Attention: The grounds of self-regulated cognition

Features of attention network impairment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy: Evidence from eye-tracking and electroencephalogram

AIM

To explore multiple features of attention impairments in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

METHODS

A total of 93 patients diagnosed with TLE at Xiangya Hospital during May 2022 and December 2022 and 85 healthy controls were included in this study. Participants were asked to complete neuropsychological scales and attention network test (ANT) with recording of eye-tracking and electroencephalogram.

RESULTS

All means of evaluation showed impaired attention functions in TLE patients. ANT results showed impaired orienting (p < 0.001) and executive control (p = 0.041) networks. Longer mean first saccade time (p = 0.046) and more total saccadic counts (p = 0.035) were found in eye-tracking results, indicating abnormal alerting and orienting networks. Both alerting, orienting and executive control networks were abnormal, manifesting as decreased amplitudes (N1 & P3, p < 0.001) and extended latency (P3, p = 0.002). The energy of theta, alpha and beta were all sensitive to the changes of alerting and executive control network with time, but only beta power was sensitive to the changes of orienting network.

CONCLUSION

Our findings are helpful for early identification of patients with TLE combined with attention impairments, which have strong clinical guiding significance for long-term monitoring and intervention.

Research of visual attention networks in deaf individuals: a systematic review

The impact of deafness on visual attention has been widely discussed in previous research. It has been noted that deficiencies and strengths of previous research can be attributed to temporal or spatial aspects of attention, as well as variations in development and clinical characteristics. Visual attention is categorized into three networks: orienting (exogenous and endogenous), alerting (phasic and tonic), and executive control. This study aims to contribute new neuroscientific evidence supporting this hypothesis. This paper presents a systematic review of the international literature from the past 15 years focused on visual attention in the deaf population. The final review included 24 articles. The function of the orienting network is found to be enhanced in deaf adults and children, primarily observed in native signers without cochlear implants, while endogenous orienting is observed only in the context of gaze cues in children, with no differences found in adults. Results regarding alerting and executive function vary depending on clinical characteristics and paradigms used. Implications for future research on visual attention in the deaf population are discussed.

Cognitive archaeology, and the psychological assessment of extinct minds

Evolutionary anthropology relies on both neontological and paleontological information. In the latter case, fields such as paleoneurology, neuroarchaeology, and cognitive archaeology are supplying new perspectives in prehistory and neuroscience. Cognitive archaeology, in particular, investigates the behaviors associated with extinct species or cultures according to specific psychological models. For example, changes in working memory, attention, or visuospatial integration can be postulated when related behavioral changes are described in the archaeological record. However, cognition is a process based on different and partially independent functional elements, and extinct species could hence have evolved distinct combinations of cognitive abilities or features, based on both quantitative and qualitative differences. Accordingly, differences in working memory can lead to more conceptual or more holistic mindsets, with important changes in the perception and management of the mental experience. The parietal cortex is particularly interesting, in this sense, being involved in functions associated with body-tool integration, attention, and visual imaging. In some cases, evolutionary mismatches among these elements can induce drawbacks that, despite their positive effects on natural selection, can introduce important constraints in our own mental skills. Beyond the theoretical background, some hypotheses can be tested following methods in experimental psychology. In any case, theories in cognitive evolution must acknowledge that, beyond the brain and its biology, the human mind is also deeply rooted in body perception, in social networks, and in technological extension.

Patterns of attentional bias in antenatal depression: an eye-tracking study

Introduction

One of the most common mental disorders in the perinatal period is depression, which is associated with impaired emotional functioning due to alterations in different cognitive aspects including thought and facial emotion recognition. These functional impairment may affect emerging maternal sensitivity and have lasting consequences for the dyadic relationship. The current study aimed to investigate the impact of depressive symptoms on the attention bias of infant stimuli during pregnancy.

Methods

Eighty-six pregnant women completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and an eye-tracking task comprising infant-related emotion images. All participants showed biased attention to infant-related images.

Results

First, compared to healthy pregnant women, pregnant women with depression symptoms initially directed their attention to infant-related stimuli more quickly (F (1, 84) = 6.175, p = 0.015, η2 = 0.068). Second, the two groups of pregnant women paid attention to the positive infant stimuli faster than the neutral infant stimuli, and the first fixation latency bias score was significantly smaller than that of the infant-related negative stimulus (p = 0.007). Third, compared with the neutral stimulus, the non-depression group showed a longer first gaze duration to the negative stimulus of infants (p = 0.019), while the depressive symptoms group did not show this difference.

Conclusion

We speculate that structural and functional changes in affective motivation and cognitive-attention brain areas may induce these attentional bias patterns. These results provide suggestions for the implementation of clinical intervention programs to correct the attention bias of antenatal depressed women.

Comparing neuronal oscillations during visual spatial attention orienting between normobaric and hypobaric hypoxia

Normobaric hypoxia (NH) and hypobaric hypoxia (HH) are both used to train aircraft pilots to recognize symptoms of hypoxia. NH (low oxygen concentration) training is often preferred because it is more cost effective, simpler, and safer than HH. It is unclear, however, whether NH is neurophysiologically equivalent to HH (high altitude). Previous studies have shown that neural oscillations, particularly those in the alpha band (8-12 Hz), are impacted by hypoxia. Attention tasks have been shown to reliably modulate alpha oscillations, although the neurophysiological impacts of hypoxia during cognitive processing remains poorly understood. To address this we investigated induced and evoked power alongside physiological data while participants performed an attention task during control (normobaric normoxia or NN), NH (fraction of inspired oxygen = 12.8%, partial pressure of inspired oxygen = 87.2 mmHg), and HH (3962 m, partial pressure of inspired oxygen = 87.2 mmHg) conditions inside a hypobaric chamber. No significant differences between NH and HH were found in oxygen saturation, end tidal gases, breathing rate, middle cerebral artery velocity and blood pressure. Induced alpha power was significantly decreased in NH and HH when compared to NN. Participants in the HH condition showed significantly increased induced lower-beta power and evoked higher-beta power, compared with the NH and NN conditions, indicating that NH and HH differ in their impact on neurophysiological activity supporting cognition. NH and HH were found not to be neurophysiologically equivalent as electroencephalography was able to differentiate NH from HH.

Cognitive Archeology and the Attentional System: An Evolutionary Mismatch for the Genus Homo

Brain evolution is a key topic in evolutionary anthropology. Unfortunately, in this sense the fossil record can usually support limited anatomical and behavioral inferences. Nonetheless, information from fossil species is, in any case, particularly valuable, because it represents the only direct proof of cerebral and behavioral changes throughout the human phylogeny. Recently, archeology and psychology have been integrated in the field of cognitive archeology, which aims to interpret current cognitive models according to the evidence we have on extinct human species. In this article, such evidence is reviewed in order to consider whether and to what extent the archeological record can supply information regarding changes of the attentional system in different taxa of the human genus. In particular, behavioral correlates associated with the fronto-parietal system and working memory are employed to consider recent changes in our species, Homo sapiens, and a mismatch between attentional and visuospatial ability is hypothesized. These two functional systems support present-moment awareness and mind-wandering, respectively, and their evolutionary unbalance can explain a structural sensitivity to psychological distress in our species.

Tactile sensory processing as a precursor of executive attention: Toward early detection of attention impairments and neurodevelopmental disorders

Recent studies in developmental neuroscience tend to show the existence of neural attention networks from birth. Their construction is based on the first sensory experiences that allow us to learn the patterns of the world surrounding us and preserve our limited attentional resources. Touch is the first sensory modality to develop, although it is still little studied in developmental psychology in contrast to distal modalities such as audition or vision. Atypical tactile sensory processing at an early age could predict later attention dysfunction, both of them being part of the symptomatology of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). We review the state of knowledge on tactile sensory processing and its links with attention, executive attention (EA) in particular, and propose that abnormal tactile sensory processing at an early age could provide markers of EA dysfunctions, contributing to the early detection of NDD. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Attention.