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Acta Dermato-venereologica Jul 2020Itch and pain are important attention-demanding sensations that allow adaptive responses to potential bodily harm. An attentional bias towards itch and pain stimuli,...
Itch and pain are important attention-demanding sensations that allow adaptive responses to potential bodily harm. An attentional bias towards itch and pain stimuli, i.e. preferential attention allocation towards itch- and pain-related information, has been found in healthy, as well as patient groups. However, it remains unclear whether attentional bias for itch and pain differs from a general bias towards negative information. Therefore, this study investigated attentional bias towards itch and pain in 70 itch- and pain-free individuals. In an attention task, itch- and pain-related stimuli, as well as negative stimuli, were presented alongside neutral stimuli. The results did not indicate an attentional bias towards itch-, pain-, and negative visual information. This finding suggests that people without itch and pain symptoms do not prioritize itch- and pain-related information above neutral information. Future research should investigate whether attention towards itch- and pain-related information might be biased in patients with chronic itch and pain.
Topics: Attention; Attentional Bias; Bias; Humans; Pain; Pruritus
PubMed: 32488280
DOI: 10.2340/00015555-3537 -
Current Biology : CB Mar 2019What we pay attention to is influenced by current task goals (goal-directed attention) [1, 2], the physical salience of stimuli (stimulus-driven attention) [3-5], and...
What we pay attention to is influenced by current task goals (goal-directed attention) [1, 2], the physical salience of stimuli (stimulus-driven attention) [3-5], and selection history [6-12]. This third construct, which encompasses reward learning, aversive conditioning, and repetitive orienting behavior [12-18], is often characterized as a unitary mechanism of control that can be contrasted with the other two [12-14]. Here, we present evidence that two different learning processes underlie the influence of selection history on attention, with dissociable consequences for orienting behavior. Human observers performed an antisaccade task in which they were paid for shifting their gaze in the direction opposite one of two color-defined targets. Strikingly, such training resulted in a bias to do the opposite of what observers were motivated and paid to do, with associative learning facilitating orienting toward reward cues. On the other hand, repetitive orienting away from a target produced a bias to repeat this behavior even when it conflicted with current goals, reflecting instrumental conditioning of the orienting response. Our findings challenge the idea that selection history reflects a common mechanism of learning-dependent priority and instead suggest multiple distinct routes by which learning history shapes orienting behavior. We also provide direct evidence for the idea that value-based attention is approach oriented, which limits the effectiveness of attentional bias modification techniques that utilize incentive structures.
Topics: Adult; Attention; Female; Humans; Learning; Life Change Events; Male; Orientation, Spatial; Young Adult
PubMed: 30773366
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.01.030 -
The Journal of Nervous and Mental... Mar 2021People with schizophrenia often experience attentional impairments that hinder learning during psychological interventions. Attention shaping is a behavioral technique...
People with schizophrenia often experience attentional impairments that hinder learning during psychological interventions. Attention shaping is a behavioral technique that improves attentiveness in this population. Because reinforcement learning (RL) is thought to be the mechanism by which attention shaping operates, we investigated if preshaping RL performance predicted level of response to attention shaping in people with schizophrenia. Contrary to hypotheses, a steeper attentiveness growth curve was predicted by less intact pretreatment RL ability and lower baseline attentiveness, accounting for 59% of the variance. Moreover, baseline attentiveness accounted for over 13 times more variance in response to attention shaping than did RL ability. Results suggest attention shaping is most effective for lower-functioning patients, and those high in RL ability may already be close to ceiling in terms of their response to reinforcers. Attention shaping may not be a primarily RL-driven intervention, and other mechanisms of its effects should be considered.
Topics: Adult; Attention; Cognition; Female; Humans; Intelligence; Male; Reinforcement, Psychology; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenic Psychology
PubMed: 33315800
DOI: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000001286 -
Environmental Health Perspectives May 2019Although previous studies have reported negative associations between exposure to air pollution and cognition, studies of the effects of prenatal and postnatal exposures...
BACKGROUND
Although previous studies have reported negative associations between exposure to air pollution and cognition, studies of the effects of prenatal and postnatal exposures in early childhood have been limited.
OBJECTIVES
We sought to assess the role exposure to fine particulate matter ([Formula: see text]) during different prenatal and postnatal windows may play in children's cognitive development at school age.
METHODS
Within the Brain Development and Air Pollution Ultrafine Particles in School Children (BREATHE) Project, we estimated residential [Formula: see text] exposures by land use regression for the prenatal period and first seven postnatal years of 2,221 children from Barcelona, Spain. The participants ([Formula: see text]) completed computerized tests assessing working memory, attentiveness, and conflict network during four visits in 2012–2013. We used linear mixed effects and distributed lag models to assess the period of exposure to [Formula: see text] in association with cognitive development.
RESULTS
Inverse associations were identified between [Formula: see text] exposure during the fifth and sixth postnatal years and working memory, with boys showing much higher vulnerability. Regarding attention functions, exposure to higher [Formula: see text] levels during the prenatal period and from the fourth postnatal year were associated with a reduction in conflict network performance, though we found no association with attentiveness. The overall estimated cumulative effect of a [Formula: see text] increase in [Formula: see text] resulted in a reduction in the working memory [Formula: see text] score of [Formula: see text] [95% confidence interval (CI): [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]] points and an increase in the conflict attentional network of 11.31 (95% CI: 6.05, 16.57) milliseconds, indicating a poorer performance.
CONCLUSIONS
Early life exposure to [Formula: see text] was associated with a reduction in fundamental cognitive abilities, including working memory and conflict attentional network. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3169.
Topics: Air Pollutants; Attention; Child; Environmental Exposure; Female; Humans; Male; Memory, Short-Term; Particle Size; Particulate Matter; Spain
PubMed: 31070940
DOI: 10.1289/EHP3169 -
Journal of Vision Aug 2021Attentional processes are generally assumed to be involved in multiple object tracking (MOT). The attentional capture paradigm is regularly used to study conditions of...
Attentional processes are generally assumed to be involved in multiple object tracking (MOT). The attentional capture paradigm is regularly used to study conditions of attentional control. It has up to now not been used to assess influences of sudden onset distractor stimuli in MOT. We investigated whether attentional capture does occur in MOT: Are onset distractors processed at all in dynamic attentional tasks? We found that sudden onset distractors were effective in lowering probe detection, thus demonstrating attentional capture. Tracking performance as dependent measure was not affected. The attentional capture effect persisted in conditions of higher tracking load (Experiment 2) and was dramatically increased in lower presentation frequency of the onset distractor (Experiment 3). Tracking performance was shown to suffer only when onset distractors were presented serially with very short time gaps in between, thus effectively disturbing re-engaging attention on the tracking set (Experiment 4). We discuss that rapid dis- and re-engagement of the attention process on target objects and an additional more basic process that continuously provides location information allow managing strong disruptions of attention during tracking.
Topics: Attention; Humans
PubMed: 34379083
DOI: 10.1167/jov.21.8.16 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Dec 2013The right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) is widely considered as part of a network that reorients attention to task-relevant, but currently unattended stimuli (Corbetta... (Review)
Review
The right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) is widely considered as part of a network that reorients attention to task-relevant, but currently unattended stimuli (Corbetta and Shulman, 2002). Despite the prevalence of this theory in cognitive neuroscience, there is little direct evidence for the principal hypothesis that TPJ sends an early reorientation signal that "circuit breaks" attentional processing in regions of the dorsal attentional network (e.g., the frontal eye fields) or is completely right lateralized during attentional processing. In this review, we examine both functional neuroimaging work on TPJ in the attentional literature as well as anatomical findings. We first critically evaluate the idea that TPJ reorients attention and is right lateralized; we then suggest that TPJ signals might rather reflect post-perceptual processes involved in contextual updating and adjustments of top-down expectations; and then finally discuss how these ideas relate to the electrophysiological (P300) literature, and to TPJ findings in other cognitive and social domains. We conclude that while much work is needed to define the computational functions of regions encapsulated as TPJ, there is now substantial evidence that it is not specialized for stimulus-driven attentional reorienting.
Topics: Attention; Humans; Nerve Net; Parietal Lobe; Temporal Lobe
PubMed: 23999082
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.08.010 -
Behaviour Research and Therapy Feb 2023Worry is a repetitive, negative thought process that is widely experienced as difficult to control. Despite the adverse effects of uncontrollable worry on academic and... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
Worry is a repetitive, negative thought process that is widely experienced as difficult to control. Despite the adverse effects of uncontrollable worry on academic and other role functioning, the mechanisms by which worry becomes uncontrollable remain poorly understood. Previous experimental work has historically emphasized valence (negative versus positive or neutral). However, contemporary cognitive neuroscience also distinguishes between internally-directed attention (e.g., to thoughts) and externally-directed attention (e.g., to perceptual stimuli). To date, no studies have experimentally examined potential dissociable contributions of valence versus attentional direction to impaired disengagement from worry. In a 2 (negative or neutral valence) x 2 (internal or external attention) between-subjects, experimental and prospective design (https://osf.io/vdyfn/), participants (N = 200) completed alternating blocks of a randomly-assigned attention manipulation and validated sustained attention task. Participants also rated trait worry and distress during the experimental session (T1) and a naturalistic stressor (the week before finals; T2). There was a main effect, such that internally-directed attention impaired sustained attention (increased commission errors). Worry (internal x negative) also impaired sustained attention (faster and less accurate responding) in planned group contrasts. Trait worry did not moderate these effects. Sustained attention at T1 did not predict distress or worry during the T2 stressor. These findings augment the literature on the attentional consequences of worry and replicate and extend previous findings of altered speed-accuracy tradeoffs following experimentally-induced worry. We also find evidence for impaired disengagement from internally-directed (versus externally-directed) attention, which may help to explain impaired disengagement from related forms of perseverative thought (e.g., rumination).
Topics: Humans; Anxiety; Attention
PubMed: 36641981
DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2022.104242 -
Scientific Reports Sep 2020Spatial attention and spatial representation of time are strictly linked in the human brain. In young adults, a leftward shift of spatial attention by prismatic... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
Spatial attention and spatial representation of time are strictly linked in the human brain. In young adults, a leftward shift of spatial attention by prismatic adaptation (PA), is associated with an underestimation whereas a rightward shift is associated with an overestimation of time both for visual and auditory stimuli. These results suggest a supra-modal representation of time left-to-right oriented that is modulated by a bilateral attentional shift. However, there is evidence of unilateral, instead of bilateral, effects of PA on time in elderly adults suggesting an influence of age on these effects. Here we studied the effects of spatial attention on time representation focusing on childhood. Fifty-four children aged from 5 to 11 years-old performed a temporal bisection task with visual and auditory stimuli before and after PA inducing a leftward or a rightward attentional shift. Results showed that children underestimated time after a leftward attentional shift either for visual or auditory stimuli, whereas a rightward attentional shift had null effect on time. Our results are discussed as a partial maturation of the link between spatial attention and time representation in childhood, due to immaturity of interhemispheric interactions or of executive functions necessary for the attentional complete influence on time representation.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Attention; Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Functional Laterality; Humans; Male; Space Perception; Time Perception
PubMed: 32917922
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71541-6 -
Behaviour Research and Therapy Aug 2024Evidence supports a causal role of insomnia in the development and maintenance of depression, yet mechanisms underlying this association in young people are not well...
Evidence supports a causal role of insomnia in the development and maintenance of depression, yet mechanisms underlying this association in young people are not well established. Attention biases have been implicated separately in the sleep and depression fields and represents an important candidate mechanism. Poor sleep may lead to a negative attention bias (characteristic of depression) by impacting attentional control. This study assessed the hypothesis that attentional control and negative attention bias would sequentially mediate the relationship between insomnia and depressive symptoms in an unselected sample of young people (17-24 years). Concerns have been raised regarding the psychometric properties of tasks used to measure attention bias, and a Dual-Probe Task is emerging as a more reliable measure. Participants (N = 275, Male = 59, M = 19.40) completed the Dual-Probe Task, a behavioural measure of attentional control, and self-report measures of insomnia and depression. Participants completed a one-week sleep diary. Results were consistent with negative attention bias, but not attentional control, as a mechanism which partially accounts for the relationship between sleep (i.e., insomnia severity, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep latency) and depression. This study highlights sleep and negative attention bias as potentially modifiable risk factors to reduce depressive symptoms in young people.
Topics: Humans; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders; Male; Female; Adolescent; Depression; Young Adult; Attentional Bias; Attention; Self Report
PubMed: 38761556
DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2024.104569 -
Journal of Vision Feb 2013During the last decade one of the most contentious and heavily studied topics in the attention literature has been the role that working memory representations play in... (Review)
Review
During the last decade one of the most contentious and heavily studied topics in the attention literature has been the role that working memory representations play in controlling perceptual selection. The hypothesis has been advanced that to have attention select a certain perceptual input from the environment, we only need to represent that item in working memory. Here we summarize the work indicating that the relationship between what representations are maintained in working memory and what perceptual inputs are selected is not so simple. First, it appears that attentional selection is also determined by high-level task goals that mediate the relationship between working memory storage and attentional selection. Second, much of the recent work from our laboratory has focused on the role of long-term memory in controlling attentional selection. We review recent evidence supporting the proposal that working memory representations are critical during the initial configuration of attentional control settings, but that after those settings are established long-term memory representations play an important role in controlling which perceptual inputs are selected by mechanisms of attention.
Topics: Attention; Humans; Memory, Long-Term; Memory, Short-Term; Visual Perception
PubMed: 23444390
DOI: 10.1167/13.3.1