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Combined Use of Microreflexes and Event‐Related Brain Potentials as Measures of Auditory Selective Attention
Author(s) -
Hackley Steven A.,
Woldorff Marty,
Hillyard Steven A.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1987.tb00343.x
Subject(s) - psychology , audiology , brainstem , efferent , dichotic listening , reflex , event related potential , midbrain , neuroscience , electroencephalography , central nervous system , afferent , medicine
Two versions of a selective listening experiment were conducted in an attempt to specify the level of the nervous system at which selective attention first influences auditory information processing. Post‐auricular reflexes (PARs), preputse inhibition of reflexes, and the N1 component of the event‐related potential (ERP) were measured concurrently to assess auditory processing in the hindbrain. midbrain. and forebrain. respectively. Sequences of intense, reflex‐eliciting tones were presented to the two ears in random order and at a rapid rate as subjects listened to a designated ear to detect rare tones of slightly lower intensity. The ERPs showed the typical enhancement of early and late negativity (Nd) to attended car tunes, with the early Nd overlapping the evoked N1 component. Although there was an overall effect of attention direction on the efferent limb of the post‐auricular reflex, no effect of selective attention on the afferent limb was observed. A selective sensory attentional effect was found for prepulse inhibition of the post‐auricular reflex: Inhibition of PAR amplitude was enhanced when the immediately preceding tone was in the attended ear relative to when it was in the unattended ear. These results, together with findings from prior studies of reflexes and ERPs. indicate that evoked auditorv activity in the lower brainstem is obligatory and invariant with attention, whereas later activity mediated in the upper brainstem can be modulated by attention.