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Attenuation of auditory ERPs to action‐sound coincidences is not explained by voluntary allocation of attention
Author(s) -
Horváth János
Publication year - 2013
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/psyp.12009
Subject(s) - psychology , tone (literature) , audiology , event related potential , voluntary action , task (project management) , homogeneous , attenuation , coincidence , interval (graph theory) , cognitive psychology , electroencephalography , communication , perception , neuroscience , physics , linguistics , medicine , philosophy , mathematics , management , combinatorics , economics , thermodynamics , alternative medicine , pathology , optics
The event‐related potential ( ERP ) correlates of sound detection are attenuated when eliciting sounds coincide with our own actions. The role of attention in this effect was investigated in two experiments by presenting tones separated by random intervals. In the homogeneous condition of E xperiments 1 and 2, the same tone was repeated, whereas in the mixed condition of E xperiment 1, tones with five different frequencies were presented. Participants performed a time‐interval production task by marking intervals with keypresses in E xperiment 1, and tried to produce keypress‐tone coincidences in E xperiment 2. Although the auditory ERPs were attenuated for coincidences, no modulation by the multiplicity of tone frequencies in E xperiment 1, or by the task‐relevancy of tones and coincidences in E xperiment 2, was found. This suggests that coincidence‐related ERP attenuation cannot be fully explained by voluntary attentional mechanisms.