERP, theta-band inter-trial coherence (ITC) and power at ~200 ms post-stimulus. In conclusion, AT binding was mediated by distinct neural mechanisms depending on the asynchrony of the AT signals. Early AT interactions in ERPs and theta-band ITC and power were critical for the behavioural response facilitation within a ≤±70 ms temporal integration window.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna M Zumer
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
| | - Thomas P White
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Uta Noppeney
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Weckesser LJ, Alexander NC, Kirschbaum C, Mennigen E, Miller R. Hydrocortisone Counteracts Adverse Stress Effects on Dual-Task Performance by Improving Visual Sensory Processes. J Cogn Neurosci 2016; 28:1784-1803. [PMID: 27378327 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The impact of acute stress on executive processes is commonly attributed to glucocorticoid-induced disruptions of the pFC. However, the occipital cortex seems to express a higher density of glucocorticoid receptors. Consequently, acute stress effects on executive processes could as well be mediated by glucocorticoid (e.g., cortisol)-induced alterations of visual sensory processes. To investigate this alternative route of stress action by demarcating the effects of acute stress and cortisol on executive from those on visual sensory processes, 40 healthy young men completed a standardized stress induction (i.e., the Trier Social Stress Test) and control protocol in two consecutive sessions. In addition, they received either a placebo or hydrocortisone (0.12-mg/kg bodyweight) pill and processed a dual and a partial report task to assess their executive and visual sensory processing abilities, respectively. Hydrocortisone administration improved both partial report and dual-task performance as indicated by increased response accuracies and/or decreased RTs. Intriguingly, the hydrocortisone-induced increase in dual-task performance was completely mediated by its impact on partial report performance (i.e., visual sensory processes). Moreover, RT measures in both tasks shared approximately 26% of variance, which was only in part attributable to hydrocortisone administration (ΔR2 = 8%). By contrast, acute stress selectively impaired dual-task performance (i.e., executive processes), presumably through an alternative route of action. In summary, the present results suggest that cortisol secretion (as mimicked by hydrocortisone administration) may counteract adverse residual stress effects on executive processes by improving visual sensory processes (e.g., the maintenance and amplification of task-relevant sensory information).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Eva Mennigen
- The University of New Mexico.,University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus
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