Effects of transient spatial attention on auditory event-related potentials.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in subjects receiving left- and right-ear tones while they shifted attention to the left or right on a trial-by-trial basis. ERPs at attended compared with unattended tones revealed an enhanced negativity consisting of an early part that was parietally distributed and a later part with a frontocentral distribution. It may be concluded that these ERP modulations reflect the selection of auditory stimuli according to spatial criteria within a transient spatial attention situation. Furthermore, the attention-related negativity was not reduced for long inter-stimulus intervals (10 s) suggesting that prior stimulus exposure is not a basic requirement for eliciting attention-related negativity in the auditory modality.
Institute of Psychology, University of Munich, Germany.
E
E
Schröger
M
M
Eimer
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*