Abstract:
To effectively process the most relevant information, the brain anticipates the optimal timing for allocating attentional resources. Behavior can be optimized by automatically aligning attention with external rhythmic structures, whether visual or auditory. Although the auditory modality is known for its efficacy in representing temporal information, the current body of research has not conclusively determined whether visual or auditory rhythmic presentations have a definitive advantage in entraining temporal attention. The present study directly examined the effects of auditory and visual rhythmic cues on the discrimination of visual targets in Experiment 1 and on auditory targets in Experiment 2. Additionally, the role of endogenous spatial attention was also considered. When and where the target was the most likely to occur were cued by unimodal (visual or auditory) and bimodal (audiovisual) signals. A sequence of salient events was employed to elicit rhythm-based temporal expectations and a symbolic predictive cue served to orient spatial attention. The results suggest a superiority of auditory over visual rhythms, irrespective of spatial attention, whether the spatial cue and rhythm converge or not (unimodal or bimodal), and regardless of the target modality (visual or auditory). These findings are discussed in terms of a modality-specific rhythmic orienting, while considering a single, supramodal system operating in a top-down manner for endogenous spatial attention.
摘要:
为了有效地处理最相关的信息,大脑预测分配注意力资源的最佳时机。行为可以通过自动将注意力与外部节奏结构对齐来优化,无论是视觉还是听觉。尽管听觉模态以其表示时间信息的功效而闻名,目前的研究还没有最终确定视觉或听觉节奏表现在引起时间注意力方面是否具有明确的优势。本研究直接检查了听觉和视觉节奏线索对实验1中视觉目标辨别和实验2中听觉目标的影响。此外,还考虑了内源性空间注意力的作用。目标最有可能发生的时间和地点由单峰(视觉或听觉)和双峰(视听)信号提示。一系列重要事件被用来引发基于节奏的时间期望,而符号预测线索则用于定向空间注意力。结果表明听觉优于视觉节奏,不管空间注意力,无论空间线索和节奏是否收敛(单峰或双峰),并且不考虑目标模态(视觉或听觉)。这些发现是根据特定于模态的节奏取向进行讨论的,在考虑单身时,超模态系统以自上而下的方式运行,以实现内源性空间注意力。