title: Effects of sound location on visual task performance and electrophysiological measures of distraction.
abstract: Novel sounds embedded in a repetitive stream of auditory stimuli impair performance of the visual task at hand. Parmentier et al. suggested that this distraction effect might be because of the shifting cost of moving attention from the task-irrelevant (auditory) to the task-relevant (visual) channel, or from their shifting of spatial locations. Here, the source location of the sounds in an audio-visual distraction paradigm was varied systematically (headphones and 0, -18, -72, 18, and 72 degrees), and the results revealed significant distracting effects of novel sounds occurring in the headphone and the right location conditions. This supports the assumption that in the behavioral cost observed in the audio-visual distraction paradigm a spatial shift of attention is involved.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group, Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
authors.forename: Maria-Jose
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Corral
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Escera
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004594:Electrophysiology / Q000379:methods*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*