Does auditory processing rely on encapsulated, or domain-general computational resources?

Abstract

The extent to which auditory processing depends on attention has been a key question in auditory cognitive neuroscience, crucial for establishing how the acoustic environment is represented in the brain when attention is directed away from sound. Here I review emerging behavioural and brain imaging results which demonstrate that, contrary to the traditional view of a computationally encapsulated system, the auditory system shares computational resources with the visual system: high demand on visual processing (e.g. as a consequence of a task with high perceptual load) can undercut auditory processing such that both the neural response to, and perceptual awareness of, non-attended sounds are impaired. These results are discussed in terms of our understanding of the architecture of the auditory modality and its role as the brain's early warning system.