ボトムアップ性聴覚性注意検査法開発に向けた予備的検討

Preliminary study on the development of a bottom-up auditory attention assessment

　注意機能の性差を考慮した新しいボトムアップ性聴覚性注意（BAA）評価法開発に向けて，予備的検討を行った．認知機能と注意機能に障害のない20歳代の大学生98名が本研究に参加し，除外基準により88名が本実験に登録された．被験者は日常生活音の音刺激に対し，注意を引く音があればボタン押し反応を行った．音刺激は10本作成し，被験者には5本の刺激がランダムに呈示された．被験者の反応箇所と，各音刺激に対する反応数および被験者間一致率を男女別に検証した．被験者が反応した音響イベントのうち，反応数の性差を認めた音刺激を除いた総反応数155個の音響イベントが分析対象となった．男女別の被験者間一致率の傾向は，p＝0.40で統計的有意差はなかった．被験者間一致率の第3四分位値である67％以上の反応を，BAA優位な反応とした．本研究はトップダウン性注意の影響を最小限に抑えた若年層における新しいBAA評価法を提案した．音刺激に対するBAAの性差が確認され，性差を考慮したBAA評価法開発の必要性が示唆された．

　A preliminary study was conducted to develop a bottom-up auditory attention (BAA) assessment that accounts for gender differences in attentional function. Ninety-eight college students in their 20s with no cognitive or attention disorders participated in the study. After applying exclusion criteria to this group, 88 students were selected and enrolled as subjects. Subjects were asked to respond to audio stimuli of daily life sounds by pressing a button if they heard a sound that captured their attention. Each subject was presented with five stimuli selected at random from the ten audio stimuli that had been prepared. We noted what stimuli the subjects responded to, the number of responses to each stimulus, and the intersubject agreement rate for males and females. As a result, 155 sound events to which subjects responded were included in the analysis, excluding the audio stimuli for which gender differences were identified in the number of responses. The trend in the intersubject agreement rate by gender was not statistically significant (p＝0.40). BAA-predominant responses were defined as ≧67%, which was the third quartile of intersubject agreement. This study proposed a new method for assessing BAA in young adults that minimizes the influence of top-down attention. Gender differences in BAA to audio stimuli were identified, suggesting the need to develop a BAA assessment method that takes gender differences into account.