title: Event-related potential study of attention capture by affective sounds.
abstract: Affective pictures trigger attentional responses in humans but very little is known about the processing of affective environmental sounds. Here, we used an oddball event-related potential paradigm to determine the saliency of unpleasant sounds presented among affectively neutral sounds. Participants performed a one-back task while listening to pseudo-randomized sound sequences comprising 70% neutral sounds, 15% unpleasant sounds of matched peak intensity, and 15% louder neutral sounds. Louder neutral sounds elicited a larger N1 component and a significant P3a variation with a central distribution. Unpleasant sounds did not affect early components but elicited a significant frontocentral P3a modulation. We conclude that affective environmental sounds spontaneously capture human attention but fail to modulate early perceptual processing when sound peak intensity is controlled.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK. g.thierry@bangor.ac.uk
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thierry
authors.forename: Mark V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests