Oscillatory infrasonic modulation of the cochlear amplifier by selective attention

Evidence shows that selective attention to visual stimuli modulates the gain of cochlear responses, probably through auditory-cortex descending pathways. At the cerebral cortex level, amplitude and phase changes of neural oscillations have been proposed as a correlate of selective attention. However, whether sensory receptors are also influenced by the oscillatory network during attention tasks remains unknown. Here, we searched for oscillatory attention-related activity at the cochlear receptor level in humans. We used an alternating visual/auditory selective attention task and measured electroencephalographic activity simultaneously to distortion product otoacoustic emissions (a measure of cochlear receptor-cell activity). In order to search for cochlear oscillatory activity, the otoacoustic emission signal, was included as an additional channel in the electroencephalogram analyses. This method allowed us to evaluate dynamic changes in cochlear oscillations within the same range of frequencies (1–35 Hz) in which cognitive effects are commonly observed in electroencephalogram works. We found the presence of low frequency (

现有研究表明，对视觉刺激的选择性注意可调控耳蜗反应的增益，其机制可能通过听觉皮层下行通路实现。在大脑皮层层面，神经振荡的振幅与相位变化被认为是选择性注意的相关标志物。然而，在注意任务过程中，感觉感受器是否同样受振荡网络调控，目前仍不明确。本研究针对人类耳蜗感受器层面与注意相关的振荡活动展开探索。我们采用交替式视觉/听觉选择性注意任务，同步记录脑电图（electroencephalogram, EEG）活动与失真产物耳声发射（distortion product otoacoustic emissions，一种反映耳蜗感受器细胞活动的指标）。为了探测耳蜗振荡活动，我们将耳声发射信号作为额外通道纳入脑电图分析流程。该方法使得我们能够在脑电图研究中常用于观测认知效应的同一频率范围（1–35 Hz）内，评估耳蜗振荡的动态变化。我们观测到低频（