Biomedical subjects

Kathrin Lange

Publications and source records attributed to Kathrin Lange.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Conceptual priming for environmental sounds and words: an ERP study.

In this study we examined conceptual priming using environmental sounds and visually displayed words. Priming for sounds and words was observed in response latency as well as in event-related potentials. Reactions were faster when a related word followed an environmental sound and vice versa. Moreover both stimulus types produced an N400-effect for unrelated compared to related trials. The N400-effect had an earlier onset for environmental sounds than for words. The results support the theoretical notion that conceptual processing may be similar for verbal and non-verbal stimuli.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2006

Attending points in time and space.

Both spatial and temporal attention improves auditory processing and these effects seem to originate at perceptual processing stages. It is not yet known if space and time are used in parallel or sequentially for stimulus selection. To directly compare when temporal and spatial attention affect stimulus processing in the auditory modality, short and long empty intervals (600 and 1,200 ms) were presented. Each interval started with a centrally presented tone (S1) and ended with a second tone (S2) presented either on the left or on the right side. Participants had to attend one point in time (offset of the short or long interval) and one position (left or right side) and had to respond to infrequent, deviant offset markers presented at the attended time point and at the attended position. The N1 of concurrently recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to the frequent standard stimuli was enhanced by both temporal and spatial attention. The temporal and the spatial N1 attention effect had a similar scalp topography, suggesting common neural generators. By contrast, later effects of temporal and spatial attention, consisting of a posterior positivity and an anterior negativity, markedly differed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2006

Orienting attention to points in time improves stimulus processing both within and across modalities.

Spatial attention affects the processing of stimuli of both a task-relevant and a task-irrelevant modality. The present study investigated if similar cross-modal effects exist when attention is oriented to a point in time. Short (600 msec) and long (1,200 msec) empty intervals, marked by a tactile onset and an auditory or a tactile offset marker, were presented. In each block, the participants had to attend one interval and one modality. Event-related potentials (ERPs) to auditory and tactile offset markers of attended as compared to unattended intervals were characterized by an enhancement of early negative deflections of the auditory and somatosensory ERPs (audition, 100-140 msec; touch, 130-180 msec) when audition or touch was task relevant, respectively. Similar effects were found for auditory stimuli when touch was task relevant. An additional reaction time experiment revealed faster responses to both auditory and tactile stimuli at the attended as compared to the unattended point in time, irrespective of which modality was primary. Both behavioral and ERP data show that attention can be focused on a point in time, which results in a more efficient processing of auditory and tactile stimuli. The ERP data further suggest that a relative enhancement at perceptual processing stages contributes to the processing advantage for temporally attended stimuli. The existence of cross-modal effects of temporal attention underlines the importance of time as a feature for binding input across different modalities.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2004

The redundant target effect is affected by modality switch costs.

When participants have to respond to stimuli of two modalities, faster reaction times are observed for simultaneous, bimodal events than for unimodal events (the redundant target effect [RTE]). This finding has been interpreted as reflecting processing gains for bimodal relative to unimodal stimuli, possibly due to multisensory interactions. In random stimulus sequences, reaction times are slower when the stimulus is preceded by a stimulus of a different modality (modality switch effect [MSE]). Simple reaction time redundant target experiments with auditory-visual, visual-tactile, and auditory-tactile stimulus combinations were run to determine whether the RTE may be partly explained by MSEs because bimodal stimuli do not require a modality switch. In all three modality pairings, significant MSEs and RTEs were observed. However, the RTE was still significant after reaction times were corrected for the MSE, supporting the hypothesis that coactivation occurs independently of modality switch costs.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Early processing stages are modulated when auditory stimuli are presented at an attended moment in time: an event-related potential study.

The present study investigated with event-related potentials whether attending to a moment in time modulates the processing of auditory stimuli at a similar early, perceptual level as attending to a location in space. The participants listened to short (600 ms) and long (1,200 ms) intervals marked by white noise bursts. The task was to attend in alternating runs either to the short or to the long intervals and to respond to rare offset markers that differed in intensity from the frequent standard offset markers. Prior to the to-be-attended moment, a slow negative potential developed over the frontal scalp. Stimuli presented at the attended compared to the unattended moments in time elicited an enhanced N1 and an enhanced posteriorly distributed positivity (300-370 ms). The results show that attention can be flexibly controlled in time and that not only late but also early perceptual processing stages are modulated by attending to a moment in time.

Acoustic Stimulation↗