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PubMed1999

The effects of postweaning low-level Pb exposure on sustained attention: a study of target densities, stimulus presentation rate, and stimulus predictability.

It has been suggested that behavioral effects associated with low-level lead (Pb) exposure are related to alterations in attentional processes. These "attention deficits" remain undefined, and few studies have directly addressed the effects of Pb on specific measures of attention. The current study assessed the impact of Pb on sustained attention, as one of the 3 primary clinical symptom domains of attention deficit disorder. Groups of rats were exposed from weaning (21 days of age) to either 0, 50, or 150 ppm Pb acetate in drinking water producing blood Pb levels of <5, 16.0, and 28.0 microg/dl, respectively. Rats were trained to discriminate a pulsing (target) from a non-pulsing (distracter) light. Parametric manipulations of target probability (10%-80%) and inter-stimulus interval (1 s-6 s, and variable) were imposed to evaluate whether effects of Pb were dependent upon attention demand. Sensitivity of the paradigm to changes in CNS function was validated by examining the effects of d-amphetamine (0.0-2.0 mg/kg) in a separate group of rats. Exposure to 50 ppm increased errors of omission only during sessions with long and variable inter-stimulus intervals. The 150 ppm group showed a small increase in errors of commission during sessions with a long inter-stimulus interval. No other Pb-related effects were observed. The absence of any pronounced Pb effects in this study on this sustained attention task could indicate that: 1) any Pb-induced attention deficits are modified by reinforcement and time-out contingencies; 2) Pb disrupts other aspects of attention such as inability to tolerate delays or impulsivity; and 3) Pb-related deficits are due to other behavioral dysfunctions.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

EEG correlates of the development of infant joint attention skills.

The development of the capacity for social attention coordination, or "joint attention," is a major milestone of infancy. Data from a recent study of handicapped infants have raised the hypothesis that the tendency to initiate bids for joint attention may reflect processes associated with the frontal cortex to a greater extent than other forms of infant attention coordination (R. Caplan et al., 1993). This hypothesis was examined in a longitudinal study of 32 normally developing infants. The results indicated that EEG data at 14 months indicative of left frontal, as well as left and right central cortical activity, was associated with the tendency to initiate joint attention bids (IJA) at 14 and 18 months. In contrast, a pattern of left parietal activation and right parietal deactivation at 14 months was associated with the development of the capacity to respond to the joint attention bids (RJA) of others at 14 and 18 months. These results were interpreted to be consistent with a general anterior-posterior model of attention development (M. Posner & S. Petersen, 1990). The implications of these results for current conceptualizations of joint attention development, as well as for understanding the disturbance of joint attention skill development in autism are discussed.

Attention↗
PubMed2001

[Lateralization and interhemispheric integration of directed attention].

Directed attention is a function to direct and shift the focus of awareness adequately to behaviorally relevant sensory events. Healthy subjects direct attention evenly to right and left hemispaces. Unilateral spatial neglect is a failure to respond normally to stimuli on the side opposite a cerebral lesion, which is considered to represent a unilateral disruption of directed attention. The established clinical observation that neglect usually occurs after right hemisphere lesions and the results of functional imaging studies suggest the right hemisphere dominance for directed attention. It is hypothesized that the right hemisphere distributes attention to space bilaterally, whereas the left hemisphere distributes attention primarily to right hemispace. However, patients with callosotomy show no apparent neglect with either right or left hand. Ishiai et al. (2001) reported detailed analyses of eye movements when a patient with a callosal infarction bisected lines. Left unilateral spatial neglect may appear, when use of the right hand induces a rightward bias in the attentional control of the left hemisphere and damage to its cingulate gyrus inhibits interhemispheric integration of attention. By contrast, the disconnected but intact right hemisphere may bisect a line accurately by integrating attention to the extents perceived in the left and right visual fields.

Attention↗
PubMed2002

Attention-dependent changes of activation and connectivity in dichotic listening.

Functional studies of auditory spatial attention generally report enhanced neural responses in auditory cortical regions. However, activity in regions of the spatial attentional network as described in the visual modality is not consistently observed. Data analysis limitations due to oppositely lateralized activity depending on the side of attentional orientation and heterogeneity of paradigms makes it hard to untangle the possible causes of these various activation patterns. In the present article we present a PET study of auditory spatial attention in which we manipulated orientation of attention, attentional load, and difficulty of the task by means of the dichotic listening paradigm. Moreover, we designed a systematic, voxel-specific, method in order to deal with oppositely lateralized activity. The results show that when listeners are involved in auditory spatial attention tasks an interacting network of frontal, temporal, and parietal regions is activated. Selective orientation toward one side mostly yields activity and connectivity modulations in the hemisphere contralateral to the attended side while in divided attention activity is mostly bilateral. Taken together, our observations are consistent with the idea of a multimodal large-scale attentional network.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Specific alterations in attention in the early stages of Parkinson's disease].

INTRODUCTION: The cognitive disorders presented by patients with Parkinson s disease (PD) have drawn attention to the role played by the basal ganglia in cognition. It has been suggested that through a system of cortico subcortical circuits they monitor the work done by the frontal regions by guiding the anterior and posterior attentional systems, whose functioning is necessary for the so called executive functions to be carried out. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We studied 10 patients with PD in developmental stages I and II according to the scale of Hoehn and Yahr, and 10 healthy paired controls. All of them were administered a test for simple sustained attention, complex sustained attention and attentional shift. RESULTS: In the simple sustained attention task there were no significant differences between groups. In the complex sustained attention test the patients committed more mistakes, and in the attentional shift task they committed more omissions and there was a significant increase in reaction time. CONCLUSIONS: Even in the early stages of the disease, patients suffering from Parkinson present cognitive disorders. These are concentrated in the detection and evaluation of new information, in the capability to shift attention between different spatial regions in a flexible manner and in choosing, inhibiting and activating motor programmes. In order to detect these alterations more sensitive and complex tests must be used.

Attention↗
PubMed2006

Visuomotor tracking related to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Deficient visuomotor tracking in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been described, but the specific influence of attention on this deficit has not yet been elucidated. The present study compares visuomotor tracking under different conditions of attentional loading in children with ADHD with that of age-matched controls. A computerized visuomotor attentional tracking test that incorporated several levels of distraction was administered to 13 typical children. The same test, as well as a standard Matching Familiar Figures Test and the Proteus Maze test, was administered to 32 children with ADHD and 21 control children. Significant differences between children with ADHD and controls in visuomotor attentional tracking indices that relate to pacing and the accuracy of the tracking movements were observed under all levels of distraction. In parallel, a significant performance decrement was observed in all subjects once distraction was introduced. Discriminant analysis, based on the visuomotor attentional tracking test findings, resulted in correct classification of 92.3% of the typical children and 46% of the children with ADHD. Significant correlations between Matching Familiar Figures Test latency, as well as errors and visuomotor attentional tracking indices, were noted among children with ADHD when the visuomotor attentional tracking did not involve distraction. Under distraction, these correlations extended to the control group as well. In conclusion, visuomotor tracking appears to reflect the availability of attentional resources in general and is significantly affected by the presence of ADHD in particular. These results have potential implications related to the evaluation of children with ADHD on and off drugs.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed2006

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: etiology and pharmacotherapy.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a common neurobehavioral disorder of childhood and adolescence. The etiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is not well understood. Neurochemical studies suggest, alterations in catecholaminergic, mainly dopaminergic and noradrenergic, transmitter functions markedly contribute to the symptoms of this disorder. The symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder are significantly ameliorated by the agents that specifically influence these neurotransmitters. Animal studies implicate areas of the brain in which these neurotransmitters are most dominant. Psychostimulant medications are generally the first choice in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Approximately 70% of the children treated show improvement in the primary attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and in comorbidity such as conduct disorder, although the benefits may not hold beyond two years. Despite the well-established efficacy and safety of stimulants for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, alternative medicines are still needed for several reasons. About 30% of children and adolescents with this disorder may not respond to stimulants or may be unable to tolerate potential adverse events such as decreased appetite, mood lability and sleep disturbances. Although stimulants do not increase the risk for later substance abuse in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, concerns have been raised about special prescription rules and a potential for abuse by persons other than the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder subjects. This review focuses on etiology, assessment, and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMed2007

[Neuropsychological approach to visual attention].

Visual experience depends critically on visual attention, which selects a particular aspect of a visual display. Recent clinical, neuroimaging, and animal studies revealed that visual attention was divided into active and passive or top-down and bottom-up attention. Although these dichotomies are clear-cut in definition, visual attention could be modulated by many factors. Detailed observation of brain-injured patients provides with evidence for dynamic and fine control of visual attention. We observed patients with dorsal simultanagnosia and that with callosal disconnection syndrome. Patients with dorsal simultanagnosia demonstrated that extent of visual attention was dynamically changed depending on the level of visual processing. Despite the ability to read a kanji character and to describe its components correctly, a patient could not notice a component that he had just written and could not assemble individual components to make up a correct kanji character. He could point to an overlapping area of two figures. But once he started to color the overlapping area, he missed the margin of the area and colored much larger area. Another patient with dorsal simultanagnosia missed borderlines between columns of a newspaper and read letters continuously across columns. In contrast, he could point to lines between figures or meaningless patterns easily. These findings indicated that visual attention was directed automatically to meaningful characters. A patients with callosal disconnection syndrome demonstrated left unilateral spatial neglect only when he used his right hand to draw figures. Right hand movement, controlled by the left hemisphere, elicited visual attention to the right hemispace, resulting in the left unilateral spatial neglect. Thus visual attention is not simply top-down or bottom up, but is implicitly affected by the visual recognition as well as motor component of the task.

Aged↗
PubMed1990

Visual attention movements: a developmental study.

The pattern of attention movements underlying reorientation of visual selective attention independent of eye movements was studied developmentally in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, 8-year-old, 11-year-old, and college-age subjects first oriented their attention to a central location and were then cued to direct their attention either to the left or the right peripheral field. Following variable intervals, the target appeared at the cued location and reaction times were recorded. The data were interpretable in terms of the attentional spotlight theory since there was an interaction between distance of the target from fixation and SOA. In terms of this theory, the data indicate that the velocity of attention movements increases throughout the age range studied. Experiment 2, in contradiction to attentional spotlight theory, failed to find evidence of an interaction between distance and SOA. This experiment suggested that young children can covertly orient their attention by including valid, neutral, and invalid cues, and that these cues can both facilitate and inhibit attentional orientation. This experiment also extended the findings to central as well as peripheral cues.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

An approach to the study of attentional components in auditory tasks.

Some investigators have proposed a number of strategies or components of attention based on the analysis of the demands or requirements of certain laboratory tasks. The present investigation approached the analysis of auditory and visual attention from a different perspective. Volunteers (14 F, 27 M) from the health professions were given two widely-used auditory attentional tasks (remembering taped word lists, and shadowing, in monaural, binaural, and dichotic modes) and three visual tests (Stroop color-word tests, embedded figures, and anagrams) that appear to tap important aspects of attentional functioning; 18 indices of aspects of performance were taken from or derived from scores on these tests. Strong, significant r's emerged for a number of paired variables, suggesting that performance in these tasks share common elements. A principal factor analysis performed on the correlation matrix yielded a remarkably clean solution that uncovered four common sources for the variation observed in performance: Factor I identifies an aspect of attention tapped whenever distractions must be overcome; II is involved in continuously tracking or monitoring semantic aspects of connected material; III is an "executive" function that maintains or controls other aspects of attention; IV can be labeled breadth of attention, dealing with opposite aspects of the same underlying mechanism. These appear to be attentional components that underlie performance even in tasks that impose dissimilar demands or that have been interpreted as engaging different aspects of the attentional system. The factor analysis also provided some tentative answers for questions related to the comparability of different auditory tasks and of different aspects of performance for the same task.

Attention↗
PubMed1996

Joint attention and language gains in children with Down syndrome.

Joint attention and topic initiation in caregiver-child interactions was explored in relation to children's language gains over 13 months. Caregivers of 28 children with Down syndrome spent more time in joint attention and maintained more attention to caregiver-selected toys than did caregivers of 17 children with typical development. Receptive language gains of children with Down syndrome were associated with caregivers maintaining attention to child-selected toys and with longer lengths of joint attention. Caregivers redirecting attention away from child-selected toys and a greater frequency of joint attention episodes was negatively associated with children's language gains. More time spent in joint attention and caregivers maintaining attention to mother-selected toys was associated with receptive language gains in children who were developing typically.

Attention↗
PubMed1997

Heart rate and behavioral measures of attention in six-, nine-, and twelve-month-old infants during object exploration.

In this study we examined the effect of heart rate and behavioral measures of attention on distractibility of 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. The infants were presented with a toy, and a distractor was presented while they attended to the toy. The distractor was presented during heart rate changes indicating sustained attention or attention termination, or during periods of time when behavioral ratings indicated the infant was in focused or casual attention. There were longer distraction latencies during attentional engagement as defined by heart rate changes or behavioral ratings than for periods of inattention. Infants had the longest distraction latencies when heart rate and behavior measures were congruent with respect to attention engagement (heart rate deceleration and focused attention). Conversely, latencies were shortest for congruent values of inattention (heart rate acceleration and casual attention). Infant information processing may be greatest when a heart rate deceleration occurs simultaneously with an episode of focused attention.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

[Attention: a complex cerebral function].

INTRODUCTION: Attention is a brain neurocognitive state of preparing what precedes perception and action, and is a result of cortical and subcortical networks. Attention selectively focuses our consciousness while filtering the constant flow of sensory information, selects competent parallel processing among stimuli and activates brain zones for ordering appropriate responses. DEVELOPMENT: From a neurofunctional point of view this paper reviews and describes attention as a brain function regulated by three interrelated systems: Alertness or arousal providing tonic attention, dependent on the mesencephalic reticular activating system and its connections: posterior attention or attention of perceptive selectivity that depends on zones of the right posterior parietal cortex and its connections; and, anterior attention or supervisory attention that regulates deliberate attention, and supported by zones of the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal cortex and the connections of the zones.

Attention↗
PubMed2001

Attention function and dysfunction in autism.

Impairments of attention are among the most consistently reported cognitive deficits in autism, and they continue to be a key focus of research. This is in no doubt due to the importance of normal attention function to the development of many so-called "higher level" cognitive operations, and to the likely involvement of attention dysfunction in certain clinical features of autism. Autistic individuals display a wide range of attentional abilities and deficits across the many domains of attention function, including selective, sustained, spatial, and shifting attention operations. This unique pattern of attention function and dysfunction has profound implications for the development and treatment of autistic children. The present review will explore this pattern of attentional strengths and weaknesses and the neural defects that underlie them.

Attention↗
PubMed1993

Attention deficits in children and adolescents with hearing loss. A survey.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of reported attention deficits in a sample of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and to examine associated variables. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Residential school for the deaf. PARTICIPANTS: All students attending the school (n = 238; median age, 16.0 years; range, 4 to 21 years). Subjects were subgrouped by cause of deafness for further analyses. INTERVENTION: None. MEASUREMENTS/MAIN RESULTS: School personnel completed questionnaires that are commonly used in the assessment of attention problems. Teachers completed the Attention Deficit Disorder With Hyperactivity (ADD-H) Comprehensive Teacher Rating Scale (ACTeRS) and an abbreviated version of the Attention-Activity section of the ANSER (Aggregate Neurobehavioral Student Health and Education Review) System Questionnaires. Dormitory supervisors rated students on the Conners' Parent Rating Scale and the ANSER System Questionnaires. The mean factor scores for the total sample of deaf and hard-of-hearing students on the Attention and Hyperactivity scales of the ACTeRS and Conners' questionnaires did not differ from the normative data. The 64 students with hereditary deafness received significantly better ratings than the 75 with an acquired cause of deafness such as bacterial meningitis or congenital rubella. Raw scores on the ACTeRS were converted to percentile equivalents based on the normative sample. On the Attention Scale, 38.7% of those with acquired deafness were rated below the 20th percentile (indicative of problems); only 14.1% of the students with hereditary deafness were in this range (P = .002). CONCLUSIONS: Ratings of attention for students with hearing loss, attending a residential school, did not differ from the normative data. However, the subgroup of children with acquired sensorineural deafness appear to be at increased risk for attention problems.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Genetic etiology of stability of attention problems in young adulthood.

Variation in attention problems in children and adolescents from non-clinical samples is highly heritable. It is unknown how attention problems develop later in life and whether the heritability in the general adult population is the same as in children and adolescents. We assessed the heritability and stability of individual differences in attention problems in the general young adult population and explored to what extent the stability can be attributed to genetic or environmental factors. On one or more occasions, young adult twins (age range, 18-30 years, N = 4,245) from the Netherlands Twin Registry filled out the attention problems (AP) subscale of the Young Adult Self-Report [Achenbach, 1997]: in 1991, N = 1,755 (of which 842 complete pairs), in 1995, N = 2,428 (1156 complete pairs) and in 1997, N = 2,344 (958 pairs). There was only a slight decrease in the average level of attention problems during young adulthood. The heritability at each occasion was around 40%. The correlation of attention problems across a period of 6 years was 0.42, and 77% of this correlation could be ascribed to genetic influences. Thus, individual differences in attention problems in young adulthood are heritable, and stability in individual differences over time can largely be ascribed to genetic influences. Genetic correlations across time were high, suggesting that the genes that influence variability in attention problems in late adolescence are largely the same as those that influence variability in early adulthood.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Adaptation of the attention network in human immunodeficiency virus brain injury.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients commonly have attention and concentration problems. However, it remains unclear how HIV infection affects the attention network. Therefore, blood oxygenation level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) was performed in 36 subjects (18 HIV and 18 seronegative [SN] controls) during a set of visual attention tasks with increasing levels of attentional load. Compared with SN controls, HIV subjects showed similar task performance (accuracies and reaction times) but decreased activation in the normal visual attention network (dorsal parietal, bilateral prefrontal, and cerebellar regions) and increased activation in adjacent or contralateral brain regions. Cognitive performance (assessed with NPZ-8), CD4, and viral load all correlated with activated BOLD signals in brain regions that activated more in HIV subjects. Furthermore, HIV subjects activated more than SN controls in brain regions that showed load-dependent increase in activation (right prefrontal and right parietal regions) but less in regions that showed a saturation effect with increasing load. These findings suggest that HIV-associated brain injury leads to reduced efficiency in the normal attention network, thus requiring reorganization and increased usage of neural reserves to maintain performance during attention-requiring tasks. Exceeding the brain reserve capacity may lead to attention deficits and cognitive impairment in HIV patients.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Anatomy of attentional networks.

Attention is a central theme in psychological science. As with other biological systems, attention has a distinct anatomy that carries out basic psychological functions. Disparate attentional networks correlate with discrete neural circuitry and can be influenced by specific brain injuries, states, and drugs. Accordingly, thinking about attention as an organ system is advantageous for understanding the details of this complex cognitive process. In the context of an influential model of attention, this article introduces the broad notion of attention, then addresses its prominent characteristics, mechanisms, and theories. The presentation emphasizes the role of recent neuroimaging data in outlining the functional neuroanatomy subserving distinct attentional networks. A discussion of pertinent results connects attentional networks with self-regulation, development, and rehabilitation training.

Attention↗