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Two different mechanisms support selective attention at different phases of training.

ABSTRACT: Selective attention supports the prioritized processing of relevant sensory information to facilitate goal-directed behavior. Studies in human subjects demonstrate that attentional gain of cortical responses can sufficiently account for attention-related improvements in behavior. On the other hand, studies using highly trained nonhuman primates suggest that reductions in neural noise can better explain attentional facilitation of behavior. Given the importance of selective information processing in nearly all domains of cognition, we sought to reconcile these competing accounts by testing the hypothesis that extensive behavioral training alters the neural mechanisms that support selective attention. We tested this hypothesis using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure stimulus-evoked visual responses from human subjects while they performed a selective spatial attention task over the course of ~1 month. Early in training, spatial attention led to an increase in the gain of stimulus-evoked visual responses. Gain was apparent within ~100 ms of stimulus onset, and a quantitative model based on signal detection theory (SDT) successfully linked the magnitude of this gain modulation to attention-related improvements in behavior. However, after extensive training, this early attentional gain was eliminated even though there were still substantial attention-related improvements in behavior. Accordingly, the SDT-based model required noise reduction to account for the link between the stimulus-evoked visual responses and attentional modulations of behavior. These findings suggest that training can lead to fundamental changes in the way attention alters the early cortical responses that support selective information processing. Moreover, these data facilitate the translation of results across different species and across experimental procedures that employ different behavioral training regimes.

SUBMITTER: Itthipuripat S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5486967 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The present review examines retrospective analyses of training intensity distribution (TID), i.e., the proportion of training at moderate (Zone 1, Z1), heavy (Z2) and severe (Z3) intensity by elite-to-world-class endurance athletes during different phases of the season. In addition, we discuss potential implications of our findings for research in this field, as well as for training by these athletes. Altogether, we included 175 TIDs, of which 120 quantified exercise intensity on the basis of heart rate and measured time-in-zone or employed variations of the session goal approach, with demarcation of zones of exercise intensity based on physiological parameters. Notably, 49% of the TIDs were single-case studies, predominantly concerning cross-country skiing and/or the biathlon. Eighty-nine TIDs were pyramidal (Z1 > Z2 > Z3), 65 polarized (Z1 > Z3 > Z2) and 8 "threshold" (Z2 > Z1 = Z3). However, these relative numbers varied between sports and the particular phases of the season. In 91% (n = 160) of the TIDs >60% of the endurance exercise was of low intensity. Regardless of the approach to quantification or phase of the season, cyclists and swimmers were found to perform a lower proportion of exercise in Z1 (<72%) and higher proportion in Z2 (>16%) than athletes involved in the triathlon, speed skating, rowing, running, cross-country skiing or biathlon (>80% in Z1 and <12% in Z2 in all these cases). For most of the athletes their proportion of heavy-to-severe exercise was higher during the period of competition than during the preparatory phase, although with considerable variability between sports. In conclusion, the existing literature in this area does not allow general conclusions to be drawn. The methods utilized for quantification vary widely and, moreover, contextual information concerning the mode of exercise, environmental conditions, and biomechanical aspects of the exercise is often lacking. Therefore, we recommend a more comprehensive approach in connection with future investigations on the TIDs of athletes involved in different endurance sports.

Project description:Audiovisual cross-modal training has been proposed as a tool to improve human spatial hearing. Here, we investigated training-induced modulations of event-related potential (ERP) components that have been associated with processes of auditory selective spatial attention when a speaker of interest has to be localized in a multiple speaker ("cocktail-party") scenario. Forty-five healthy participants were tested, including younger (19-29 years; n = 21) and older (66-76 years; n = 24) age groups. Three conditions of short-term training (duration 15 min) were compared, requiring localization of non-speech targets under "cocktail-party" conditions with either (1) synchronous presentation of co-localized auditory-target and visual stimuli (audiovisual-congruency training) or (2) immediate visual feedback on correct or incorrect localization responses (visual-feedback training), or (3) presentation of spatially incongruent auditory-target and visual stimuli presented at random positions with synchronous onset (control condition). Prior to and after training, participants were tested in an auditory spatial attention task (15 min), requiring localization of a predefined spoken word out of three distractor words, which were presented with synchronous stimulus onset from different positions. Peaks of ERP components were analyzed with a specific focus on the N2, which is known to be a correlate of auditory selective spatial attention. N2 amplitudes were significantly larger after audiovisual-congruency training compared with the remaining training conditions for younger, but not older, participants. Also, at the time of the N2, distributed source analysis revealed an enhancement of neural activity induced by audiovisual-congruency training in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 9) for the younger group. These findings suggest that cross-modal processes induced by audiovisual-congruency training under "cocktail-party" conditions at a short time scale resulted in an enhancement of correlates of auditory selective spatial attention.

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Two different mechanisms support selective attention at different phases of training.

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