Selective attention to sound object features such as pitch and location is associated with enhanced brain activity in ventral and dorsal streams, respectively. We examined the role of these pathways in involuntary orienting and conflict resolution using fMRI. Participants were presented with two tones that may, or may not, share the same nonspatial (frequency) or spatial (location) auditory features. In separate blocks of trials, participants were asked to attend to sound frequency or sound location and ignore the change in the task-irrelevant feature. In both attend-frequency and attend-location tasks, RTs were slower when the task-irrelevant feature changed than when it stayed the same (involuntary orienting). This behavioral cost coincided with enhanced activity in the pFC and superior temporal gyrus. Conflict resolution was examined by comparing situations where the change in stimulus features was congruent (both features changed) and incongruent (only one feature changed). Participants were slower and less accurate for incongruent than congruent sound features. This congruency effect was associated with enhanced activity in the pFC and was greater in the right superior temporal gyrus and medial frontal cortex during the attend-location task than during the attend-frequency task. Together, these findings do not support a strict division of “labor” into ventral and dorsal streams but rather suggest interactions between these pathways in situations involving changes in task-irrelevant sound feature and conflict resolution. These findings also validate the Test of Attention in Listening task by revealing distinct neural correlates for involuntary orienting and conflict resolution.

对声音对象特征（例如音高和位置）的选择性关注分别与腹侧和背侧流中增强的大脑活动相关。我们使用 fMRI 检查了这些途径在非自愿定向和冲突解决中的作用。参与者会看到两种音调，它们可能会或可能不会共享相同的非空间（频率）或空间（位置）听觉特征。在不同的试验块中，参与者被要求注意声音频率或声音位置，而忽略与任务无关的特征的变化。在出席频率和出席地点任务中，与任务无关的特征改变时的 RT 比保持不变（非自愿定向）时更慢。这种行为成本与 pFC 和颞上回的活动增强相吻合。通过比较刺激特征的变化一致（两个特征都改变）和不一致（只有一个特征改变）的情况来检查冲突解决。与一致的声音特征相比，参与者对于不一致的声音特征更慢且准确度更低。这种一致性效应与 pFC 中的活动增强有关，并且在参与定位任务期间的右侧颞上回和内侧额叶皮层中比在参与频率任务期间更大。总之，这些发现并不支持将“劳动”严格划分为腹侧和背侧流，而是表明在涉及与任务无关的声音特征和冲突解决的变化的情况下这些途径之间的相互作用。