Attentional capture by previously reward-associated stimuli has predominantly been measured in the visual domain. Recently, behavioral studies of value-driven attention have demonstrated involuntary attentional capture by previously reward-associated sounds, emulating behavioral findings within the visual domain and suggesting a common mechanism of attentional capture by value across sensory modalities. However, the neural correlates of the modulatory role of learned value on the processing of auditory information has not been examined. Here, we conducted a neuroimaging study on human participants using a previously established behavioral paradigm that measures value-driven attention in an auditory target identification task. We replicate behavioral findings of both voluntary prioritization and involuntary attentional capture by previously reward-associated sounds. When task-relevant, the selective processing of high-value sounds is supported by reduced activation in the dorsal attention network of the visual system (FEF, intraparietal sulcus, right middle frontal gyrus), implicating cross-modal processes of biased competition. When task-irrelevant, in contrast, high-value sounds evoke elevated activation in posterior parietal cortex and are represented with greater fidelity in the auditory cortex. Our findings reveal two distinct mechanisms of prioritizing reward-related auditory signals, with voluntary and involuntary modes of orienting that are differently manifested in biased competition.

Rewarding and aversive outcomes have opposing effects on behavior, facilitating approach and avoidance, although we need to accurately anticipate each type of outcome to behave effectively. Attention is biased toward stimuli that have been learned to predict either type of outcome, and it remains an open question whether such orienting is driven by separate systems for value- and threat-based orienting or whether there exists a common underlying mechanism of attentional control driven by motivational salience. Here, we provide a direct comparison of the neural correlates of value- and threat-based attentional capture after associative learning. Across multiple measures of behavior and brain activation, our findings overwhelmingly support a motivational salience account of the control of attention. We conclude that there exists a core mechanism of experience-dependent attentional control driven by motivational salience and that prior characterizations of attention as being value driven or supporting threat monitoring need to be revisited.