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Original Research ARTICLE

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Neural mechanisms of intermodal sustained selective attention with concurrently presented auditory and visual stimuli

Institute of Psychology I, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
We investigated intermodal attention effects on the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) and the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP). For this purpose, 40-Hz amplitude-modulated tones and a stream of flickering (7.5 Hz) random letters were presented concurrently. By means of an auditory or visual target detection task, participants’ attention was directed to the respective modality for several seconds. Attention to the auditory stream led to a significant enhancement of the ASSR compared to when the visual stream was attended. This attentional modulation was located mainly in the right superior temporal gyrus. Vice versa, attention to the visual stream especially increased the second harmonic response of the SSVEP. This modulation was focused in the inferior occipital and lateral occipitotemporal gyrus of both hemispheres. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of amplitude modulation of the ASSR and the SSVEP by intermodal sustained attention. Our results open a new avenue of research to understand the basic neural mechanisms of intermodal attention in the human brain.
Keywords:
human EEG, ASSR, SSVEP, sustained attention, intermodal, supramodal
Citation:
Saupe K, Schröger E, Andersen SK and Müller MM (2009. Neural mechanisms of intermodal sustained selective attention with concurrently presented auditory and visual stimuli. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 3:58. doi: 10.3389/neuro.09.058.2009
Received:
07 May 2009;
 Paper pending published:
20 August 2009;
Accepted:
15 November 2009;
 Published online:
30 November 2009.

Edited by:

Olivier Bertrand, Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, France; Lyon I University, France

Reviewed by:

Alexander Gutschalk, Universität Heidelberg, Germany
Diego J. Cosmelli, Pontifi cia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
Copyright:
© 2009 Saupe, Schröger, Andersen and Müller. This is an open-access article subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
*Correspondence:
Katja Saupe, BioCog – Cognitive & Biological Psychology, Institute of Psychology I, University of Leipzig, Seeburgstrasse 14-20, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. e-mail: saupe@uni-leipzig.de
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