In contrast selleck to previous studies and to what happens with spatial attention, we found that events in one (unattended) modality do not automatically benefit from happening at the time point when another modality is expected. Instead, it seems that attention can be deployed in time with relative independence for different sensory modalities. Based on these findings, we argue that temporal orienting of attention can be cross-modally decoupled in order to flexibly react according to the environmental demands, and that the efficiency of this selective decoupling

unfolds in time. Attention is paramount to boost the processing of relevant environmental events (Treue, 2003). For instance, spatial attention grants quicker reactions (Posner et al., 1980), lower perception thresholds (Yeshurun & Carrasco, 1998) and increased accuracy (Luck et al., 1994) for visual events appearing at an attended location. Considering ABT-263 order endogenous voluntary attention (Jonides, 1981; Corbetta & Shulman, 2002; Carrasco, 2012), these benefits have also been demonstrated with time, rather than space, as selection criterion (e.g. Westheimer & Ley, 1996; Coull & Nobre, 1998; Miniussi et al., 1999; Griffin et al., 2001; Correa et al., 2004; Jones, 2004; Nobre et al., 2007; Rohenkohl et al., 2012). In addition, it is widely accepted that

orienting spatial attention within one modality benefits processing in other modalities at that location, a pattern known as cross-modal synergy (e.g. Spence & Driver, 1996, 1997; Driver & Spence, 1998a; Spence et al., 1998, 2000, 2001; Eimer, 1999; Macaluso et al., 2000, 2002; McDonald et al., 2000; Kennett et al., 2001; Eimer et al., 2002; Krumbholz et al., 2009; Santangelo et al., 2009). Cross-modal synergies not only exist in spatial attention, but have also been claimed in the domain of temporal attention (e.g. Miniussi et al., 1999; Meredith, 2002). That is, expecting an event

in one modality at a certain time might lead to benefits in processing of 3-mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase stimuli presented in a different (unexpected) modality at that instant. Lange & Röder (2006) addressed this question in an event-related potential (ERP) study including behavioural measures where expectancy of an audition or visual event was manipulated across time points (early or late). The authors found that reaction times (RTs) were faster not only for stimuli in the expected (primary) modality and temporal interval, but also for stimuli in the unexpected (secondary) modality occurring at the expected time point. Their ERP data showed a modulation of the N100 component for events in both the primary and secondary modality, suggesting a cross-modal synergy in temporal attention.