Distractor-induced deafness: ERP correlates of auditory distractor processing

Distractor-induced deafness (DID) refers to the impaired detection of an auditory target when preceded by a rapid sequence of auditory distractors sharing the target’s features. We examined whether the neural signatures underlying DID resemble those found in visual distractor-induced blindness (DIB). Participants completed a rapid serial auditory presentation (RSAP) task in which distractor number and cue-target onset asynchrony were systematically manipulated. Behaviorally, target detection declined with increasing distractor number, closely replicating the behavioral DIB effect. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) evoked by the distractors, however, revealed modality-specific differences: In contrast to earlier DIB findings, the amplitude of a fronto-central negativity decreased with increasing distractor load in the auditory task. Whereas the ERP responses in the visual DIB setup supported the notion of a cumulative inhibitory mechanism triggered by distractors, the current DID findings are rather in line with temporal expectation accounts.