Inducing attention not to blink: auditory entrainment improves conscious visual processing

Abstract

Our ability to allocate attention at different moments in time can sometimes fail to select stimuli occurring in close succession, preventing visual information from reaching awareness. This so-called attentional blink (AB) occurs when the second of two targets (T2) is presented closely after the first (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). We hypothesized that entrainment to a rhythmic stream of stimuli-before visual targets appear-would reduce the AB. Experiment 1 tested the effect of auditory entrainment by presenting sounds with a regular or irregular interstimulus interval prior to a RSVP where T1 and T2 were separated by three possible lags (1, 3 and 8). Experiment 2 examined visual entrainment by presenting visual stimuli in place of auditory stimuli. Results revealed that irrespective of sensory modality, arrhythmic stimuli preceding the RSVP triggered an alerting effect that improved the T2 identification at lag 1, but impaired the recovery from the AB at lag 8. Importantly, only auditory rhythmic entrainment was effective in reducing the AB at lag 3. Our findings demonstrate that manipulating the pre-stimulus condition can reduce deficits in temporal attention characterizing the human cognitive architecture, suggesting innovative trainings for acquired and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Rhythm and Attention: Does the Beat Position of a Visual or Auditory Regular Pulse Modulate T2 Detection in the Attentional Blink?

“…The authors suggested that a more diffuse attentional state causes better T2 detection rates, either via arousal or via positive affective state (see also Olivers and Nieuwenhuis, 2006 ). Ronconi et al ( 2015 ) also found reduced AB effects when an auditory (but not when a visual) rhythm preceded the RSVP stream in the same frequency as the RSVP items. In general, however, there are also single reports, that the effect of music could not be replicated (Spalek and Di Lollo, unpublished data, as cited by Colzato et al, 2014 ).…”

“…The authors argue that for stimuli presented with a frequency of about 10 Hz (i.e., approximately like the alpha frequency) those processes that underlie the generation of the P1 of the visual event related potential in the EEG (and that are related to alpha) interfere with those processes that enable the encoding of stimuli, specifically of T2. Second, there is recent work by Ronconi et al ( 2015 ) who studied the influence of an acoustic or visual rhythmic stream before the RSVP stream, but with the same frequency. The authors presented entraining stimuli before the RSVP stream either with a regular rhythm, that is with the same frequency as the RSVP stimuli, or with an irregular rhythm, that is with variable interstimulus intervals between the entraining stimuli.…”

“…In Experiment 1, we tested this prediction by using a visual rhythm before and during the RSVP stream. In Experiment 2, we used an auditory rhythm (Please note, in contrast to Ronconi et al, 2015 , we did not investigate the question whether a regular or irregular rhythm—induced by entraining stimuli before the RSVP stream—enhances T2 performance. In their experiments and due to their research question, attention to each stimulus should be enhanced with a regular rhythm.…”

Role of Visual Attention in Developmental Dyslexia

“…Alerting and orienting are the two main processes involved in reading acquisition.Alerting is defined as the multisensory attentional process that increases performance during tasks (Petersen & Posner, 2012), producing a phasic change in alertness (e.g., Ronconi, Pincham, Szűcs & Facoetti, 2016). The alerting system can be already measured in infant brain (e.g., .Attention orienting is the ability to select a spatial location (Petersen & Posner, 2012) or time event (Battelli, Pascual-Leone, & Cavanagh, 2007, for a review) inside the sensory field.…”

“…Attention orienting is described as a spotlight that moves to the attended area (Carrasco, 2011). The attention spotlight is not only oriented in a specific spatiotemporal location, but can also be adjusted in its size (i.e.,zoom-in and zoom-out of focusing attention, e.g., Facoetti, Lorusso, Paganoni, Umiltà, & Mascetti, 2003;Facoetti & Molteni, 2000;Facoetti, Paganoni, Turatto, Marzola, & Mascetti, 2000;Ronconi, Gori, Ruffino, Molteni, & Facoetti, 2013;Ronconi et al, 2016). Frontal and parietal areas are the neural substrate of the orienting and focusing of attention (Battelli et al, 2007;Corbetta & Shulman, 2002;Ronconi, Basso, Gori, &Facoetti, 2014).Subcortical lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and the pulvinar, in the thalamus has also been shown to participate in attentional orienting (Schneider & Kastner, 2009).…”