title: Task-dependent neural representations of salient events in dynamic auditory scenes.
abstract: Selecting pertinent events in the cacophony of sounds that impinge on our ears every day is regulated by the acoustic salience of sounds in the scene as well as their behavioral relevance as dictated by top-down task-dependent demands. The current study aims to explore the neural signature of both facets of attention, as well as their possible interactions in the context of auditory scenes. Using a paradigm with dynamic auditory streams with occasional salient events, we recorded neurophysiological responses of human listeners using EEG while manipulating the subjects' attentional state as well as the presence or absence of a competing auditory stream. Our results showed that salient events caused an increase in the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) irrespective of attentional state or complexity of the scene. Such increase supplemented ASSR increases due to task-driven attention. Salient events also evoked a strong N1 peak in the ERP response when listeners were attending to the target sound stream, accompanied by an MMN-like component in some cases and changes in the P1 and P300 components under all listening conditions. Overall, bottom-up attention induced by a salient change in the auditory stream appears to mostly modulate the amplitude of the steady-state response and certain event-related potentials to salient sound events; though this modulation is affected by top-down attentional processes and the prominence of these events in the auditory scene as well.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Audio Perception, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Center for Speech and Language Processing, Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shuai
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Computational Audio Perception, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Center for Speech and Language Processing, Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Mounya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elhilali
keywords: attention; auditory scene; bottom-up; stead-state response; top-down
references.citation: Biol Cybern. 2014 Oct;108(5):655-63
references.pmid: 24477619
references.citation: Psychophysiology. 2012 Nov;49(11):1454-63
references.pmid: 22971105
references.citation: Neuron. 2012 Jan 12;73(1):183-92
references.pmid: 22243756
references.citation: J Vis. 2013 Jul 17;13(3):16
references.pmid: 23863334
references.citation: Science. 2007 Mar 30;315(5820):1860-2
references.pmid: 17395832
references.citation: J Acoust Soc Am. 1999 Nov;106(5):2719-32
references.pmid: 10573888
references.citation: Psychol Bull. 1999 Nov;125(6):826-59
references.pmid: 10589304
references.citation: Ear Hear. 2005 Apr;26(2):195-213
references.pmid: 15809545
references.citation: Trends Cogn Sci. 2009 Dec;13(12):532-40
references.pmid: 19828357
references.citation: Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1974 Feb;36(2):191-9
references.pmid: 4129631
references.citation: Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1995 Oct;95(4):277-92
references.pmid: 8529559
references.citation: J Speech Lang Hear Res. 1999 Apr;42(2):271-86
references.pmid: 10229446
references.citation: J Neurosci Methods. 2004 Mar 15;134(1):9-21
references.pmid: 15102499
references.citation: Exp Brain Res. 1980;40(2):237-40
references.pmid: 7428878
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2007 Aug 29;27(35):9252-61
references.pmid: 17728439
references.citation: Psychophysiology. 2010 Jan 1;47(1):66-122
references.pmid: 19686538
references.citation: PLoS One. 2011 Jan 18;6(1):e14543
references.pmid: 21267081
references.citation: Neuroimage. 2012 Jan 16;59(2):1932-41
references.pmid: 21945789
references.citation: Comput Intell Neurosci. 2011;2011:156869
references.pmid: 21253357
references.citation: Clin Neurophysiol. 2009 Mar;120(3):453-63
references.pmid: 19181570
references.citation: Neuroscientist. 2014 Oct;20(5):509-21
references.pmid: 24362813
references.citation: Front Hum Neurosci. 2009 Feb 18;3:1
references.pmid: 19255629
references.citation: Adv Cogn Psychol. 2008 Jul 15;3(1-2):289-306
references.pmid: 20517515
references.citation: Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2007 Aug;17(4):437-55
references.pmid: 17714933
references.citation: Hear Res. 2007 Jul;229(1-2):186-203
references.pmid: 17329048
references.citation: PLoS One. 2013 Jul 09;8(7):e69164
references.pmid: 23874901
references.citation: PLoS Biol. 2009 Jun;7(6):e1000129
references.pmid: 19529760
references.citation: Trends Cogn Sci. 2000 Nov 1;4(11):432-440
references.pmid: 11058821
references.citation: Cereb Cortex. 2004 Jul;14(7):731-40
references.pmid: 15054052
references.citation: J Cogn Neurosci. 2005 Apr;17(4):605-22
references.pmid: 15829081
references.citation: BMC Neurosci. 2010 Dec 30;11:156
references.pmid: 21192798
references.citation: Hum Brain Mapp. 2014 May;35(5):2265-84
references.pmid: 23900833
references.citation: Acta Psychol (Amst). 1978 Jul;42(4):313-29
references.pmid: 685709
references.citation: J Vis. 2008 May 07;8(5):1.1-18
references.pmid: 18842072
references.citation: Biol Psychol. 1979 Mar;8(2):81-136
references.pmid: 465623
references.citation: J Neurophysiol. 2002 Jan;87(1):516-27
references.pmid: 11784767
references.citation: Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Jul;1(3):351-60
references.pmid: 21808660
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2010 Sep 8;30(36):12084-93
references.pmid: 20826671
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2005 Jun 1;25(22):5382-8
references.pmid: 15930387
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2014 Jan 29;34(5):1963-9
references.pmid: 24478375
references.citation: J Vis. 2013 Dec 16;13(14):
references.pmid: 24344054
references.citation: J Neurosci. 2012 Nov 21;32(47):16953-8
references.pmid: 23175846
references.citation: Biol Psychol. 1996 Mar 8;43(1):41-55
references.pmid: 8739613
references.citation: Clin Neurophysiol. 2007 Dec;118(12):2544-90
references.pmid: 17931964
references.citation: Brain Topogr. 2014 Jul;27(4):527-38
references.pmid: 24218032
references.citation: Hear Res. 2009 Aug;254(1-2):15-24
references.pmid: 19364526