Multisensory object based attention
Single Paper Presentation

Sophie Molholm
Program in Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia, Nathan Kline Institute

Antigona Martinez
Program in Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia, Nathan Kline Institute

Marina Shpaner
Program in Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia, Nathan Kline Institute

Pierfilippo De Sanctis
Program in Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia, Nathan Kline Institute

John Foxe
Program in Cognitive Neuroscience and Schizophrenia, Nathan Kline Institute

     Abstract ID Number: 126
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 17, 2006
     Presentation date: 06/20/2006 10:00 AM in Hamilton Building, Foyer
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Selective attention to an object allows for the preferential processing of relevant information over other information, serving to protect limited capacity higher-order functions. In the visual domain, selective attention to one part of an object results in preferential processing of other parts of the same object, even when they are task irrelevant. We tested if this within-object spread of attention occurs across the senses, such that attending to an object in one sensory modality results in enhanced processing of that object’s features within another sensory modality. Visual, auditory, and visual-auditory objects were presented while subjects selectively attended to one of the objects in either the visual or auditory sensory modality. High-density recordings of electrical brain activity were made, and the selective attention components the visual SN and auditory PN were examined. A PN was elicited by auditory stimuli during visual attention, showing that the relevant object received preferential processing even when it was presented in the task-irrelevant sensory modality. However, there was no SN to visual stimuli during auditory attention. These data show that attention to an object in one sensory modality influences processing of the object in other, unattended, sensory modalities. However, this multisensory spread of attention is asymmetrical.