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PubMed2004

Enhancing the effects of extinction on attention-maintained behavior through noncontingent delivery of attention or stimuli identified via a competing stimulus assessment.

UNLABELLED: Recent research has shown that the noncontingent delivery of competing stimuli can effectively reduce rates of destructive behavior maintained by social-positive reinforcement, even when the contingency for destructive behavior remains intact. It may be useful, therefore, to have a systematic means for predicting which reinforcers do and do not compete successfully with the reinforcer that is maintaining destructive behavior. In the present study, we conducted a brief competing stimulus assessment in which noncontingent access to a variety of tangible stimuli (one toy per trial) was superimposed on a fixed-ratio 1 schedule of attention for destructive behavior for individuals whose behavior was found to be reinforced by attention during a functional analysis. Tangible stimuli that resulted in the lowest rates of destructive behavior and highest percentages of engagement during the competing stimulus assessment were subsequently used in a noncontingent tangible items plus extinction treatment package and were compared to noncontingent attention plus extinction and extinction alone. Results indicated that both treatments resulted in greater reductions in the target behavior than did extinction alone and suggested that the competing stimulus assessment may be helpful in predicting stimuli that can enhance the effects of extinction when noncontingent attention is unavailable. DESCRIPTORS: Attention-maintained problem behavior, competing stimuli, extinction, functional analysis, noncontingent reinforcement

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed2004

Supporting the attentional momentum view of IOR: is attention biased to go right?

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to the finding that individuals are slower to respond to a target presented at a previously attended location than they are to respond to a target presented at a novel location (Posner & Cohen, 1984). The attentional momentum theory is a recent view of how attention moves around the environment, and it provides an account for the IOR effect that does not rely on an inhibitory mechanism (Pratt, Spalek, & Bradshaw, 1999). The present paper supports the attentional momentum viewpoint in two ways: first, by replicating the finding that reaction times to targets at the uncued locations are not all the same (Pratt et al., 1999) and second, by showing that responses made to all locations on the cued side of fixation, and not just to the locations that attention had previously traversed, are slower than are responses made to locations on the opposite side of fixation. We also demonstrate that there is a directional bias to the IOR effect that results in the effect's being larger when attention moves in a left-to-right manner.

Attention↗
PubMed1997

The role of attention in automatization: does attention operate at encoding, or retrieval, or both?

In this research, we investigated whether attention operates in the encoding of automatized information, the retrieval of automatized information, or in both cases. Subjects searched two-word displays for members of a target category in focused-attention or divided-attention conditions that were crossed with block (training vs. transfer). To see whether subjects encoded all available items or only attended items, we compared performance for subjects in different training conditions but in the same transfer condition. Subjects encoded attended items. To see whether subjects retrieved all the items they had in memory, or only items associated with that to which they were attending at retrieval, we compared performance for subjects in the same training conditions but in different transfer conditions. Subjects retrieved attended items. Attention was found to operate at both encoding and retrieval. These findings support the instance theory of automaticity, which predicts the role of attention at encoding and retrieval.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Attentional processing of "unattended" flankers: evidence for a failure of selective attention.

Results from research with the flanker task have been used to argue both that flankers are identified without attention and that flanker identification requires attention. In three experiments, we addressed this issue by examining flanker recall. In Experiment 1, we manipulated flanker redundancy, a variable that could influence attention to the flankers, in order to determine whether it affected the magnitude of the flanker effect, the magnitude of flanker recall, or both. Redundancy did not influence the flanker effect, and recall was high in both conditions, suggesting that the flankers were attended. The recall results contradicted those of Miller (1987), the only other study that we could find in which flanker recall was used. In Experiments 2 and 3, we examined differences between Miller's procedure and ours. Although flanker recall was lower when open-ended rather than forced recall was used and when the flanker task was made more complicated, flanker recall remained well above chance in all conditions. The data strongly suggest that in the typical correlated flanker task there is a failure of selective attention at some point during processing such that flankers receive attentional processing.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Children with autism show local precedence in a divided attention task and global precedence in a selective attention task.

Children with a diagnosis of autism and typically developing children were given two variations of the Navon task (Navon, 1977), which required responding to a target that could appear at the global level, the local level, or both levels. In one variation, the divided attention task, no information was given to children regarding the level at which a target would appear on any one trial. In the other, the selective attention task, children were instructed to attend to either the local or the global level. Typically developing children made most errors when the target appeared at the local level whereas children with autism made more errors when the target appeared at the global level in the divided attention task. Both groups of children were quicker to respond to the global target than the local target in the selective attention task. The presence of normal global processing in the children with autism in one task but not in the other is discussed in terms of a deficit in mechanisms that inhibit local information in the absence of overt priming or voluntary selective attention to local information.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Development of multimodal attention in young infants: modification of the startle reflex by attention.

This study examined the effect of attention engagement to compound auditory-visual stimuli on the modification of the startle blink reflex in infants. Infants at 8, 14, 20, or 26 weeks of age were presented with interesting audiovisual stimuli. After stimulus onset, at delays defined by heart rate changes known to be associated with sustained attention or attention disengagement, blink reflexes were elicited by visual or auditory stimuli. Blink amplitude to either visual or auditory stimuli was enhanced when the infants were engaged in attention to the foreground auditory-visual stimuli relative to control trials with no foreground patterns. This enhancement of the blink amplitude increased from 8 to 26 weeks of age. In contrast to selective modality enhancement for single-modality foreground stimuli, these results show that these multimodal stimuli engage both visual and auditory attention systems in this age range.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1999

[Attention deficit disorder: attentional characteristics of developmental right hemisphere syndrome].

Developmental right hemisphere syndrome (DRHS) is characterized by emotional and interpersonal difficulties, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), visuo-spatial handicaps, subtle left body neurologic signs and failure in nonverbal academic domains, especially arithmetic. Concurrence of ADHD and DRHS is not surprising because research has implicated dysfunction of the right hemisphere in both syndromes. Furthermore, the right hemisphere has more brain areas devoted to attentional processing, making it more important and more vulnerable in attentional problems. We describe the clinical parameters of DRHS as exemplified by 2 cases, a boy and a girl, both 13 years old. They participated in a study group in which attention and speed of performance were assessed in children with DRHS and were compared to children with ADHD and to a control group. A tendency to overfocusing, difficulty in inhibition, perseverative behaviors, stereotypy, and slowness and absence of hyperactivity characterized the DRHS group. These behaviors led us to hypothesize that the attentional symptoms in DRHS define a specific subgroup of ADHD which requires a different therapeutic approach.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Selective attention and emotional vulnerability: assessing the causal basis of their association through the experimental manipulation of attentional bias.

Although it is well-established that vulnerability to negative emotion is associated with attentional bias toward aversive information, the causal basis of this association remains undetermined. Two studies addressed this issue by experimentally inducing differential attentional responses to emotional stimuli using a modified dot probe task, and then examining the impact of such attentional manipulation on subsequent emotional vulnerability. The results supported the hypothesis that the induction of attentional bias should serve to modify emotional vulnerability, as revealed by participants' emotional reactions to a final standardized stress task. These findings provide a sound empirical basis for the previously speculative proposal that attentional bias can causally mediate emotional vulnerability, and they suggest the possibility that cognitive-experimental procedures designed to modify selective information processing may have potential therapeutic value.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Ontogeny of selective attention effects on event-related potentials in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and normal boys.

A longitudinal study of young attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) boys has found clear evidence for developmental abnormalities in event-related potential (ERP) waves that reflect cognitive processes associated with selective attentional tasks. Boys alternated attention to auditory or visual modalities in a train of stimuli, in an attempt to detect target stimuli in the attended modality. Results suggest that ADHD boys' attentional difficulties are due to insufficient facilitation of responses to the attended stimuli and not to an inability to block ignored stimuli. Abnormalities in ERPs reflecting cognitive processes associated with both interchannel selection mechanisms (processing negativity) and intrachannel selection mechanisms (P3b) were found. The degree of abnormality in the P3b responses to target stimuli in ADHD boys (lower than normal boys) was found to increase with age. It is suggested that the abnormally low P36 response to attended target stimuli found in ADHD boys may be due in part to insufficient LC noradrenergic activity normally triggered by attended task-relevant or novel stimuli.

Arousal↗
PubMed2005

Effect of neurofeedback training on the neural substrates of selective attention in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder mainly characterized by impairments in cognitive functions. Functional neuroimaging studies carried out in individuals with AD/HD have shown abnormal functioning of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during tasks involving selective attention. In other respects, there is mounting evidence that neurofeedback training (NFT) can significantly improve cognitive functioning in AD/HD children. In this context, the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was conducted to measure the effect of NFT on the neural substrates of selective attention in children with AD/HD. Twenty AD/HD children--not taking any psychostimulant and without co-morbidity-participated to the study. Fifteen children were randomly assigned to the Experimental (EXP) group (NFT), whereas the other five children were assigned to the Control (CON) group (no NFT). Subjects from both groups were scanned 1 week before the beginning of the NFT (Time 1) and 1 week after the end of this training (Time 2), while they performed a Counting Stroop task. At Time 1, for both groups, the Counting Stroop task was associated with significant loci of activation in the left superior parietal lobule. No activation was noted in the ACC. At Time 2, for both groups, the Counting Stroop task was still associated with significant activation of the left superior parietal lobule. This time, however, for the EXP group only there was a significant activation of the right ACC. These results suggest that in AD/HD children, NFT has the capacity to normalize the functioning of the ACC, the key neural substrate of selective attention.

Attention↗
PubMed2000

Non-selective attention in a rat model of hyperactivity and attention deficit: subchronic methylphenydate and nitric oxide synthesis inhibitor treatment.

The involvement of dopamine (DA) and nitric oxide (NO) in the process of non-selective attention (NSA) to environmental stimuli has been investigated in the juvenile Spontaneously Hypertensive rat (SHR). To this aim the frequency and duration of rearing episodes in a novelty situation, which is thought to monitor NSA, have been measured in male SHR and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) control rats following subchronic treatment with methylphenidate (MP; 3 mg/kg) or the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor L-Nitro-arginine-methylester (L-NAME; 1 mg/kg) or vehicle daily for two weeks. Different groups were tested at 0.5 h or 24 h after the last injection in a Làt-maze. Tests were repeated twice at a 24 h interval and lasted 10 min each. Upon first exposure, there was a differential drug effect only in the SHR. In fact, MP and L-NAME yielded a shift to the left and to the right, i.e. towards episodes of lower or higher duration, respectively. This shift was more pronounced in the group tested 0.5 h after the last injection. In contrast, both drugs produced a significant lengthening of the rearing episodes in the SHR only in comparison with the vehicle-treated rats over days of testing. Therefore both MP and L-NAME appear to shear a similar effect on non-selective attention, although the effect of L-NAME is somewhat paradoxical. The latter is likely to be due to increased arginine selective uptake due to negative feedback with the NO production. The consequent increased arginine availability displaces the NOS inhibitor, thus leading to increased NO production. In conclusion, dopamine and nitric oxide play a role in non-selective attention by synaptic and extrasynaptic mechanisms, respectively, in a rat model of hyperactivity and attention-deficits.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Searching for the attention deficit in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: the case of visuospatial orienting.

We review all 14 extant studies of covert visuospatial attention in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (total N=248). Metaanalysis showed that intriguing but isolated findings of alerting or posterior disengage deficits were too small to reliably detect with the sample sizes typically employed. Posterior move and engage operations and the vigilance sustained attention process were normal in ADHD. For exogenous cues, effect sizes for group differences were homogeneously small across all repeated-measures conditions, as were calculations of cost, benefit, and validity effects. For endogenous cues, effect sizes were heterogeneous; however, calculations of cost, benefit, and validity effects were small and homogenous. The most parsimonious conclusion may be that ADHD is not characterized by significant visual orienting dysfunction, but questions remain about the extent of anterior lateralized effects in the combined subtype and about attentional functioning in the inattentive subtype.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Effect of methylphenidate on attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): ERP evidence.

Methylphenidate is the most common treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and has been shown to improve attention and behaviour. However, the precise nature of methylphenidate on specific aspects of attention at different dose levels remains unclear. We studied methylphenidate effects in ADHD from a neurophysiological perspective, recording event-related potentials (ERPs) during attention task performance in normal controls and children with ADHD under different dose conditions. Twenty children with ADHD and 20 age matched controls were assessed with a continuous performance task requiring subjects to identify repeating alphabetic characters. ERPs and behavioural measures were recorded and analyzed for trials where a correct response was made. The ADHD group was assessed off drug (baseline) and on placebo, low (0.28 mg/kg) and high (0.56 mg/kg) dose levels of methylphenidate. The results showed that the ADHD group at baseline was more impulsive and inattentive than controls and had shorter P2 and N2 latencies and longer P3 latencies. Low dose methylphenidate was associated with reduced impulsivity (fewer false alarms) and decreased P3 latencies, whereas the higher dose level was associated with reduced impulsivity and less inattention (more hits), as well as increased P2 and N2 latencies and decreased P3 latencies. Amplitudes were unaffected and there were no adverse effects of the higher dose for any of the children. These results suggest differential dosage effects and a dissociation between dose levels and aspects of processing.

Attention↗
PubMed2001

The development of selective attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The influence of age on a selective attention task was studied in a sample of children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The impact of methylphenidate (MPH) treatment on selective attention was also investigated in the children with ADHD. Two age groups of children with ADHD and two age groups of control children were tested using a timed computer task. The task consisted of identifying visual target stimuli under various distracter conditions. Distracters varied on the basis of modality (i.e., visual, auditory, or both) and task relevance (i.e., meaningful or irrelevant). Reaction times and accuracy were measured. Children with ADHD were less efficient on the selective attention task than were children without ADHD, and older children were more efficient than younger children in both groups. Children without ADHD were influenced more by the nature of distracters than were children with ADHD. For children with ADHD, MPH improved performance overall.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2006

Performance on a visual sustained attention and discrimination task is associated with urinary excretion of norepineprhine metabolite in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD).

The degree of association between performance on a sustained attention task requiring visual discrimination and urinary excretion of catecholamine metabolites was examined in a cohort of 6- to 12-year-old children (n = 31) strictly selected and diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) according to DSM-IV and other strict criteria. Sustained visual attention and discrimination were measured using the Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.). Urinary excretion of dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE) metabolites was measured by reversed high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). Pearson product-moment correlations were used to investigate the relationship between T.O.V.A. errors of omission (OMM), errors of commission (COM), response time (RT), and response time variability (RTV) and catecholamine metabolites of DA and NE. All T.O.V.A. indexes under investigation were significantly correlated with urinary excretion of NE metabolites, but correlations were low-to-moderate in magnitude (.37-.50). In contrast, there were no statistically significant correlations between T.O.V.A. indices and DA metabolites. These findings and their concordance with past research in human adults and animals, as well as theoretical issues associated with the present results, are discussed.

Attention↗
PubMed1997

Effects of methylphenidate and behavioral contingencies on sustained attention in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a test of the reward dysfunction hypothesis.

Psychostimulants and behavior therapy have been postulated to be effective in treating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by compensating for a pathologically elevated reward threshold, but no studies have compared reinforcement to psychostimulants in maintaining task performance. The separate and combined effects of methylphenidate (MPH, 0.6 mg/kg) and a behavioral intervention (reward plus response cost) were assessed on a continuous performance test (CPT, a measure of sustained attention) modified to deliver auditory feedback contingent upon the subject's responses. Each of 22 children (6-10 years old) with ADHD were tested under four treatment conditions: placebo + feedback, placebo + behavioral contingencies, MPH + feedback, and MPH + contingencies. CPT performance, indexed by d' (ability to discriminate between target and false targets), was significantly better with MPH than with placebo, showing reduced deterioration over time. Contingency treatment improved mean d' compared to placebo + feedback but, in contrast, had no effect on the slope of performance deterioration. Addition of contingencies to MPH did not yield further improvement. The results indicate that MPH improved sustained attention on a laboratory task (and reduced task-irrelevant and other disinhibited behaviors), whereas behavioral contingencies did not. These findings suggest that, although both interventions improved stimulus discrimination processes, only MPH enhanced processes that mediate the regulation of effort over time. In addition, the disjunction between the effects of reward and of MPH provides evidence that psychostimulant effects on attention are only partially explained by the stimulation of brain centers associated with reward.

Attention↗
PubMed2005

Clinical evaluation of subjective and objective changes in motor activity and attention in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in a double-blind methylphenidate trial.

The aim of this study was to determine drug-dependent effects on attention and motor activity in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a double-blind methylphenidate (MPH) trial using both subjective behavior ratings and objective measures of function. In particular, we were interested in the relationship between changes of those subjective and objective measures. A total of 44 ADHD children with the combined subtype completed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial with 2 doses of MPH (0.25; 0.5 mg/kg body weight) and placebo. In each condition, computerized attention tasks were performed, teacher-behavior ratings were obtained, and actigraph data were collected in both clinical and naturalistic settings. Trend tests revealed linear effects of MPH dose on actigraph data in the test session (p = 0.02) and at school (p = 0.001), as well as on sustained attention (p < 0.001), while inhibitory control showed a quadratic dose-response curve (p < 0.001). Multivariate regression analyses revealed that changes of both, hyperactive-impulsive symptoms (28%) and inattentive symptoms (23%) could be explained by objective changes of motor activity. Thus, for clinical practice, it should be taken into account that behavior ratings of ADHD symptoms seemed to be predominantly influenced by changes of motor activity.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2005

Larger deficits in brain networks for response inhibition than for visual selective attention in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

BACKGROUND: Brain activation differences between 12 control and 12 attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children (9- to 12-year-olds) were examined on two cognitive tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). METHOD: Visual selective attention was measured with the visual search of a conjunction target (red triangle) in a field of distracters and response inhibition was measured with a go/no-go task. RESULTS: There were limited group differences in the selective attention task, with control children showing significantly greater intensity of activation in a small area of the superior parietal lobule region of interest. There were large group differences in the response inhibition task, with control children showing significantly greater intensity of activation in fronto-striatal regions of interest including the inferior, middle, superior and medial frontal gyri as well as the caudate nucleus and globus pallidus. CONCLUSION: The widespread hypoactivity for the ADHD children on the go/no-go task is consistent with the hypothesis that response inhibition is a specific deficit in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Attention↗