Early Auditory Evoked Potential Is Modulated by Selective Attention and Related to Individual Differences in Visual Working Memory Capacity

Abstract

A growing body of research suggests that the predictive power of working memory (WM) capacity for measures of intellectual aptitude is due to the ability to control attention and select relevant information. Crucially, attentional mechanisms implicated in controlling access to WM are assumed to be domain-general, yet reports of enhanced attentional abilities in individuals with larger WM capacities are primarily within the visual domain. Here, we directly test the link between WM capacity and early attentional gating across sensory domains, hypothesizing that measures of visual WM capacity should predict an individual’s capacity to allocate auditory selective attention. To address this question, auditory ERPs were recorded in a linguistic dichotic listening task, and individual differences in ERP modulations by attention were correlated with estimates of WM capacity obtained in a separate visual change detection task. Auditory selective attention enhanced ERP amplitudes at an early latency (ca. 70–90 msec), with larger P1 components elicited by linguistic probes embedded in an attended narrative. Moreover, this effect was associated with greater individual estimates of visual WM capacity. These findings support the view that domain-general attentional control mechanisms underlie the wide variation of WM capacity across individuals.

Left dominance for language perception starts in the extrastriate cortex: An ERP and sLORETA study

“…For the P1, we found higher amplitudes after vertical compared to horizontal stimulus presentation. This is in line with findings that the P1 shows a higher amplitude for inverted compared to non-inverted faces [20], indicating an effect of unexpected stimulus orientation on this ERP component. This finding is also in line with works that show the P1 has a higher amplitude when participants attend to a stimulus [21], as a more complex or unusual stimulus demands higher attention to be processed correctly.…”

Testing the efforts model of simultaneous interpreting: An ERP study

“…We exploited the previous findings that N1 and even P1 [16] amplitude evoked by task-irrelevant probes embedded in a speech stream is modulated by selective attention in what is called ‘processing negativity' observed as early as 50–150 ms from the stimulus onset [17]. Specifically, the ERP waveform appears shifted towards negative values when the listener attends the target audio (e.g.…”

Resting sympathetic arousal moderates the association between parasympathetic reactivity and working memory performance in adults reporting high levels of life stress

“…Working memory (WM) is established as a critical component of executive function, and is implicated in a broad range of skills from basic cognitive processes, such as attentional control and fluid intelligence measures (Conway & Engle, 2001; Cowan et al, ; Engle & Kane, ; Fukuda, Vogel, Mayr, & Awh, ; Giuliano, Karns, Neville, & Hillyard, ; Kane, Bleckley, Fukuda, & Vogel, 2009, 2011; Unsworth, Brewer, & Spillers, ; Unsworth & Engle, ) to more complex interpersonal skills such as parenting (Crandall, Deater‐Deckard, & Riley, ; Johnston, Mash, Miller, & Ninowski, ). Psychophysiological research on the correlates of WM performance has produced a confluence of evidence that greater parasympathetic control of cardiac arousal is associated with better WM performance (Thayer, Hansen, Saus‐Rose, & Johnsen, ).…”