Auditory attention in a dynamic scene: Behavioral and electrophysiological correlates

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2014-04, Vol.135 (4_Supplement), p.2415-2415
• Main Authors: Goldberg, Hannah R., Choi, Inyong, Varghese, Lenny A., Bharadwaj, Hari, Shinn-Cunningham, Barbara G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4878011

The ability to direct and redirect selective auditory attention varies substantially across individuals with normal hearing thresholds, even when sounds are clearly audible. We hypothesized that these differences can come from both differences in the spectrotemporal fidelity of subcortical sound representations and in the efficacy of cortical attentional networks that modulate neural representations of the auditory scene. Here, subjects were presented with an initial stream from straight ahead and a second stream (from either left or right), each comprised of four monotonized consonant-vowel syllables. Listeners were instructed to report the contents of either the first stream (holding attentional focus) or the second stream (switching attentional focus). Critically, the direction of the second stream informed subjects whether to hold or to switch attention. Pilot results suggest that when the lateral angle of the second stream is small, task performance is linked to subcortical encoding fidelity of suprathreshold sound (as measured using brainstem frequency-following responses obtained separately in the same subjects). Using a paradigm that allows simultaneous collection of behavioral measures, FFRs, and cortical responses, here we test whether differences in top-down attentional control explain subject variability when the second stream’s lateral angle is large and coding fidelity does not limit performance.