Attentional Control Of Multimodal Distractor Processing In Adults: Neurophysiological Evidence.

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 16, 2024, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Edwin Roberto Ramírez Benítez^1,2 (10081996edwin@gmail.com), Rodolfo Solís Vivanco^1,2; ¹“Manuel Velasco Suárez” National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, ²Faculty of Psychology, National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM

The attentional control's ability to inhibit distractor processing has been extensively documented in unimodal attention tasks, where the distractor and relevant stimulus belong to the same sensory modality. However, little is known about the neurophysiological processing of distractors in relation to their congruence with the relevant stimulus under multimodal conditions. Consequently, the aim of this study was to analyze the temporal and topographic changes in event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with the congruence effect between targets and distractors during a crossmodal attention task involving alternating attention between sensory modalities (visual and auditory). The congruence effect was derived by subtracting ERPs of incongruent conditions from congruent conditions for each sensory modalities. Non-parametric permutation analyses using the Monte Carlo method (500 permutations) were conducted for each modality on parieto-occipital and fronto-central electrodes between -0.2 and 1.1 seconds relative to the presentation of stimuli and distractors. Results revealed a significantly greater congruence effect on visual attention ERPs compared to auditive attention ERPs. In the congruency effect, a more early and negative amplitude over fronto-central regions at 130-200 ms post-stimuli was observed in the visual attention condition compared to auditory attention. Moreover, a heightened congruence effect between the 170 to 200 ms range with a fronto-central distribution correlated with increased congruence effects in reaction times. In conclusion, the processing of congruent distractors in crossmodal attention tasks is modulated by the attentional locus, exhibiting distinct patterns for each sensory modality. These findings contribute to the understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying multimodal attention.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Multisensory