On the relationship of arousal and attentional distraction by emotional novel sounds

Abstract

Effects of attentional distraction by unexpected and task-irrelevant sounds on task performance are discussed to comprise costs due to orienting of attention toward a distracting event and benefits due to enhanced level of arousal evoked by the processing of such events. Highly arousing distractor sounds may facilitate information and task processing resulting in reduced distraction effects compared to moderately arousing distractor sounds. By measuring pupil dilation responses as a marker of arousal and task performance as a marker of distraction, we disentangled orienting costs and arousal level changes through variations of the emotional content of distractor sounds. While participants (N=60) performed a visual categorization task, an auditory oddball sequence including standard sounds, highly arousing emotional and moderately arousing neutral novel sounds was presented. Multilevel analyses revealed prolonged reaction times to novel sounds compared to standard sounds. Distraction effects decreased when emotional novel sounds were presented compared to neutral novel sounds. Pupil dilation responses were increased in response to novel sounds compared to standard sounds. This increase was larger for emotional than for neutral novel sounds. None of the considered models supported a correlation at trial level between reduced distraction effects and arousal increase reflected by the pupil in response to emotional novel sounds, indicating at least partly independent underlying mechanisms. An exploratory analysis revealed an impact of the baseline pupil size, that indicates tonic level of arousal, on performance and distraction effects. Moreover, a positive correlation between the negative affect scale in the Adult Temperament Questionnaire and RTs was observed.

Salient omissions—pupil dilation in response to unexpected omissions of sound and touch

“…Results also support the notion that the oP3 (presumably belonging to the surprise and orienting-related P3a ERP response family) and omission PDR might reflect at least partly corresponding processes. Indeed, like stimulus deviants, results suggest that surprising omissions can be considered a salient event, with potentially similar effects on behavior like distracted attention ( 62 , 63 ).…”