Brain activity during divided and selective attention to auditory and visual sentence comprehension tasks

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured brain activity of human participants while they performed a sentence congruence judgment task in either the visual or auditory modality separately, or in both modalities simultaneously. Significant performance decrements were observed w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in human neuroscience 2015-02, Vol.9, p.86-86
Main Authors: Moisala, Mona, Salmela, Viljami, Salo, Emma, Carlson, Synnöve, Vuontela, Virve, Salonen, Oili, Alho, Kimmo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Brain
Brain mapping
Brain research
Comprehension
divided attention
dual-tasking
Functional magnetic resonance imaging
functional MRI
Information processing
Language processing
Learning transfer
Localization
Modality (Semantic)
Multitasking
Neuroimaging
Neuroscience
Phonology
Prefrontal cortex
selective attention
Semantic Processing
Semantics
Sensory integration
Sentences
Somatosensory cortex
Studies
Visual cortex
Visual perception
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Summary:Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we measured brain activity of human participants while they performed a sentence congruence judgment task in either the visual or auditory modality separately, or in both modalities simultaneously. Significant performance decrements were observed when attention was divided between the two modalities compared with when one modality was selectively attended. Compared with selective attention (i.e., single tasking), divided attention (i.e., dual-tasking) did not recruit additional cortical regions, but resulted in increased activity in medial and lateral frontal regions which were also activated by the component tasks when performed separately. Areas involved in semantic language processing were revealed predominantly in the left lateral prefrontal cortex by contrasting incongruent with congruent sentences. These areas also showed significant activity increases during divided attention in relation to selective attention. In the sensory cortices, no crossmodal inhibition was observed during divided attention when compared with selective attention to one modality. Our results suggest that the observed performance decrements during dual-tasking are due to interference of the two tasks because they utilize the same part of the cortex. Moreover, semantic dual-tasking did not appear to recruit additional brain areas in comparison with single tasking, and no crossmodal inhibition was observed during intermodal divided attention.
ISSN:1662-5161
1662-5161
DOI:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00086