The effect of spatial selective attention on auditory-somatosensory interactions. A high-density ERP study.
Poster Presentation

Jennifer Montesi
Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Cognitive Neuroscience Department

     Abstract ID Number: 138
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: March 18, 2006
     Presentation date: 06/20/2006 10:00 AM in Hamilton Building, Foyer
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
The aim of this experiment was to determine whether selectively attending to stimuli on one side of space produces the early Auditory-Somatosensory multisensory interaction effect and eliminates or reduces this effect on the unattended side.

The stimuli consisted of vibrations delivered to the tip of the index and the middle finger of the right or the left hand. The auditory stimuli were vibratory sounds delivered through speakers that were spatially aligned with the hand positions. This was done to maintain maximal possible ecological validity.
Subjects were required to selectively attend to the stimuli on just one side (e.g. their right) while ignoring stimulation on the other side. The attended side was counterbalanced across stimulus blocks. The subject's task was to respond when rare target stimuli were detected. This was done to ensure that the subjects were attending to the stimuli. Task difficulty was calibrated psychophysically on an individual subject basis.

Analyses: ERP multisensory interactions for standard (non-target) stimuli on the attended side were compared to the multisensory interactions for standard (non-target) stimuli when they were presented to the same side but were ignored (unattended standards).

Results: As expected, preliminary electrophysiological results reveal attentional modulation of the multisensory ERP responses.