PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Molloy, Katharine
AU  - Lavie, Nilli
AU  - Chait, Maria
TI  - Auditory Figure-Ground Segregation is Impaired by High Visual Load
AID  - 10.1101/216846
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 216846
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/09/216846.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/11/09/216846.full
AB  - Figure-ground segregation is fundamental to listening in complex acoustic environments. An ongoing debate pertains to whether segregation requires attention or is ‘automatic’ and pre-attentive. In this magnetoencephalography (MEG) study we tested a prediction derived from Load Theory of attention1 that segregation requires attention, but can benefit from the automatic allocation of any ‘leftover’ capacity under low load. Complex auditory scenes were modelled with Stochastic Figure Ground stimuli (SFG2) which occasionally contained repeated frequency component ‘figures’. Naive human subjects passively listened to these signals while performing a visual attention task of either low or high load. Whilst clear figure-related neural responses were observed under conditions of low load, high visual load essentially abolished the neural response to the figure in auditory cortex (Planum Temporale, Heschl’s gyrus). We conclude that fundamental figure-ground segregation in hearing is not automatic but draws on shared resources across vision and audition.