1
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Smaczny S, Bauder D, Sperber C, Karnath HO, de Haan B. Reducing alertness does not affect line bisection bias in neurotypical participants. Exp Brain Res 2024; 242:195-204. [PMID: 37994915 PMCID: PMC10786967 DOI: 10.1007/s00221-023-06738-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2023] [Accepted: 10/31/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023]
Abstract
Alertness, or one's general readiness to respond to stimulation, has previously been shown to affect spatial attention. However, most of this previous research focused on speeded, laboratory-based reaction tasks, as opposed to the classical line bisection task typically used to diagnose deficits of spatial attention in clinical settings. McIntosh et al. (Cogn Brain Res 25:833-850, 2005) provide a form of line bisection task which they argue can more sensitively assess spatial attention. Ninety-eight participants were presented with this line bisection task, once with and once without spatial cues, and both before and after a 50-min vigilance task that aimed to decrease alertness. A single participant was excluded due to potentially inconsistent behaviour in the task, leaving 97 participants for the full analyses. While participants were, on a group level, less alert after the 50-min vigilance task, they showed none of the hypothesised effects of reduced alertness on spatial attention in the line bisection task, regardless of with or without spatial cues. Yet, they did show the proposed effect of decreased alertness leading to a lower level of general attention. This suggests that alertness has no effect on spatial attention, as measured by a line bisection task, in neurotypical participants. We thus conclude that, in neurotypical participants, the effect of alertness on spatial attention can be examined more sensitively with tasks requiring a speeded response compared to unspeeded tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefan Smaczny
- Center of Neurology, Division of Neuropsychology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Dominik Bauder
- Center of Neurology, Division of Neuropsychology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Christoph Sperber
- Department of Neurology, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Hans-Otto Karnath
- Center of Neurology, Division of Neuropsychology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
| | - Bianca de Haan
- Division of Psychology, Department of Life Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK.
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2
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Cao S, Wei X, Hu J, Zhang H. Which Seat Facilitates the Detection of Off-Seat Behaviours? An Inattentional Blindness Test on Location Effect in the Classroom. Front Psychol 2022; 13:899696. [PMID: 35846683 PMCID: PMC9281894 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.899696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Off-seat behaviour refers to students leaving their seats and walking out of a classroom without the teacher noticing. This behaviour occurs in special education for students with certain special needs, which would lead to serious safety problems. This study carried out an inattentional blindness test to explore whether the location of seats in classrooms would impact teachers’ detection rate regarding off-seat behaviours. The participants were 126 pre-service teachers (Mage = 18.72 ± 0.723; 92% female) who were invited to perform the primary task of counting students raising their hands up whilst the disappearance of one of the students was introduced as an unexpected occurrence. The results show that peripheral seats were more detectable than the central ones for the teachers to notice the “missing student.” Meanwhile, the left and below oriented seats were more likely to be ignored compared to those that were right and upper oriented. These results suggest the existence of a location effect in the classroom that is associated with teachers’ attention regarding off-seat behaviour. This study has implications for classroom management in terms of arranging students’ seats appropriately to assist in increasing teachers’ identification of this hazard.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuqin Cao
- School of Special Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xiuying Wei
- School of Special Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- Zi Jinghua School, Hangzhou, China
| | - Jiangbo Hu
- Hangzhou Preschool Teachers College, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- *Correspondence: Jiangbo Hu,
| | - Hui Zhang
- School of Special Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- Hui Zhang,
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3
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Golob EJ, Nelson JT, Scheuerman J, Venable KB, Mock JR. Auditory spatial attention gradients and cognitive control as a function of vigilance. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13903. [PMID: 34342887 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13903] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2020] [Revised: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Selection and effort are central to attention, yet it is unclear whether they draw on a common pool of cognitive resources, and if so, whether there are differences for early versus later stages of cognitive processing. This study assessed effort by quantifying the vigilance decrement, and spatial processing at early and later stages as a function of time-on-task. Participants performed an auditory spatial attention task, with occasional "catch" trials requiring no response. Psychophysiological measures included bilateral cerebral blood flow (transcranial Doppler), pupil dilation, and blink rate. The shape of attention gradients using reaction time indexed early processing, and did not significantly vary over time. Later stimulus-response conflict was comparable over time, except for a reduction to left hemispace stimuli. Target and catch trial accuracy decreased with time, with a more abrupt decrease for catch versus target trials. Diffusion decision modeling found progressive decreases in information accumulation rate and non-decision time, and the adoption of more liberal response criteria. Cerebral blood flow increased from baseline and then decreased over time, particularly in the left hemisphere. Blink rate steadily increased over time, while pupil dilation increased only at the beginning and then returned towards baseline. The findings suggest dissociations between resources for selectivity and effort. Measures of high subjective effort and temporal declines in catch trial accuracy and cerebral blood flow velocity suggest a standard vigilance decrement was evident in parallel with preserved selection. Different attentional systems and classes of computations that may account for dissociations between selectivity versus effort are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edward J Golob
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
| | - Jeremy T Nelson
- Military Health Institute, University of Texas Health, San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.,Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Jaelle Scheuerman
- Department of Computer Science, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA
| | - Kristen B Venable
- Department of Computer Science, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA.,Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL, USA.,Department of Intelligent Systems and Robotics, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL, USA
| | - Jeffrey R Mock
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas, San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA
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4
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Chandrakumar D, Coussens S, Keage HAD, Banks S, Dorrian J, Loetscher T. Monotonous driving induces shifts in spatial attention as a function of handedness. Sci Rep 2021; 11:10155. [PMID: 33980882 PMCID: PMC8114912 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-89054-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Accepted: 04/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Current evidence suggests that the ability to detect and react to information under lowered alertness conditions might be more impaired on the left than the right side of space. This evidence derives mainly from right-handers being assessed in computer and paper-and-pencil spatial attention tasks. However, there are suggestions that left-handers might show impairments on the opposite (right) side compared to right-handers with lowered alertness, and it is unclear whether the impairments observed in the computer tasks have any real-world implications for activities such as driving. The current study investigated the alertness and spatial attention relationship under simulated monotonous driving in left- and right-handers. Twenty left-handed and 22 right-handed participants (15 males, mean age = 23.6 years, SD = 5.0 years) were assessed on a simulated driving task (lasting approximately 60 min) to induce a time-on-task effect. The driving task involved responding to stimuli appearing at six different horizontal locations on the screen, whilst driving in a 50 km/h zone. Decreases in alertness and driving performance were evident with time-on-task in both handedness groups. We found handedness impacts reacting to lateral stimuli differently with time-on-task: right-handers reacted slower to the leftmost stimuli, while left-handers showed the opposite pattern (although not statistically significant) in the second compared to first half of the drive. Our findings support suggestions that handedness modulates the spatial attention and alertness interactions. The interactions were observed in a simulated driving task which calls for further research to understand the safety implications of these interactions for activities such as driving.
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Affiliation(s)
- D Chandrakumar
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre, School of Psychology, Justice & Society, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia.
| | - S Coussens
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre, School of Psychology, Justice & Society, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia
| | - H A D Keage
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre, School of Psychology, Justice & Society, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia
| | - S Banks
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre, School of Psychology, Justice & Society, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia
| | - J Dorrian
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre, School of Psychology, Justice & Society, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia
| | - T Loetscher
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre, School of Psychology, Justice & Society, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia
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5
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No effect of cold pressor test-induced arousal on attentional benefits and costs in an endogenous spatial orienting paradigm. Neuropsychologia 2019; 135:107250. [PMID: 31682926 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2019] [Revised: 09/28/2019] [Accepted: 10/30/2019] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that arousal can influence hemispatial bias, suggesting that changes in arousal affect the neural networks involved in spatial attention control. The goal of the present study was to measure the effects of increased arousal on endogenous attentional orienting. We used a Spatial Orienting Paradigm to quantify attentional benefits and costs as measures of attentional orienting and re-orienting responses and exposed participants (N = 25; Experiment 1) to a bilateral feet Cold Pressor Test (CPT) to manipulate arousal. Increases in subjective distress ratings and blood pressure confirmed the effect of CPT on arousal. Although no overall effects of CPT on reaction times in the Spatial Orienting Paradigm were detected, an exploratory analysis of sex-specific effects revealed a left-lateralised decrease in benefits and increase in costs after CPT exposure in the male subsample (N = 11). To confirm these preliminary results, we repeated the experiment in a larger sample (N = 29, all male), but found no effect of CPT on orienting, with moderate to strong evidence in favour of a model excluding all (interaction) effects of CPT exposure (all BFIncl < 0.3). Instead, our replicated results indicate that voluntary orienting is unaffected by CPT-induced increases of arousal. In the light of previous studies, and keeping in mind the interpretative challenges of null results, we discuss how and why our findings may be specific to endogenous as opposed to exogenous orienting and how arousal could possibly lead to the previously established effects on visuospatial bias without simultaneously affecting orienting and the underlying attention control networks.
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6
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Brosnan MB, Demaria G, Petersen A, Dockree PM, Robertson IH, Wiegand I. Plasticity of the Right-Lateralized Cognitive Reserve Network in Ageing. Cereb Cortex 2019; 28:1749-1759. [PMID: 28444373 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhx085] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2016] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive reserve (CR) is the phenomenon where older adults with more cognitively stimulating environments show less age-related cognitive decline. The right-lateralized fronto-parietal network has been proposed to significantly contribute to CR and visual attention in ageing. In this study we tested whether plasticity of this network may be harnessed in ageing.We assessed CR and parameters of visual attention capacity in older adults. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was employed to increase right fronto-parietal activity during a lateralized whole-report task. At baseline, older adults with greater CR showed a stronger hemifield asymmetry in processing speed towards the left visual-field, indicative of stronger involvement of the right hemisphere in these individuals. Correspondingly, processing speed improved during right prefrontal tDCS. Older adults with lower levels of CR showed tDCS-related improvements in processing speed in the left but not right hemifield: thus tDCS temporarily altered their processing speed asymmetry to resemble that of their high reserve peers.The finding that stronger right hemisphere involvement is related to CR supports Robertson's theory. Furthermore, preserved plasticity within the right prefrontal cortex in older adults suggests this is a viable target area to improve visual processing speed, a hallmark of age-related decline.
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Affiliation(s)
- Méadhbh B Brosnan
- Institute of Neuroscience and School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland
| | - Giorgia Demaria
- Institute of Neuroscience and School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland.,Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, The Netherlands
| | - Anders Petersen
- Centre for Visual Cognition, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Paul M Dockree
- Institute of Neuroscience and School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland
| | - Ian H Robertson
- Institute of Neuroscience and School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland
| | - Iris Wiegand
- Centre for Visual Cognition, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.,Center for Lifespan Development, Max-Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.,Max-Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany
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7
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Praß M, de Haan B. Multi-target attention and visual short-term memory capacity are closely linked in the intraparietal sulcus. Hum Brain Mapp 2019; 40:3589-3605. [PMID: 31056819 PMCID: PMC6767774 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2018] [Revised: 04/18/2019] [Accepted: 04/22/2019] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
The existing literature suggests a critical role for both the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the right temporo‐parietal junction (TPJ) in our ability to attend to multiple simultaneously‐presented lateralized targets (multi‐target attention), and the failure of this ability in extinction patients. Currently, however, the precise role of each of these areas in multi‐target attention is unclear. In this study, we combined the theory of visual attention (TVA) with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) guided continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) in neurologically healthy subjects to directly investigate the role of the right IPS and TPJ in multi‐target attention. Our results show that cTBS at an area of the right IPS associated with multi‐target attention elicits a reduction of visual short‐term memory capacity. This suggests that the right IPS is associated with a general capacity‐limited encoding mechanism that is engaged regardless of whether targets have to be attended or remembered. Curiously, however, cTBS to the right IPS failed to elicit extinction‐like behavior in our study, supporting previous suggestions that different areas of the right IPS may provide different contributions to multi‐target attention. CTBS to the right TPJ failed to induce a change in either TVA parameters or extinction‐like behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maren Praß
- Division of Neuropsychology, Center of Neurology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Bianca de Haan
- Division of Neuropsychology, Center of Neurology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Division of Psychology, Department of Life Sciences, College of Health and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK
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8
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Chandrakumar D, Keage HAD, Gutteridge D, Dorrian J, Banks S, Loetscher T. Interactions between spatial attention and alertness in healthy adults: A meta-analysis. Cortex 2019; 119:61-73. [PMID: 31075552 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.03.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2018] [Revised: 02/12/2019] [Accepted: 03/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Attending to the visuospatial field is paramount for safety. The inability to sufficiently allocate attention in the environment could lead to unfavourable consequences. One's ability to attend quickly to left- and right-sided stimuli can vary depending on the person's level of alertness. A dominant model of this relationship proposes that low alertness is associated with a rightward bias in attention, with increases in alertness shifting attention leftward. The current study sought to synthesise the literature on spatial attention and alertness and identify modulators of this relationship in healthy adults. Nineteen articles meeting inclusion criteria were identified for meta-analysis. A small effect of alertness on spatial bias (d = .302) with no evidence for a systematic publication bias was found. Of the five investigated modulators, namely, the experimental design relative to alertness, direction of alertness manipulation, measurement of alertness, the nature of the spatial task, and handedness, only the latter was identified as a significant modulator of the relationship between alertness and spatial attention. The review's findings tie in with the influential framework by Corbetta and Shulman (2011) and support the idea to increase alertness as a rehabilitation approach to reduce inattention to the left side in neglect patients. Findings also suggest a need for future research to investigate neurological processes that underlie the alertness and spatial attention relationship, and a need to examine the transfer effects of laboratory-based experiments for real-world implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dilushi Chandrakumar
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, University of South Australia, Australia.
| | - Hannah A D Keage
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, University of South Australia, Australia
| | - Daria Gutteridge
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, University of South Australia, Australia
| | - Jill Dorrian
- Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory, University of South Australia, Australia
| | - Siobhan Banks
- Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory, University of South Australia, Australia
| | - Tobias Loetscher
- Cognitive Ageing and Impairment Neurosciences Laboratory, University of South Australia, Australia
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9
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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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10
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Brosnan MB, Arvaneh M, Harty S, Maguire T, O'Connell R, Robertson IH, Dockree PM. Prefrontal Modulation of Visual Processing and Sustained Attention in Aging, a tDCS–EEG Coregistration Approach. J Cogn Neurosci 2018; 30:1630-1645. [DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01307] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
The ability to sustain attention is integral to healthy cognition in aging. The right PFC (rPFC) is critical for maintaining high levels of attentional focus. Whether plasticity of this region can be harnessed to support sustained attention in older adults is unknown. We used transcranial direct current stimulation to increase cortical excitability of the rPFC, while monitoring behavioral and electrophysiological markers of sustained attention in older adults with suboptimal sustained attention capacity. During rPFC transcranial direct current stimulation, fewer lapses of attention occurred and electroencephalography signals of frontal engagement and early visual attention were enhanced. To further verify these results, we repeated the experiment in an independent cohort of cognitively typical older adults using a different sustained attention paradigm. Again, prefrontal stimulation was associated with fewer attentional lapses. These experiments suggest the rPFC can be manipulated in later years to increase top–down modulation over early sensory processing and improve sustained attention performance. This holds valuable information for the development of neurorehabilitation protocols to ameliorate age-related deficits in this capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Siobhán Harty
- The University of Dublin
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Tinbergen Building, Oxford, UK
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11
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Ruiz-Rizzo AL, Neitzel J, Müller HJ, Sorg C, Finke K. Distinctive Correspondence Between Separable Visual Attention Functions and Intrinsic Brain Networks. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:89. [PMID: 29662444 PMCID: PMC5890144 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2017] [Accepted: 02/23/2018] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Separable visual attention functions are assumed to rely on distinct but interacting neural mechanisms. Bundesen's “theory of visual attention” (TVA) allows the mathematical estimation of independent parameters that characterize individuals' visual attentional capacity (i.e., visual processing speed and visual short-term memory storage capacity) and selectivity functions (i.e., top-down control and spatial laterality). However, it is unclear whether these parameters distinctively map onto different brain networks obtained from intrinsic functional connectivity, which organizes slowly fluctuating ongoing brain activity. In our study, 31 demographically homogeneous healthy young participants performed whole- and partial-report tasks and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Report accuracy was modeled using TVA to estimate, individually, the four TVA parameters. Networks encompassing cortical areas relevant for visual attention were derived from independent component analysis of rs-fMRI data: visual, executive control, right and left frontoparietal, and ventral and dorsal attention networks. Two TVA parameters were mapped on particular functional networks. First, participants with higher (vs. lower) visual processing speed showed lower functional connectivity within the ventral attention network. Second, participants with more (vs. less) efficient top-down control showed higher functional connectivity within the dorsal attention network and lower functional connectivity within the visual network. Additionally, higher performance was associated with higher functional connectivity between networks: specifically, between the ventral attention and right frontoparietal networks for visual processing speed, and between the visual and executive control networks for top-down control. The higher inter-network functional connectivity was related to lower intra-network connectivity. These results demonstrate that separable visual attention parameters that are assumed to constitute relatively stable traits correspond distinctly to the functional connectivity both within and between particular functional networks. This implies that individual differences in basic attention functions are represented by differences in the coherence of slowly fluctuating brain activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriana L Ruiz-Rizzo
- Department of General and Experimental Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Julia Neitzel
- Department of General and Experimental Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.,Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Hermann J Müller
- Department of General and Experimental Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.,School of Psychological Science, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Christian Sorg
- Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.,Department of Neuroradiology, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
| | - Kathrin Finke
- Department of General and Experimental Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.,Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.,Hans-Berger Department of Neurology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
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12
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Paladini RE, Müri RM, Meichtry J, Nef T, Mast FW, Mosimann UP, Nyffeler T, Cazzoli D. The Influence of Alertness on the Spatial Deployment of Visual Attention is Mediated by the Excitability of the Posterior Parietal Cortices. Cereb Cortex 2018; 27:233-243. [PMID: 28013233 PMCID: PMC5939216 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhw390] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2016] [Accepted: 12/01/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
With a reduced level of alertness, healthy individuals typically show a rightward shift when deploying visual attention in space. The impact of alertness on the neural networks governing visuospatial attention is, however, poorly understood. By using a transcranial magnetic stimulation twin-coil approach, the present study aimed at investigating the effects of an alertness manipulation on the excitability of the left and the right posterior parietal cortices (PPCs), crucial nodes of the visuospatial attentional network. Participants’ visuospatial attentional deployment was assessed with a free visual exploration task and concurrent eye tracking. Their alertness level was manipulated through the time of the day, that is, by testing chronotypically defined evening types both during their circadian on- and off-peak times. The results revealed an increased excitability of the left compared with the right PPC during low alertness. On the horizontal dimension, these results were accompanied by a significant rightward shift in the center and a bilateral narrowing in the periphery of the visual exploration field, as well as a central upward shift on the vertical dimension. The findings show that the manipulation of non-spatial attentional aspects (i.e., alertness) can affect visuospatial attentional deployment and modulate the excitability of areas subtending spatial attentional control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca E Paladini
- Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - René M Müri
- Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Division of Cognitive and Restorative Neurology, Department of Neurology, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jurka Meichtry
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Division of Cognitive and Restorative Neurology, Department of Neurology, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Tobias Nef
- Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Fred W Mast
- Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Urs P Mosimann
- Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Thomas Nyffeler
- Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Center of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation, Luzerner Kantonsspital, Lucerne, Switzerland
| | - Dario Cazzoli
- Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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13
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Wiegand I, Napiórkowski N, Töllner T, Petersen A, Habekost T, Müller HJ, Finke K. Event-related Electroencephalographic Lateralizations Mark Individual Differences in Spatial and Nonspatial Visual Selection. J Cogn Neurosci 2017; 30:482-497. [PMID: 29244636 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Selective attention controls the distribution of our visual system's limited processing resources to stimuli in the visual field. Two independent parameters of visual selection can be quantified by modeling an individual's performance in a partial-report task based on the computational theory of visual attention (TVA): (i) top-down control α, the relative attentional weighting of relevant over irrelevant stimuli, and (ii) spatial bias wλ, the relative attentional weighting of stimuli in the left versus right hemifield. In this study, we found that visual event-related electroencephalographic lateralizations marked interindividual differences in these two functions. First, individuals with better top-down control showed higher amplitudes of the posterior contralateral negativity than individuals with poorer top-down control. Second, differences in spatial bias were reflected in asymmetries in earlier visual event-related lateralizations depending on the hemifield position of targets; specifically, individuals showed a positivity contralateral to targets presented in their prioritized hemifield and a negativity contralateral to targets presented in their nonprioritized hemifield. Thus, our findings demonstrate that two functionally different aspects of attentional weighting quantified in the respective TVA parameters are reflected in two different neurophysiological measures: The observer-dependent spatial bias influences selection by a bottom-up processing advantage of stimuli appearing in the prioritized hemifield. By contrast, task-related target selection governed by top-down control involves active enhancement of target, and/or suppression of distractor, processing. These results confirm basic assumptions of the TVA framework, complement the functional interpretation of event-related lateralization components in selective attention studies, and are of relevance for the development of neurocognitive attentional assessment procedures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iris Wiegand
- Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research.,Max Planck Institute for Human Development.,Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
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14
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Chen J, Niemeier M. Altered perceptual pseudoneglect in ADHD: Evidence for a functional disconnection from early visual activation. Neuropsychologia 2017; 99:12-23. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.02.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2016] [Revised: 12/16/2016] [Accepted: 02/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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15
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Wiegand I, Petersen A, Finke K, Bundesen C, Lansner J, Habekost T. Behavioral and Brain Measures of Phasic Alerting Effects on Visual Attention. Front Hum Neurosci 2017; 11:176. [PMID: 28443009 PMCID: PMC5385325 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2017.00176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2017] [Accepted: 03/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In the present study, we investigated effects of phasic alerting on visual attention in a partial report task, in which half of the displays were preceded by an auditory warning cue. Based on the computational Theory of Visual Attention (TVA), we estimated parameters of spatial and non-spatial aspects of visual attention and measured event-related lateralizations (ERLs) over visual processing areas. We found that the TVA parameter sensory effectiveness a, which is thought to reflect visual processing capacity, significantly increased with phasic alerting. By contrast, the distribution of visual processing resources according to task relevance and spatial position, as quantified in parameters top-down control α and spatial bias windex, was not modulated by phasic alerting. On the electrophysiological level, the latencies of ERLs in response to the task displays were reduced following the warning cue. These results suggest that phasic alerting facilitates visual processing in a general, unselective manner and that this effect originates in early stages of visual information processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Iris Wiegand
- Center for Visual Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of CopenhagenCopenhagen, Denmark.,Center for Lifespan Development, Max-Planck Institute for Human DevelopmentBerlin, Germany.,Max-Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing ResearchBerlin, Germany
| | - Anders Petersen
- Center for Visual Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of CopenhagenCopenhagen, Denmark
| | - Kathrin Finke
- General and Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) MunichMunich, Germany.,Hans-Berger Department of Neurology, Jena University HospitalJena, Germany
| | - Claus Bundesen
- Center for Visual Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of CopenhagenCopenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jon Lansner
- Center for Visual Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of CopenhagenCopenhagen, Denmark
| | - Thomas Habekost
- Center for Visual Cognition, Department of Psychology, University of CopenhagenCopenhagen, Denmark
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16
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Fimm B, Blankenheim A. Effect of sleep deprivation and low arousal on eye movements and spatial attention. Neuropsychologia 2016; 92:115-128. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.03.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2015] [Revised: 02/07/2016] [Accepted: 03/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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17
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Lisi M, Bonato M, Zorzi M. Pupil dilation reveals top–down attentional load during spatial monitoring. Biol Psychol 2015; 112:39-45. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2015.10.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2015] [Revised: 10/06/2015] [Accepted: 10/07/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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18
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Bundesen C, Vangkilde S, Petersen A. Recent developments in a computational theory of visual attention (TVA). Vision Res 2015; 116:210-8. [DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2014.11.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2014] [Revised: 11/10/2014] [Accepted: 11/12/2014] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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19
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Harris IM, Wong C, Andrews S. Visual field asymmetries in object individuation. Conscious Cogn 2015; 37:194-206. [PMID: 26433638 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2015.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2015] [Revised: 08/27/2015] [Accepted: 09/09/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Repetition blindness (RB) is a failure to detect both instances of two identical stimuli presented in close temporal proximity. It is due to an inability to form separate episodic tokens for a repeated stimulus, resulting in a single conscious representation. In three experiments, participants identified two targets presented simultaneously in different spatial locations. These stimuli were either the same or different. In two experiments the targets occurred on either side of fixation, and in a third experiment both were in the same hemifield. In all experiments, RB was more pronounced for stimuli in the right hemifield. In addition, there was a left hemifield advantage for both repeated and non-repeated stimuli when the two stimuli occurred in opposite visual fields and, thus, were processed by different hemispheres. These findings suggest that the right hemisphere plays a dominant role in attentional selection and in creating conscious representations of visual events.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Cara Wong
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Sally Andrews
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia
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20
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Fimm B, Brand T, Spijkers W. Time-of-day variation of visuo-spatial attention. Br J Psychol 2015; 107:299-321. [DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2014] [Revised: 06/19/2015] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Bruno Fimm
- Department of Neurology, Section Neuropsychology; RWTH Aachen University; Germany
| | - Tanja Brand
- Department of General Psychiatry; LVR Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy; Cologne Germany
| | - Will Spijkers
- Institute of Psychology; RWTH Aachen University; Germany
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21
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Abstract
Based on previous studies demonstrating detrimental effects of reduced alertness on attentional orienting our study seeks to examine covert and overt attentional orienting in different arousal states. We hypothesized an attentional asymmetry with increasing reaction times to stimuli presented to the left visual field in a state of maximally reduced arousal. Eleven healthy participants underwent sleep deprivation and were examined repeatedly every 4 hr over 28 hr in total with two tasks measuring covert and overt orienting of attention. Contrary to our hypothesis, a reduction of arousal did not induce any asymmetry of overt orienting. Even in participants with profound and significant attentional asymmetries in covert orienting no substantial reaction time differences between left- and right-sided targets in the overt orienting task could be observed. This result is not in agreement with assumptions of a tight coupling of covert and overt attentional processes. In conclusion, we found differential effects of lowered arousal induced by sleep deprivation on covert and overt orienting of attention. This pattern of results points to a neuronal non-overlap of brain structures subserving these functions and a differential influence of the norepinephrine system on these modes of spatial attention.
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22
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Vesia M, Niemeier M, Black SE, Staines WR. The time course for visual extinction after a 'virtual' lesion of right posterior parietal cortex. Brain Cogn 2015; 98:27-34. [PMID: 26051527 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2015.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2014] [Revised: 03/30/2015] [Accepted: 05/19/2015] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Our understanding of the attentional networks in the human brain largely relies on neuropsychological studies in patients with lesions to the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), particularly in the right hemisphere, that may cause severe disruptions of attentional functions. However, lesion studies only capture a point in time when the dysfunctions caused by the damage have triggered a chain of adaptive responses in the brain. To disentangle deficits and ensuing cortical plasticity, here we examined the time course for one's ability to detect objects in the visual periphery after an inhibitory continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) protocol to the left or right PPC. Our results showed that cTBS of right PPC caused participants to be less sensitive to objects appearing on the left side as well as to objects appearing on both sides at the same time, consistent with an overall shift of attention to the right side of space. In addition, we found that participants missed more objects during bilateral presentations similar to patients with visual extinction. Critically, extinction evolved over time; that is, visual extinction for ipsilateral objects improved after 10 min whereas contralateral extinction peaked around 15-25 min after cTBS. Our findings suggest that lesions to the PPC impair competition between the two visual hemifields, resulting in contralateral extinction as a secondary response, arguably due to ensuing disruptions in interhemispheric balance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Vesia
- Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Kinesiology and Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Matthias Niemeier
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Sandra E Black
- Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - W Richard Staines
- Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Kinesiology and Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
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23
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de Haan B, Stoll T, Karnath HO. Early sensory processing in right hemispheric stroke patients with and without extinction. Neuropsychologia 2015; 73:141-50. [PMID: 26002755 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.05.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2014] [Revised: 04/13/2015] [Accepted: 05/02/2015] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
While extinction is most commonly viewed as an attentional disorder and not as a consequence of a failure to process contralesional sensory information, it has been speculated that early sensory processing of contralesional targets in extinction patients might not be fully normal. We used a masked visuo-motor response priming paradigm to study the influence of both contralesional and ipsilesional peripheral subliminal prime stimuli on central target performance, allowing us to compare the strength of the early sensory processing associated with these prime stimuli between right brain damaged patients with and without extinction as well as healthy elderly subjects. We found that the effect of an informative subliminal prime in the left contralesional visual field on central target performance was significantly reduced in both right brain damaged patients with and without extinction. The results suggest that a low-level early sensory deterioration of the neural representation for contralesional prime stimuli is a general consequence of right hemispheric brain damage unrelated to the presence or absence of extinction. This suggests that the presence of a spatial bias against contralesional information is not sufficient to elicit extinction. For extinction to occur, this spatial bias might need to be accompanied by a pathological (non-directional) reduction of attentional capacity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bianca de Haan
- Center of Neurology, Division of Neuropsychology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Tine Stoll
- Center of Neurology, Division of Neuropsychology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Hans-Otto Karnath
- Center of Neurology, Division of Neuropsychology, Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
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24
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Schubert T, Finke K, Redel P, Kluckow S, Müller H, Strobach T. Video game experience and its influence on visual attention parameters: an investigation using the framework of the Theory of Visual Attention (TVA). Acta Psychol (Amst) 2015; 157:200-14. [PMID: 25834984 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2014] [Revised: 03/06/2015] [Accepted: 03/10/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Experts with video game experience, in contrast to non-experienced persons, are superior in multiple domains of visual attention. However, it is an open question which basic aspects of attention underlie this superiority. We approached this question using the framework of Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) with tools that allowed us to assess various parameters that are related to different visual attention aspects (e.g., perception threshold, processing speed, visual short-term memory storage capacity, top-down control, spatial distribution of attention) and that are measurable on the same experimental basis. In Experiment 1, we found advantages of video game experts in perception threshold and visual processing speed; the latter being restricted to the lower positions of the used computer display. The observed advantages were not significantly moderated by general person-related characteristics such as personality traits, sensation seeking, intelligence, social anxiety, or health status. Experiment 2 tested a potential causal link between the expert advantages and video game practice with an intervention protocol. It found no effects of action video gaming on perception threshold, visual short-term memory storage capacity, iconic memory storage, top-down control, and spatial distribution of attention after 15 days of training. However, observations of a selected improvement of processing speed at the lower positions of the computer screen after video game training and of retest effects are suggestive for limited possibilities to improve basic aspects of visual attention (TVA) with practice.
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25
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Differential shift in spatial bias over time depends on observers׳ initial bias: Observer subtypes, or regression to the mean? Neuropsychologia 2014; 64:33-40. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.09.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2014] [Revised: 08/31/2014] [Accepted: 09/08/2014] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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26
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Bogon J, Finke K, Stenneken P. TVA-based assessment of visual attentional functions in developmental dyslexia. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1172. [PMID: 25360129 PMCID: PMC4199262 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2014] [Accepted: 09/26/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
There is an ongoing debate whether an impairment of visual attentional functions constitutes an additional or even an isolated deficit of developmental dyslexia (DD). Especially performance in tasks that require the processing of multiple visual elements in parallel has been reported to be impaired in DD. We review studies that used parameter-based assessment for identifying and quantifying impaired aspect(s) of visual attention that underlie this multi-element processing deficit in DD. These studies used the mathematical framework provided by the "theory of visual attention" (Bundesen, 1990) to derive quantitative measures of general attentional resources and attentional weighting aspects on the basis of behavioral performance in whole- and partial-report tasks. Based on parameter estimates in children and adults with DD, the reviewed studies support a slowed perceptual processing speed as an underlying primary deficit in DD. Moreover, a reduction in visual short term memory storage capacity seems to present a modulating component, contributing to difficulties in written language processing. Furthermore, comparing the spatial distributions of attentional weights in children and adults suggests that having limited reading and writing skills might impair the development of a slight leftward bias, that is typical for unimpaired adult readers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Bogon
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany
| | - Kathrin Finke
- Department of Psychology, General and Experimental Psychology/Neuro-Cognitive Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Munich, Germany
| | - Prisca Stenneken
- Department of Speech and Language Pathology, University of Cologne Cologne, Germany
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27
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Benwell CSY, Thut G, Learmonth G, Harvey M. Spatial attention: differential shifts in pseudoneglect direction with time-on-task and initial bias support the idea of observer subtypes. Neuropsychologia 2013; 51:2747-56. [PMID: 24076376 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.09.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2013] [Accepted: 09/18/2013] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Asymmetry in human spatial attention has long been documented. In the general population the majority of individuals tend to misbisect horizontal lines to the left of veridical centre. Nonetheless in virtually all previously reported studies on healthy participants, there have been subsets of people displaying rightward biases. In this study, we report differential time-on task effects depending on participants' initial pseudoneglect bias: participants with an initial left bias in a landmark task (in which they had to judge whether a transection mark appeared closer to the right or left end of a line) showed a significant rightward shift over the course of the experimental session, whereas participants with an initial right bias shifted leftwards. We argue that these differences in initial biases as well as the differential shifts with time-on task reflect genuine observer subtypes displaying diverging behavioural patterns. These observer subtypes could be driven by differences in brain organisation and/or lateralisation such as varying anatomical pathway asymmetries (Thiebaut de Schotten et al., 2011).
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher S Y Benwell
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow 58 Hillhead Street, G12 8QB, United Kingdom; School of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QB, United Kingdom
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28
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Vangkilde S, Petersen A, Bundesen C. Temporal expectancy in the context of a theory of visual attention. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2013; 368:20130054. [PMID: 24018716 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Temporal expectation is expectation with respect to the timing of an event such as the appearance of a certain stimulus. In this paper, temporal expectancy is investigated in the context of the theory of visual attention (TVA), and we begin by summarizing the foundations of this theoretical framework. Next, we present a parametric experiment exploring the effects of temporal expectation on perceptual processing speed in cued single-stimulus letter recognition with unspeeded motor responses. The length of the cue-stimulus foreperiod was exponentially distributed with one of six hazard rates varying between blocks. We hypothesized that this manipulation would result in a distinct temporal expectation in each hazard rate condition. Stimulus exposures were varied such that both the temporal threshold of conscious perception (t0 ms) and the perceptual processing speed (v letters s(-1)) could be estimated using TVA. We found that the temporal threshold t0 was unaffected by temporal expectation, but the perceptual processing speed v was a strikingly linear function of the logarithm of the hazard rate of the stimulus presentation. We argue that the effects on the v values were generated by changes in perceptual biases, suggesting that our perceptual biases are directly related to our temporal expectations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Signe Vangkilde
- Department of Psychology, Center for Visual Cognition, University of Copenhagen, , Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark
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29
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Newman DP, O'Connell RG, Bellgrove MA. Linking time-on-task, spatial bias and hemispheric activation asymmetry: A neural correlate of rightward attention drift. Neuropsychologia 2013; 51:1215-23. [PMID: 23583973 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.03.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2013] [Revised: 03/08/2013] [Accepted: 03/18/2013] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Daniel P Newman
- School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
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30
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Urner M, Sarri M, Grahn J, Manly T, Rees G, Friston K. The role of prestimulus activity in visual extinction. Neuropsychologia 2013; 51:1630-7. [PMID: 23680398 PMCID: PMC3702998 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2012] [Revised: 05/02/2013] [Accepted: 05/06/2013] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Patients with visual extinction following right-hemisphere damage sometimes see and sometimes miss stimuli in the left visual field, particularly when stimuli are presented simultaneously to both visual fields. Awareness of left visual field stimuli is associated with increased activity in bilateral parietal and frontal cortex. However, it is unknown why patients see or miss these stimuli. Previous neuroimaging studies in healthy adults show that prestimulus activity biases perceptual decisions, and biases in visual perception can be attributed to fluctuations in prestimulus activity in task relevant brain regions. Here, we used functional MRI to investigate whether prestimulus activity affected perception in the context of visual extinction following stroke. We measured prestimulus activity in stimulus-responsive cortical areas during an extinction paradigm in a patient with unilateral right parietal damage and visual extinction. This allowed us to compare prestimulus activity on physically identical bilateral trials that either did or did not lead to visual extinction. We found significantly increased activity prior to stimulus presentation in two areas that were also activated by visual stimulation: the left calcarine sulcus and right occipital inferior cortex. Using dynamic causal modelling (DCM) we found that both these differences in prestimulus activity and stimulus evoked responses could be explained by enhanced effective connectivity within and between visual areas, prior to stimulus presentation. Thus, we provide evidence for the idea that differences in ongoing neural activity in visually responsive areas prior to stimulus onset affect awareness in visual extinction, and that these differences are mediated by fluctuations in extrinsic and intrinsic connectivity. Prestimulus activity in visual extinction affects perception. The BOLD signal in two visual areas is indicative of perception in bilateral trials. Intrinsic and extrinsic connectivity is elevated prior to perceived trials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maren Urner
- UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, London WC1N 3AR, UK.
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31
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Van Vleet TM, DeGutis JM. The nonspatial side of spatial neglect and related approaches to treatment. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2013; 207:327-49. [PMID: 24309261 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-444-63327-9.00012-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
In addition to deficits in spatial attention, individuals with persistent spatial neglect almost universally exhibit nonspatially lateralized deficits in sustained and selective attention, and working memory. However, nonspatially lateralized deficits in neglect have received considerably less attention in the literature than deficits in spatial attention. This is in spite of the fact that nonspatially lateralized deficits better predict the chronicity and functional disability associated with neglect than spatially lateralized deficits. Furthermore, only a few treatment studies have specifically targeted nonspatially lateralized deficits as a means to improve spatial neglect. In this chapter, we will briefly review several models of spatial attention bias in neglect before focusing on nonspatial deficits and the mechanisms of nonspatial-spatial interactions and implications for treatment. Treatment approaches that more completely address nonspatial deficits and better account for their interactions with spatial attention will likely produce better outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas M Van Vleet
- Department of Veteran Affairs, Martinez, CA, USA; Brain Plasticity Institute at Posit Science Corporation, San Francisco, CA, USA.
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32
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Keshvari S, van den Berg R, Ma WJ. Probabilistic computation in human perception under variability in encoding precision. PLoS One 2012; 7:e40216. [PMID: 22768258 PMCID: PMC3387023 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0040216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2011] [Accepted: 06/06/2012] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
A key function of the brain is to interpret noisy sensory information. To do so optimally, observers must, in many tasks, take into account knowledge of the precision with which stimuli are encoded. In an orientation change detection task, we find that encoding precision does not only depend on an experimentally controlled reliability parameter (shape), but also exhibits additional variability. In spite of variability in precision, human subjects seem to take into account precision near-optimally on a trial-to-trial and item-to-item basis. Our results offer a new conceptualization of the encoding of sensory information and highlight the brain’s remarkable ability to incorporate knowledge of uncertainty during complex perceptual decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaiyan Keshvari
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America
| | - Ronald van den Berg
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America
| | - Wei Ji Ma
- Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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Abstract
The brain encodes visual information with limited precision. Contradictory evidence exists as to whether the precision with which an item is encoded depends on the number of stimuli in a display (set size). Some studies have found evidence that precision decreases with set size, but others have reported constant precision. These groups of studies differed in two ways. The studies that reported a decrease used displays with heterogeneous stimuli and tasks with a short-term memory component, while the ones that reported constancy used homogeneous stimuli and tasks that did not require short-term memory. To disentangle the effects of heterogeneity and short-memory involvement, we conducted two main experiments. In Experiment 1, stimuli were heterogeneous, and we compared a condition in which target identity was revealed before the stimulus display with one in which it was revealed afterward. In Experiment 2, target identity was fixed, and we compared heterogeneous and homogeneous distractor conditions. In both experiments, we compared an optimal-observer model in which precision is constant with set size with one in which it depends on set size. We found that precision decreases with set size when the distractors are heterogeneous, regardless of whether short-term memory is involved, but not when it is homogeneous. This suggests that heterogeneity, not short-term memory, is the critical factor. In addition, we found that precision exhibits variability across items and trials, which may partly be caused by attentional fluctuations.
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de Haan B, Karnath HO, Driver J. Mechanisms and anatomy of unilateral extinction after brain injury. Neuropsychologia 2012; 50:1045-53. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.02.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2011] [Revised: 02/14/2012] [Accepted: 02/20/2012] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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McAvinue LP, Vangkilde S, Johnson KA, Habekost T, Kyllingsbæk S, Robertson IH, Bundesen C. The relationship between sustained attention, attentional selectivity, and capacity. JOURNAL OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2012. [DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2011.628653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
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Benwell CSY, Harvey M, Gardner S, Thut G. Stimulus- and state-dependence of systematic bias in spatial attention: additive effects of stimulus-size and time-on-task. Cortex 2012; 49:827-36. [PMID: 22270326 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2011.12.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2011] [Revised: 12/20/2011] [Accepted: 12/23/2011] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Systematic biases in spatial attention are a common finding. In the general population, a systematic leftward bias is typically observed (pseudoneglect), possibly as a consequence of right hemisphere dominance for visuospatial attention. However, this leftward bias can cross-over to a systematic rightward bias with changes in stimulus and state factors (such as line length and arousal). The processes governing these changes are still unknown. Here we tested models of spatial attention as to their ability to account for these effects. To this end, we experimentally manipulated both stimulus and state factors, while healthy participants performed a computerized version of a landmark task. State was manipulated by time-on-task (>1 h) leading to increased fatigue and a reliable left- to rightward shift in spatial bias. Stimulus was manipulated by presenting either long or short lines which was associated with a shift of subjective midpoint from a reliable leftward bias for long to a more rightward bias for short lines. Importantly, we found time-on-task and line length effects to be additive suggesting a common denominator for line bisection across all conditions, which is in disagreement with models that assume that bisection decisions in long and short lines are governed by distinct processes (Magnitude estimation vs Global/local distinction). Our findings emphasize the dynamic rather than static nature of spatial biases in midline judgement. They are best captured by theories of spatial attention positing that spatial bias is flexibly modulated, and subject to inter-hemispheric balance which can change over time or conditions to accommodate task demands or reflect fatigue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher S Y Benwell
- Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
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Stenneken P, Egetemeir J, Schulte-Körne G, Müller HJ, Schneider WX, Finke K. Slow perceptual processing at the core of developmental dyslexia: A parameter-based assessment of visual attention. Neuropsychologia 2011; 49:3454-65. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.08.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2011] [Revised: 08/18/2011] [Accepted: 08/23/2011] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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Jacobs S, Brozzoli C, Hadj-Bouziane F, Meunier M, Farnè A. Studying Multisensory Processing and Its Role in the Representation of Space through Pathological and Physiological Crossmodal Extinction. Front Psychol 2011; 2:89. [PMID: 21687458 PMCID: PMC3110341 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2011] [Accepted: 04/26/2011] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The study of crossmodal extinction has brought a considerable contribution to our understanding of how the integration of stimuli perceived in multiple sensory modalities is used by the nervous system to build coherent representations of the space that directly surrounds us. Indeed, by revealing interferences between stimuli in a disturbed system, extinction provides an invaluable opportunity to investigate the interactions that normally exist between those stimuli in an intact system. Here, we first review studies on pathological crossmodal extinction, from the original demonstration of its existence, to its role in the exploration of the multisensory neural representation of space and the current theoretical accounts proposed to explain the mechanisms involved in extinction and multisensory competition. Then, in the second part of this paper, we report recent findings showing that physiological multisensory competition phenomena resembling clinical crossmodal extinction exist in the healthy brain. We propose that the development of a physiological model of sensory competition is fundamental to deepen our understanding of the cerebral mechanisms of multisensory perception and integration. In addition, a similar approach to develop a model of physiological sensory competition in non-human primates should allow combining functional neuroimaging with more invasive techniques, such as transient focal lesions, in order to bridge the gap between works done in the two species and at different levels of analysis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Jacobs
- ImpAct Team, INSERM U1028, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center Lyon, France
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Abstract
Unilateral spatial neglect is a common neurological syndrome following predominantly right hemisphere injuries and is characterized by both spatial and non-spatial deficits. Core spatial deficits involve mechanisms for saliency coding, spatial attention, and short-term memory and occur in conjunction with nonspatial deficits that involve reorienting, target detection, and arousal/vigilance. We argue that neglect is better explained by the dysfunction of distributed cortical networks for the control of attention than by structural damage of specific brain regions. Ventral lesions in right parietal, temporal, and frontal cortex that cause neglect directly impair nonspatial functions partly mediated by a ventral frontoparietal attention network. Structural damage in ventral cortex also induces physiological abnormalities of task-evoked activity and functional connectivity in a dorsal frontoparietal network that controls spatial attention. The anatomy and right hemisphere dominance of neglect follow from the anatomy and laterality of the ventral regions that interact with the dorsal attention network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maurizio Corbetta
- Departments of Neurology, Radiology, and Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, 314-362-4530, 4525 Scott Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110
| | - Gordon L. Shulman
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, 314-362-8880, 4525 Scott Avenue. St. Louis, MO 63110
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