Oscillatory alpha modulations in right auditory regions reflect the validity of acoustic cues in an auditory spatial attention task

Weisz N, Müller N, Jatzev S, Bertrand O (2014)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2014

Journal

Cerebral Cortex Oxford University Press

Book Volume: 24

Pages Range: 2579-2590

Journal Issue: 10

DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bht113

Abstract

Anticipation of targets in the left or right hemifield leads to alpha modulations in posterior brain areas. Recently using magnetoencephalography, we showed increased right auditory alpha activity when attention was cued ipsilaterally. Here, we investigated the issue how cue validity itself influences oscillatory alpha activity. Acoustic cues were presented either to the right or left ear, followed by a compound dichotically presented target plus distractor. The preceding cue was either informative (75% validity) or uninformative (50%) about the location of the upcoming target. Cue validity×siderelated alpha modulations were identified in pre- And posttarget periods in a right lateralized network, comprising auditory and nonauditory regions. This replicates and extends our previous finding of the right hemispheric dominance of auditory attentional modulations. Importantly, effective connectivity analysis showed that, in the pretarget period, this effect is accompanied by a pronounced and timevarying connectivity pattern of the right auditory cortex to the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS), with influence of IPS on superior temporal gyrus dominating at earlier intervals of the cue- Target period. Our study underlines the assumption that alpha oscillations may play a similar functional role in auditory cortical regions as reported in other sensory modalities and suggests that these effects may be mediated via IPS.

Authors with CRIS profile

Nadia Müller-Voggel

Involved external institutions

Lyon Neuroscience Research Center FR France (FR) Università degli Studi di Trento IT Italy (IT) Universität Konstanz DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Weisz, N., Müller, N., Jatzev, S., & Bertrand, O. (2014). Oscillatory alpha modulations in right auditory regions reflect the validity of acoustic cues in an auditory spatial attention task. Cerebral Cortex, 24(10), 2579-2590. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht113

MLA:

Weisz, Nathan, et al. "Oscillatory alpha modulations in right auditory regions reflect the validity of acoustic cues in an auditory spatial attention task." Cerebral Cortex 24.10 (2014): 2579-2590.

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