Aurélie Bidet-Caulet

How does the human brain resist auditory distraction?

One main challenge for the attentive brain is to resist distracting information. Auditory distraction can result from predictable irrelevant information (e.g. ongoing background noise) or from unexpected, transient and salient distracting events (e.g. phone ring, fire alarm…). Using intracranial EEG, scalp EEG and MEG data combined with behavioral measures, we have investigated brain activities in the time and frequency domains to characterize the brain mechanisms involved in shielding from distraction, in the healthy, developing (children and ageing data), or dysfunctional (stroke or migraine patients) brain. I will present a first set of data showing that distinct inhibitory and facilitatory mechanisms support selective attention to reduce the impact of an irrelevant sound stream. Then, I will present data showing that the impact of an unexpected salient environmental sound results from a balance between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms of attention.