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Ciricugno A, Bartlett ML, Gwinn OS, Carragher DJ, Nicholls MER. The effect of cognitive load on horizontal and vertical spatial asymmetries. Laterality 2021; 26:706-724. [PMID: 33906579 DOI: 10.1080/1357650x.2021.1920972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Healthy individuals typically show a leftward attentional bias in the allocation of spatial attention along the horizontal plane, a phenomenon known as pseudoneglect, which relies on a right hemispheric dominance for visuospatial processing. Also, healthy individuals tend to overestimate the upper hemispace when orienting attention along the vertical plane, a phenomenon that may depend on asymmetric ventral and dorsal visual streams activation. Previous research has demonstrated that when attentional resources are reduced due to increased cognitive load, pseudoneglect is attenuated (or even reversed), due to decreased right-hemispheric activations. Critically, whether and how the reduction of attentional resources under load modulates vertical spatial asymmetries has not been addressed before. We asked participants to perform a line bisection task both with and without the addition of a concurrent auditory working memory task with lines oriented either horizontally or vertically. Results showed that increasing cognitive load reduced the typical leftward/upward bias with no difference between orientations. Our data suggest that the degree of cognitive load affects spatial attention not only in the horizontal but also in the vertical plane. Lastly, the similar effect of load on horizontal and vertical judgements suggests these biases may be related to only partially independent mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Ciricugno
- IRCCS C. Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy.,College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia
| | - Megan L Bartlett
- College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia
| | - Owen S Gwinn
- College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia
| | - Daniel J Carragher
- College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia
| | - Michael E R Nicholls
- College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia
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Moeck EK, Thomas NA, Takarangi MKT. Using the landmark task to test the underlying assumptions of unilateral contraction research. Laterality 2019; 25:363-389. [PMID: 31868095 DOI: 10.1080/1357650x.2019.1701484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
The unilateral contractions procedure (i.e., squeezing a ball with one hand) supposedly enhances a wide variety of cognitive functions, from episodic recall to choking under pressure. The practicality and affordability of this procedure makes it highly appealing. But does it work? We addressed this question by testing whether intermittent and sustained unilateral contractions shifted a well-supported hemispheric asymmetry: visuospatial attention. Based on prior research, contracting the left (or right) hand should lead baseline scores on the landmark task-a visuospatial attention measure-to deviate further left (or right). We meta-analysed the results of our six experiments and showed that the unilateral contractions procedure, particularly with intermittent contractions, does not reliably shift landmark task scores measured during (Experiments 4-6) or after (Experiments 1-3 & 6) performing unilateral contractions. Although we question if and how unilateral contractions activate the contralateral hemisphere, Experiment 6 provided some support for the utility of sustained contractions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ella K Moeck
- College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.,Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Nicole A Thomas
- Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Melanie K T Takarangi
- College of Education, Psychology and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
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Chen J, Kaur J, Abbas H, Wu M, Luo W, Osman S, Niemeier M. Evidence for a common mechanism of spatial attention and visual awareness: Towards construct validity of pseudoneglect. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0212998. [PMID: 30845258 PMCID: PMC6405131 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212998] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2017] [Accepted: 02/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Present knowledge of attention and awareness centres on deficits in patients with right brain damage who show severe forms of inattention to the left, called spatial neglect. Yet the functions that are lost in neglect are poorly understood. In healthy people, they might produce “pseudoneglect”—subtle biases to the left found in various tests that could complement the leftward deficits in neglect. But pseudoneglect measures are poorly correlated. Thus, it is unclear whether they reflect anything but distinct surface features of the tests. To probe for a common mechanism, here we asked whether visual noise, known to increase leftward biases in the grating-scales task, has comparable effects on other measures of pseudoneglect. We measured biases using three perceptual tasks that require judgments about size (landmark task), luminance (greyscales task) and spatial frequency (grating-scales task), as well as two visual search tasks that permitted serial and parallel search or parallel search alone. In each task, we randomly selected pixels of the stimuli and set them to random luminance values, much like a poor TV signal. We found that participants biased their perceptual judgments more to the left with increasing levels of noise, regardless of task. Also, noise amplified the difference between long and short lines in the landmark task. In contrast, biases during visual searches were not influenced by noise. Our data provide crucial evidence that different measures of perceptual pseudoneglect, but not exploratory pseudoneglect, share a common mechanism. It can be speculated that this common mechanism feeds into specific, right-dominant processes of global awareness involved in the integration of visual information across the two hemispheres.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaqing Chen
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jagjot Kaur
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Hana Abbas
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Ming Wu
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Wenyi Luo
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Sinan Osman
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Matthias Niemeier
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- * E-mail:
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of directed and sustained attention on the allocation of visuospatial attention. Healthy people often have left lateral and upward vertical spatial attentional biases. However, it is not known whether there will be an increase in bias toward the attended portion of the stimulus when volitional spatial attention is allocated to a portion of a stimulus, whether there are asymmetrical spatial alterations of these biases, and how sustained attention influences these biases. METHODS We assessed spatial bias in 36 healthy, right-handed participants using a variant of horizontal and vertical line bisections. Participants were asked to focus on one or the other end of vertical or horizontal lines or entire vertical or horizontal lines, and then to bisect the line either immediately or after a 20 second delay. RESULTS We found a significant main effect of attentional focus and an interaction between attentional focus and prolonged viewing with delayed bisection. Focusing on a certain portion of the line resulting in a significant deviation toward the attended portion and prolonged viewing of the line prior to bisection significantly enhanced the degree of deviation toward the attended portion. CONCLUSIONS The enhanced bias with directed and sustained attention may be useful modifications of the line bisection test, particularly in clinical populations. Thus, future studies should determine whether prolonged viewing with delayed bisection and spatially focused attention reveals attentional biases in patients with hemispheric lesions who perform normally on the traditional line bisection test. (JINS, 2019, 25, 65-71).
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Hartmann M, Sommer NR, Diana L, Müri RM, Eberhard-Moscicka AK. Further to the right: Viewing distance modulates attentional asymmetries ('pseudoneglect') during visual exploration. Brain Cogn 2018; 129:40-48. [PMID: 30471991 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2018.11.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2018] [Revised: 10/24/2018] [Accepted: 11/11/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies showed that the small leftward bias found in healthy humans' spatial judgments of lines ("pseudoneglect") shifts to the right with increasing distance between stimuli and observer. In this study, we investigated whether such a modulation of attentional asymmetry can also be observed in free visual exploration. Participants freely explored photographs of naturalistic scenes for 7 s in near (60 cm) and far (140 cm) space. After an initial leftward bias, followed by a compensatory rightward bias, gaze positions were significantly more leftward in near compared to far space (around 4 s from scene onset). Our results show that the modulation of attentional asymmetries by viewing distance previously reported for spatial judgments generalizes to free visual exploration, and we revealed the temporal dynamics of these asymmetries by fine-grained eye movement analysis. In contrast, an effect of viewing distance was reduced or absent when eye movements are under strong top-down control, as in systematic serial visual search (Sensitive Negelct Test). Finally, there was no effect of viewing distance in the landmark task (as also reported in a minority of other studies), suggesting that this effect may depend on specific, yet unidentified task characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthias Hartmann
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and BioMedical Research, University Hospital, University of Bern, Switzerland; Faculty of Psychology, Swiss Distance Learning University, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland.
| | - Nils R Sommer
- Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Lorenzo Diana
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and BioMedical Research, University Hospital, University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - René M Müri
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and BioMedical Research, University Hospital, University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Aleksandra K Eberhard-Moscicka
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and BioMedical Research, University Hospital, University of Bern, Switzerland
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Thomas NA, Nicholls MER. Asymmetries in Distractibility: Left Distractors Improve Reaction Time Performance. Sci Rep 2018; 8:5157. [PMID: 29581447 PMCID: PMC5979947 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-23498-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2017] [Accepted: 03/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
Research using the irrelevant-distractor paradigm shows perceptual load influences distractibility, such that distractors are more likely to be processed and decrease reaction times during low perceptual load. In contrast, under high load, attentional resources are limited, and the likelihood of distractibility is decreased. We manipulated distractor placement to determine whether location differentially influenced distractibility. During low load, reaction times were increased equally for all distractor locations. Under high load, left distractors speeded reaction times significantly more than right distractors. We suggest two potential explanations: (1) the central focus of attention was sufficiently large to encapsulate both the distractor and the visual array during low perceptual load, leading to increased distraction—during high load, attention was split across the two visual stimuli, allowing the distractors and array to be processed independently; (2) superior executive control for stimuli in the left visual field allowed participants to ‘catch and release’ left distractors more efficiently, ultimately decreasing distraction and providing a performance benefit. Our findings represent an intriguing development in relation to visual asymmetries in distractibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole A Thomas
- College of Healthcare Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia. .,College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
| | - Michael E R Nicholls
- College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
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Darling S, Cancemi D, Della Sala S. Fly on the right: Lateral preferences when choosing aircraft seats. Laterality 2017; 23:610-624. [PMID: 29262743 DOI: 10.1080/1357650x.2017.1417994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
A small preference has been observed for people to choose seats on the left of aircraft when booking via an online system. Although this is consistent with pseudoneglect-the known leftward bias in perception and representation-rightward preferences have been commonly observed in seating selection tasks in other environments. Additionally, the previous research in aircraft seating was unable to dissociate a bias to one side of the screen from a bias to one side of the cabin of the aircraft. Here, we present a study in which participants were asked to select seats for a range of fictional flights. They demonstrated a preference for seats on the right of the cabin, irrespective of whether the right of the cabin appeared to either the right or the left of the screen, a preference for seats towards the front of the aircraft and a preference to favour window and aisle seats. This suggests, in contrast to previous research, that participants demonstrated a rightward lateral bias to representations of an aircraft. These results may have implications for our understanding of asymmetries in cognition as well as having potentially important practical implications for airlines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Darling
- a Division of Psychology and Sociology , Memory Research Group, Centre for Applied Social Science, Queen Margaret University , Edinburgh , UK
| | - Dario Cancemi
- b Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychology , University of Edinburgh , Edinburgh , UK
| | - Sergio Della Sala
- b Human Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychology , University of Edinburgh , Edinburgh , UK
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Thomas NA, Barone AJ, Flew AH, Nicholls ME. Cross-modal influences on attentional asymmetries: Additive effects of attentional orienting and arousal. Neuropsychologia 2017; 96:39-51. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2016] [Revised: 12/21/2016] [Accepted: 01/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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