title: Attention and cognitive control: unfolding the dichotic listening story.
abstract: In this article we present a theoretical approach to cognitive control and attention modulation, as well as review studies related to such a view, using an auditory task based on dichotic presentations of simple consonant-vowel syllables. The reviewed work comes out of joint research efforts by the 'Attention-node' at the 'Nordic Center of Excellence in Cognitive Control'. We suggest a new way of defining degrees of cognitive control based on systematically varying the stimulus intensity of the right or left ear dichotic stimulus, thus parametrically varying the degree of stimulus interference and conflict when assessing the amount of cognitive control necessary to resolve the interference. We first present an overview and review of previous studies using the so-called "forced-attention" dichotic listening paradigm. We then present behavioral and neuroimaging data to explore the suggested cognitive control model, with examples from normal adults, clinical and special ability groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Medical Psychology/Cognitive NeuroScience Group, University of Bergen, Norway. hugdahl@psybp.uib.no
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hugdahl
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Westerhausen
authors.forename: Kimmo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alho
authors.forename: Svyatoslav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Medvedev
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Laine
authors.forename: Heikki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hämäläinen
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006613:Higher Nervous Activity; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging