Abstract
We investigated the effect of auditory spatial attention on brain activation in dichotic listening task. Participants paid attention toward an auditory input from their left or right ear. Cerebral hemodynamic response was measured by a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in temporal lobe, occipital lobe, and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in both lateral cerebral hemispheres. In both lateral PPCs, the attention toward input from left ear induced significantly larger activation than from right ear. Harasawa and Shioiri (2008) indicated that visuospatial attention to left visual hemifield also induced significantly larger activation in PPC than to right hemifield. These suggested that there might be asymmetrical spatial attention regulation system which was independent on sensory input modality.
