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The Journal of Neuroscience, September 26, 2007, 27(39):10383-10390; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2963-07.2007

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Attention Improves Population-Level Frequency Tuning in Human Auditory Cortex

Hidehiko Okamoto,^1 * Henning Stracke,^1 * Carsten H. Wolters,¹ Frank Schmael,² and Christo Pantev¹

¹Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, and ²Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital, University of Muenster, 48149 Muenster, Germany

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Christo Pantev, Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, Westfalian Wilhelms-University Muenster, Malmedyweg 15, 48149 Muenster, Germany. Email: pantev{at}uni-muenster.de

Attention improves auditory performance in noisy environments by either enhancing the processing of task-relevant stimuli ("gain"), suppressing task-irrelevant information ("sharpening"), or both. In the present study, we investigated the effect of focused auditory attention on the population-level frequency tuning in human auditory cortex by means of magnetoencephalography. Using complex stimuli consisting of a test tone superimposed on different band-eliminated noises during active listening or distracted listening conditions, we observed that focused auditory attention caused not only gain, but also sharpening of frequency tuning in human auditory cortex as reflected by the N1m auditory evoked response. This combination of gain and sharpening in the auditory cortex may contribute to better auditory performance during focused auditory attention.

Key words: attention; gain; sharpening; lateral inhibition; human auditory cortex; magnetoencephalography; MEG

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Received Feb. 15, 2007; revised Aug. 3, 2007; accepted Aug. 6, 2007.

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Christo Pantev, Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, Westfalian Wilhelms-University Muenster, Malmedyweg 15, 48149 Muenster, Germany. Email: pantev{at}uni-muenster.de

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. Okamoto, H. Stracke, R. Draganova, and C. Pantev Hemispheric Asymmetry of Auditory Evoked Fields Elicited by Spectral versus Temporal Stimulus Change Cereb Cortex, October 1, 2009; 19(10): 2290 - 2297. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				H. Stracke, H. Okamoto, and C. Pantev Interhemispheric Support during Demanding Auditory Signal-in-Noise Processing Cereb Cortex, June 1, 2009; 19(6): 1440 - 1447. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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