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The N 1 effect of temporal attention is independent of sound location and intensity: Implications for possible mechanisms of temporal attention
Author(s) -
Lange Kathrin
Publication year - 2012
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.1469-8986.2012.01460.x
Subject(s) - psychology , sensory system , intensity (physics) , perception , cognitive psychology , sound intensity , auditory stimuli , sound (geography) , audiology , communication , neuroscience , acoustics , physics , quantum mechanics , medicine
It has been repeatedly shown that the auditory N 1 is enhanced for sounds presented at an attended time point. The present study investigated the underlying mechanisms using a temporal cuing paradigm. In each trial, an auditory cue indicated at which time point a second sound could be relevant for response selection. Crucially, in addition to temporal attention, two physical sound features with known effects on the sensory N 1 were manipulated: location and intensity. Positive evidence for conjoint effects of attention and location or attention and intensity would corroborate the notion that the sensory N 1 was modulated by temporal attention, thus supporting a gain mechanism. However, the N 1 effect of temporal attention was not similarly lateralized as the sensory N 1, and, moreover, it was independent of sound intensity. Thus, the present results do not provide compelling evidence that temporal attention involves an increase in sensory gain.