title: Activation of brain mechanisms of attention switching as a function of auditory frequency change.
abstract: The activation of the cerebral network underlying involuntary attention switching was studied as a function of the magnitude of auditory change. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the performance of a visual discrimination task in which task-irrelevant auditory frequency changes of six different levels (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 40% and 80%) occurred randomly within the same stimulus sequence. All the frequency changes elicited a typical ERP waveform, characterized by MMN, P3a and RON, their respective amplitudes increasing linearly as a function of the magnitude of change. The results indicate that attentional processes in the brain may follow a linear function of activation, contrasting with the well-established logarithmic functions underlying perceptual and psychophysical processes.
authors.affiliation: Neurodynamics Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, P. Vall d'Hebron 171, 08035-Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yago
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Corral
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Escera
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011601:Psychophysics; D012044:Regression Analysis