Selection of Information in Auditory Virtual Reality Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.) genehmigt durch die Fakultät für Naturwissenschaften der Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg von: Dipl.-Psych. Dörte Spring (geb. Kuhlicke) geb. am: 10.07.1979 in: Belzig Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Thomas F. Münte Prof. Dr. Bernadette Jansma eingereicht am: 29.01.2007 verteidigt am: 01.03.2007 To my parents and parents in law Especially in memory of Kathryn H. Spring, For their continued support, Which has made it all possible. And to all my teachers, present and past, For instilling the proper knowledge in me, Which has enabled me to pursue this path. Preamble This dissertation is written in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of doctor rerum naturalium (Dr. rer. nat.) at the Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, faculty of natural sciences. The bulk of the research presented in this doctoral dissertation was conducted in the laboratory of Prof. Thomas F. Münte, institute of psychology II, department of neuropsychology, at the University of Magdeburg When I started my work on cortical activity during selective auditory attention, already several dichotic listening tasks with rather single stimuli (e.g., tones) than whole simultaneous speeches were conducted to investigate auditory selection of attention.