Marie-Helene Giard, Alexandra Fort, Yolande Mouchetant-Rostaing, Jacques Pernier

INSERM U280, Mental and Brain Process Laboratory, 151 Cours Albert Thomas, 69003 Lyon, France

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

3. Psychological models of auditory selective attention

4. ERPs and physiological models of auditory selective attention

4.1. The "gain" theory of attention
4.2. The "attentional trace" model of attention
4.3. Electrophysiological evidence for complex physiological processes

4.3.1. Processing of relevant inputs
4.3.2. Active rejection of irrelevant inputs

5. A peripheral filter mechanism of attention?

6. Functional brain imaging studies of auditory attention

6.1. Localization of the brain structures involved in auditory attention
6.2. Active rejection of unattended stimuli

7. Conclusion and perspectives: An adaptive filtering model of selective attention

8. Acknowledgments

9. References

This chapter reviews the main data on the physiological substrates of auditory selective attention and their contribution to theoretical models of cognitive psychology. While event-related potentials, magnetoencephalography, and more recently neuroimaging techniques have provided fundamental information on the neural correlates of attention in the central cortical system, measurements of the frequency-following responses in the brainstem and evoked otoacoustic emissions at the cochlea strongly suggest attentional phenomena at the auditory periphery. We propose an adaptive filtering mechanism for selective auditory attention that can be flexibly and dynamically tuned depending on the attentional demand.