Neurophysiology of Attention and Memory Processing

The “standard cocktail party” description of hearing voices in a crowded environment and being able to tune in to a conversation in which the person quickly identifies his or her name being mentioned may seem simple on the surface because people and animals can be conditioned to respond to important signals. However, Cherry’s 1953 cocktail party example is compelling and often used because it invokes many processes ubiquitous to auditory processing, such as frequency encoding and stream segregation to attention and memory. One must remember the sound of his or her own name and be able to separate that specific sound from the other sounds that are translated into background noise in reference to the attended source. Responses to well-known signals, such as names, are the product of experience-induced plasticity located many places along the auditory pathway. This translation into the unique processing of a specific stimulus is an example of long-term memory in the auditory system. This evoked response to names is not only an example of long-term memory in the auditory system, but it also engenders attention to the conversation where it originated, bringing in working and short-term memory as well. The following sections discuss what is known of the cortical processing related to auditory attention and memory.