Differential Impact of Interference on Internally- and Externally-Directed Attention.

Attention can be oriented externally to the environment or internally to the mind, and can be derailed by interference from irrelevant information originating from either external or internal sources. However, few studies have explored the nature and underlying mechanisms of the interaction between different attentional orientations and different sources of interference. We investigated how externally- and internally-directed attention was impacted by external distraction, how this modulated internal distraction, and whether these interactions were affected by healthy aging. Healthy younger and older adults performed both an externally-oriented visual detection task and an internally-oriented mental rotation task, performed with and without auditory sound delivered through headphones. We found that the addition of auditory sound induced a significant decrease in task performance in both younger and older adults on the visual discrimination task, and this was accompanied by a shift in the type of distractions reported (from internal to external). On the internally-oriented task, auditory sound only affected performance in older adults. These results suggest that the impact of external distractions differentially impacts performance on tasks with internal, as opposed to external, attentional orientations. Further, internal distractibility is affected by the presence of external sound and increased suppression of internal distraction

Analytic eye movement patterns in face recognition are associated with better performance and more top-down control of visual attention: an fMRI study

Conference Theme: Integrating Psychological, Philosophical, Linguistic, Computational and Neural PerspectivesPoster Session 3: no. 57Recent research has revealed two different eye movement patterns during face recognition: holistic and analytic. The present study investigated the neural correlates of these two patterns through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A more holistic pattern was associated with more activation in the face-selective perceptual areas, including the occipital face area and fusiform face area. In contrast, participants using a more analytic pattern demonstrated more activation in areas important for top-down control of visual attention, including the frontal eye field and intraparietal sulcus. In addition, participants using the analytic patterns had better recognition performance than those showing holistic patterns. These results suggest that analytic eye movement patterns are associated with more engagement of top-down control of visual attention, which may consequently enhance recognition performance.postprin

Structural and functional differences in medial prefrontal cortex underlie distractibility and suppression deficits in ageing.

Older adults experience deficits in working memory (WM) that are acutely exacerbated by the presence of distracting information. Human neurophysiological studies have revealed that these changes are accompanied by a diminished ability to suppress visual cortical activity associated with task-irrelevant information. Although this is often attributed to deficits in top-down control from a prefrontal cortical source, this has not yet been directly demonstrated. Here we evaluate the neural basis of distraction's negative impact on WM and the impairment in neural suppression in older adults by performing structural and functional MRIs while older participants engage in tasks that require remembering relevant visual stimuli in the context of overlapping irrelevant stimuli. Analysis supports both an age-related distraction effect and neural suppression deficit, and extends our understanding by revealing an alteration in functional connectivity between visual cortices and a region in the default network, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Moreover, within the older population, the magnitude of WM distractibility and neural suppression are both associated with individual differences in cortical volume and activity of the mPFC, as well as its associated white-matter tracts

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTOR ACTIVITY AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS IN THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS: CASE OF 6 - 7 AGED TUNISIAN PUPILS

Considering that the cognitive and motor dimensions of human beings grow together and that primary school age is one of the most important stages of children’s cognitive and motor development, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between executive functions and motor activity in the teaching-learning process. Primary school students (N = 40; 6.3 years) participated in this study. They were divided into two groups: an experimental group (20 students) and a control group (20 students). The first group followed a 12-week motors activity program with 5 sessions of 40 minutes per week and the second a regular math sessions program. The results of the experimental group show a clear improvement in most of the study variables. Also, these results highlight the value of actively involving the student in the task and the importance of using active methods in the teaching-learning process.  Article visualizations

Markers of preparatory attention predict visual short-term memory performance

AbstractVisual short-term memory (VSTM) is limited in capacity. Therefore, it is important to encode only visual information that is most likely to be relevant to behaviour. Here we asked which aspects of selective biasing of VSTM encoding predict subsequent memory-based performance. We measured EEG during a selective VSTM encoding task, in which we varied parametrically the memory load and the precision of recall required to compare a remembered item to a subsequent probe item. On half the trials, a spatial cue indicated that participants only needed to encode items from one hemifield. We observed a typical sequence of markers of anticipatory spatial attention: early attention directing negativity (EDAN), anterior attention directing negativity (ADAN), late directing attention positivity (LDAP); as well as of VSTM maintenance: contralateral delay activity (CDA). We found that individual differences in preparatory brain activity (EDAN/ADAN) predicted cue-related changes in recall accuracy, indexed by memory-probe discrimination sensitivity (d′). Importantly, our parametric manipulation of memory-probe similarity also allowed us to model the behavioural data for each participant, providing estimates for the quality of the memory representation and the probability that an item could be retrieved. We found that selective encoding primarily increased the probability of accurate memory recall; that ERP markers of preparatory attention predicted the cue-related changes in recall probability

The Influence of Perceptual Training on Working Memory in Older Adults

Normal aging is associated with a degradation of perceptual abilities and a decline in higher-level cognitive functions, notably working memory. To remediate age-related deficits, cognitive training programs are increasingly being developed. However, it is not yet definitively established if, and by what mechanisms, training ameliorates effects of cognitive aging. Furthermore, a major factor impeding the success of training programs is a frequent failure of training to transfer benefits to untrained abilities. Here, we offer the first evidence of direct transfer-of-benefits from perceptual discrimination training to working memory performance in older adults. Moreover, using electroencephalography to evaluate participants before and after training, we reveal neural evidence of functional plasticity in older adult brains, such that training-induced modifications in early visual processing during stimulus encoding predict working memory accuracy improvements. These findings demonstrate the strength of the perceptual discrimination training approach by offering clear psychophysical evidence of transfer-of-benefit and a neural mechanism underlying cognitive improvement

The impact of task relevance and degree of distraction on stimulus processing

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Atenção e memória de trabalho em idosos: a influência de distratores

Mestrado em Psicologia Clínica e da SaúdeO presente trabalho teve como principal objetivo estudar, na população idosa, o efeito de ambientes distrativos em tarefas atencionais e em tarefas de memória de trabalho. Para tal, trinta idosos foram sujeitos à aplicação de duas tarefas atencionais (tarefa de tempo de reação simples e tarefa go/no-go) e a três tarefas de memória de trabalho (aritmética, memória de dígitos e sequência de letras e números). Cada participante realizou as tarefas em ambiente distrativo e em ambiente não distrativo, com um intervalo de 14 a 21 dias entre sessões. A aplicação das tarefas em ambiente distrativo/não distrativo, assim como a ordem de realização das próprias tarefas, foi contrabalanceada entre participantes. Foram também aplicados um questionário sociodemográfico e dois instrumentos de avaliação: um de avaliação objetiva do funcionamento cognitivo (MoCA) e outro de avaliação subjetiva dos lapsos de memória (QLM). Os resultados do estudo indicaram que, relativamente às tarefas atencionais, os participantes tiveram melhor desempenho no ambiente não distrativo do que no ambiente distrativo; contudo, os tempos de reação na tarefa de tempo de reação simples e os tempos de reação nos falsos alarmes da tarefa go/no-go, revelaram-se estatisticamente não significativos. No que toca às tarefas de memória de trabalho, os resultados indicaram que o ambiente influenciou de forma significativa o desempenho dos participantes apenas na tarefa de dígitos na ordem direta. Constataram-se algumas correlações significativas entre os desempenhos nas tarefas utilizadas e os domínios do instrumento MoCA, com particular destaque para as três tarefas de memória de trabalho que se relacionaram fortemente com os resultados do dito instrumento. No que toca à relação entre a avaliação objetiva do funcionamento cognitivo e a avaliação subjetiva dos lapsos de memória, verifica-se uma correlação no sentido esperado: os idosos que têm piores desempenhos nas tarefas de memória de trabalho, percecionaram o seu funcionamento mnésico como pior; contudo, estas correlações não foram significativas. Estes resultados são discutidos à luz das teorias existentes sobre as alterações cognitivas comummente observadas na velhice. São ainda apresentadas possíveis implicações práticas que este tipo de estudo e resultados poderão ter, assim como sugestões para estudos futuros.The present work aimed to study the effect of distracting environments in attention tasks and working memory tasks in elderly. To this end, thirty elderly performed two attention tasks (simple reaction time task and go/no-go task), and three working memory tasks (arithmetic, memory for digits and sequence of letters and numbers). Each participant performed the tasks in the distracting and a non-distracting environment, with an interval of 14 to 21 days between sessions. The implementation of the tasks in the distracting environment/non-distracting environment, as well as the order of the tasks, was counterbalanced among participants. A sociodemographic questionnaire and two assessment instruments were also used: an objective assessment of cognitive functioning (MoCA) and a subjective evaluation of memory lapses (QLM). The results indicated that for the attention tasks, participants performed better in the non-distracting environment than in the distracting environment. However, the simple reaction times and the reaction times for the false alarms in the go/no-go task did were not significantly affected by the nature of the environment. As for the working memory tasks, the results indicated that the environment significantly influenced participants' performance only in the memory for digits tasks in direct order. Significant correlations were found between the results obtained in several domains of the instrument MoCA, with particular emphasis for the three working memory tasks that relate strongly with the results various domains of MoCA. Regarding the relation between the objective assessment of the cognitive functioning and the subjective evaluation of memory lapses, there is a correlation in the expected direction: people with worse performance on working memory tasks, perceived their memory capacity as worse; however, these correlations are not significant. These results are discussed in light of existing theories about the cognitive changes usually observed in the elderly. Practical implications of these results and of the type of study conducted are presented, as well as suggestions for future studies

The impact of computer-based cognitive training intervention on the quality of life among elderly people: a randomized clinical trial

Background: Through the process of normal aging, cognitive decline would cause a lower level of functioning in real life. This flow might interfere with health-related quality of life (QoL). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of computer-based cognitive intervention on increasing QoL of elderly people. Methods: A total number of 52 community-dwelling older adults participated in this study. This community scored � 21 in the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and a clock drawing test score � 4 from health centers in Tehran, Iran. This study is a parallel group stratified randomized clinical trial. The intervention group received a 45-min cognitive training session twice a week for 10 sessions, using Attentive Rehabilitation of Attention and Memory (ARAM) software focusing on selective attention and working memory. QoL was evaluated as a primary outcome. The control group participated in educational workshops. Results: From fifty-two persons, only one participant was excluded from the study in the intervention group during follow-up. Results revealed by increasing cognitive function, improvement occurred in QoL (F = 13.417, p value < 0.001, partial eta-squared = 0.324) as a primary outcome in the intervention group. Among eight domains of QoL, there was significant increasing in domain of role limitations due to emotional problems (F = 4.007, p value = 0.021, partial eta-squared = 0.059), social functioning (F = 2.423, p value = 0.044, partial eta-squared = 0.004), and role limitations due to physical health (F = 10.749, p value < 0.001, partial eta-squared = 0.026). Conclusions: Based on the results, ARAM showed transition and long-term effects on QoL in elderly people by improving cognitive functions such as selective attention and working memory. Trial registration: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials IRCT2016122731602N1. Registered on June 21, 2017 © 2021, The Author(s)

Modulation of alpha and gamma oscillations related to retrospectively orienting attention within working memory

Selective attention mechanisms allow us to focus on information that is relevant to the current behavior and, equally important, ignore irrelevant information. An influential model proposes that oscillatory neural activity in the alpha band serves as an active functional inhibitory mechanism. Recent studies have shown that, in the same way that attention can be selectively oriented to bias sensory processing in favor of relevant stimuli in perceptual tasks, it is also possible to retrospectively orient attention to internal representations held in working memory. However, these studies have not explored the associated oscillatory phenomena. In the current study, we analysed the patterns of neural oscillatory activity recorded with magnetoencephalography while participants performed a change detection task, in which a spatial retro-cue was presented during the maintenance period, indicating which item or items were relevant for subsequent retrieval. Participants benefited from retro-cues in terms of accuracy and reaction time. Retro-cues also modulated oscillatory activity in the alpha and gamma frequency bands. We observed greater alpha activity in a ventral visual region ipsilateral to the attended hemifield, thus supporting its suppressive role, i.e. a functional disengagement of task-irrelevant regions. Accompanying this modulation, we found an increase in gamma activity contralateral to the attended hemifield, which could reflect attentional orienting and selective processing. These findings suggest that the oscillatory mechanisms underlying attentional orienting to representations held in working memory are similar to those engaged when attention is oriented in the perceptual space. © 2014 The Authors