A network model of auditory attention

What is it about?

How do animal brains "focus" their attention to sounds from different locations? Our computational models demonstrate a possible mechanism for achieving, modulating, and switching focused attention via spiking neural networks, and show that the same patterns and methods may be common across diverse animal species.

Featured Image

Photo by Sharon Waldron on Unsplash

Photo by Sharon Waldron on Unsplash

Why is it important?

It is often difficult to focus our attention in noisy settings, and this is especially true for hearing-impaired listeners. We show that the network motif for achieving selective attention is relatively simple, and this work may help guide the development of assistive listening devices that aim to help listeners achieve focused attention in noisy settings.