Cross-modal multitasking processing deficits prior to the central bottleneck revealed by event-related potentials

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.05.022

Neuropsychologia

Volume 45, Issue 13, 2007, Pages 3038-3053

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2007.05.022 Get rights and content

Abstract

We investigated whether concurrent processing of a tone (T₁) interferes with early sensory-perceptual processing of a visual target (T₂) in variants of the psychological refractory period paradigm using the event-related potential (ERP) method and 70-channel electroencephalographic recordings. T₁, which required a speeded response, was presented in all trials. In half of the trials, T₁ was followed by a bilateral visual display, T_2, which also required a speeded response. A single T₁–T₂ stimulus onset asynchrony was adjusted dynamically to maximize task overlap in a hard-Task₁ condition while minimizing task overlap in an easy-Task₁ condition. The ERP to T₁ in trials with only T₁ presented (uncontaminated by T₂) enabled us to subtract T₁-related activity from the dual-task T₂-locked ERPs. An attenuation of the T₂-locked occipital N1 was observed in the hard-Task₁ condition, relative to the easy-Task₁ condition, both when T₂ required a discriminative response and a detection response. An attenuation of the visual P1 component was also observed when T₂ required a discriminative response. The N2pc was also attenuated, and the sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN) was delayed, by concurrent processing in the discrimination task. Implications for models of dual-task interference are discussed.

Section snippets

Experiment 1

In this experiment, T₁ was a tone and participants were required to make a speeded 4-alternative discriminative choice response (by button press) to indicate the pitch of T₁ (200, 430, 926, or 2000 Hz). It has been demonstrated that when four tone frequencies arrayed from low to high are mapped to four response keys arrayed from left to right, the mean response times to the highest and lowest frequencies are shorter then those of the middle frequencies, and that this difficulty effect, when

Experiment 2

In Experiment 1, T₂ required a speeded 4-alternative discrimination response. Experiment 2 investigated whether the occipital N1 effect observed in Experiment 1 would also be present if Task₂ was a speeded detection task rather than a discrimination task. The main reason to investigate this question is that the presence or absence of a Task₁ difficulty effect on the occipital N1 when T₂ is associated to a detection task as opposed to a discrimination task can help us determine the nature of the

General discussion

The occipital N1 was attenuated when a visual target (T₂) was presented while participants were performing a capacity demanding speeded auditory choice task, both when T₂ was associated to a discrimination task (Experiment 1) and when it was associated to a detection task (Experiment 2). These occipital N1 effects of Task₁ difficulty are the earliest dual-task interference effects ever reported in the context of the PRP paradigm. The time range of the interference (N1: 150–190 ms post-T₂) and

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Université de Montréal awarded to PJ and by an NSERC postgraduate scholarship awarded to BB. We would also like to thank Manon Robert, Nathalie Bouloute, Alexandrine Deland-Bélanger, Hugo Chénier, and Kevin Murphy for helping us with data acquisition, Alexia Ptito, Nicolas Robitaille, and Émilie Leblanc for helpful discussion, and Steve

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Cross-modal multitasking processing deficits prior to the central bottleneck revealed by event-related potentials

Abstract

Section snippets

Experiment 1

Experiment 2

General discussion

Acknowledgments

Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology

Cognitive Psychology

Cortex

Cognitive Psychology

Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology

Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology

Electrophysiological evidence of central interference in the control of visuospatial attention

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

A psychological refractory period in access to visual short-term memory and the deployment of visual-spatial attention: Multitasking processing deficits revealed by event-related potentials

Psychophysiology

Central processing overlap modulates P3 latency

Experimental Brain Research

Spatial attention freezes during the attentional blink

Psychophysiology

Surprise! … Surprise?

Psychophysiology

Attention to features precedes attention to locations in visual search: Evidence from electromagnetic brain responses in humans

The Journal of Neuroscience

Common neural mechanisms for response selection and perceptual processing

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Chronometric evidence for two types of attention

Psychological Science

Modulation of the attentional blink by on-line response selection: Evidence from speeded and unspeeded Task1 decisions

Memory & Cognition

Dual-task interference and visual incoding

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance

Concurrent response-selection demands modulate the attentional blink

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance

Multitasking performance deficits: Forging some links between the attentional blink and the psychological refractory period

On the control of visual spatial attention: Evidence from human electrophysiology

Psychological Research

Attentional control and capture in the attentional blink paradigm: Evidence from human electrophysiology

European Journal of Cognitive Psychology

An event-related brain potential correlate of visual short-term memory

NeuroReport

Sources of dual-task interference: Evidence from human electrophysiology

Psychological Science

An introduction to the event-related potential technique