Auditory-Cortex Short-Term Plasticity Induced by Selective Attention
Figure 3
Time course of auditory-cortex short-term plasticity effects that take place during selective-attention. (a) Evolution of selective-attention effects within 30 s period that followed task engagement, based on measurement of nonprimary auditory-cortical activity 50–150 from sound onset. The responses were allocated to five consecutive time bins and as can be seen the attention effects are observable already in the first responses (right, time bin 1) after attention switching, suggesting rapid (~seconds) buildup of the short-term plasticity effects. Conversely, the similarity of response amplitudes to unattended tones across the bins (on the left) suggests that attention-induced short-term plasticity effects are washed out very rapidly following disengagement of attention. (b)-(c) Transient (~100 ms from sound onset) and sustained response (~300 ms) amplitudes as a function of time from the onset of attentional condition. Note again how the ~100 ms response attention effect does not show any dynamics, but the sustained response shows a significant interaction effect with attention and time range from the onset of the attention shift, suggesting that the short-term plasticity that modulates processing at ~300 ms from sound onset builds up much more gradually than the effects seen in activity that is elicited ~100 ms from sound onset. ((a) and ((b)-(c)) are adapted with permission from [88, 93], resp.).
