Irrelevant Predictions: Distractor Rhythmicity Modulates Neural Encoding in Auditory Cortex

Abstract

Dynamic attending theory suggests that predicting the timing of upcoming sounds can assist in focusing attention toward them. However, whether similar predictive processes are also applied to background noises and assist in guiding attention “away” from potential distractors, remains an open question. Here we address this question by manipulating the temporal predictability of distractor sounds in a dichotic listening selective attention task. We tested the influence of distractors’ temporal predictability on performance and on the neural encoding of sounds, by comparing the effects of Rhythmic versus Nonrhythmic distractors. Using magnetoencephalography we found that, indeed, the neural responses to both attended and distractor sounds were affected by distractors’ rhythmicity. Baseline activity preceding the onset of Rhythmic distractor sounds was enhanced relative to nonrhythmic distractor sounds, and sensory response to them was suppressed. Moreover, detection of nonmasked targets improved when distractors were Rhythmic, an effect accompanied by stronger lateralization of the neural responses to attended sounds to contralateral auditory cortex. These combined behavioral and neural results suggest that not only are temporal predictions formed for task-irrelevant sounds, but that these predictions bear functional significance for promoting selective attention and reducing distractibility.

Linguistic processing of task-irrelevant speech at a Cocktail Party

“…Additional brain regions, such as the PPC, are also engaged in representing some aspects of the linguistic structure of task-irrelevant speech, we which interpret as maintaining a representation of what goes on in the 'rest of the environment', in case something important arises. Importantly, similar interactions between the structure of task-irrelevant sounds and responses to attended sounds have been previously demonstrated for non-verbal stimuli as well 134 . Together, this highlights the fact that attentional selection is not an all-or-none processes, but rather is a dynamic process of balancing the resources allocated to competing input, which is highly affected by the specific perceptual, cognitive and environmental aspects of a given task.…”

Linguistic processing of task-irrelevant speech at a cocktail party

“…Additional brain regions, such as the PPC, are also engaged in representing some aspects of the linguistic structure of task-irrelevant speech, which we interpret as maintaining a representation of what goes on in the ‘rest of the environment’, in case something important arises. Importantly, similar interactions between the structure of task-irrelevant sounds and responses to the to-be-attended sounds have been previously demonstrated for non-verbal stimuli as well ( Makov and Zion Golumbic, 2020 ). Together, this highlights the fact that attentional selection is not an all-or-none processes, but rather is a dynamic process of balancing the resources allocated to competing input, which is highly affected by the specific perceptual, cognitive and environmental aspects of a given task.…”

Effects of temporally regular versus irregular distractors on goal-directed cognition and behavior

“…The temporal occurrence of distraction has recently been shown to modulate working memory interference (Körner, Röer, Buchner, & Bell, 2019;Wöstmann et al, 2020), demonstrating that temporal features of distractors may play an important role in the susceptibility to distraction in working memory tasks. When it comes to temporal regularity, temporally irregular distractors were recently found to be more disruptive to the detection of deviance in unmasked targets (Makov & Zion Golumbic, 2020). For concurrently presented target and distractor streams, this study supports the view that temporally regular versus irregular distractors differentially interfere with goal-directed cognitive operations.…”