Some theories of auditory categorization suggest that auditory dimensions that are strongly diagnostic for particular categories - for instance voice onset time or fundamental frequency in the case of some spoken consonants - attract attention. However, prior cognitive neuroscience research on auditory selective attention has largely focused on attention to simple auditory objects or streams, and so little is known about the neural mechanisms that underpin dimension-selective attention, or how the relative salience of variations along these dimensions might modulate neural signatures of attention. Here we investigate whether dimensional salience and dimension-selective attention modulate the cortical tracking of acoustic dimensions. In two experiments, participants listened to tone sequences varying in pitch and spectral peak frequency; these two dimensions changed at different rates. Inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) and amplitude of the EEG signal at the frequencies tagged to pitch and spectral changes provided a measure of cortical tracking of these dimensions. In Experiment 1, tone sequences varied in the size of the pitch intervals, while the size of spectral peak intervals remained constant. Cortical tracking of pitch changes was greater for sequences with larger compared to smaller pitch intervals, with no difference in cortical tracking of spectral peak changes. In Experiment 2, participants selectively attended to either pitch or spectral peak. Cortical tracking was stronger in response to the attended compared to unattended dimension for both pitch and spectral peak. These findings suggest that attention can enhance the cortical tracking of specific acoustic dimensions rather than simply enhancing tracking of the auditory object as a whole.

一些听觉分类理论表明，对特定类别具有强烈诊断意义的听觉维度——例如某些口语辅音的语音起始时间或基本频率——会引起注意。然而，先前关于听觉选择性注意的认知神经科学研究主要集中在对简单的听觉对象或流的注意，而对于支撑维度选择性注意的神经机制，或者沿这些维度的变化的相对显着性可能如何调节知之甚少注意力的神经特征。在这里，我们研究维度显着性和维度选择性注意是否会调节声学维度的皮层跟踪。在两个实验中，参与者聆听音调和频谱峰值频率不同的音调序列；这两个维度以不同的速度变化。试验间相位相干性 (ITPC) 和 EEG 信号在标记为音高和频谱变化的频率处的幅度提供了对这些维度的皮层跟踪的测量。在实验 1 中，音调序列的音高间隔大小不同，而频谱峰值间隔的大小保持不变。与较小的音高间隔相比，音高间隔较大的序列对音高变化的皮质跟踪更大，在谱峰变化的皮质跟踪方面没有差异。在实验 2 中，参与者选择性地关注音高或频谱峰值。与无人值守维度相比，对音高和频谱峰值的皮层跟踪对有人参与的响应更强。