Visual-cortical enhancement by acoustic distractors: The effects of endogenous spatial attention and visual working memory load

• Published in: Biological psychology 2023-02, Vol.177, p.108512-108512, Article 108512
• Main Authors: Cavicchi, Shari, De Cesarei, Andrea, Valsecchi, Matteo, Codispoti, Maurizio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Attention; Attention - physiology; Auditory-Evoked; Contralateral Occipital Positivity; Distraction; Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology; Female; Humans; Male; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Sound processing; Visual Cortex - physiology; Visual working memory; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0301-0511; 1873-6246
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108512

Past work has shown that when a peripheral sound captures our attention, it activates the contralateral visual cortex as revealed by an event-related potential component labelled the auditory-evoked contralateral occipital positivity (ACOP). This cross-modal activation of the visual cortex has been observed even when the sounds were not relevant to the ongoing task (visual or auditory), suggesting that peripheral sounds automatically activate the visual cortex. However, it is unclear whether top-down factors such as visual working memory (VWM) load and endogenous attention, which modulate the impact of task-irrelevant information, may modulate this spatially-specific component. Here, we asked participants to perform a lateralized VWM task (change detection), whose performance is supported by both endogenous spatial attention and VWM storage. A peripheral sound that was unrelated to the ongoing task was delivered during the retention interval. The amplitude of sound-elicited ACOP was analyzed as a function of the spatial correspondence with the cued hemifield, and of the memory array set-size. The typical ACOP modulation was observed over parieto-occipital sites in the 280–500 ms time window after sound onset. Its amplitude was not affected by VWM load but was modulated when the location of the sound did not correspond to the hemifield (right or left) that was cued for the change detection task. Our results suggest that sound-elicited activation of visual cortices, as reflected in the ACOP modulation, is unaffected by visual working memory load. However, endogenous spatial attention affects the ACOP, challenging the hypothesis that it reflects an automatic process. •Endogenous spatial attention plays a role in modulating the cross-modal processing of distracting sounds.•Sound-elicited activation of visual cortices is unaffected by visual working memory (VWM) load.•The cognitive system remains receptive to distractors even when attention is directed in the opposite spatial position.