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Sustained Attention Task (sustained + attention_task)
Selected AbstractsMicrosphere embolism-induced cortical cholinergic deafferentation and impairments in attentional performanceEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 11 2005Tara K. S. Craft Abstract Ischemic events have been hypothesized to play a critical role on the pathogenesis of dementia and the acceleration of cognitive impairments. This experiment was designed to determine the consequences of microvascular ischemia on the cortical cholinergic input system and associated attention capacities. Injections of microspheres (,50 µm diameter; ,5000 microspheres/100 µL) into the right common carotid artery of rats served as a model of microvascular ischemia and resulted in decreases in the density of cholinergic fibers in the ipsilateral medial prefrontal cortex and frontoparietal areas. Furthermore, dense astrogliosis, indicated by glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunohistochemistry, was observed in the globus pallidus, including the areas of origin of cholinergic projections to the cortex. Fluoro-Jade B staining indicated that loss of neurons in the cortex was restricted to areas of microsphere-induced infarcts. Attentional performance was assessed using an operant sustained attention task; performance in this task was previously demonstrated to reflect the integrity and activity of the cortical cholinergic input system. Embolized animals' performance was characterized by a decrease in the animals' ability to detect signals. Their performance in non-signal trials remained unaffected. The residual density of cholinergic axons in prefrontal and frontoparietal areas correlated with the animals' performance. The present data support the hypothesis that microvascular ischemia results in loss of cortical cholinergic inputs and impairs associated attentional performance. Microsphere embolism represents a useful animal model for studying the role of interactions between microvascular disorder and impaired forebrain cholinergic neurotransmission in the manifestation of cognitive impairments. [source] The effects of caffeine on simulated driving, subjective alertness and sustained attentionHUMAN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY: CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL, Issue 7 2001Carolyn Brice Abstract There is evidence that caffeine increases alertness and reduces fatigue. This may be especially so in low arousal situations (e.g. working at night or for prolonged hours). Caffeine has also been found to improve performance on vigilance tasks and simple tasks requiring sustained response. Again, these effects are often clearest when alertness is reduced, although there is evidence that benefits may still occur when the individual is unimpaired. Most studies to date have investigated the behavioural effects of caffeine in laboratory experiments using artificial tasks. In the current study 3,mg/kg caffeine was found to improve steering accuracy in a 1,h simulated drive. Measures of mood and performance on a sustained attention task also showed the benefits of caffeine. These findings suggest that laboratory results reflect a general benefit of caffeine that may also be observed in real-life situations. Other evidence examining the effects of caffeine on performance efficiency over the working day has shown the benefits of caffeine consumption on measures of sustained attention and alertness. This study also provided evidence suggesting that caffeine is often consumed when alertness is low to maximise alertness and performance efficiency. The implications of these findings for road safety are also considered. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Attention and Vigilance in Children with Down SyndromeJOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 6 2008Kim L. Trezise Background, Down syndrome (DS) has been the focus of much cognitive and developmental research; however, there is a gap in knowledge regarding sustained attention, particularly across different sensory domains. This research examined the hypothesis that children with DS would demonstrate superior visual rather than auditory performance on a sustained attention task and that this modality difference would not be seen in children with non-specific intellectual disability (NSID). Materials and Methods, Eleven children with DS and 16 children with NSID were compared on two versions of the sustained attention to response test (SART), varying only in presentation modality (visual or auditory). Errors of commission (failure to withhold response to target) and errors of omission (failure to respond to non-target distractors) were recorded. Results, Significant group differences were found in the visual modality and mental age was also found to effect error rates in the visual condition. No effect of group or mental age was observed in the auditory SART. Conclusions, Results suggest that, for individuals with DS, presentation of education material in a visual medium may facilitate sustained attention and thus learning. Further research using tools such as the SART to explore modality differences in sustained attention and additional cognitive domains is recommended. [source] Executive function in adolescents with Down SyndromeJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 4 2010S. Lanfranchi Abstract Background The present work is aimed at analysing executive function (EF) in adolescents with Down Syndrome (DS). So far, EF has been analysed mainly in adults with DS, showing a pattern of impairment. However, less is known about children and adolescents with this syndrome. Studying adolescents with DS might help us better understand whether performances on EF tasks of individuals with DS are determined by age or by Alzheimer disease, as some studies suggest, or whether their performances are directly related to DS cognitive profile. Method A battery of EF tasks assessing set shifting, planning/problem-solving, working memory, inhibition/perseveration and fluency, as well as a tasks assessing sustained attention has been administered to a group of 15 adolescents with DS and 15 typically developing children matched for mental age. All EF tasks were selected from previous studies with individuals with intellectual disabilities or from developmental literature and are thought to be useful for the samples considered. Results The present results revealed that the group of individuals with DS performed at a significantly lower level on tasks assessing set shifting, planning/problem-solving, working memory and inhibition/perseveration, but not on the tasks assessing fluency. In addition, individuals with DS demonstrated a greater number of errors and less strategy use for the sustained attention task. Conclusions The results suggest a broad impairment in EF in adolescents with DS, and are consistent with several similar studies conducted with adults with DS. We assume that EF deficit is a characteristic of DS. [source] | ||||||||||