Contadini-Wright, C. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2023

Cross-modal interactions between auditory attention and oculomotor control

Microsaccades are small, involuntary eye movements that occur during fixation. Their role is debated with recent hypotheses proposing a contribution to automatic scene sampling. Microsaccade inhibition (MSI) refers to the abrupt suppression of microsaccades, typically evoked within 0.1 seconds after new stimulus onset. The functional significance and neural underpinnings of MSI are subjects of ongoing research. It has been suggested that MSI is a component of the brains attentional re-orienting network which facilitates the allocation of attention to new environmental occurrences by reducing disruptions or shifts in gaze that could interfere with processing. The extent to which MSI is reflexive or influenced by top-down mechanisms remains debated. We developed a task that examines the impact of auditory top-down attention on MSI, allowing us to disentangle ocular dynamics from visual sensory processing. Participants (N=24 and 27; both sexes) listened to two simultaneous streams of tones and were instructed to attend to one stream while detecting specific task "targets." We quantified MSI in response to occasional task-irrelevant events presented in both the attended and unattended streams (frequency steps in Experiment 1, omissions in Experiment 2). The results show that initial stages of MSI are not affected by auditory attention. However, later stages ([~]0.25s post event-onset), affecting the extent and duration of the inhibition, are enhanced for sounds in the attended stream compared to the unattended stream. These findings provide converging evidence for the reflexive nature of early MSI stages and robustly demonstrate the involvement of auditory attention in modulating the later stages. Significance StatementMicrosaccades are rapid eye movements occurring during fixation. Their precise role is not known but a major hypothesis is that they reflect automatic sampling of the environment. A feature of microsaccades is that they exhibit abrupt suppression (MSI) after the presentation of new stimuli. This is thought to be part of attentional re-orienting. To understand the neural circuit that controls MSI, and by extension, the brains response to novel events in the environment, it is essential to determine which factors affect MSI. We show, for the first time, that auditory attention affects the latter (but not initial) stages of MSI. Thus, the early stages of MSI are automatic, but subsequent phases are affected by the perceptual state of the individual.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Pupil dilation and microsaccades provide complementary insights into the dynamics of arousal and instantaneous attention during effortful listening

Listening in noisy environments requires effort - the active engagement of attention and other cognitive abilities, as well as increased arousal. The ability to separately quantify the contribution of these components is key to understanding the dynamics of effort and how it may change across listening situations and in certain populations. We concurrently measured two types of ocular data in young participants (both sexes) - Pupil dilation (PD) (thought to index arousal aspects of effort) and Microsaccades (MS) (hypothesized to reflect automatic visual exploratory sampling) whilst listeners were performing a speech-in-noise task under high- (HL) and low-(LL) perceptual load conditions. Sentences were manipulated so that the behaviourally relevant information (keywords) appeared at the end (Exp1) or beginning (Exp2) of the sentence, resulting in different temporal demands on focused attention. In line with previous reports, PD effects were associated with increased dilation under load. We observed a sustained difference between HL and LL conditions, consistent with increased phasic and tonic arousal. Importantly we show that MS rate was also modulated by perceptual load, manifested as a reduced MS rate in HL relative to LL. Critically, in contrast to the sustained difference seen for PD, MS effects were localised in time, specifically during periods when demands on auditory attention were greatest. These results demonstrate that auditory selective attention interfaces with the mechanisms controlling MS-generation, establishing MS as an informative measure, complementary to PD, with which to quantify the temporal dynamics of auditory attentional processing under effortful listening conditions. Significance StatementListening effort, reflecting the "cognitive bandwidth" deployed to effectively process sound in adverse environments, contributes critically to listening success. Understanding listening effort and the processes involved in its allocation is a major challenge in auditory neuroscience. Here we demonstrate that the microsaccade rate can be used to index a specific sub-component of listening effort - the allocation of instantaneous auditory attention - that is distinct from the modulation of arousal indexed by pupil dilation (currently the dominant measure of listening effot). These results reveal the push-pull process through which auditory attention interfaces with the (visual) attention network that controls microsaccades, establishing microsaccades as a powerful tool for measuring auditory attention and its deficits.

neuroscience↗