electrophysiological effect of working memory load on involuntary attention in an auditory-visual distraction paradigm: an ERP study

• Published in: Experimental brain research 2010-08, Vol.205 (1), p.81-86
• Main Authors: Lv, Jie-Yu, Wang, Ting, Qiu, Jiang, Feng, Si-Hai, Tu, Shen, Wei, Dong-Tao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation - methods; Analysis of Variance; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Attention - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain Mapping; Ear and associated structures. Auditory pathways and centers. Hearing. Vocal organ. Phonation. Sound production. Echolocation; Electroencephalography; Electrooculography - methods; Evoked Potentials, Auditory - physiology; Evoked Potentials, Visual - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Involuntary attention; Male; Memory; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Mismatch negativity (MMN); Neurology; Neurosciences; Novelty-P3; Photic Stimulation - methods; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Research Article; Time Factors; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; Working memory (WM); Young Adult
• ISSN: 0014-4819; 1432-1106
• DOI: 10.1007/s00221-010-2360-x

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were used to examine the electrophysiological effect of working memory (WM) load on involuntary attention caused by a task-irrelevant sound in an auditory-visual distraction paradigm. The different WM loads were manipulated by requiring subjects to remember the order of either three digits (low-load condition) or seven digits (high-load condition), and the irrelevant auditory stimuli consisted of repetitive standard sounds (80%) and environmental novel sounds (20%). We found that the difference waves (novel-minus-standard) showed significant MMN and Novelty-P3 components in the two WM load conditions. The amplitude of MMN increased with increasing the WM load, which indicated a more engaged change detection process under high-load condition. Then, the amplitude of Novelty-P3 was attenuated under high-load condition, which indicated a much reduced involuntary orienting of attention to novel sounds when increasing the WM load. These results indicated the top-down control of involuntary attention might be mainly active at the early change detection stage and the control of the later involuntary orienting of attention might be passive.