Development of auditory selective attention: Event‐related potential measures of channel selection and target detection

Abstract

In this study, we examined developmental changes in auditory selective attention using both electrophysiological (Nd, P3b) and behavioral measures while two groups of children (9- and 12-year-olds) and adults were engaged in a two-channel selective attention task. Channel was determined by frequency (1000 or 2000 Hz). Targets in one condition were shorter than the standards (duration target) and in the other were softer (intensity target). We found that the Nd onset and peak latencies for the children were significantly longer than for the adults. Nd amplitude, however, did not differ between the groups. Further, all groups evidenced P3b to attended targets but not to unattended deviants. Hits, reaction times, and false alarms to unattended deviants continued to evidence improvements through adolescence. Taken together, our data are most consistent with a model of developmental improvement in the speed and efficiency of attention allocation.

Prolonged development of auditory skills: A role for perceptual anchoring?

“…However, although immature alertness could account for performance in the XAB tasks, one could reasonably expect age effects to diminish with the introduction of additional warning signals in the XXXAB tasks. In another study, the neurophysiological markers of attention to tone duration and intensity were not mature in either 9-or 12-year-old children, suggesting that auditory selective attention continues to develop after 12 years of age (Gomes et al, 2007). This developmental trajectory is different than the trajectories of frequency and duration discrimination observed in the present study, again making it unlikely that attention can account for our findings.…”

“…Low-level auditory sensory processing seems mature by school entry (Johnson, Nicol, Zecker, & Kraus, 2008;Werner, 2007). A plausible interpretation of those findings, therefore, is that non-sensory factors associated with the assessment procedure, such as attention or working memory, contribute to this prolonged development, since both improve with age (Coch, Sanders, & Neville, 2005;Gomes, Duff, Barnhardt, Barrett, & Ritter, 2007;Lane & Pearson, 1982;Rueda et al, 2004). For example, several groups used indices of performance consistency to quantify the ability of children to sustain attention Dawes & Bishop, 2008;Moore et al, 2008;Wightman, Allen, Dolan, Kistler, & Jamieson, 1989).…”

Auditory attention in childhood and adolescence: An event-related potential study of spatial selective attention to one of two simultaneous stories

“…Behavioral studies using dichotic listening tasks have indicated that children have less effective selection abilities (Geffen and Sexton 1978; Hiscock and Kinsbourne 1980; Takio et al 2009) and ERP studies using target-detection paradigms have indicated that both 9- and 12-year-olds show latency, amplitude, and behavioral differences relative to adults (Gomes et al 2007). Similarly, in a dichotic listening task that required attending to either specific pitch ranges or syllables to detect deviant targets, developmental differences in the neurophysiology of selective attention were observed between children, young adolescents, and adults, but only after 200 ms (Berman and Friedman 1995).…”

The prospects of brain — computer interface applications in children

“…In this area, Egeth [11] described the concept of the BCIs' application in locked-in children and adults based on previous research on auditory attention in children by Gomez et al [12] and Sanders et al [13]. Further studies in the area of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in 4-and 5-year-old children by Sanders et al [14] showed auditory processing quite similar in young children and adults.…”