title: Supramodal executive control of attention.
abstract: The human attentional system can be subdivided into three functional networks of alerting, orienting, and executive control. Although these networks have been extensively studied in the visuospatial modality, whether the same mechanisms are deployed across different sensory modalities remains unclear. In this study we used the attention network test for the visuospatial modality, in addition to two auditory variants with spatial and frequency manipulations to examine cross-modal correlations between network functions. Results showed that among the visual and auditory tasks, the effects of executive control, but not effects of alerting and orienting, were significantly correlated. These findings suggest that while alerting and orienting functions rely more upon modality-specific processes, the executive control of attention coordinates complex behavior via supramodal mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, NY USA.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spagna
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, NY USA ; The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY USA.
authors.forename: Melissa-Ann
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mackie
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, NY USA ; The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY USA ; Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA ; Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY USA.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
keywords: alerting; attentional networks; auditory attention; executive control; orienting; visual attention