Brain electric activity for active inhibition of auditory irrelevant information

We applied high resolution event-related potentials (ERPs) to assess brain activities associated with inhibition of irrelevant information processing during auditory selective attention. Ten healthy subjects performed an auditory selective attention task. ERPs in response to standard stimuli delivered to the unattended ear (irrelevant stimuli) and those delivered to the attended ear (relevant stimuli) were evaluated using temporally sequential scalp current density (SCD) mappings. For the irrelevant stimuli, current sources were located in the mid-frontal regions at 140-220 ms post-stimuli, and these SCD values were significantly larger than those for the relevant stimuli. These results suggest that auditory selective attention process involves not only focusing attention on relevant information, but also inhibitory processing of irrelevant information mediated by the frontal cortex.

[1]  J. Cohen,et al.  Dissociating the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex in cognitive control. , 2000, Science.

[2]  L. Deecke,et al.  Neuroimage of Voluntary Movement: Topography of the Bereitschaftspotential, a 64-Channel DC Current Source Density Study , 1999, NeuroImage.

[3]  F. Perrin,et al.  Spherical splines for scalp potential and current density mapping. , 1989, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[4]  C. M Gómez,et al.  Preparatory visuo-motor cortical network of the contingent negative variation estimated by current density , 2003, NeuroImage.

[5]  A. Iwanami,et al.  Neuropsychiatry and the auditory selective attention process , 2001 .

[6]  A. Iwanami,et al.  Electrophysiological evidence for sequential activation of multiple brain regions during the auditory selective attention process in humans. , 1999, Neuroreport.

[7]  A. Iwanami,et al.  Impaired suppression of processing in schizophrenic patients suggested by ERPs obtained in a selective attention task , 2001, Schizophrenia Research.

[8]  R. Näätänen.  Attention and brain function , 1992 .

[9]  F. Perrin,et al.  Mapping of scalp potentials by surface spline interpolation. , 1987, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[10]  H Feldmann,et al.  Objective evidence of tinnitus in auditory evoked magnetic fields , 1989, Hearing Research.

[11]  Herman A. Jenkins,et al.  Electrophysiologic Evaluation in Otolaryngology , 1997 .

[12]  O Bertrand,et al.  Scalp current density fields: concept and properties. , 1988, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[13]  Lutz Jäncke,et al.  Attention modulates activity in the primary and the secondary auditory cortex: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in human subjects , 1999, Neuroscience Letters.

[14]  Olivier Bertrand,et al.  Scalp Current Density Mapping: Value and Estimation from Potential Data , 1987, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[15]  Patricia T. Michie,et al.  The nature of selective attention effects on auditory event-related potentials , 1990, Biological Psychology.

[16]  R. C. Oldfield.  The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. , 1971, Neuropsychologia.

[17]  R. Ilmoniemi,et al.  Processing of novel sounds and frequency changes in the human auditory cortex: magnetoencephalographic recordings. , 1998, Psychophysiology.

[18]  Impairment of inhibition of unattended stimuli in schizophrenic patients: event-related potential correlates during selective attention. , 1996, Neuropsychobiology.

[19]  D L Woods,et al.  Scalp topographies dissociate N1 and Nd components during auditory selective attention. , 1987, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology. Supplement.

[20]  J. Decety.  Do imagined and executed actions share the same neural substrate? , 1996, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[21]  W. Neill,et al.  Inhibitory and facilitatory processes in selective attention. , 1977 .

[22]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Electrical Signs of Selective Attention in the Human Brain , 1973, Science.

[23]  N. Kraus,et al.  Hearing as reflected by middle and long latency event-related potentials. , 1997, Advances in oto-rhino-laryngology.

[24]  M. Tervaniemi,et al.  Selective tuning of the left and right auditory cortices during spatially directed attention. , 1999, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[25]  R Näätänen,et al.  Brain mechanism of selective listening reflected by event-related potentials. , 1987, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[26]  A. Iwanami,et al.  Impaired cortical network for preattentive detection of change in speech sounds in schizophrenia: a high-resolution event-related potential study. , 2002, The American journal of psychiatry.