Attention improves auditory performance in noisy environments by either enhancing the processing of task-relevant stimuli ("gain"), suppressing task-irrelevant information ("sharpening"), or both. In the present study, we investigated the effect of focused auditory attention on the population-level frequency tuning in human auditory cortex by means of magnetoencephalography. Using complex stimuli consisting of a test tone superimposed on different band-eliminated noises during active listening or distracted listening conditions, we observed that focused auditory attention caused not only gain, but also sharpening of frequency tuning in human auditory cortex as reflected by the N1m auditory evoked response. This combination of gain and sharpening in the auditory cortex may contribute to better auditory performance during focused auditory attention.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/27/39/10383.full.pdf

Attention improves population-level frequency tuning in human auditory cortex.

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/8790/3/Fulltext.pdf

Analysing user physiological responses for affective video summarisation

Introduction to the Neurobiology of Interval Timing.- About the (non)scalar property for time perception.- Elucidating the internal structure of psychophysical timing performance in the sub-second and second range by utilizing confirmatory factor analysis.- Neurocomputational models of time perception.- Dedicated Clock/Timing-Circuit Theories of Time Perception and Timed Performance.- Neural Dynamics Based Timing in the Subsecond to Seconds Range.- Signs of timing in motor cortex during movement preparation and cue anticipation.- Neurophysiology of timing in the hundreds of milliseconds: multiple layers of neuronal clocks in the medial premotor areas.- The Olivo-Cerebellar System as a Neural Clock.- From duration and distance comparisons to goal encoding in prefrontal cortex.- Probing Interval Timing with Scalp-recorded Electroencephalography (EEG).- Searching for the Holy Grail: Temporally Informative Firing Patterns in the Rat.- Getting the timing right: experimental protocols for investigating time with functional neuroimaging and psychopharmacology.- Motor and Perceptual timing in Parkinson's disease.- Music Perception: Information Flow within the Human Auditory Cortices.- Perceiving temporal regularity in music: The role of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in probing beat perception.- Neural Mechanisms of Rhythm Perception: Present Findings and Future Directions.- Neural underpinnings of music: The polyrhythmic brain.

Neurobiology of interval timing

ERP based measures of cognitive workload: A review

Exposure to the urban environment has been shown dramatically to increase the tendency to process contextual information. To further our understanding of this effect of urbanization, we compared performance on a local-selection task of a remote people, the Himba, living traditionally or relocated to town. We showed that (a) spatial attention was defocused in urbanized Himba but focused in traditional Himba (Experiment 1), despite urbanized Himba performing better on a working memory task (Experiment 3); (b) imposing a cognitive load made attention as defocused in traditional as in urbanized Himba (Experiment 2); and (c) using engaging stimuli/tasks made attention as focused in urbanized Himba, and British, as in traditional Himba (Experiments 4 and 5). We propose that urban environments prioritize exploration at the expense of attentional engagement and cognitive control of attentional selection.

Urbanization decreases attentional engagement

https://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/files/public/1/15065/20141016122708620311/Nittono_IJP2006.pdf

Level of interest in video clips modulates event-related potentials to auditory probes

The aim of this study was to specify when and where “pure” temporal processing occurred in the brain. Event-related potentials were recorded from 13 young, healthy volunteers performing interval and pitch discrimination tasks. In the interval task, two 1000-Hz tones (S1 and S2) were presented with an interval of 1000 or 1500 ms. Participants were asked to judge whether the S1–S2 interval was short or long. In the pitch task, the S1 (1000 Hz) was followed by the S2 (1000 or 1050 Hz) with a fixed interval of 1000 ms. Participants were asked to judge whether the pitch of the S2 was the same as or different from that of the S1. In both tasks, contingent negative variation (CNV) was observed in the period between 500 and 1000 ms after the S1. The amplitude of the CNV was larger in the interval task than in the pitch task. The data were analyzed using low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA). The right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) showed more activation in the interval task than in the pitch task. This result suggests that the right DLPFC may play an important role in time perception and processing the temporal dimension of events.

LORETA analysis of CNV in time perception

Possibility of additive effects by the presentation of visual information related to distractor sounds on the contra-sound effects of the N100m responses

Jun Suzuki

Papers

Level of interest in video clips modulates event-related potentials to auditory probes

LORETA analysis of CNV in time perception

Possibility of additive effects by the presentation of visual information related to distractor sounds on the contra-sound effects of the N100m responses