Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.

Selective attention has traditionally been viewed as a sensory processing modulator that promotes cognitive processing efficiency by favoring relevant stimuli while inhibiting irrelevant stimuli. However, the cross-modal processing of irrelevant information during working memory (WM) has been rarely...

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Main Authors: Jiagui Qu, Joshua D Rizak, Lun Zhao, Minghong Li, Yuanye Ma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089989&type=printable
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author Jiagui Qu
Joshua D Rizak
Lun Zhao
Minghong Li
Yuanye Ma
author_facet Jiagui Qu
Joshua D Rizak
Lun Zhao
Minghong Li
Yuanye Ma
author_sort Jiagui Qu
collection DOAJ
description Selective attention has traditionally been viewed as a sensory processing modulator that promotes cognitive processing efficiency by favoring relevant stimuli while inhibiting irrelevant stimuli. However, the cross-modal processing of irrelevant information during working memory (WM) has been rarely investigated. In this study, the modulation of irrelevant auditory information by the brain during a visual WM task was investigated. The N100 auditory evoked potential (N100-AEP) following an auditory click was used to evaluate the selective attention to auditory stimulus during WM processing and at rest. N100-AEP amplitudes were found to be significantly affected in the left-prefrontal, mid-prefrontal, right-prefrontal, left-frontal, and mid-frontal regions while performing a high WM load task. In contrast, no significant differences were found between N100-AEP amplitudes in WM states and rest states under a low WM load task in all recorded brain regions. Furthermore, no differences were found between the time latencies of N100-AEP troughs in WM states and rest states while performing either the high or low WM load task. These findings suggested that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) may integrate information from different sensory channels to protect perceptual integrity during cognitive processing.
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spelling doaj-art-8c056ffd68fd446e87b872a70a48d49b2025-08-20T03:11:57ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0192e8998910.1371/journal.pone.0089989Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.Jiagui QuJoshua D RizakLun ZhaoMinghong LiYuanye MaSelective attention has traditionally been viewed as a sensory processing modulator that promotes cognitive processing efficiency by favoring relevant stimuli while inhibiting irrelevant stimuli. However, the cross-modal processing of irrelevant information during working memory (WM) has been rarely investigated. In this study, the modulation of irrelevant auditory information by the brain during a visual WM task was investigated. The N100 auditory evoked potential (N100-AEP) following an auditory click was used to evaluate the selective attention to auditory stimulus during WM processing and at rest. N100-AEP amplitudes were found to be significantly affected in the left-prefrontal, mid-prefrontal, right-prefrontal, left-frontal, and mid-frontal regions while performing a high WM load task. In contrast, no significant differences were found between N100-AEP amplitudes in WM states and rest states under a low WM load task in all recorded brain regions. Furthermore, no differences were found between the time latencies of N100-AEP troughs in WM states and rest states while performing either the high or low WM load task. These findings suggested that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) may integrate information from different sensory channels to protect perceptual integrity during cognitive processing.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089989&type=printable
spellingShingle Jiagui Qu
Joshua D Rizak
Lun Zhao
Minghong Li
Yuanye Ma
Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.
PLoS ONE
title Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.
title_full Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.
title_fullStr Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.
title_full_unstemmed Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.
title_short Effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli.
title_sort effects of visual working memory on brain information processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0089989&type=printable
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