Murray Audrey, Zerroug Yasmine, Soulières Isabelle, Saint-Amour Dave
Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada.
Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine, Montréal, Canada.
Psychophysiology. 2025 Apr;62(4):e70055. doi: 10.1111/psyp.70055.
Selective attention supports top-down control by biasing information processing toward stimuli that are potentially relevant to the immediate goal. It has been recently proposed that theta band oscillations (~4-8 Hz) in the frontal midline regions are a key mechanism of endogenous selective attention. The current electroencephalography study investigated theta oscillatory dynamics using an inter-sensory cueing paradigm in which a symbolic cue indicated, on a trial-by-trial basis, the modality (visual or auditory) of the upcoming discrimination task. Time-frequency analyses were used to quantify phase- (evoked) and non-phase-locked (induced) fronto-central theta activity during preparatory attentional states. In a sample of 20 young adult participants, we found that those who relied on the cues to selectively attend to the sensory modality of the discrimination task performed more efficiently (i.e., faster and with greater accuracy) and presented greater non-phase-locked fronto-central theta power 200-400 ms post-cue onset. Moreover, greater non-phase-locked theta oscillations were associated with better behavioral performance. Secondary analyses on alpha oscillations revealed concomitant brain activity to theta with a pronounced decrease in alpha power in fronto-central regions, without significant effect on task performance. These findings suggest that increased non-phase-locked fronto-central theta oscillations are a neuronal correlate of preparatory attentional control and that the interplay of theta-alpha rhythms differentially contributes to attentional and perceptual aspects.
选择性注意通过使信息处理偏向于与当前目标潜在相关的刺激来支持自上而下的控制。最近有人提出,额中线区域的θ波段振荡(~4-8赫兹)是内源性选择性注意的关键机制。当前的脑电图研究使用一种跨感觉提示范式来研究θ振荡动力学,在该范式中,一个符号提示在逐个试验的基础上表明即将进行的辨别任务的模态(视觉或听觉)。时频分析用于量化准备注意状态期间额中央θ活动的相位(诱发)和非锁相(诱导)成分。在20名年轻成年参与者的样本中,我们发现那些依靠提示选择性地关注辨别任务感觉模态的人表现得更高效(即更快且更准确),并且在提示开始后200-400毫秒表现出更大的非锁相额中央θ功率。此外,更大的非锁相θ振荡与更好的行为表现相关。对α振荡的二次分析揭示了与θ伴随的大脑活动,额中央区域的α功率显著降低,但对任务表现没有显著影响。这些发现表明,增加的非锁相额中央θ振荡是准备性注意控制的神经元相关物,并且θ-α节律的相互作用在注意和感知方面有不同的贡献。