ReviewUsing neuroimaging to understand the cortical mechanisms of auditory selective attention

•Different neuroimaging techniques have different strengths and challenges.•Successful neuroimaging experiments require careful design.•Attention modulates auditory sensory areas as well as higher cortical regions.•Auditory and visual attention share a similar supramodal attentional network.

Over the last four decades, a range of different neuroimaging tools have been used to study human auditory attention, spanning from classic event-related potential studies using electroencephalography to modern multimodal imaging approaches (e.g., combining anatomical information based on magnetic resonance imaging with magneto- and electroencephalography). This review begins by exploring the different strengths and limitations inherent to different neuroimaging methods, and then outlines some common behavioral paradigms that have been adopted to study auditory attention. We argue that in order to design a neuroimaging experiment that produces interpretable, unambiguous results, the experimenter must not only have a deep appreciation of the imaging technique employed, but also a sophisticated understanding of perception and behavior. Only with the proper caveats in mind can one begin to infer how the cortex supports a human in solving the “cocktail party” problem.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled .