Abstract
The mechanisms of selective verbal attention were studied under conditions of simultaneous delivery of speech signals via the visual and auditory channels. The investigation was based on the comparison and synthesis of data obtained by two methods: positron emission tomography (PET) and brain evoked potentials (EPs). A new approach was developed: complementary tasks were constructed in such a way that, despite principal methodological problems, the same phenomenon could be investigated in one paradigm in EP and PET studies. The results obtained by the two methods are in rather good agreement with respect to topography: the secondary and tertiary areas, as well as the associative brain areas, are involved in attention concentration, that is, selection of verbal information occurs at the level of cognitive processes. The combination of two complementary methods, PET and EP, allowed the processes of processing of sensory information and brain mechanisms of selective attention to be investigated much more completely. The PET studies contributed to further understanding of brain mechanisms evidencing where processing occurs and the EP method provided insight into the mechanism of how this information is processed inside the corresponding cortical areas. The finding that the activation of primary areas of the visual cortex is accompanied by the inhibition of visual information deserves attention. This conclusion can be considered highly significant because of the concordance of the two independent methods. How to interpret it is not yet clear. It is possible that, in the case of primary importance of verbal information and priority of the visual channel for the repression from consciousness of artificially irrelevant information, a safety mechanism is activated: the amplified signal enters the brain cortex, where it is retained in the short-term “iconic” memory. This enables a reaction to this stimulus (if necessary), in the presence of any additional sign involving selective attention.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
de Ruiter, M.B., Kok, A., and van der Schoot, M., Effects of Inter-and Intramodal Selective Attention to Nonspatial Visual Stimuli: An Event-related Potential Analysis, Biol. Psychol., 1998, vol. 49, p. 268.
Posner, M.I. and Raichle, M.E., Images of Mind, N.Y.: Scientific American Library, 1994.
Fox, P.T., Mintun, M.A., Raichle, M.E., and Hercovitch, P., A Noninvasive Approach to Quantitative Functional Brain Mapping with H215O and Positron Emission Tomography, J. Cerebral Blood Flow Metab., 1984, vol. 4, p. 329.
Friston, E.J., Holmes, A.P., Worsley, E. J., et al., Statistical Parametric Maps in Functional Imaging: a General Linear Approach, Human Brain Map., 1995, vol. 2, p. 189.
O'Leary, D., Andreasen, N.C., Hurtig, R.R., et al., A Positron Emission Tomography Study of Binaurally and Dichotica1ly Presented Stimuli: Effects of Level of Language and Directed Attention, Brain Lang., 1996, vol. 53, p. 20.
O'Leary, D., Andreasen, N.C., Hurtig, R.R., et al., Auditory and Visual Attention Assessed with PET, Human Brain Map., 1997, vol. 5, p. 422.
Tzourio, N.E., Massioui, F., Crivello, F., et al., Functional Anatomy of Human Auditory Attention Studied with PET, NeuroImage, 1997, vol. 5, p. 63.
Roland, P.E., Cortical Regulation of Selective Attention in Man. A Regional Cerebral Blood Flow Study, J. Neurophysiol., 1982, vol. 48, p. 1059.
Ivanitskii, A.M., Streletz, V.B., and Korsakov, I.A., Informatsionnye protsessy mozga i psikhicheskaya deyatel'nost' (Informational Brain Processes and Mental Activity), Moscow: Nauka, 1984.
Petersen, S.E., Fox, P.T., Snyder, A.Z., and Raichle, M.E., Activation of Extrastriate and Frontal Cortical Areas in Visual Words and Word-like Stimuli, Science, 1990, vol. 249, p. 1041.
Magnun, G.R. and Hillyard, S.A., Spatial Gradients of Visual Attention: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence, Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol., 1988, vol. 70, p. 417.
Clark, C.R. Moores, K.A., Lewis, A., et al., Cortical Network Dynamics during Verbal Working Memory Function, Int. J. Pshychophysiol., 2001, vol. 42, no. 2, p. 161.
Jemel, B., George, N., Olivares, E., et al., Event-related Potentials to Structural Face Incongruity Processing, Psychophysiology, 1999, vol. 35, p. 437.
McPherson, W.B. and Holcomb, P.J., An Electrophysiological Investigation of Semantic Priming With Pictures of Real Objects, Psychophysiology, 1999, vol. 36, p. 53.
Kutas, M. and Hillyard, S.A., Event-related Brain Potentials to Semantically Inappropriate and Surprisingly Large Words, Biol. Psychol., 1980, vol. 11, p. 99.
Kutas, M. and Hillyard, S.A., Brain Potentials During Reading Reflect Word Expectancy and Semantic Association, Nature, 1984, vol. 307, p. 161.
Paller, K.A., Kutas, M., and Mayes, A.R., Neural Correlates of Encoding in the Incidental Learning Paradigm, Electroencephalogragr. Clin. Neurophysiol., 1987, vol. 67, p. 360.
Fabiani, M. and Donchin, E., Encoding Process and Memory Organization: A Model of the Von Rostorff Effect, J. Experim. Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 1995, vol. 21, p. 224.
Rugg, M.D., Mark, R.E., Walla, P., et al., Dissociation of Neural Correlates of Implicit and Explicit Memory, Nature, 1998, vol. 392/9, p. 595.
Vargha-Khadem, F., Gadian, D.G., and Mishkin, M., Dissociation in Cognitive Memory: the Syndrom of Developmental Amnesia, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B., 2001, vol. 356, p. 1435.
Debruille, J.B., Pineda, J., and Renault, B., N400-like Potentials Elicited by Faces and Knowledge Inhibition, Cogn. Brain. Res., 1996, vol. 4, p. 133.
Edelman, G.M. and Tononi, G., Consciousness. How matter becomes imagination, London: Penguin books, 2000.
Posner, M.I., Chronometric Explorations of Mind. Hills-dale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 1978.
Buckner, R.L., Petersen, S.E., Ojemann, J.G., et al., Functional Anatomical Study of Explicit and Implicit Memory Retrieval Tasks, J. Neurosci., 1995, vol. 15, p. 12.
Corbetta, M., Miezin, F.M., Dobmeyer, S., et al., Selective and Divided Attention during Visual Discrimination of Shape, Color, and Speed: Functional Anatomy by Positron Emission Tomography, J. Neurosci., 1991, vol. 11, p. 2383.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Medvedev, S.V., Rudas, M.S., Pakhomov, S.V. et al. Mechanisms of Selective Attention during Competitive Discrimination of Visual and Auditory Verbal Information: Positron Emission Tomography and Cortical Evoked Potential Studies. Human Physiology 29, 694–702 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HUMP.0000008840.16235.c8
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:HUMP.0000008840.16235.c8