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Role of Mismatch Negativity and Novelty-P3 in Involuntary Auditory Attention

2007; Hogrefe Verlag; Volume: 21; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1027/0269-8803.21.34.251

2151-2124

Carles Escera, María Corral,

Multisensory perception and integration

It has been proposed that the functional role of the mismatch negativity (MMN) generating process is to issue a call for focal attention toward any auditory change violating the preceding acoustic regularity. This paper reviews the evidence supporting such a functional role and outlines a model of how the attentional system controls the flow of bottom-up auditory information with regard to ongoing-task demands to organize goal-oriented behavior. Specifically, the data obtained in auditory-auditory and auditory-visual distraction paradigms demonstrated that the unexpected occurrence of deviant auditory stimuli or novel sounds captures attention involuntarily, as they distract current task performance. These data indicate that such a process of distraction takes place in three successive stages associated, respectively, to MMN, P3a/novelty-P3, and reorienting negativity (RON), and that the latter two are modulated by the demands of the task at hand.