title: Neural basis of processing threatening voices in a crowded auditory world.
abstract: In real world situations, we typically listen to voice prosody against a background crowded with auditory stimuli. Voices and background can both contain behaviorally relevant features and both can be selectively in the focus of attention. Adequate responses to threat-related voices under such conditions require that the brain unmixes reciprocally masked features depending on variable cognitive resources. It is unknown which brain systems instantiate the extraction of behaviorally relevant prosodic features under varying combinations of prosody valence, auditory background complexity and attentional focus. Here, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the effects of high background sound complexity and attentional focus on brain activation to angry and neutral prosody in humans. Results show that prosody effects in mid superior temporal cortex were gated by background complexity but not attention, while prosody effects in the amygdala and anterior superior temporal cortex were gated by attention but not background complexity, suggesting distinct emotional prosody processing limitations in different regions. Crucially, if attention was focused on the highly complex background, the differential processing of emotional prosody was prevented in all brain regions, suggesting that in a distracting, complex auditory world even threatening voices may go unnoticed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University Hospital Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, D-48149 Münster, Germany and.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mothes-Lasch
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University Hospital Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, D-48149 Münster, Germany and.
authors.forename: Michael P I
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Am Steiger 3//1, D-07743 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang H R
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Miltner
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University Hospital Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, D-48149 Münster, Germany and thomas.straube@uni-muenster.de.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Straube
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: amygdala; attentional gating; emotion; fMRI; prosody; temporal cortex