Maintenance Of Attention Research Articles

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.

Spatial attention in children with perinatal stroke

Spatial neglect is a common feature of right hemisphere damage in adults, but less is known about spatial inattention following early brain damage. We used a Posner-based cueing task to examine hemispatial neglect and aspects of attention in children with perinatal stroke in either left (LH) or right hemisphere (RH) and controls. A visual perception task assessed the speed of visual perception. A spatial attention cueing task (the E-task) measured the ability to discriminate the direction of a target stimulus (“E”), when presented on the left or right side of the screen. This task provided indices of performance for attention orienting, disengagement and reorienting. Children with LH lesions had slowed visual perception compared to controls. Children with RH lesions did not demonstrate similar deficits. On the E-task, groups with both LH and RH lesions demonstrated lower accuracy on both left and right sides compared to controls. Children with LH lesions also showed impaired attention orienting and disengagement on left and right sides compared to controls, while children with RH lesions were most impaired in orienting and disengagement on their contralesional side. Children with LH lesions demonstrated more extensive attentional deficits than children with RH lesions. These results suggest that development of spatial attention may require different neural networks than maintenance of attention.

Joint Attention in the Context of Hearing Loss: A Meta-Analysis and Narrative Synthesis.

Joint attention is important for children's language development. We report two meta-analyses that demonstrate that the congruency in hearing status between parent and child affects the establishment and maintenance of joint attention. Dyads consisting of hearing parents and children with hearing loss, achieve fewer and briefer moments of joint attention in comparison to dyads of hearing parents and hearing children and dyads of deaf parents and deaf children. The theoretical and practical implications of these differences are discussed and placed in the context of two narrative syntheses. The first one focusing on parental strategies used to achieve and maintain moments of joint attention and the second one on the relation between joint attention and spoken language proficiency. We also expect that this review may serve as the start of quest towards a more detailed description (taxonomy) and operationalization of joint attention in the context of hearing loss.

Attentional processing biases to threat in schizophrenia: Evidence from a free-viewing task with emotional scenes

Attentional biases to threatening stimuli have been suggested to play a key role in the onset and course of schizophrenia. However, current research has not completely demonstrated this assumption. The aim of this eye-tracking study was to shed light on the underlying psychological mechanisms of schizophrenia by examining the attentional processing of socio-emotional information. Forty-four individuals with schizophrenia and 47 healthy controls were assessed in a 3-s free-viewing task with a social scene (i.e., happy, threatening, or neutral) in competition with a non-social one to determine the effects of emotional information on the different stages of the attentional processing. The location and latency of initial fixations (i.e., initial orienting), the firs-pass fixations and gaze duration (i.e., attentional engagement), and the percentage of total duration and total fixations (i.e., attentional maintenance) were analyzed. It was found that the schizophrenia group showed longer first-pass gaze duration, as well as higher percentage of total fixations and total duration toward threatening scenes in relation to the non-social ones, compared to controls. Therefore, an attentional bias toward threatening scenes in schizophrenia was found in the attentional maintenance and engagement, but not in the initial orienting of attention. Of note, the threat-related attentional bias was not associated with positive symptoms of schizophrenia. These findings offer empirical support to affective-information processing models stating that threatening information may confer psychological vulnerability to develop schizophrenia. Moreover, the results can improve psychological treatments, such as attentional bias modification paradigms or cognitive-behavior interventions managing maladaptive schemas related to threat.

Biased Maintenance of Attention on Sad Faces in Clinically Depressed Youth: An Eye-Tracking Study

The role of negative attention biases (AB), central to cognitive models of adult depression, is yet unclear in youth depression. We investigated negative AB in depressed compared to healthy youth and tested whether AB are more pronounced in depressed than at-risk youth. Negative AB was assessed for sad and angry faces with an eye-tracking paradigm [Passive Viewing Task (PVT)] and a behavioural task [Visual Search Task (VST)], comparing three groups of 9–14-year-olds: youth with major depression (MD; n = 32), youth with depressed parents (high-risk; HR; n = 49) and youth with healthy parents (low-risk; LR; n = 42). The PVT revealed MD participants to maintain attention longer on sad faces compared to HR, but not LR participants. This AB correlated positively with depressive symptoms. The VST revealed no group differences. Our results provide preliminary evidence for a negative AB in maintenance of attention on disorder-specific emotional information in depressed compared to at-risk youth.

Is Attentional Maintenance the Problem (or something else) with Hazard Statement Compliance? An Experimental Investigation Using Eye-Tracking Technology

Is Attentional Maintenance the Problem (or something else) with Hazard Statement Compliance? An Experimental Investigation Using Eye-Tracking Technology

Zero gravity induced by parabolic flight enhances automatic capture and weakens voluntary maintenance of visuospatial attention

Orienting attention in the space around us is a fundamental prerequisite for willed actions. On Earth, at 1 g, orienting attention requires the integration of vestibular signals and vision, although the specific vestibular contribution to voluntary and automatic components of visuospatial attention remains largely unknown. Here, we show that unweighting of the otolith organ in zero gravity during parabolic flight, selectively enhances stimulus-driven capture of automatic visuospatial attention, while weakening voluntary maintenance of covert attention. These findings, besides advancing our comprehension of the basic influence of the vestibular function on voluntary and automatic components of visuospatial attention, may have operational implications for the identification of effective countermeasures to be applied in forthcoming human deep space exploration and habitation, and on Earth, for patients’ rehabilitation.

Common cortical areas have different neural mechanisms for covert and overt visual pursuits

Although humans can direct their attention to visual targets with or without eye movements, it remains unclear how different brain mechanisms control visual attention and eye movements together and/or separately. Here, we measured MEG and fMRI data during covert/overt visual pursuit tasks and estimated cortical currents using our previously developed extra-dipole, hierarchical Bayesian method. Then, we predicted the time series of target positions and velocities from the estimated cortical currents of each task using a sparse machine-learning algorithm. The predicted target positions/velocities had high temporal correlations with actual visual target kinetics. Additionally, we investigated the generalization ability of predictive models among three conditions: control, covert, and overt pursuit tasks. When training and testing data were the same tasks, the largest reconstructed accuracies were overt, followed by covert and control, in that order. When training and testing data were selected from different tasks, accuracies were in reverse order. These results are well explained by the assumption that predictive models consist of combinations of three computational brain functions: visual information-processing, maintenance of attention, and eye-movement control. Our results indicate that separate subsets of neurons in the same cortical regions control visual attention and eye movements differently.

Temporal instability in brain activation: a novel paradigm for evaluating the maintenance of attention among substance dependent patients.

Prior studies have demonstrated statistically significant but subtle differences in brain function between patients with a history of substance dependence (SD) and control groups. The goal of the present study was to show that variability in brain activation over the trials of a cognitive task is more useful for revealing the putative impact of SD than analyses focusing on the amplitude of activation averaged over trials. The study also tested the additional contribution of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)-a prevalent comorbidity that promotes both an early onset and more severe course of SD. Two hundred eleven adults performed two selective attention tasks while P300 event-related electroencephalographic potentials were recorded. They were assigned to one of 3 mutually exclusive groups: no lifetime history of SD or ASPD (n = 67), a SD history but no ASPD (n = 68), or both SD and ASPD (n = 76). The major finding was a statistically significant elevation of P300 amplitude inter-trial variability (ITV) in the SD plus ASPD group in comparison to the group with neither attribute. The elevation was detected during both selective attention tasks and most prominent at electrodes sites located over the frontal brain. There were no group differences in P300 amplitude averaged over trials. We conclude from these findings that the ITV of P300 amplitude is an efficient and sensitive biomarker of the maintenance of attention. It is valuable for revealing group differences associated with substance dependence and ASPD. It may ultimately be valuable for detecting improvements resulting from psychostimulant treatment or other interventions, including cognitive remediation.

Heightened Hippocampal β-Adrenergic Receptor Function Drives Synaptic Potentiation and Supports Learning and Memory in the TgF344-AD Rat Model during Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease.

The central noradrenergic (NA) system is critical for the maintenance of attention, behavioral flexibility, spatial navigation, and learning and memory, those cognitive functions lost first in early Alzheimer's disease (AD). In fact, the locus coeruleus (LC), the sole source of norepinephrine (NE) for >90% of the brain, is the first site of pathologic tau accumulation in human AD with axon loss throughout forebrain, including hippocampus. The dentate gyrus is heavily innervated by LC-NA axons, where released NE acts on β-adrenergic receptors (ARs) at excitatory synapses from entorhinal cortex to facilitate long-term synaptic plasticity and memory formation. These synapses experience dysfunction in early AD before cognitive impairment. In the TgF344-AD rat model of AD, degeneration of LC-NA axons in hippocampus recapitulates human AD, providing a preclinical model to investigate synaptic and behavioral consequences. Using immunohistochemistry, Western blot analysis, and brain slice electrophysiology in 6- to 9-month-old wild-type and TgF344-AD rats, we discovered that the loss of LC-NA axons coincides with the heightened β-AR function at medial perforant path-dentate granule cell synapses that is responsible for the increase in LTP magnitude at these synapses. Furthermore, novel object recognition is facilitated in TgF344-AD rats that requires β-ARs, and pharmacological blockade of β-ARs unmasks a deficit in extinction learning only in TgF344-AD rats, indicating a greater reliance on β-ARs in both behaviors. Thus, a compensatory increase in β-AR function during prodromal AD in TgF344-AD rats heightens synaptic plasticity and preserves some forms of learning and memory.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The locus coeruleus (LC), a brain region located in the brainstem which is responsible for attention and arousal, is damaged first by Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. The LC sends axons to hippocampus where released norepinephrine (NE) modulates synaptic function required for learning and memory. How degeneration of LC axons and loss of NE in hippocampus in early AD impacts synaptic function and learning and memory is not well understood despite the importance of LC in cognitive function. We used a transgenic AD rat model with LC axon degeneration mimicking human AD and found that heightened function of β-adrenergic receptors in the dentate gyrus increased synaptic plasticity and preserved learning and memory in early stages of the disease.

An eye-tracking study for measuring the attentional characteristics towards emotional scenes in children with autism spectrum condition

IntroductionThe difficulties in social interaction present in individuals with autism spectrum conditions may are related with the abnormal attentional processing of emotional information. Specifically, it has been hypothesized that the hypersensibility to threat shown by individuals with autism may explain an avoidance behaviour. However, this hypothesis is not supported by research and the underlying psychological mechanisms of social interaction in autism still unclear.ObjectivesThe aim of the present study was to examine attentional processing biases by administering a computer-based attentional task in a sample of 27 children with autism spectrum conditions and 25 typically developed participants (age 11-15 years).MethodsThe initial orienting of attention, the attention al engagement, and the attentional maintenance to different emotional scenes in competition (i.e. happy, neutral, threatening and sad) were measured by recording the eye movements during a 20 seconds free-viewing task.Results The main findings were: i) children with autism spectrum conditions showed an initial orientating bias towards threatening stimuli; and ii) while typically developed children revealed an attentional engagement and attentional maintenance bias towards threatening stimuli, children with autism spectrum conditions did not.ConclusionsThe findings of the present study are consistent with the affective information processing theories and shed light on the underlying mechanisms of social disturbances in autism spectrum conditions.

Attentional biases to emotional scenes in schizophrenia: An eye-tracking study

Attentional biases to emotional information may play a key role in the onset and course of schizophrenia. The aim of this experiment was to examine the attentional processing of four emotional scenes in competition (happy, neutral, sad, threatening) in 53 patients with schizophrenia and 51 controls. The eye movements were recorded in a 20-seconds free-viewing task. The results were: (i) patients showed increased attention on threatening scenes, compared to controls, in terms of attentional engagement and maintenance; (ii) patients payed less attention to happy scenes than controls, in terms of attentional maintenance; (iii) whereas positive symptoms were associated with a late avoidance of sad scenes, negative symptoms were associated with heightened attention to threat. The findings suggest that a threat-related bias and a lack of sensitivity to positive information may represent an underlying psychological mechanism of schizophrenia. Importantly, schizophrenia symptoms modulated the attentional biases, which has aetiological and therapeutic implications.

Initial orientation vs maintenance of attention: Relationship with the severity of dependence and therapeutic outcome in a sample of cocaine use disorder patients

The visual probe paradigm allows for evaluating attentional bias (AB), distinguishing between approach vs avoidance patterns of attention and assessing two different processes when the exposure time to images is manipulated: initial orienting and maintenance of attention. The present study aimed to analyze the predictive capacity of these two processes for substance use disorder severity and therapeutic outcomes of patients with cocaine use disorder in treatment.The sample consisted of 70 outpatients who were starting treatment at a public service. AB was evaluated using a task based on the visual probe (VP) paradigm with images presented under two conditions: 200 ms vs 1000 ms. Cocaine and alcohol use disorder severity, craving, retention in treatment and relapse in consumption were recorded.Cocaine AB in the 1000 ms condition was negatively correlated with the cocaine use disorder severity (r = −0.26), whilst a positive correlation was found between cocaine craving and cocaine AB (r = 0.29). Alcohol use disorder severity negatively correlated with cocaine AB in the 200 ms condition (r = −0.24). Logistic regression analysis revealed that, after controlling for gender, age, and substance use disorder severity, cocaine AB in the 200 ms condition predicted dropout and relapse. Our results suggest that patients who adhere to treatment and remain abstinent tend to show avoidance in the 200 ms condition, with effect sizes of r = 0.29 and 0.30 respectively. The results suggest that training in avoidance strategies could be a valuable way of maintaining adherence and abstinence, as well as improving control of craving.

Not Every Wheeze is Asthmatic: An Aspiration Pneumonia Case Report

Introduction: Wheezing in infants is an extremely common complaint, being markedly frequent in emergency services. Nonetheless, such a complaint is part of a wide spectrum of pathologies thus, demanding deeper investigation over the differential diagnosis must be addressed in an appropriate manner, in order to implement the necessary therapy as early as possible, and excessive intervention avoided, as much as possible Therefore, this case-report seeks to serve as a reminder of the importance of keeping a high suspicion on aspiration pneumonia even in previously healthy patients. The Case: HPDJ, male, date of birth (Dec, 30th of 2019), then 10 months and 10 days old, enters the medical emergency service of the pediatric hospital on November, 10th of 2020, with a report of flu-like symptoms that persisted for 10 days. The possibilities of bronchiolitis, pneumonia and SARS-COV 2 are questioned given the pandemic context, therefore being approached with salbutamol and prednisolone, chest x-ray and complementary exams. The patient is hospitalized, under regimen of ceftriaxone, salbutamol and general symptomatic medication. The patient is discharged 6 days after the first hospitalization with recovered general condition and without adventitious sounds or pathological findings on auscultation, being referred to the pulmonology outpatient clinic of the pediatric hospital. During outpatient follow-up, the patient complains of a feverish respiratory condition, and then the possibility of aspiration by a foreign body was questioned. On Dec, 09th, foreign body is removed, with subsequent improvement of symptoms in 48 hours. Conclusion: The maintenance of high clinical suspicion and attention to anamnesis are extremely important factors for the early diagnosis of less common causes of common complaints, such as aspiration of a foreign body in the face of a wheezing complaint, thus avoiding prolonged and not fully effective treatments, which can put the child at risk for more severe complications and worse prognosis.

Responses to the Challenges of Fast Digital Conversion, in the Light of International Research Results - A Comparative Look at Virtual Spaces

In order to assure effectiveness, digital instruction prioritizes digital devices and systems over traditional technological and methodological solutions. In the current digital age and the way of life defined by digital culture, digital skills and competences become highly appreciated. Also, innovative methodological solutions, promoting the long term maintenance of attention and motivation, become key factors in remote learning or digitally scheduled education. Furthermore, the emergence of additional digital gaps, triggers newer digital paradigm shifts, gaining special importance during such exigencies, as a pandemic. An effective response or potential remedy, to this situation, is offered by digital pedagogy. Digital pedagogy faced substantial challenges during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, imposing demanding tasks on all participants, within the education sector. Our study introduces the results of a quantitative, multivariable, empirical inquiry, entailing a comparative analysis of data obtained from a survey of the pedagogue attitudes and digital tool systems for three selected countries. © 2021, Budapest Tech Polytechnical Institution. All rights reserved.

Minding the Gap: Effects of an Attention Maintenance Training Program on Driver Calibration.

The present study examines the effect of an existing driver training program, FOrward Concentration and Attention Learning (FOCAL) on young drivers' calibration, drivers' ability to estimate the length of their in-vehicle glances while driving, using two different measures, normalized difference scores and Brier Scores. Young drivers are poor at maintaining attention to the forward roadway while driving a vehicle. Additionally, drivers may overestimate their attention maintenance abilities. Driver training programs such as FOCAL may train target skills such as attention maintenance but also might serve as a promising way to reduce errors in drivers' calibration of their self-perceived attention maintenance behaviors in comparison to their actual performance. Thirty-six participants completed either FOCAL or a Placebo training program, immediately followed by driving simulator evaluations of their attention maintenance performance. In the evaluation drive, participants navigated four driving simulator scenarios during which their eyes were tracked. In each scenario, participants performed a map task on a tablet simulating an in-vehicle infotainment system. FOCAL-trained drivers maintained their attention to the forward roadway more and reported better calibration using the normalized difference measure than Placebo-trained drivers. However, the Brier scores did not distinguish the two groups on their calibration. The study implies that FOCAL has the potential to improve not only attention maintenance skills but also calibration of the skills for young drivers. Driver training programs may be designed to train not only targeted higher cognitive skills but also driver calibration-both critical for driving safety in young drivers.

Effect of Food Containing Paramylon Derived from Euglena gracilis EOD-1 on Fatigue in Healthy Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel-Group Trial.

Euglena gracilis EOD-1, a kind of microalgae, is known to contain a high proportion of paramylon, a type of β-1,3-glucan. Paramylon derived from E. gracilis EOD-1 is presumed to suppress cellular oxidative injury and expected to reduce fatigue and fatigue sensation. Therefore, we aimed to examine whether food containing paramylon derived from E. gracilis EOD-1 (EOD-1PM) ingestion reduced fatigue and fatigue sensation in healthy adults. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group comparison study in 66 healthy men and women who ingested a placebo or EOD-1PM daily for 4 weeks (daily life fatigue). Furthermore, at the examination days of 0 and 4 weeks, tolerance to fatigue load was evaluated using mental tasks (task-induced fatigue). We evaluated fatigue sensation using the Visual Analogue Scale, the work efficiency of the advanced trail making test and measured serum antioxidant markers. The EOD-1PM group showed significantly lower levels of physical and mental fatigue sensations and higher levels of work efficiency as well as serum biological antioxidant potential levels than the placebo group. These results indicate that EOD-1PM ingestion reduced fatigue and fatigue sensation, which may be due to an increase in antioxidant potential and maintenance of selective attention during work.

Attentional Bias for Imperfect Pictures in Perfectionism: An Eye-Movement Study.

BackgroundAlthough dot-probe paradigms have been widely used in previous studies to investigate the attentional bias of perfectionists, the exact characteristics of this bias are still unclear.MethodsIn this study, eye-tracking technology was used to compare the attentional patterns of high perfectionists (HP) and low perfectionists (LP). The HP and LP groups (n = 39 vs 34) completed a visual attention task in which they observed perfect vs imperfect picture pairs, during which their eye movements (EMs) were recorded automatically using an EM tracking system.ResultsBoth the HP and LP groups showed an overall attentional bias toward imperfect pictures, as indicated by the criteria of initial visual attention orientation and attentional maintenance. There were no significant differences between the HP and LP groups during the early and middle phases of attention: both groups exhibited a longer total fixation duration on imperfect pictures than on perfect pictures. However, during the late phase of attention, the participants in the HP group diverted their attention away from the imperfect pictures and began to pay more attention to the perfect pictures. By contrast, the participants in the LP group consistently exhibited longer fixation times for imperfect pictures than the HP group during the entire duration of the stimulus.ConclusionThese findings indicate that the participants in the HP group tended to avoid imperfect stimuli during the late phase of attention; this may indicate that avoidance plays an important role in maintaining perfectionism. This study also shows that eye-tracking is a useful methodology for measuring the attentional biases of perfectionists.

The time course of attentional biases in pain: a meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies.

Previous meta-analyses investigating attentional biases towards pain have used reaction time measures. Eye-tracking methods have been adopted to more directly and reliably assess biases, but this literature has not been synthesized in relation to pain. This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the nature and time course of attentional biases to pain-related stimuli in participants of all ages with and without chronic pain using eye-tracking studies and determine the role of task parameters and theoretically relevant moderators. After screening, 24 studies were included with a total sample of 1425 participants. Between-group analyses revealed no significant overall group differences for people with and without chronic pain on biases to pain-related stimuli. Results indicated significant attentional biases towards pain-related words or pictures across both groups on probability of first fixation (k = 21, g = 0.43, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.15-0.71, P = 0.002), how long participants looked at each picture in the first 500 ms (500-ms epoch dwell: k = 5, g = 0.69, 95% CI 0.034-1.35, P = 0.039), and how long participants looked at each picture overall (total dwell time: k = 25, g = 0.44, 95% CI 0.15-0.72, P = 0.003). Follow-up analyses revealed significant attentional biases on probability of first fixation, latency to first fixation and dwell time for facial stimuli, and number of fixations for sensory word stimuli. Moderator analyses revealed substantial influence of task parameters and some influence of threat status and study quality. Findings support biases in both vigilance and attentional maintenance for pain-related stimuli but suggest attentional biases towards pain are ubiquitous and not related to pain status.

The influence of risk situation and attachment style on helping behavior: An attentional bias perspective

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the helping behavior tendency of individuals with different attachment styles and explore their information processing from the perspective of attention in risky situations. The results showed that: (1) In high-risk situations, the helping behavior tendency of individuals with secure attachment was significantly higher than those with anxious and avoidant attachment. While in low-risk situations, there was no significant difference in their helping behavior; (2) There were different attentional biases for the different attachment styles with regard to negative emotional information. The attentional bias components of individuals with secure, avoidant, and anxious attachment were attentional maintenance, attentional orienting, and both orienting and maintenance of attention, respectively. The results reflected that attachment style had an influence on helping behavior in risky situations, and it played a role in the initial stage of such behavior, emphasizing different attentional biases to helping cue.