title: Neural correlates of attention and streaming in a perceptually multistable auditory illusion.
abstract: In a complex acoustic environment, acoustic cues and attention interact in the formation of streams within the auditory scene. In this study, a variant of the "octave illusion" [Deutsch (1974). Nature 251, 307-309] was used to investigate the neural correlates of auditory streaming, and to elucidate the effects of attention on the interaction between sequential and concurrent sound segregation in humans. By directing subjects' attention to different frequencies and ears, it was possible to elicit several different illusory percepts with the identical stimulus. The first experiment tested the hypothesis that the illusion depends on the ability of listeners to perceptually stream the target tones from within the alternating sound sequences. In the second experiment, concurrent psychophysical measures and electroencephalography recordings provided neural correlates of the various percepts elicited by the multistable stimulus. The results show that the perception and neural correlates of the auditory illusion can be manipulated robustly by attentional focus and that the illusion is constrained in much the same way as auditory stream segregation, suggesting common underlying mechanisms.
authors: Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8EE, United Kingdom.
authors: Anahita H
authors: AH
authors: Mehta
authors: Department of Computer Science, University College London, 66-72 Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
authors: Ifat
authors: I
authors: Yasin
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
authors: Andrew J
authors: AJ
authors: Oxenham
authors: Institute for Systems Research, 2203 A.V. Williams Building, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.
authors: Shihab
authors: S
authors: Shamma
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001303:Auditory Cortex; D001307:Auditory Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult