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Effects of attention and unilateral neglect on auditory stream segregation
Authors:
CARLYON, R.P., CUSACK, R., Foxton, J. & ROBERTSON, I.H.
Reference:
Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception and Performance, 27, 115-127
Year of publication:
2001
CBU number:
3970
Abstract:
Two pairs of experiments investigated the effects of attention and of unilateral neglect - a common disorder following right-hemisphere stroke - on auditory streaming. The first pair showed that the build-up of auditory streaming in normal subjects is greatly reduced or absent when subjects are attending to a competing task in the contralateral ear. It was concluded that the effective build-up of auditory streaming requires attention. The second pair demonstrated that patients with an attentional deficit towards the left side of space ("unilateral neglect") show less stream segregation of tone sequences presented to their left than to their right ear. Streaming in their right ears was similar to that observed for stimuli presented to either ear of healthy and of brain-damaged controls, who showed no across-ear asymmetry. This result is consistent with a role for attention in auditory streaming, imposes some constraints on the neural sites involved, and demonstrates a qualitative difference between the perception of left- and right- sided sounds by neglect patients