Neuroelectric Correlates of Perceptual Awareness during the Auditory Attentional Blink

Perceptual awareness refers to the conscious detection and identification of a sensory event. In neuroelectric brain activity, it is associated with a modality-specific negative-going event-related potential, which can be observed as early as 100–300 ms after the stimulus onset. In this study, we measured brain activity during the auditory attentional blink, comparing brain responses when participants correctly reported both the first (T1) and second (T2) targets versus when only T1 was detected, but T2 was missed. To ensure robust statistical power, we pooled data across six previously published studies for the current analyses. Our results revealed that accurately reporting both T1 and T2 elicited a greater negativity between 150-300 ms over the frontocentral and central scalp area following T2 onset, compared to trials where T1 was detected but T2 was not. Additionally, a positive displacement, peaking around 800 ms over the central-parietal scalp area, followed the early negativity. Successful detection of both T1 and T2 was also associated with more pronounced alpha suppression, peaking at approximatively 500 ms before and 800 ms after T2 onset. These findings suggest that neural correlates of auditory awareness emerge both prior to the stimulus sequence an soon after T2 onset. The pre-stimulus difference in alpha power may serve as an indicator of lapses in attention, with greater alpha reflecting periods when participants were less engaged or off-task.