Huang Pi-Chun, Schils Ludivine A P, Koch Iring, Stephan Denise N, Hsieh Shulan
National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
RWTH Aachen University.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2025 Jan 2;37(1):43-62. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_02248.
The human experience demands seamless attentional switches between sensory modalities. Aging raises questions about how declines in auditory and visual processing affect cross-modal attention switching. This study used a cued cross-modal attention-switching paradigm where visual and auditory stimuli were simultaneously presented on either spatially congruent or incongruent sides. A modality cue indicated the target modality, requiring a spatially left versus right key-press response. EEG recordings were collected during task performance. We investigated whether the mixing costs (decreased performance for repetition trials in a mixed task compared with a single task) and switch costs (decreased performance for a switch of target modality compared with a repetition) in cross-modal attention-switching paradigms would exhibit similarities in terms of behavioral performance and the ERP components to those observed in the traditional unimodal attention-switching paradigms. Specifically, we focused on the ERP components: cue-locked P3 (mixing/switch-related increased positivity), target-locked P3 (mixing/switch-related decreased positivity), and target-locked lateralized readiness potential (mixing/switch-related longer latency). In addition, we assessed how aging impacts cross-modal attention-switching performance. Results revealed that older adults exhibited more pronounced mixing and switch costs than younger adults, especially when visual and auditory stimuli were presented on incongruent sides. ERP findings showed increased cue-locked P3 amplitude, prolonged cue-locked P3 latency, decreased target-locked P3 amplitude, prolonged target-locked P3 latency in association with switch costs, and prolonged onset latency of the target-locked lateralized readiness potential in association with the mixing costs. Age-related effects were significant only for cue-locked P3 amplitude, cue-locked P3 latency (switch-related), and target-locked P3 latency (switch-related). These findings suggest that the larger mixing costs and switch costs in older adults were due to the inefficient use of modality cues to update a representation of the relevant task sets, requiring more processing time for evaluating and categorizing the target.
人类的体验需要在感觉模态之间进行无缝的注意力切换。衰老引发了关于听觉和视觉处理能力下降如何影响跨模态注意力切换的问题。本研究采用了一种线索化的跨模态注意力切换范式，其中视觉和听觉刺激同时呈现在空间上一致或不一致的两侧。一个模态线索指示目标模态，要求进行空间上向左或向右的按键反应。在任务执行过程中收集脑电图记录。我们研究了跨模态注意力切换范式中的混合成本（与单一任务相比，混合任务中重复试验的表现下降）和切换成本（与重复相比，目标模态切换时的表现下降）在行为表现和事件相关电位（ERP）成分方面是否与传统单模态注意力切换范式中观察到的情况相似。具体来说，我们关注ERP成分：线索锁定P3（与混合/切换相关的正向波增加）、目标锁定P3（与混合/切换相关的正向波减少）和目标锁定的侧化准备电位（与混合/切换相关的潜伏期延长）。此外，我们评估了衰老如何影响跨模态注意力切换表现。结果显示，老年人比年轻人表现出更明显的混合成本和切换成本，尤其是当视觉和听觉刺激呈现在不一致的两侧时。ERP研究结果表明，与切换成本相关的线索锁定P3波幅增加、线索锁定P3潜伏期延长、目标锁定P3波幅降低、目标锁定P3潜伏期延长，以及与混合成本相关的目标锁定侧化准备电位起始潜伏期延长。与年龄相关的效应仅在线索锁定P3波幅、线索锁定P3潜伏期（与切换相关）和目标锁定P3潜伏期（与切换相关）方面显著。这些发现表明，老年人中较大的混合成本和切换成本是由于模态线索使用效率低下，无法更新相关任务集的表征，需要更多的处理时间来评估和分类目标。
