Monitoring top-down and bottom-up modulation of auditory steady-state responses and its relationshiop with behavior

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Nathan Weisz
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2005 to 2008
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 20989653

Selective attention enables us to focus on specific behaviourally relevant stimuli or aspects of stimuli. Generally, this faculty comprises a wide-spread neuronal network, including extra-sensory cortices, which has been studied using various appraoches. Concerning the influence on sensory cortical areas it is widely accepted that attention influences responses in secondary areas. However in the visual domain, more and more studies are beginning to show also effects for primary areas. The influence of attention on primary audtory cortex however is still controversial. The main aim of the present project will be to analyze the influence of different bottom-up and top-down modulations of attention on the auditory neuromagnetic steady-state response, for which generators are known to be mainly localized in the primary auditory cortex. Besides that, conventional event-related fields (e.g. N1) and the induced gamma band activity can be analyzed to give a global perspective. Especially concerning the induced gamma only few data is available concerning auditory attention. All studies include behavioral measurements, so that conclusions can not only be drawn about condition differences, but also about which changes could be behaviourally relevant.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: France
• Host: Professor Dr. Olivier Bertrand