Selective reaching: evidence for multiple frames of reference

Students participated in 3 experiments investigating the use of environment- and action-centered reference frames in selective reaching. They pointed to a green target appearing either with or without a red distractor. Target–distractor distance was manipulated, and distractor interference (difference between distractor trials and no-distractor trials) was measured in reaction time, movement time, and movement endpoint. Target–distractor distance determined the dominant frame of reference. Small distances evoked an environment-centered framework that encoded targets within an external context. Large distances evoked an action-centered framework that encoded targets relative to the start position of the hand. Results support the hypothesis that the brain represents spatial information in multiple frames of reference, with the dominant frame of reference being dependent on the task demands. A well-known example used to highlight the concept of selec-tive attention is picking a ripe apple from a branch when an unripe apple is nearby on the same branch (e.g., Meegan & Tipper, 1999). This example shows that selective attention mediates goal-directed action through selection of appropriate actions and inhibition of inappropriate actions (i.e., picking the unripe apple). These selec

Response preparation with anticues in children and adults

We examined the ability of children (mean age: 10.4 years) and adults (mean age: 20.7 years) to prepare finger keypress responses in an anticue paradigm by presenting left and right spatial cues, which specified right and left hand finger responses, respectively. Four time intervals separated cue onset from target onset: 200 ms, 600 ms, 1000 ms, and 2000 ms. Results showed that, overall, children responded slower and less accurately than did adults; nevertheless they were equally effective in using anticue information to reduce reaction time with preparation intervals of 600 ms and longer. This outcome is discussed in terms of a slow, voluntary, top-down executive process that redirects motor preparation from the ipsi-to the contralateral hand. The absence of an age effect suggests an early maturation of the underlying neural mechanisms

Automatic selective attention as a function of sensory modality in aging

Objectives. It was recently hypothesized that age-related differences in selective attention depend on sensory modality (Guerreiro, M. J. S., Murphy, D. R., & Van Gerven, P. W. M. (2010). The role of sensory modality in age-related distraction: A critical review and a renewed view. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 975-1022. doi:10.1037/a0020731). So far, this hypothesis has not been tested in automatic selective attention. The current study addressed this issue by investigating age-related differences in automatic spatial cueing effects (i.e., facilitation and inhibition of return [IOR]) across sensory modalities. METHODS: Thirty younger (mean age = 22.4 years) and 25 older adults (mean age = 68.8 years) performed 4 left-right target localization tasks, involving all combinations of visual and auditory cues and targets. We used stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 100, 500, 1,000, and 1,500 ms between cue and target. RESULTS: The results showed facilitation (shorter reaction times with valid relative to invalid cues at shorter SOAs) in the unimodal auditory and in both cross-modal tasks but not in the unimodal visual task. In contrast, there was IOR (longer reaction times with valid relative to invalid cues at longer SOAs) in both unimodal tasks but not in either of the cross-modal tasks. Most important, these spatial cueing effects were independent of age. Discussion. The results suggest that the modality hypothesis of age-related differences in selective attention does not extend into the realm of automatic selective attention

Selective attention deficits during human pregnancy

Selective attention deficits during human pregnancy. de Groot RH, Adam JJ, Hornstra G. Department of Human Biology, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. [email protected] Using a longitudinal design we provide evidence that selective attention - a key component of cognition concerned with selection and preparation - is compromised during pregnancy. Selective attention was operationalized by means of the finger precuing technique, which selectively prepares two of four finger responses. The precuing benefit was taken as a measure of selective attention. Pregnant women showed a significant smaller precuing benefit at week 36 of pregnancy than did the control women, indicating loss of selective attention. Thirty-two weeks after childbirth this performance decrement had vanished, reflecting a functional recover

Diminished performance on response-selection tasks in Type 2 diabetes

Diminished performance on response-selection tasks in Type 2 diabetes. de Groot PC, Borghouts LB, Adam JJ, Keizer HA. Department of Movement Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. Comparisons of visual perception, response-selection, and response-execution performance were made between Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and a matched nondiabetic control group. 10 well-controlled male patients with Type 2 diabetes without diabetic complications (M age 58 yr.) and an age and IQ-matched non-diabetic control group consisting of 13 male healthy volunteers (M age 57 yr.) were included. Significant differences were found only between the two groups on response-selection performance, which concerns the selection and preparation of an appropriate motor actio

Spared Within-Hands but Impaired Between-Hands Response Preparation in Aging

Older people can use advance information to prepare a subset of finger responses. It is debated, however, whether aging affects the preparation of finger responses on two hands (between-hands preparation) more strongly than the preparation of finger responses on one hand (within-hands preparation). The present study examined the role of temporal uncertainty in this issue. We asked a group of young and older participants to perform a finger-cuing task with four preparation intervals (2, 3, 4, and 5 s), presented either separately in distinct blocks of trials (fixed design: no temporal uncertainty) or randomly intermixed across trials (mixed design: temporal uncertainty). Reaction time and error rates revealed age equivalence for within-hands preparation but an age-related difference for between-hands preparation, regardless of how the preparation intervals were presented. These findings demonstrate a robust, structural difference in the maximal preparation benefit that older adults can achieve when preparing two fingers on two hands but not on one hand. These outcomes are discussed in terms of several theories of cognitive aging