Using sound to modulate attention

[Paul Satchell <sattress@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have just read a paper by Robertson et al (Nature
395, 1998, pp169-172) which shows that in patients with neglect, warning

sounds delivered phasically remove the pathological bias in their visual

spatial awareness. This is an important observation for neglect patients

and may have more general implications for phasic alerting and spatial
awareness. Thus, I came across an older paper by Mackie et al
(Ergonomics 37, 1994, pp 1157-1184) which appears to show that those
carrying out sonar watchstanding in submarines can have their detection
performance improved by signal injection and performance feedback. This
is the only applied example I have found which suggests that attention
and awareness might be altered systematically in a workplace by sounds.
The neural processes in the sonar example may have nothing to do with
those proposed in the neglect example.

Is anyone aware of any work where technology has been used to alter
human
auditory vigilance in roles like sonar watchkeeping. I have contacted
the publicity officer for the US naval training school but he could not
help.

Dr Paul Satchell