Dynamic Functional Connectivity During a Dual-Stream Auditory Attention Task

Abstract

Navigating conversations in complex auditory environments requires dynamic control of attention - switching and maintaining attention across multiple auditory objects. Several brain regions, some traditionally considered auditory and others non-auditory, have been highlighted as part of the cortical networks that contribute to the ability to switch and maintain attention between multiple talkers. M/EEG data was collected during a dual-stream auditory attention task from three separate experiments, in which the listener was asked to attend to one of two speech streams that differed in location or pitch. In each trial, the listener was cued to either maintain their attention on one talker, or switch their attention to the second talker during an interstimulus interval in which no speech was presented. A state-space model and a novel statistical approach were applied to the brain imaging data, to elucidate the differences in the dynamic functional connectivity across brain regions when maintaining and switching attention across different auditory cues.