Attention modulates activity in the primary and the secondary auditory cortex: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in human subjects

doi:10.1016/S0304-3940(99)00288-8

Neuroscience Letters

Volume 266, Issue 2, 7 May 1999, Pages 125-128

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3940(99)00288-8 Get rights and content

Abstract

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, ten healthy subjects were scanned whilst listening to consonant-vowel syllables under three different conditions: (i) a ‘no-attention’ condition required subjects to ignore the stimuli; (ii) an ‘attend’ condition requiring attentive listening to stimuli; (iii) a ‘detect’ condition requiring detection of a specific target syllable. Hemodynamic responses were measured in the primary and secondary auditory cortex. These three conditions were associated with significantly different activations in the primary and secondary auditory cortex. The strongest activations were found for the ‘detect’ condition, followed by the ‘attend’ condition. The weakest activation was evident during the ‘no-attention’ condition. There were also stronger activitations in the left hemisphere and within the primary auditory cortex. These results suggest that the primary and secondary auditory cortex play a main role in the selective attention.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG JA 737/5–1). The guest scientist (L.J.) would like to thank the Research Center Jülich for providing the facilities that made this work possible.

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Attention modulates activity in the primary and the secondary auditory cortex: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in human subjects

Abstract

Section snippets

Acknowledgements

Brain Res. Cogn. Brain Res.

Brain Res. Cogn. Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

Brain Lang.

Neuroimage

Neuroimage

Human brain language areas identified by functional magnetic resonance imaging

J. Neurosci.

Are we aware of neural activity in primary visual cortex? (see comments)

Nature

Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: a general linear approach

Hum. Brain Mapping