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Child Neuropsychology : a Journal on... Aug 2023Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) is a neuropsychiatric construct including lethargy, behavioral sluggishness, and confusion. A growing number of studies in the literature...
Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) is a neuropsychiatric construct including lethargy, behavioral sluggishness, and confusion. A growing number of studies in the literature suggest that this set of symptoms refers to neuropsychological constructs such as sustained attention. However, studies focusing on SCT and its neuropsychological correlates in developmental age are scarce. The present study aims to fill this gap. The Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI - Teacher and Parent versions, also including the school functioning scale, and the Child Concentration Inventory (CCI-2) were administered to a sample of 128 Italian primary-school children (57.6% F, mean age 8.81, 1.07); the neuropsychological constructs involved in the study were sustained attention and reaction times to two computerized tasks. Bivariate non-parametric correlation analyses yielded significant negative associations between teacher-referred SCT and measures of sustained attention (e.g., the Attentional Network Test and the Hearts and Flowers task) as well as CABI-T school-functioning scale; a small-to-moderate positive correlation was found between CABI-T SCT scores and mean reaction times, as a measure of the slowness of behavioral responses on the Attentional Network Test: this result would appear to represent a fine operationalization of the SCT-characteristic of behavioral sluggishness. Implications of these results for operationalizing the SCT construct in developmental age are discussed.
Topics: Adolescent; Humans; Child; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; Attention; Reaction Time; Parents; Cognition
PubMed: 36281960
DOI: 10.1080/09297049.2022.2138302 -
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics Jan 2024Inconclusive evidence suggests that the pupil is more dilated when the breadth of attention is broad compared to narrow. To further investigate this relationship, we...
Inconclusive evidence suggests that the pupil is more dilated when the breadth of attention is broad compared to narrow. To further investigate this relationship, we recorded pupil size from healthy volunteers while inducing trial-wise changes in breadth of attention using a shape-discrimination task where participants had to remember the location of a gap in a small or a large circle. A visual search task with targets presented at different distances from the centre of the screen was used to behaviourally assess the success of the manipulation of breadth of attention. Data were analysed using a generalised additive mixed model to test the experimental effects on pupil size after controlling for the effects of gaze location and eye vergence. The results showed that the pupil was more dilated in the broad-breadth-of-attention condition compared to the narrow-breadth-of-attention condition. However, the effect of attentional breadth on visual search performance was not mediated by pupil size, suggesting that more research is needed to understand the functional role of pupil dilation in relation to breadth of attention.
Topics: Humans; Pupil; Attention; Mental Recall
PubMed: 37801189
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02793-3 -
American Journal of Speech-language... Oct 2023This study aimed to (a) compare physiological arousal and attentiveness during a confrontational naming task between participants with aphasia and a control group across...
PURPOSE
This study aimed to (a) compare physiological arousal and attentiveness during a confrontational naming task between participants with aphasia and a control group across four conditions that varied according to emotionality of presented stimuli and (b) explore relationships among physiological arousal, attentiveness, perceived arousal, and naming performance. We hypothesized that participants with aphasia would show lower levels of arousal and attentiveness than control participants and that emotional conditions would lead to increased physiological arousal and attentiveness.
METHOD
Eight participants with aphasia and 15 control participants completed a confrontational naming task under positive, negative, and neutral conditions and rated their perceived arousal after each. Electrophysiological recordings were taken during the entire experiment to obtain measures of heart rate (HR), HR variability, and skin conductance (SC). Videos of confrontational naming trials were rated based on visual signs of participant attentiveness during each trial.
RESULTS
Statistically significant group differences were found for HR, SC, and attentiveness ratings, but no differences were found in these measures among conditions. Correlational analyses revealed statistically significant relationships between attentiveness and response time, HR, and naming accuracy. Significant correlations were also found for HR and naming accuracy as well as perceived arousal and naming accuracy.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggest that decreased physiological arousal or attentiveness may contribute to naming deficits for people with aphasia (PWA). Assisting PWA to fully attend to and engage in therapy tasks may be important for accurate assessment of language functions and for achieving optimal benefit in treatment.
Topics: Humans; Aphasia; Language; Attention; Emotions; Arousal
PubMed: 37343542
DOI: 10.1044/2023_AJSLP-22-00305 -
Journal of Behavior Therapy and... Dec 2023Theoretical models of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) propose that individuals who self-injure may find their attention more strongly captured by negative emotion, and...
An experimental investigation of biased attention in non-suicidal self-injury: The effects of perfectionism and emotional valence on attentional engagement and disengagement.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Theoretical models of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) propose that individuals who self-injure may find their attention more strongly captured by negative emotion, and that this intensifies distress which leads to episodes of NSSI. Elevated perfectionism is associated with NSSI, and when an individual is highly perfectionistic, a focus on perceived flaws/failures may increase risk of NSSI. We explored how history of NSSI and trait perfectionism are associated with different types of attention bias (engagement vs. disengagement) to stimuli that differ in emotional valence (negative vs positive) and perfectionism relevance (relevant vs irrelevant).
METHODS
Undergraduate university students (N = 242) completed measures of NSSI, perfectionism, and a modified dot-probe task to measure attentional engagement with and disengagement from both positive and negative stimuli.
RESULTS
There were interactions between NSSI and perfectionism in attention biases. Amongst individuals who engage in NSSI, those with elevated trait perfectionism exhibit speeded responding to and disengagement from emotional stimuli (both positive and negative). Furthermore, individuals with a history of NSSI and elevated perfectionism were slower to respond to positive stimuli, and faster to negative stimuli.
LIMITATIONS
This experiment was cross-sectional in design so does not provide information about temporal ordering of these relationships, and given the use of a community sample, would benefit from replication in clinical samples.
CONCLUSIONS
These findings lend support to the emerging idea that biased attention plays a role in how perfectionism is associated with NSSI. Future studies should replicate these findings using other behavioural paradigms and diverse samples.
Topics: Humans; Perfectionism; Attentional Bias; Cross-Sectional Studies; Emotions; Self-Injurious Behavior
PubMed: 36996628
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2023.101856 -
Journal of Vision Oct 2023Attractive serial dependence occurs when perceptual decisions are attracted toward previous stimuli. This effect is mediated by spatial attention and is most likely to...
Attractive serial dependence occurs when perceptual decisions are attracted toward previous stimuli. This effect is mediated by spatial attention and is most likely to occur when similar stimuli are attended at nearby locations. Attention, however, also involves the suppression of distracting information and of spatial locations where distracting stimuli have frequently appeared. Although distractors form an integral part of our visual experience, how they affect the processing of subsequent stimuli is unknown. Here, in two experiments, we tested serial dependence from distractor stimuli during an orientation adjustment task. We interleaved adjustment trials with a discrimination task requiring observers to ignore a peripheral distractor randomly appearing on half of the trials. Distractors were either similar to the adjustment probe (Experiment 1) or differed in spatial frequency and contrast (Experiment 2) and were shown at predictable or random locations in separate blocks. The results showed that the distractor caused considerable attentional capture in the discrimination task, with observers likely using proactive strategies to anticipate distractors at predictable locations. However, there was no evidence that the distractors affected the perceptual stream leading to positive serial dependence. Instead, they left a weak repulsive trace in Experiment 1 and more generally interfered with the effect of the previous adjustment probe in the serial dependence task. We suggest that this repulsive bias may reflect the operation of mechanisms involved in attentional suppression.
Topics: Humans; Attention; Reaction Time
PubMed: 37792362
DOI: 10.1167/jov.23.12.1 -
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Aug 2023The functional inhibition account states that alpha-band (8-14 Hz) power implements attentional control by selectively inhibiting task-irrelevant neural representations.... (Review)
Review
The functional inhibition account states that alpha-band (8-14 Hz) power implements attentional control by selectively inhibiting task-irrelevant neural representations. This account has been well supported by decades of correlational research showing attention-related changes in the topography of alpha power in anticipation of task-relevant stimuli and is a viable theory of how attention impacts sensory processing, namely, via alpha power changes in sensory areas before stimulus onset. In addition, attention is known to modulate neural responses to stimuli themselves. Thus, a critical prediction of the functional inhibition account is that preparatory alpha modulations should explain variance in the degree of attention-related modulation of neural responses to stimuli. The present article sought evidence for or against this prediction by scouring the literature on attention and alpha oscillations to review papers that explicitly correlated attention-related changes in prestimulus alpha with attention-related changes in stimulus-evoked neural activity. Surprisingly, out of over 100 papers that were examined, we found only nine that explicitly computed such relationships. The results of these nine papers were mixed, with some in support and some arguing against the functional inhibition account of alpha. Our synthesis draws out common design features that may help explain when effects are observed or not. Even among studies that do find correlations, there is inconsistency as to whether preparatory alpha modulations are predictive of sensory or postsensory components of stimulus responses, highlighting avenues for future research. A clear outcome of this review is that future studies on the role of alpha in attentional processing should analyze correlations between attention effects on alpha and attention effects on stimulus-evoked activity, as more data pertinent to this hypothesized relationship are needed.
Topics: Humans; Electroencephalography; Alpha Rhythm; Attention
PubMed: 37255429
DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_02009 -
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Apr 2024Selective attention refers to the ability to focus on goal-relevant information while filtering out irrelevant information. In a multisensory context, how do people...
Selective attention refers to the ability to focus on goal-relevant information while filtering out irrelevant information. In a multisensory context, how do people selectively attend to multiple inputs when making categorical decisions? Here, we examined the role of selective attention in cross-modal categorization in two experiments. In a speed categorization task, participants were asked to attend to visual or auditory targets and categorize them while ignoring other irrelevant stimuli. A response-time extended multinomial processing tree (RT-MPT) model was implemented to estimate the contribution of attentional focusing on task-relevant information and attentional filtering of distractors. The results indicated that the role of selective attention was modality-specific, with differences found in attentional focusing and filtering between visual and auditory modalities. Visual information could be focused on or filtered out more effectively, whereas auditory information was more difficult to filter out, causing greater interference with task-relevant performance. The findings suggest that selective attention plays a critical and differential role across modalities, which provides a novel and promising approach to understanding multisensory processing and attentional focusing and filtering mechanisms of categorical decision-making.
Topics: Humans; Attention; Auditory Perception; Visual Perception; Adult; Young Adult; Female; Decision Making; Male; Reaction Time
PubMed: 37673842
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02370-7 -
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Oct 2023The neural and cognitive processes underlying the flexible allocation of attention undergo a protracted developmental course with changes occurring throughout...
The neural and cognitive processes underlying the flexible allocation of attention undergo a protracted developmental course with changes occurring throughout adolescence. Despite documented age-related improvements in attentional reorienting throughout childhood and adolescence, the neural correlates underlying such changes in reorienting remain unclear. Herein, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine neural dynamics during a Posner attention-reorienting task in 80 healthy youth (6-14 years old). The MEG data were examined in the time-frequency domain and significant oscillatory responses were imaged in anatomical space. During the reorienting of attention, youth recruited a distributed network of regions in the fronto-parietal network, along with higher-order visual regions within the theta (3-7 Hz) and alpha-beta (10-24 Hz) spectral windows. Beyond the expected developmental improvements in behavioral performance, we found stronger theta oscillatory activity as a function of age across a network of prefrontal brain regions irrespective of condition, as well as more limited age- and validity-related effects for alpha-beta responses. Distinct brain-behavior associations between theta oscillations and attention-related symptomology were also uncovered across a network of brain regions. Taken together, these data are the first to demonstrate developmental effects in the spectrally-specific neural oscillations serving the flexible allocation of attention.
Topics: Humans; Child; Adolescent; Brain; Magnetoencephalography; Attention; Brain Mapping
PubMed: 37567094
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101288 -
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Oct 2023People are best able to detect stimuli in peripheral vision when their pupils are large, and best able to discriminate stimuli in central vision when their pupils are...
People are best able to detect stimuli in peripheral vision when their pupils are large, and best able to discriminate stimuli in central vision when their pupils are small. However, it is unclear whether our visual system makes use of this by dilating the pupils when attention is directed towards peripheral vision. Therefore, throughout three experiments (N = 100), we tested whether pupil size adapts to the "breadth" of attention. We found that pupils dilate with increasing attentional breadth, both when attention is diffusely spread and when attention is directed at specific locations in peripheral vision. Based on our results and others, we propose that cognitively driven pupil dilation is not an epiphenomenal marker of locus coeruleus activity, as is often assumed, but rather is an adaptive response that reflects an emphasis on peripheral vision.
Topics: Humans; Pupil; Visual Perception; Vision, Ocular; Attention; Locus Coeruleus
PubMed: 37069422
DOI: 10.3758/s13423-023-02283-5 -
Cognition Aug 2023Unexpected and task-irrelevant sounds can impair performance in a task. It has been shown that highly arousing emotional distractor sounds impaired performance less...
Unexpected and task-irrelevant sounds can impair performance in a task. It has been shown that highly arousing emotional distractor sounds impaired performance less compared to moderately arousing neutral distractor sounds. The present study tests whether these differential emotion-related distraction effects are directly related to an enhancement of arousal evoked by processing of emotional distractor sounds. We disentangled costs of orienting of attention and benefits of increased arousal levels during the presentation of highly arousing emotional and moderately arousing neutral novel sounds that were embedded in a sequence of repeated standard sounds. We used sound-related pupil dilation responses as a marker of arousal and RTs as a marker of distraction in a visual categorization task in 57 healthy young adults. Multilevel analyses revealed increased RT and increased pupil dilation in response to novel vs. standard sounds. Emotional novel sounds reduced distraction effects on the behavioral level and increased pupil dilation responses compared to neutral novel sounds. Bayes Factors revealed strong evidence against an inverse proportional relationship between behavioral distraction effects and sound-related pupil dilation responses for emotional sounds. Given that the activity of the locus coeruleus has been linked to both changes in pupil diameter and arousal, it may embody an indirect relationship as a common antecedent by the release of norepinephrine into brain networks involved in attention control and control of the pupil. The present study provides new insights into the relation of changes in arousal and attentional distraction during the processing of emotional task-irrelevant novel sounds.
Topics: Young Adult; Humans; Bayes Theorem; Attention; Arousal; Emotions; Brain; Pupil
PubMed: 37150156
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105470