Signal‐to‐Noise Ratio Effects Frontoparietal Network Lateralization: Electroencephalogram Evidence in Underwater Auditory Target Recognition

Accurately recognizing auditory targets within background interference remains challenging at a low signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR). Using an oddball paradigm, this electroencephalogram study investigated the impact of SNR (0, −10, and −20 dB) on psychophysiological processes underlying underwater auditory target recognition in twenty normal‐hearing participants. Reduced SNR impaired the N1–P2 component and led to P300 variations, with delayed latencies (N1: p = 0.0355; P300: p = 0.0075) and reduced amplitudes (P2: p = 0.0075; P300: p = 0.0277), indicating increased attentional demands. Microstate analysis highlighted 300–400 ms frontoparietal activation for attention orientation and sensory information integration. Reduced accuracy correlates with alpha‐band activity and phase variations over frontoparietal areas (event‐related spectral perturbation [ERSP]: p = 0.0388; inter‐trial coherence [ITC]: p = 0.0059), implying suppression of task‐relevant processing. Gamma‐band activity and phase at lower SNR levels suggest changes in the parietal network's function (ERSP: p = 0.0183; ITC: p = 0.0113), influencing reaction times due to increased integration difficulty. Right‐lateralized alpha‐ and gamma‐band network shifts support the functional advantages of the right hemisphere in noise, with enhanced local efficiency (frontal alpha: p = 0.0100; parietal—occipital gamma: p = 0.0116). These findings provide insights into the psychophysiological mechanisms underlying auditory target recognition in noise.