Fluctuations In Attention Research Articles

Spiral of Silence: Consumer Attention, Media Emotion, and Pork Price Fluctuations

This study utilized web crawling and text analysis to collect weekly data from July 2018 to March 2022. Using the spiral of silence theoretical framework, it explores the relationship between consumer online attention during sudden animal epidemics and pork price volatility. The research found that consumer online attention, influenced by animal disease outbreaks, significantly intensifies pork price volatility both directly and indirectly through changes in media sentiment and consumer expectations. On the one hand, the sentiment in official media reports partially mediates the relationship between consumer attention and pork price volatility. As consumer attention increases, positive sentiment in official media also rises, exerting an indirect stabilizing effect on pork prices. On the other hand, consumer expectations also have a partial mediating role, and the volume of negative news reports from unofficial media significantly amplifies the impact of consumer attention on pork price volatility. These findings provide valuable insights into the relationship between consumer online attention and market fluctuations in the agricultural sector and offer practical recommendations for enhancing demand-side management strategies.

Pharmacological Management of Sleep-Wake Disturbances in Delirium.

Delirium is a heterogeneous syndrome primarily characterized by fluctuations in attention and awareness. Sleep-wake disturbances are a common and significant feature of delirium and can manifest as circadian rhythm inversion, sleep fragmentation, and reduced rapid eye movement (REM) and slow-wave sleep. Some literature suggests that the relationship between sleep disruption and delirium is reciprocal wherein the two reinforce one another and may share an underlying etiology. As there are no FDA-approved medications for delirium or delirium-related sleep disturbances, management is primarily focused on addressing underlying medical concerns and promoting physiologic circadian patterns with non-pharmacological behavioral interventions. In practice, however, medications are often used, albeit with limited evidence to support their use. This literature review explores the pharmacology and pharmacokinetics of several medications with literature investigating their use in delirium: melatonin, ramelteon, dual orexin receptor antagonists (DORAs), and dexmedetomidine. Current evidence suggests a possible benefit of ramelteon or melatonin, dexmedetomidine for patients in the ICU setting, and DORAs as therapeutic options for the re-regulation of sleep-wake cycle disruption in delirium. We discuss pertinent pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic factors that may influence clinical decision-making regarding these interventions.

Memory augmentation with an adaptive cognitive interface.

What we remember reflects both what we encounter, such as the intrinsic memorability of a stimulus, and our internal attentional state when we encounter that stimulus. Our memories are better for memorable images and images encountered in an engaged attentional state. Here, in an effort to modulate long-term memory performance, we manipulated these factors in combination by selecting the memorability of presented images contingent on individuals' natural fluctuations in sustained attention. Can image memorability and attentional state be strategically combined to improve memory? Are memorable images still well remembered during lapses in sustained attention, and conversely, can attentive states rescue memory performance for forgettable images? We designed a procedure to monitor participants' sustained attention dynamics on the fly via their response time fluctuations during a continuous performance task with trial-unique scene images. When high- or low-attentional states were detected, our algorithm triggered the presentation of high- or low-memorability images. Afterwards, participants completed a surprise recognition memory test for the attention-triggered images. Results demonstrated that memory performance for memorable items is not only resistant to lapses in sustained attention but also that memory cannot be further improved by encoding memorable items in engaged attentional states. On the other hand, memory performance for low-memorability images can be rescued by attentive encoding states. In sum, we show that both memorability and sustained attention can be leveraged in real time to maximize memory performance. This approach suggests that adaptive cognitive interfaces can tailor what information appears when to best support overall memory.

Neuroergonomic Attention Assessment in Safety-Critical Tasks: EEG Indices and Subjective Metrics Validation in a Novel Task-Embedded Reaction Time Paradigm.

Background/Objectives: This study addresses the gap in methodological guidelines for neuroergonomic attention assessment in safety-critical tasks, focusing on validating EEG indices, including the engagement index (EI) and beta/alpha ratio, alongside subjective ratings. Methods: A novel task-embedded reaction time paradigm was developed to evaluate the sensitivity of these metrics to dynamic attentional demands in a more naturalistic multitasking context. By manipulating attention levels through varying secondary tasks in the NASA MATB-II task while maintaining a consistent primary reaction-time task, this study successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the paradigm. Results: Results indicate that both the beta/alpha ratio and EI are sensitive to changes in attentional demands, with beta/alpha being more responsive to dynamic variations in attention, and EI reflecting more the overall effort required to sustain performance, especially in conditions where maintaining attention is challenging. Conclusions: The potential for predicting the attention lapses through integration of performance metrics, EEG measures, and subjective assessments was demonstrated, providing a more nuanced understanding of dynamic fluctuations of attention in multitasking scenarios, mimicking those in real-world safety-critical tasks. These findings provide a foundation for advancing methods to monitor attention fluctuations accurately and mitigate risks in critical scenarios, such as train-driving or automated vehicle operation, where maintaining a high attention level is crucial.

Fluctuations and extreme events in the public attention on Italian legislative elections

The share of social media attention to political candidates was shown to be a good predictor of election outcomes in several studies. This attention to individual candidates fluctuates due to incoming daily news and sometimes reflects long-term trends. By analyzing Twitter data in the 2013 and 2022 election campaign we observe that, on short timescales, the dynamics can be effectively characterized by a mean-reverting diffusion process on a logarithmic scale. This implies that the response to news and the exchange of opinions on Twitter lead to attention fluctuations spanning orders of magnitudes. However, these fluctuations remain centered around certain average levels of popularity, which change slowly in contrast to the rapid daily and hourly variations driven by Twitter trends and news. In particular, on our 2013 data we are able to estimate the dominant timescale of fluctuations at around three hours. Finally, by considering the extreme data points in the tail of the attention variation distribution, we could identify critical events in the electoral campaign period and extract useful information from the flow of data.

The neural bases of fluctuations in shift readiness and sustained attention

The neural bases of fluctuations in shift readiness and sustained attention

Elucidating Fluctuations of Visual Attention: Reaction Time Variability and Mind-Wandering Provide Complementary Insights

Elucidating Fluctuations of Visual Attention: Reaction Time Variability and Mind-Wandering Provide Complementary Insights

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Markers of Attention Fluctuations in Children with Hypersomnolence.

Background. No device is yet available to effectively capture the attentional repercussions of hypersomnolence (HYP). The present study aimed to compare attentional performance of children with HYP, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and controls using behavioral and electrophysiological (EEG) markers, and to assess their relationship with conventional sleepiness measurements. Methods. Children with HYP underwent a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) and completed the adapted Epworth sleepiness scale (AESS). Along with age-matched children with ADHD, they were submitted to a resting EEG followed by the Bron-Lyon Attention Stability Test (BLAST). The control group only performed the BLAST. Multivariate models compared reaction time (RT), error percentage, BLAST-Intensity, BLAST-Stability, theta activity, and theta/beta ratio between groups. Correlations between these measures and conventional sleepiness measurements were conducted in children with HYP. Results. Children with HYP had lower RT and BLAST-Stability than controls but showed no significant difference in BLAST/EEG markers compared to children with ADHD. The AESS was positively correlated with the percentage of errors and negatively with BLAST-Intensity. Conclusions. Children with HYP showed impulsivity and attention fluctuations, without difference from children with ADHD for BLAST/EEG markers. The BLAST-EEG protocol could be relevant for the objective assessment of attentional fluctuations related to hypersomnolence.

Interoceptive attention and mood in daily life: an experience-sampling study.

Theories of emotion ascribe a fundamental role to the processing of bodily signals (interoception) in emotional experience. Despite evidence consistent with this, current knowledge is limited by a focus on interoceptive accuracy and laboratory-based interoception measures. This experience-sampling study examines how state interoceptive attention and state emotional experience are related in everyday life, providing the first data to our knowledge examining: (1) within-subject fluctuations in interoceptive attention across domains, and (2) the relationship between trait and state interoception. Compared with rates of exteroceptive attention (auditory attention: engaged 83% of the time), interoceptive signals captured attention approximately 20% of the time, with substantial within- and between-person variability across domains. There were relationships between interoceptive attention and emotion in daily life (greater attention being associated with more negative valence and fatigue) that were specific to interoceptive attention (different patterns were observed with exteroceptive attention). State measures of interoceptive (but not exteroceptive) attention were correlated with the trait interoceptive attention, but not accuracy. Results underscore the relationship between interoceptive attention and emotion, providing new insights into interoceptive attention and the structure of interoceptive ability. Future research should examine the source(s) of within- and between-person variability in interoceptive and exteroceptive attention and its relationship with emotional experience. This article is part of the theme issue 'Sensing and feeling: an integrative approach to sensory processing and emotional experience'.

STN-PFC circuit related to attentional fluctuations during non-movement decision-making

Decision-making is a cognitive process, in which participants need to attend to relevant information and ignore the irrelevant information. Previous studies have described a set of cortical areas important for attention. It is unclear whether subcortical areas also serve a role. The subthalamic nucleus (STN), a part of basal ganglia, is traditionally considered a critical node in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamus-cortico network. Given the location of the STN and its widespread connections with cortical and subcortical brain regions, the STN plays an important role in motor and non-motor cognitive processing. We would like to know if STN is also related to fluctuations in attentional task performance, and how the STN interacts with prefrontal cortical regions during the process. We examined neural activities within STN covaried with lapses of attention (defined as behavior error). We found that decreased neural activities in STN were associated with sustained attention. By examining connectivity across STN and various sub-regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), we found that decreased connectivity across areas was associated with sustained attention. Our results indicated that decreased STN activities were associated with sustained attention, and the STN-PFC circuit supported this process.

Differences in Attentional Bias Toward e-Cigarette Cues Between e-Cigarette Users and Nonusers.

The use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) has increased rapidly in recent years, particularly among young adults. There is a dearth of research on the cognitive factors that contribute to ENDS use. One of the possible cognitive mechanisms involved with addictive behavior is attentional bias (AB). AB can manifest as either facilitated attention engagement toward or delayed attention disengagement from a relevant stimulus. The purpose of this study was to examine the difference in AB toward ENDS-related cues between ENDS users and non-ENDS users. ENDS users (n = 29) and nonusers (n = 24) between the ages of 18 and 29 years participated in the dot-probe and eye-tracking picture-viewing tasks. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the variance of AB between the two groups. In the eye-tracking task, ENDS users displayed significantly greater net dwell time and fixation time at time frames of 6-9, 9-12, and 12-15 seconds, compared to nonusers. It is noteworthy that ENDS users exhibited attentional fluctuation toward ENDS cues as well as difficulties disengaging attention from ENDS cues. The current findings offer insight into the nature of attentional processes associated with ENDS cues and provide useful data to guide the development of a nurse-led cognitive intervention focusing on biased attentional processing related to ENDS cues.

Informal judgement of delirium status underestimates delirium prevalence: World Delirium Awareness Day point prevalence results from Ireland

Introduction Delirium is an encephalopathy characterized by acute onset, fluctuation, and prominent deficits in attention and alertness, due to one or more physical disorders, interventions or medications. It is associated with increased mortality and morbidity, and with incidence and worsening of dementia; thus, delirium prevention and timely detection and appropriate management are crucial. Objective This study aimed to determine delirium prevalence in Irish clinical sites. Methods The overall study was an observational, cohort study of the point prevalence of delirium (and current delirium practice) in multiple clinical sites on a single day (i.e. World Delirium Awareness Day, March 2023). In this study, the point prevalence of delirium is reported in Irish sites. Results In total, 132 wards from 15 hospitals across Ireland participated in this study, including general medical, surgical and specialised wards, and some long-term care and rehabilitation wards. Overall, 27% of patients on wards which reported using a formal tool had not been assessed for delirium. Delirium prevalence, using a formal assessment tool, was 15.9% overall, with the highest rate in geriatric wards (20.5%). However, on wards where ‘personal judgment’ to detect delirium was utilized, the prevalence rate was 11.5%, implying that delirium may have been under-detected on these wards. Conclusions Delirium screening can quickly rule out delirium or lead to more formal assessment where screening is positive or equivocal. Delirium is prevalent in Irish hospitals and appears to be under-detected unless a formal screening tool is used; equally, delirium screening is not universally applied on wards reporting that they use a formal tool. Together, this indicates that delirium is still under-diagnosed in Irish hospitals.

Slow and steady: Validating the rhythmic visual response task as a marker for attentional states.

A principal goal of attention research is to develop tasks with clear behavioral signatures of attentional fluctuations. Measures that index attentional states oftenfall under two broad umbrellas: decision tasks, in which participants make responses based on the changing requirements of each trial, and rhythm tasks, in which participants respond rhythmically to a uniform stimulus (e.g., a metronome tone). In the former, response speeding typically precedes errors (indicative of attention failures). In the latter, increased response variability precedes subjective reports of off-task states. We developed and validated the rhythmic visual response task (RVRT); a rhythm task incorporating trial-unique scene stimuli. The RVRT incorporates two important advances from both task categories: (1) it is free from the influence that differential decision-making has on fluctuations in attentional states, and (2) trial-unique stimuli enable later cognitive judgments to be mapped to specific moments in the task. These features allow a relatively unobtrusive measure of mind wandering that facilitates the downstream assessment of its consequences. Participants completed 900 trials of the RVRT, interrupted periodically by thought probes that assessed their attentional state. We found that both response time variance and speed predicted depth of mind wandering. Encouraged by these findings, we used the same analysis approach on archival data to demonstrate that the combination of variance and speed best predicted attentional states in several rhythm and decision task datasets. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest future research that uses the RVRT to investigate the impact of spontaneous mind wandering on memory, decision-making, and perception.

From attentional fluctuations to intentional fluctuations? Monitoring behavior and intraindividual variability in time-based prospective memory.

In sharp contrast to event-based prospective memory (PM), dynamics of (re)allocation of attention between the ongoing and PM tasks have been much less investigated in time-based PM tasks. We propose an in-depth examination of attention allocation in a time-based PM task by jointly analyzing multiple indicators of time-monitoring behavior, net and time-structured intraindividual variability (IIV) in ongoing-task reaction times (OT RTs), and task performance. Results from dynamic structural equation modeling in a lifespan sample of 198 adults (19-86 years) revealed that larger fluctuations in OT RTs (net IIV) predicted poorer OT performance, but fostered a more efficient pattern of time-monitoring behavior (i.e., checking a clock more frequently and strategically, and slowing OT RTs during the PM response window) that, in turn, enhanced PM. Conversely, greater inertia in OT RTs (time-structured IIV) led to fewer clock-checks and poorer PM performance. Focusing attention on time monitoring to enhance PM performance did not detrimentally affect OT accuracy. Instead, participants showed a speed-accuracy tradeoff to optimize both OT and PM accuracies by slowing their OT RTs during the PM response window. This study therefore shows that two concomitant aspects of IIV (net and time-structured IIV) not only predicted time-monitoring behavior, but also OT and PM accuracies differentially, hence advocating for the necessity to consider both aspects of IIV and time monitoring together to better understand attention allocation policies in time-based PM tasks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Supplemental Material for From Attentional Fluctuations to Intentional Fluctuations? Monitoring Behavior and Intraindividual Variability in Time-Based Prospective Memory

Supplemental Material for From Attentional Fluctuations to Intentional Fluctuations? Monitoring Behavior and Intraindividual Variability in Time-Based Prospective Memory

The relationship between attentional fluctuation and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use

Attentional bias (AB) has been identified as a cognitive mechanism underlying cigarette use. Recent studies suggest that attentional fluctuation between vigilance and avoidance is an important cognitive deficit related to various psychopathologies. This study aimed to examine the role of AB in cigarette and Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) use in young adults. Results indicated that ENDS users showed greater temporal attentional fluctuation towards ENDS stimuli compared to cigarette users and non-smokers. Attentional fluctuation predicted the ENDS use status. Attentional fluctuation may be a potential risk factor associated with ENDS use among this population.

Oscillatory attention in groove

Attention is not constant but rather fluctuates over time and these attentional fluctuations may prioritize the processing of certain events over others. In music listening, the pleasurable urge to move to music (termed ‘groove’ by music psychologists) offers a particularly convenient case study of oscillatory attention because it engenders synchronous and oscillatory movements which also vary predictably with stimulus complexity. In this study, we simultaneously recorded pupillometry and scalp electroencephalography (EEG) from participants while they listened to drumbeats of varying complexity that they rated in terms of groove afterwards. Using the intertrial phase coherence of the beat frequency, we found that while subjects were listening, their pupil activity became entrained to the beat of the drumbeats and this entrained attention persisted in the EEG even as subjects imagined the drumbeats continuing through subsequent silent periods. This entrainment in both the pupillometry and EEG worsened with increasing rhythmic complexity, indicating poorer sensory precision as the beat became more obscured. Additionally, sustained pupil dilations revealed the expected, inverted U-shaped relationship between rhythmic complexity and groove ratings. Taken together, this work bridges oscillatory attention to rhythmic complexity in relation to musical groove.

Minimally invasive surgical approach in children treated for oesophageal atresia is associated with attention problems at school age: a prospective cohort study

The long-term neurodevelopment of children born with oesophageal atresia (OA) is unclear. Therefore, we assessed the neurocognitive domains and their predictors. Patients born with OA between February 2006 and December 2014, who were routinely seen at eight years as part of a structured prospective longitudinal follow-up program, were included. Main outcome measures were need for school support, performance in various neurocognitive domains and potential predictors of neurocognitive problems. We analysed data of 65 children with a mean (SD) age of 8.1 (0.2) years, of whom 89% with OA type C. Thirty-five (54%) surgical corrections were minimally invasive; the median (interquartile range) duration of exposure to anaesthetics in the first 24 months was 398 (296 – 710) minutes. Forty-four (68%) attended regular education without extra support and intelligence was within normal range (99–108). More than 50% had z-scores ≤ -2 on one or more neurocognitive domains, of which attention was the most frequently affected domain. The speed on the sustained attention task was significantly below normal (z-score -1.48 (2.12), p < .001), as was fluctuation of sustained attention (z-score -3.19 (3.80), p < .001). The minimally invasive approach and a lower socio-economic status (both p = 0.006) proved significant predictors for sustained attention problems in multivariable analyses. Conclusion: Children who undergo minimally invasive surgery for OA correction are at risk for sustained attention problems at school age. Future studies unravelling the effects of perioperative events on neurodevelopment should lead to optimal surgical, anaesthesiological, and intensive care management in the neonatal period.What is Known:• School-aged children born with oesophageal atresia have normal intelligence but problems with sustained attention at eight years.What is New:• Oesophageal atresia patients, who undergo minimally invasive surgery or who have a background of lower socioeconomic status are at serious risk for sustained attention problems at school age.• Moreover, those who have been intubated for a longer period are at risk for stronger fluctuations in sustained attention.

Edge-Based General Linear Models Capture Moment-to-Moment Fluctuations in Attention.

Although we must prioritize the processing of task-relevant information to navigate life, our ability to do so fluctuates across time. Previous work has identified fMRI functional connectivity (FC) networks that predict an individual's ability to sustain attention and vary with attentional state from 1 min to the next. However, traditional dynamic FC approaches typically lack the temporal precision to capture moment-to-moment network fluctuations. Recently, researchers have "unfurled" traditional FC matrices in "edge cofluctuation time series" which measure timepoint-by-timepoint cofluctuations between regions. Here we apply event-based and parametric fMRI analyses to edge time series to capture moment-to-moment fluctuations in networks related to attention. In two independent fMRI datasets examining young adults of both sexes in which participants performed a sustained attention task, we identified a reliable set of edges that rapidly deflects in response to rare task events. Another set of edges varies with continuous fluctuations in attention and overlaps with a previously defined set of edges associated with individual differences in sustained attention. Demonstrating that edge-based analyses are not simply redundant with traditional regions-of-interest-based approaches, up to one-third of reliably deflected edges were not predicted from univariate activity patterns alone. These results reveal the large potential in combining traditional fMRI analyses with edge time series to identify rapid reconfigurations in networks across the brain.

Naturalistic assessment of reaction time variability in older adults at risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Maintaining attention underlies many aspects of cognition and becomes compromised early in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD). The consistency of maintaining attention can be measured with reaction time (RT) variability. Previous work has focused on measuring such fluctuations during in-clinic testing, but recent developments in remote, smartphone-based cognitive assessments can allow one to test if these fluctuations in attention are evident in naturalistic settings and if they are sensitive to traditional clinical and cognitive markers of AD. Three hundred and seventy older adults (aged 75.8 +/- 5.8 years) completed a week of remote daily testing on the Ambulatory Research in Cognition (ARC) smartphone platform and also completed clinical, genetic, and conventional in-clinic cognitive assessments. RT variability was assessed in a brief (20-40 seconds) processing speed task using two different measures of variability, the Coefficient of Variation (CoV) and the Root Mean Squared Successive Difference (RMSSD) of RTs on correct trials. Symptomatic participants showed greater variability compared to cognitively normal participants. When restricted to cognitively normal participants, APOE ε4 carriers exhibited greater variability than noncarriers. Both CoV and RMSSD showed significant, and similar, correlations with several in-clinic cognitive composites. Finally, both RT variability measures significantly mediated the relationship between APOE ε4 status and several in-clinic cognition composites. Attentional fluctuations over 20-40 seconds assessed in daily life, are sensitive to clinical status and genetic risk for AD. RT variability appears to be an important predictor of cognitive deficits during the preclinical disease stage.