Attention In Young Adults Research Articles

The Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Visuospatial Attention in Young Adults.

Our objective in this study was to investigate the effect of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on visuospatial attention bias. We examined line bisection performance at rest before exercise and then immediately after exercise in 20 young adults. Pre-exercise, there was a larger leftward bias in subjective midpoint judgment of all participants than post-exercise (p < .001). Thus, leftward error magnitude decreased according to aerobic exercise, as there were rightward shifts after the exercise. The participants' performancse were modulated by the hand used to perform manual bisection tasks (p < .02). Participants erred to the left of the true midpoint with the non-dominant hand and to the right of the true midpoint with the dominant hand. The use of the non-dominant hand led to greater leftward error than the errors obtained using the dominant hand, though there was no interaction effect between hand use and effort. These findings suggest that moderate aerobic exercise can benefit visuospatial attention in adults.

The effects of binge drinking on attention in young adults

IntroductionAlcohol binge drinking is highly prevalent among young adults. While research has established the neurotoxic effects of general alcohol consumption, binge drinking presents unique deleterious effects on the brain through the acute intoxication and withdrawal cycle. The detrimental impacts of binge drinking have been reported across a broad range of cognitive abilities in young adults, however, the research regarding its relationship to attention is mixed. This study investigates the relationship between binge drinking and attention performance in young adults. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that males and females are uniquely impacted by the neurotoxic effects of binge drinking, so the present study tests the moderating role of sex, as well as the influence of earlier age of binge drinking onset.MethodsOne-hundred and five university students were recruited for the study. After collecting socio-demographic, and alcohol use information, participants completed four cognitive tasks designed to measure the three attention networks according to the Attention Network Theory; alerting, orienting, and executive control. Linear hierarchical regressions were used to predict performance with binge drinking score, sex and age of first binge drinking session as predictors.ResultsBinge drinking, sex, and age of first binge drinking session did not predict attention impairment, nor did sex moderate the relationship, at least in the selected cognitive tasks. The tasks used to measure attention did not relate in the expected manner.DiscussionWhile there were no differences in attention performance between those who binge drink and controls in this study, the relationship between binge drinking and attention impairments in young adults may be more nuanced and future research directions are suggested. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Action Video Gaming and Attention in Young Adults: A Systematic Review

Objective: Existing research in action video games has increased in recent years due to the expansion of their use all over the world. Specifically, there is growing evidence about the positive development of the cognitive functions associated with the use of this kind of video game. Therefore, this work aims to explore the relationship between playing action video games and the development of attention span as well as the impact at the brain level from a functional perspective. Methods: Articles were searched in Scopus, Pubmed, and Web of Science. A total of 196 studies were retrieved, among which 13 studies were systematically reviewed. Results: The review has shown that playing action video games can improve cognitive functions, including attention, with reaction time and processing speed being the aspects that would most benefit from such practice, as well as the development of focused, sustained, and divided attention. Also, there are functional brain changes. Conclusion: It is necessary to deepen the understanding of the association between playing action video games and the development of attention.

Negative Impacts of Sleep-Wake Rhythm Disturbances on Attention in Young Adults.

Sleep-wake rhythm disturbances have a negative impact on attention. However, how it affects attention and whether the restoration of regular rhythms can restore attention are unclear. This study aims to explore the effects of sleep-wake rhythm disturbances on three subfunctions of attention (alertness, orientation, and executive control) and the restoration of regular rhythms on these functions. Twenty-one participants in the experimental group (who experienced sleep-wake rhythm disturbances for at least one month; aged 18-26) were required to sleep regularly following a sleep schedule, whereas 20 participants in the control group (who maintained regular sleep for at least three months; aged 19-22) received no manipulation of their sleep. All participants were assessed using the attention network test three times in six days. All of them wore spectrum activity monitors and kept sleep diaries every day. The results showed that the effects of alertness and executive control in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group. After five days of regular sleep, the difference in the alertness effect between the two groups significantly decreased. These results suggested that under natural conditions, sleep-wake rhythm disturbances could negatively influence alertness and executive control, and a short period of restoring a regular rhythm has a recovery effect on alertness.

Physiological Effects of Single Bout of Moderate and High Intensity Interval Exercise on Selective Attention in Young Adults

Physiological Effects of Single Bout of Moderate and High Intensity Interval Exercise on Selective Attention in Young Adults

Electrocortical correlates of the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and sustained attention in young adults

Cardiorespiratory fitness is thought to be positively related to sustained attention. However, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship have yet to be fully elucidated. The objective of this study was to i) explore the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and sustained attention in 72 young adults (18–37 years old) and ii) provide insight on the electrocortical dynamics supporting sustained attention performance in individuals differing in cardiorespiratory fitness by means of EEG topographic analyses and source localization. Behaviorally, cardiorespiratory fitness was related to faster response times and higher accuracy in the psychomotor vigilance task even when adjusting the model with confounding variables such as age, body mass index and chronic physical activity. However, there was no relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and the classic vigilance decrement observed in the sustained attention task. At the electrocortical level, higher cardiorespiratory fitness was related to increased global field power (310–333 ms poststimulus) localized in the posterior cingulate cortex (BA 30) followed by changes in scalp topographies around the P3b ERP component (413–501 ms poststimulus), which corresponded to earlier activation of the supplementary motor areas (BA 6). This is the first study using high-density EEG, which harnesses the whole spatiotemporal dynamics of the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and sustained attention in young adults.

Effects of Physical Activity Level on Attentional Networks in Young Adults.

Although physical activity is associated with better attentional functioning in elderly populations or in specific clinical populations, the association between physical activity level and attention has been less studied in young adult populations. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the positive effects of physical activity on attentional networks extend to young adults. In total, 57 college students were recruited and assigned to one of three groups of physical activity levels (high, moderate, and low) based on their self-reported exercise. Each participant completed the Attention Network Test to evaluate the efficiency of three components of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. Compared with the low physical activity group, both the high and moderate physical activity groups exhibited better executive control. In addition, the efficiency of the executive control network was positively correlated with physical activity. By contrast, no statistically significant differences were detected among these three groups for the functioning of the alerting or orienting networks. These findings suggested that physical activity had a positive effect on attention in young adults, with the benefit primarily observed for the executive control component rather than for the alerting and orienting components of attention.

Moderate Intensity Cycling Combined with Cognitive Dual-task Improves Selective Attention.

Physical and cognitive exercises have positive long-term effects on cognitive capacities. However, acute effects still are controversial. Here we determine the acute effects of physical exercise combined with concurrent cognitive exercise on cognitive performance in young adults. Simple reaction time, selective attention, and memory were evaluated in 23 young men before and after 30 min of stationary cycling exercise, 30 min of stationary cycling exercise combined with cognitive exercise, and 30 min of rest. Exercise intensity was continuously controlled to ensure exercise at moderate intensity. We found that physical exercise combined with cognitive dual-task improves selective attention. Both exercise conditions showed similar effects on simple reaction time, and memory was not affected by the different exercise conditions. We conclude that the combination of cycling exercise at moderate intensity with a cognitive exercise acutely improves selective attention in young adults. These results can be of particular interest for interventions aiming at improving selective attention in sports and for older adults and individuals with difficulty to suppress and filter out task-irrelevant information, like when receiving instruction or learning a new task or concept.

Impact of Long-Rope Jumping on Monoamine and Attention in Young Adults.

Previous research has shown that rope jumping improves physical health; however, little is known about its impact on brain-derived monoamine neurotransmitters associated with cognitive regulation. To address these gaps in the literature, the present study compared outcomes between 15 healthy participants (mean age, 23.1 years) after a long-rope jumping exercise and a control condition. Long-rope jumping also requires co-operation between people, attention, spatial cognition, and rhythm sensation. Psychological questionnaires were administered to both conditions, and Stroop task performance and monoamine metabolite levels in the saliva and urine were evaluated. Participants performing the exercise exhibited lower anxiety levels than those in the control condition. Saliva analyses showed higher 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol (a norepinephrine metabolite) levels, and urine analyses revealed higher 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (a serotonin metabolite) levels in the exercise condition than in the control. Importantly, urinary 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid level correlated with salivary and urinary 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol levels in the exercise condition. Furthermore, cognitive results revealed higher Stroop performance in the exercise condition than in the control condition; this performance correlated with salivary 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol levels. These results indicate an association between increased 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenylglycol and attention in long-rope jumping. We suggest that long-rope jumping predicts central norepinephrinergic activation and related attention maintenance.

Alcohol use severity and the neural correlates of the effects of sleep disturbance on sustained visual attention

Alcohol misuse is associated with sleep disturbance and cognitive dysfunction. However, the neural processes inter-relating the severity of alcohol use, sleep disturbance and cognitive performance remain under-investigated. We addressed this issue with a dataset of 964 subjects (504 women) curated from the Human Connectome Project. Participants were assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and fMRI while identifying relational dimension pictures and matching dimension pictures (as a control) in alternating blocks. Imaging data were analyzed with published routines and the results were evaluated at a corrected threshold. Subjects showed lower accuracy rate and longer reaction time (RT) in relational than control blocks. The difference in RT between the two blocks (RTRel-Con) was driven primarily by the RT and correlated positively with performance accuracy of relational trials, suggesting that a more cautious response (i.e., longer RTRel-Con) improved accuracy. The severity of alcohol use, identified from principal component analysis of drinking metrics, was positively correlated with sleep disturbance. Further, whole-brain regression identified activity of the superior colliculus (SC) during relational vs. control blocks in positive and negative correlation with RTRel-Con and PSQI score, respectively. Mediation and path analyses demonstrated a significant model: more severe alcohol use → greater sleep disturbance → diminished SC activity → impaired performance. These findings support the influences of alcohol misuse on sleep and suggest neural correlates that mediate the relationship between sleep disturbance and altered sustained attention in young adults.

P 61. Effects of acute normobaric hypoxia on memory and attention in young adults

Objective. An increasing number of sea-level residents takes part in alpine sports such as trekking or skiing. This has inspired a growing research interest on the effects of high altitude and hypoxic conditions on cognition. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of an acute normobaric hypoxia intervention (90 minutes) on cognition in healthy young adults. Methods . Twenty-five healthy, high-altitude-naive adults (25,8 ± 3,3 years; 15 females) were analysed in a randomized cross-over study. Participants received one acute normobaric hypoxic and one normobaric normoxic intervention separated by at least 2 weeks. Heart frequency and saturation of arterial blood oxygenation (SaO2) were continuously monitored while participants lay down for 120 minutes. After 30 minutes, either normobaric hypoxia (SaO2 of 80-85%) or normobaric normoxia was applied for the following 90 minutes. Cognitive parameters related to working memory and sustained attention (d2-Test, N-Back and Digit Span Test) were collected before and after each intervention session. Results . Normobaric hypoxia led to a significant decrease of SaO2 compared to normobaric normoxia (82,7 ± 4,3% vs. 98,1 ± 0,5%, p < .001). Regarding cognitive parameters, no significant time × group interactions were observed. Post hoc t-tests revealed a significant improvement in the d2-Test in both groups. Conclusion . In contrast to previous studies (Malle et al., 2013; Pilmanis, Balldin & Fischer, 2016; Ochi et al., 2018) our results indicate that acute normobaric hypoxia has no effects on working memory and sustained attention. One potential explanation for the absence of effects is the short duration and/or the rather high O2 concentration of the hypoxic condition. In this regard, Ochi et al. have found dose-dependent effects of hypoxia on cognition with the most pronounced results under the severe condition (5000 m). Future studies are needed that investigate dose-response mechanisms of acute hypoxia on cognition.

Investigating attention in young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using change blindness and eye tracking

BackgroundSocial interaction at its core entails allocating attention to relevant stimuli. As such, the perception of change requires attention, but studies have suggested that the social impairment in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) occurs at the attentual level of "on-line" social cognition. MethodForty-four young adults—22 with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 22 with typical development (TD)—participated in two experiments. The first used a change blindness (CB) paradigm where attention was investigated through the detection of changed items with central and marginal levels of interest when viewing images of everyday scenarios. Eye-tracking was used to compare response times, first fixations and total fixation time on changes. The second used social films with eye tracking of gaze fixations. ResultsParticipants with ASD were slower in response time and first fixation than were participants with TD. Participants with TD showed longer fixation on items with marginal (compared to central) levels of interest. The social-film experiment showed that participants with ASD were slower to orient their gazes towards the characters’ faces and looked at speaking characters for less time than did the group with TD. This result correlates with less use of mental verbs in their narratives and less time spent looking at marginal items in the CB experiment. ConclusionsResults suggest reduced processing speed in young adults with ASD, which is associated with enhanced processing of local details. Clinically, these results imply that teaching strategies (e.g., cognitive cues) to process social context efficiently could benefit individuals with ASD.

The Effect of Tactile Training on Sustained Attention in Young Adults.

Sustained attention is crucial for higher-order cognition and real-world activities. The idea that tactile training improves sustained attention is appealing and has clinical significance. The aim of this study was to explore whether tactile training could improve visual sustained attention. Using 128-channel electroencephalography (EEG), we found that participants with tactile training outperformed non-trainees in the accuracy and calculation efficiency measured by the Math task. Furthermore, trainees demonstrated significantly decreased omission error measured by the sustained attention to response task (SART). We also found that the improvements in behavioral performance were associated with parietal P300 amplitude enhancements. EEG source imaging analyses revealed stronger brain activation among the trainees in the prefrontal and sensorimotor regions at P300. These results suggest that the tactile training can improve sustained attention in young adults, and the improved sustained attention following training may be due to more effective attentional resources allocation. Our findings also indicate the use of a noninvasive tactile training paradigm to improve cognitive functions (e.g., sustained attention) in young adults, potentially leading to new training and rehabilitative protocols.

Bilingualism modifies disengagement of attention networks across the scalp: A multivariate ERP investigation of the IOR paradigm

A recent approach to explaining the domain-general cognitive outcomes of bilingualism is to consider the role of disengagement of attention, rather than the engagement of focused attention or inhibition as typical in most accounts. The present study pursues this approach by examining the neurophysiological changes associated with disengagement of attention in young adults performing an inhibition of return (IOR) paradigm while EEG was recorded. Participants were drawn from a diverse community and varied widely in their bilingual experience. There were three main findings. First, dividing the sample into dichotomous groups based on language proficiency did not lead to reliable group differences on the task. Second, using instead continuous measures of bilingualism across the sample indicated that greater bilingual experience and proficiency were associated with the magnitude of the IOR effect, with more bilingual individuals showing larger and earlier IOR effects. Finally, a network of processes that are temporally and spatially distinct were found to work together to produce facilitation, disengagement of attention, and inhibition of return. These findings contribute to debates regarding the electrophysiological correlates of the IOR effect and provide additional evidence for how bilingualism affects domain-general cognition.

The Effect of Eye-Feedback Training on Orienting Attention in Young Adults With Sluggish Cognitive Tempo.

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is a kind of attentional symptoms characterized by symptoms of slowness in behavior or in thinking. The aim of the present study was to develop a preliminary attention training program based on real-time eye-gaze feedback using an eye-tracker. A total of 38 participants with SCT were randomly assigned to one of following two conditions: eye-feedback (N = 19; Mean Age = 21.21; range 18–26) or control (N = 19; Mean Age = 20.68; range 18–25). The participants in the eye-feedback condition received three repeated trainings on the modified version of the Posner's spatial cueing test; we also used real-time constant eye-gaze feedback designed to lead the participants to quickly and accurately engage and to disengage, with pre- and post- measurement of eye-movements (overt attention) and the revised attention network test (ANT-R; covert attention). The participants in the control condition received three repeated same trainings without any feedback, with pre- and post-measurement of eye-movements measure and ANT-R. The results revealed that the eye-feedback group showed a greater improvement in engaging and disengaging attention through the overt attention measure than the control group. The eye-feedback group also showed a greater increase only in the orienting network related to disengaging attention in the covert attention measure compared to the control group. These results suggested that the eye-feedback can be meaningfully used in attention training to enhance the efficiency of attention in clinical settings.

Impairments to Thermoregulation in the Elderly During Heat Exposure Events.

Heat waves represent a public health risk to elderly people, and typically result in an increased rate of hospital admissions and deaths. Studies of thermoregulation in this cohort have generally focused on single elements such as sweating capacity. Sweating capacity and skin blood flow reduce with age, reducing ability to dissipate heat. Perception of effort during heat exposure is emerging as an area that needs further investigation as the elderly appear to lack the ability to adequately perceive increased physiological strain during heat exposure. The role of the gut and endotoxemia in heat stress has received attention in young adults, while the elderly population has been neglected. This shortcoming offers another potential avenue for identifying effective integrated health interventions to reduce heat illnesses. Increasing numbers of elderly individuals in populations worldwide are likely to increase the incidence of heat wave-induced deaths if adequate interventions are not developed, evaluated, and implemented. In this narrative-style review we identify and discuss health-related interventions for reducing the impact of heat illnesses in the elderly.

Personalized Phone App for Meditation Improves Attention in Young Adults

People's complaints of poor attention and focus have increased with the distracting complexity of modern life. In a 6-week, randomized, controlled

Sport Experience and Physical Activity: Event-Related Brain Potential and Task Performance Indices of Attention in Young Adults.

A growing body of literature demonstrates that engaging in sport regularly and maintaining an active lifestyle have a positive impact on cognition. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of sport experiences and physical activity on attention, and explore whether the type of sport can impact differently on the neuroelectric system using Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). Thirty-three young adults (mean age = 19.72 ± 1.25) were divided according to their sport experience into swimmers, karateka, and irregular exercisers. Participants performed auditory oddball tasks, while measures of task performance and ERPs were collected. The results indicated that exercisers, regardless of their sport experience, exhibited a larger and shorter P3 compared to irregular exercisers. However, no significant difference was observed in the reaction time (RT) between groups. No statistically significant differences in the RT and P3 were present between swimmers and karateka. These findings suggest that sport experiences, regardless of the type, are associated with a larger amount of neural attentional resources and faster stimulus evaluation speed. The results replicate previous studies that have reported improved cognitive functions in more active individuals. They further extended the current knowledge by indicating that both swimming and karate influence attention and do not differentially alter the brain response.

Closed-loop digital meditation improves sustained attention in young adults.

Attention is a fundamental cognitive process that is critical for essentially all aspects of higher-order cognition and real-world activities. Younger generations have deeply embraced information technology and multitasking in their personal lives, school, and the workplace, creating myriad challenges to their attention. While improving sustained attention in healthy young adults would be beneficial, enhancing this ability has proven notoriously difficult in this age group. Here we show that six-weeks of engagement with a meditation-inspired, closed-loop software program (MediTrain) delivered on mobile devices led to gains in both sustained attention and working memory in healthy young adults (n = 22). These improvements were associated with positive changes in key neural signatures of attentional control (frontal theta inter-trial coherence and parietal P3b latency), as measured by electroencephalography. Our findings suggest the utility of delivering aspects of the ancient practice of focused-attention meditation in a modern, technology-based approach and its benefits on enhancing sustained attention.

Increased Functional Brain Network Efficiency During Audiovisual Temporal Asynchrony Integration Task in Aging.

Audiovisual integration significantly changes over the lifespan, but age-related functional connectivity in audiovisual temporal asynchrony integration tasks remains underexplored. In the present study, electroencephalograms (EEGs) of 27 young adults (22–25 years) and 25 old adults (61–76 years) were recorded during an audiovisual temporal asynchrony integration task with seven conditions [auditory (A), visual (V), AV, A50V, A100V, V50A and V100A]. We calculated the phase lag index (PLI)-weighted connectivity networks modulated by the audiovisual tasks and found that the PLI connections showed obvious dynamic changes after stimulus onset. In the theta (4–7 Hz) and alpha (8–13 Hz) bands, the AV and V50A conditions induced stronger functional connections and higher global and local efficiencies, reflecting a stronger audiovisual integration effect, which was attributed to the auditory information arriving at the primary auditory cortex earlier than the visual information reaching the primary visual cortex. Importantly, the functional connectivity and network efficiencies of old adults revealed higher global and local efficiencies and higher degree in both the theta and alpha bands. These larger network efficiencies indicated that old adults might experience more difficulties in attention and cognitive control during the audiovisual integration task with temporal asynchrony than young adults. There were significant associations between network efficiencies and peak time of integration only in young adults. We propose that an audiovisual task with multiple conditions might arouse the appropriate attention in young adults but would lead to a ceiling effect in old adults. Our findings provide new insights into the network topography of old adults during audiovisual integration and highlight higher functional connectivity and network efficiencies due to greater cognitive demand.