LAUSR

Carrying conversations in public spaces with a plethora of competing sensory inputs demands flexible interactions between attention and perception for selectively processing goal-relevant information. We postulate that the fronto-striatal network plays a key role in regulating this interaction. However, to date the underlying gain control mechanisms are not yet well understood. Neuronal gain control can be fine-tuned by membrane potential regulated changes in neuronal excitability. Anodal transcranial current stimulation (atDCS) has been shown to cause a depolarization of resting membrane potentials, which increases neuronal excitability. In the present study, we applied off-line atDCS over the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in healthy young adults in a single-blinded sham-controlled study to investigate atDCS-induced effects on fronto-striatal gain control of auditory attention. We recorded high-density EEG recordings during a dichotic listening task in which both perceptual saliency and attentional focus were varied, creating conditions of low and high perceptual-attentional conflict. Compared to sham stimulation, pilot results suggest that atDCS enhanced auditory perception and attentional regulation: Specifically, atDCS increased discrimination ability of inter-aural intensity differences and enhanced performance in high conflict conditions. These behavioral effects were reflected by EEG correlates associated with attentional and perceptual processing.