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Probing the sensory effects of involuntary attention change by ERP s to auditory transients
Author(s) -
Horváth János
Publication year - 2014
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.12187
Subject(s) - distraction , psychology , sensory system , audiology , task (project management) , set (abstract data type) , cognitive psychology , sensory processing , event related potential , mismatch negativity , selective auditory attention , auditory stimuli , selective attention , perception , electroencephalography , neuroscience , cognition , computer science , medicine , management , economics , programming language
An auditory selective attention set allows one to enhance the processing of goal‐relevant sound events, which is reflected by the enhancement of the N 1 event‐related potential ( ERP ). The present study investigated whether the sensory consequences of distraction (i.e., involuntary attention changes triggered by infrequent sensory events) can be revealed as the removal of this attentional ERP enhancement. Continuous tones featuring occasional gaps were presented, and participants performed a gap‐detection task. Independently from gaps, abrupt pitch changes (glides) were introduced, either rarely or frequently, in separate conditions. Whereas rare glides preceding gaps by 150 ms strongly impacted gap‐detection performance and gap‐related N 1 amplitudes, their impact on gaps following rare glides by 650 ms was significantly smaller in both measures. This result demonstrates the utility of N 1 in probing the sensory impact of auditory distraction.