@article{ref1,
title="Brain dynamics of distractibility: interaction between top-down and bottom-up mechanisms of auditory attention",
journal="Brain topography",
year="2014",
author="Bidet-Caulet, Aurélie and Bottemanne, Laure and Fonteneau, Clara and Giard, Marie-Hélène and Bertrand, Olivier",
volume="28",
number="3",
pages="423-436",
abstract="Attention improves the processing of specific information while other stimuli are disregarded. A good balance between bottom-up (attentional capture by unexpected salient stimuli) and top-down (selection of relevant information) mechanisms is crucial to be both task-efficient and aware of our environment. Only few studies have explored how an isolated unexpected task-irrelevant stimulus outside the attention focus can disturb the top-down attention mechanisms necessary to the good performance of the ongoing task, and how these top-down mechanisms can modulate the bottom-up mechanisms of attentional capture triggered by an unexpected event. We recorded scalp electroencephalography in 18 young adults performing a new paradigm measuring distractibility and assessing both bottom-up and top-down attention mechanisms, at the same time. Increasing task load in top-down attention was found to reduce early processing of the distracting sound, but not bottom-up attentional capture mechanisms nor the behavioral distraction cost in reaction time. Moreover, the impact of bottom-up attentional capture by distracting sounds on target processing was revealed as a delayed latency of the N100 sensory response to target sounds mirroring increased reaction times. These results provide crucial information into how bottom-up and top-down mechanisms dynamically interact and compete in the human brain, i.e. on the precarious balance between voluntary attention and distraction.  Keywords: Driver distraction;<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0896-0267",
doi="10.1007/s10548-014-0354-x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10548-014-0354-x"
}