Rhythmic alternate prioritization in auditory feature-based attention.

Overview

1. Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Liebiggasse 5, Vienna, 1010 Austria
2. Vienna Cognitive Science Research Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Abstract

Accumulating evidence suggests that attentional resources are distributed in a rhythmically alternating fashion between several simultaneously competing inputs. Most past research on this topic has investigated the visual modality, with some evidence of rhythmic sampling in auditory spatial attention. Here, we tested whether rhythmic sampling also extends to the auditory feature domain. Twenty-five human participants performed a challenging feature-based auditory attention task. On each trial, we presented an auditory cue (high or low tone) followed by a variable delay (250–1000 ms) and a target (high or low tone) at detection threshold, either congruent or incongruent with the cue (50% probability). By analyzing performance as a function of the cue-target interval, we arrived at three main results. First, sensitivity fluctuated significantly at a rate of 8 to 10 Hz for both congruent and incongruent targets, in line with cyclical waxing and waning attention towards the two features. Second, sensitivity in congruent and incongruent trials fluctuated out-of-phase with each other, suggesting an alternating prioritization of the two features. Third, across subjects, larger phase differences between conditions were associated with faster response times, indicating that alternate sampling facilitates task performance. In summary, our results demonstrate attentional sampling in yet another task domain and corroborate the idea of cyclic information processing as a key mechanism underlying information selection in the brain.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper links to its data, not to its authors' code: see the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none, so it has no map.

Data

Datasets cited

• osf:9dgva, at OSF; found in “Data availability”

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available under [https://osf.io/9dgva/files](https:/osf.io/9dgva/files).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 4 authors, 7 keywords, 10 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 62 references.

Cite

This paper

Bayram, B., Sarayköylü, S., Ansorge, U., & Pomper, U. (2026). Rhythmic alternate prioritization in auditory feature-based attention. Scientific reports, 16(1), 20463. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-50726-5

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.7554/elife.108017 [code]

Visual working memory guides attention rhythmically in humans.

Journal: eLife

In common: cognitive, 14 references

[2] doi:10.1186/s12915-026-02630-7 [code]

Phasic modulation of attentional rhythmic sampling according to task demands.

Journal: BMC biology

In common: cognitive, 9 references

[3] doi:10.1016/j.isci.2026.116240 [code]

Physical activity enhances theta-periodicity of visual attentional allocation.

Journal: iScience

In common: cognitive, 6 references

[4] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1199 [code]

Sustained alpha oscillations serve attentional prioritization in working memory, not maintenance.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: cognitive, 4 references

[5] doi:10.1038/s41467-026-70124-9 [code]

Alpha frequency shapes perceptual sensitivity by modulating optimal phase likelihood.

Journal: Nature communications

In common: cognitive, 4 references

[6] doi:10.1038/s42003-026-10265-1 [code]

The shape of attention reflects flexible filtering of natural speech modulations.

Journal: Communications biology

In common: cognitive, 4 references

[7] doi:10.1111/ejn.70598 [code]

Enhanced Time-Locked Decoding for Spoken Words but Not Environmental Sounds in Natural-Like Auditory Conditions.

Journal: The European journal of neuroscience

In common: cognitive, 4 references

[8] doi:10.7554/elife.100056 [code]

Multi-talker speech comprehension at different temporal scales in listeners with normal and impaired hearing.

Journal: eLife

In common: cognitive, 4 references

[9] doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003876 [code]

Competing speech streams are simultaneously represented in the human cortex during attention switching.

Journal: PLoS biology

In common: cognitive, 3 references

[10] doi:10.7554/elife.110000 [code]

Alpha-band phase modulates perceptual sensitivity by changing internal noise and sensory tuning.

Journal: eLife

In common: 3 references

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.