Individual Differences in Dispositional Mindfulness Predict Attentional Networks and Vigilance Performance

Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Tao Coll-Martín, Fernando G. Luna, and Miguel A. Vadillo for the kind and helpful input provided during the development of this research project.Funding Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Granada / CBUA. LC was supported by a doctoral fellowship from “la Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434; fellowship code LCF/BQ/ DE18/11670002). AC was supported by CIBEROBN, an initiative of the ISCIII (ISC III CB06 03/0052) and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) under AMABLE-VR (RTI2018-097835-A-I00). JL was supported by a research projects grant from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (PSI2017-84926-P; PID2020-114790 GB-I00). This paper is part of the doctoral dissertation of the first author under the supervision of the last author.Data Availability The data and R scripts used for analysis are provided at the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/374rs/). The online version of the ANTI-Vea task is available for free use and in multiple languages at https://www. ugr. es/~neuro cog/ ANTI/.Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-022-01850-6.Pretrial Registration Open Science Framework, https://osf.io/gb6c7Objectives Research addressing the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and objective attention performance remains inconclusive, partly because previous studies used sample sizes possibly leading to underpowered designs. Here, we examined this relationship in a large sample using the ANTI-Vea: a novel cognitive-behavioral task that simultaneously assesses the classic attentional networks—phasic alertness, orienting, executive control—and both the executive and arousal components of vigilance. Methods Two hundred nineteen meditation-naïve participants completed the study. Correlational analyses using Kendall’s Tau were performed between FFMQ scores and ANTI-Vea outcomes. Additional subsidiary correlations were performed between the FFMQ and two self-report measures assessing subjective attentional control and mind-wandering. Benjamini- Hochberg was applied to control de type I error rate. Internal consistency reliability indices were estimated for all measures used to aid the interpretation of the correlational results. Results Higher non-reactivity predicted overall faster reaction times and higher accuracy in attentional networks trials. Higher non-reactivity, as well as higher FFMQ total score, predicted faster reaction time and fewer lapses in arousal vigilance trials, the latter also being negatively associated with describe scores. The magnitude of the correlations ranged from τb = .103 to τb = .119. We found no association between FFMQ scores and executive control or executive vigilance. Conclusions Our results indicate that dispositional mindfulness is linked to improved global attentional and arousal vigilance performance, being non-reactivity to inner experience the key facet driving the association. The absence of association to executive processes is discussed based on the high cognitive demands of the ANTI-Vea task.Universidad de Granada/CBUA“La Caixa” Foundation (ID 100010434; fellowship code LCF/BQ/ DE18/11670002)CIBEROBN, an initiative of the ISCIII (ISC III CB06 03/0052) and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) under AMABLE-VR (RTI2018-097835-A-I00)Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (PSI2017-84926-P; PID2020-114790 GB-I00

Arrows don’t look at you: Qualitatively different attentional mechanisms triggered by gaze and arrows

Eye gaze conveys rich information concerning the states of mind of others, playing a critical role in social interactions, signaling internal states, and guiding others’ attention. On the basis of its social significance, some researchers have proposed that eye gaze may represent a unique attentional stimulus. However, contrary to this notion, the majority of the literature has shown indistinguishable attentional effects when eye gaze and arrows have been used as cues. Taking a different approach, in this study we aimed at finding qualitative attentional differences between gazes and arrows when they were used as targets instead of as cues. We used a spatial Stroop task, in which participants were required to identify the direction of eyes or arrows presented to the left or the right of a fixation point. The results showed that the two types of stimuli led to opposite spatial interference effects, with arrows producing faster reaction times when the stimulus direction was congruent with the stimulus position (a typical spatial Stroop effect), and eye gaze producing faster reaction times when it was incongruent (a Breversed^ spatial Stroop effect). This reversed Stroop is interpreted as an eye-contact effect, therefore revealing the unique nature of eyes as special social-attention stimuli

Event-related potentials associated with attentional networks evidence changes in executive and arousal vigilance

Agencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnologica, Grant/Award Number: #2018- 3614 and Cat1#83; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Grant/Award Number: PID2020- 114790GB- I00; Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Secretaria de Ciencia y Tecnologia; ANID/FONDECYT Regular, Grant/Award Number: 1210195, 1210176 and 1220995; ANID/FONDAP, Grant/Award Number: 15150012; ANID/PIA/ANILLOS, Grant/Award Number: ACT210096; ANID/FONDEF, Grant/Award Number: ID20I10152 and ID22I10029; Takeda, Grant/Award Number: CW2680521; National Institutes of Health, National Institutes of Aging, Grant/Award Number: R01 AG057234; Alzheimer's Association, Grant/Award Number: SG-20-725707; Rainwater Charitable foundation - Tau Consortium, and Global Brain Health Institute, Grant/Award Number: R01 AG057234Attention is regulated by three independent but interacting networks, that is, alerting, comprising phasic alertness and vigilance, orienting, and executive control. Previous studies analyzing event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with attentional networks have focused on phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control, without an independent measure of vigilance. ERPs associated with vigilance have been instead measured in separate studies and via different tasks. The present study aimed to differentiate ERPs associated with attentional networks by simultaneously measuring vigilance along with phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control. Forty participants (34 women, age: M = 25.96; SD = 4.96) completed two sessions wherein the electroencephalogram was recorded while they completed the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance-executive and arousal components, a task that measures phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control along with executive (i.e., detection of infrequent critical signals) and arousal (i.e., sustaining a fast reaction to environmental stimuli) vigilance. ERPs previously associated with attentional networks were replicated here: (a) N1, P2, and contingent negative variation for phasic alertness; (b) P1, N1, and P3 for orienting; and (c) N2 and slow positivity for executive control. Importantly, different ERPs were associated with vigilance: while the executive vigilance decrement was associated with an increase in P3 and slow positivity across time-on-task, arousal vigilance loss was associated with reduced N1 and P2 amplitude. The present study shows that attentional networks can be described by different ERPs simultaneously observed in a single session, including independent measures of executive and arousal vigilance on its assessment.ANPCyT Spanish Government 2018- 3614, 83Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET)Instituto de Salud Carlos III Spanish Government PID2020- 114790GB- I00Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Secretaría de Ciencia y TecnologíaANID/FONDECYT Regular 1210195, 1210176, 1220995ANID/FONDAP 15150012ANID/PIA/ANILLOS ACT210096ANID/FONDEF ID20I10152, ID22I10029Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd CW2680521United States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USAUnited States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA NIH National Institute on Aging (NIA) R01 AG057234Alzheimer's Association SG-20-725707Rainwater Charitable foundation - Tau ConsortiumGlobal Brain Health Institute R01 AG05723

Caffeine intake modulates the functioning of the attentional networks depending on consumption habits and acute exercise demands

Consume of stimulants (as caffeine) is very usual in different contexts where the performers have to take quick and accurate decisions during physical effort. Decision-making processes are mediated by the attentional networks. An experiment was carried out to examine the effect of caffeine intake on attention (alerting, orienting, and executive control) as a function of consumption habit under two physical exertion conditions (rest vs. aerobic exercise). Two groups of participants with different caffeine consumption profiles (moderate consumers vs. low consumers) performed the Attention Network Test– Interactions under four different conditions regarding activity (rest vs. exercise) and intake (caffeine vs. placebo). Results showed that whereas exercise led to faster reaction times (RT) in all cases, caffeine intake accelerated RT but only at rest and in moderate caffeine consumers. More importantly, caffeine intake reduced the alertness effect in moderate consumers only at the rest condition. No interactions between Intake and Activity were observed in the other attentional networks, with exercise reducing orienting independently of caffeine intake, which suggests that physical exercise and caffeine are different modulators of attention but can interact. Caffeine intake had differential effects on reaction speed at rest and during physical exercise depending on the individual consumption habit. On the basis of these finding it seems that mainly alertness is modulated differently by internal and external “arousing” conditions.This research was supported by Universidad Católica de Valencia “San Vicente Mártir” grant (2019-158-003) to F.H. and by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (PSI2017-84926-P) to J.L. & F.H

A process-specific approach in the study of normal aging deficits in cognitive control: What deteriorates with age?

Bearing in mind that cognitive control is a complex function that includes several processes, it is not clear exactly which ones deteriorate with age. In fact, controversial results have been found. For example, some studies indicate that age-related deficits are observed in proactive and not in reactive control, others show that it is reactive control that is impaired and not proactive control, and some studies find no deficits at all (e.g., Kopp, Lange, Howe, & Wessel, 2014; Xiang et al., 2016). One possible reason is that the contribution of different processes to the deterioration of cognitive control was investigated separately, i.e., without testing all processes within the same paradigm. Therefore, the main goal of the present experiment was to study the impact of normal aging on several processes related to cognitive control within the same task, which included both Simon and Spatial Stroop trials. The study focused on the following processes: generation of conflict measured by automatic response capture (i.e., stronger task-irrelevant information processing compared to task-relevant information processing); conflict detection; and control implementation (which can be reactive control, both within trials and across trials, and proactive control, as a task-set strategy). The results showed larger automatic response capture for older adults when facing a stimulus-response conflict (Simon) but not a stimulus-stimulus conflict (Spatial Stroop). Similarly, older adults also showed larger detection effects for both conflicts. However, regarding control implementation, they only showed difficulties in inhibiting the early automatic response capture (withintrial reactive control) but not reactive control across trials or proactive control. In conclusion, it seems that older adults are more affected by the presence of task-irrelevant information, especially when it comes to resolving stimulus-response conflict. However, they showed no impairments in their ability to implement cognitive control both across trials and as a task-set strategy.Spanish Government AP2008-04006 PSI2008-04223 PSI2011-22416 PSI2012-34158 PID2020-114790GB-I0

The ANTI-Vea task: analyzing the executive and arousal vigilance decrements while measuring the three attentional networks

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, research project to JL [grant number PSI2017-84926-P]; and by the Secretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina (Proyecto Estimular to FGL); FGL received PhD scholarship support from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina; FGL received a scholarship mobility by the Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Posgrado (AUIP) in cooperation with the Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento de la Junta de Andalucía, España; EMA was supported by a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness [IJCI-2015-23204]. Preliminary results of this work has been presented in the Spanish XI Scientific Meeting of Attention (RECA), developed from 28th to 30th of September 2017 in Baeza, Spain. This paper is part of the doctoral thesis by the first author, under the supervision of the last two authors.The vigilance decrement phenomenon has been traditionally studied by simple and monotonous behavioral tasks. Nowadays, however, there is considerable interest in measuring vigilance with more complex tasks, including independent measures of other attentional functions. In the present study, we provide evidence supporting the suitability of the Attentional Networks Test for Interactions and Vigilance – executive and arousal components (ANTI-Vea) as an appropriate method to simultaneously assess multiple attentional and vigilance components. Vigilance was examined as two dissociated components: executive vigilance –as the detection of infrequent signals– and arousal vigilance –as the sustenance of a fast reaction to stimuli without response selection–. Importantly, the executive vigilance decrement was analyzed with a novel methodological approach to particularly determine whether the sensitivity loss effect is influenced by a floor level on the false alarms. As expected, the ANTI-Vea proved to be a task suitable to assess: (a) the main effects and interactions of phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control; (b) the executive vigilance decrement as a progressive change in the response bias; and (c) the arousal vigilance decrement as a progressive slowness and variability in reaction time. We discuss some critical theoretical and empirical implications of measuring vigilance components with the ANTI-Vea task. We expect the present study to provide a suitable method to analyze the vigilance decrement phenomenon when measuring multiple attentional and vigilance functions.Tradicionalmente, el decremento de la vigilancia se ha estudiado con tareas comportamentales simples y repetitivas. Sin embargo, actualmente existe un considerable interés en evaluar la vigilancia con tareas más complejas que incluyan medidas independientes de otros procesos atencionales. En el presente estudio, nuestro objetivo fue proporcionar nueva evidencia empírica sobre la adecuación del Test de Redes Atencionales para Interacciones y Vigilancia – componentes ejecutivo y de activación (ANTI-Vea) para medir simultáneamente múltiples componentes atencionales y de vigilancia. Examinamos la vigilancia como dos componentes disociados: vigilancia ejecutiva –como la detección de señales infrecuentes– y vigilancia de activación –como el mantenimiento de una reacción rápida a los estímulos sin control sobre la respuesta–. Es importante destacar que la vigilancia ejecutiva se analizó con un novedoso método para determinar si un efecto suelo en las falsas alarmas podría influenciar una disminución en la sensibilidad. Como se esperaba, se observó que la tarea ANTI-Vea es adecuada para medir: (a) los efectos principales e interacciones de las funciones de alerta fásica, orientación, y control ejecutivo; (b) el decremento en la vigilancia ejecutiva como un cambio en la tendencia de la respuesta; y (c) el decremento en la vigilancia de activación como un enlentecimiento y variabilidad de la respuesta. Discutimos algunas implicaciones teóricas y empíricas sobre la medición de los componentes de la vigilancia con la tarea ANTI-Vea. Esperamos que el presente estudio provea un método adecuado para analizar el decremento de la vigilancia cuando se evalúan múltiples funciones atencionales y de vigilancia.Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness PSI2017-84926-PSecretaria de Ciencia y Tecnologia from the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, ArgentinaConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET)Asociacion Universitaria Iberoamericana de Posgrado (AUIP)Junta de AndaluciaJuan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness IJCI-2015-2320

What gaze adds to arrows: Changes in attentional response to gaze versus arrows in childhood and adolescence

FPU, Grant/Award Number: fpu16/07124From early ages, gaze acts as a cue to infer the interests, behaviours, thoughts and emotions of social partners. Despite sharing attentional properties with other non-social directional stimuli, such as arrows, gaze produces unique effects. A spatial interference task revealed this dissociation. The direction of arrows was identified faster on congruent than on incongruent direction-location trials. Conversely, gaze produced a reversed congruency effect (RCE), with faster identifications on incongruent than congruent trials. To determine the emergence of these gaze-specific attentional mechanisms, 214 Spanish children (4–17 years) divided into 6 age groups, performed the aforementioned task across three experiments. Results showed stimulus-specific developmental trajectories. Whereas the standard effect of arrows was unaffected by age, gaze shifted from an arrow-like effect at age 4 to a gaze-specific RCE at age 12. The orienting mechanisms shared by gaze and arrows are already present in 4-year olds and, throughout childhood, gaze becomes a special social cue with additional attentional properties. Besides orienting attention to a direction, as arrows would do, gaze might orient attention towards a specific object that would be attentionally selected. Such additional components may not fully develop until adolescence. Understanding gaze-specific attentional mechanisms may be crucial for children with atypical socio-cognitive development.Spanish Government fpu16/0712

Cognitive load mitigates the executive but not the arousal vigilance decrement

This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, through research projects to JL [grants number PSI2017-84926-P and PID2020-114790GB-I00] and the Secretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina (Proyecto Estimular to FGL). In addition, FGL received PhD scholarship support from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina and a scholarship mobility by the Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Posgrado (AUIP) in cooperation with the Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento de la Junta de Andalucía, España. Funding sources had no involvement in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. Preliminary results of this work has been presented in the Spanish XI Scientific Meeting of Attention (RECA), developed from 28th to 30th of September 2017 in Baeza, Spain. This study is part of the doctoral thesis by FGL, conducted under the supervision of JL and EMA.Previous research has shown opposite effects of dual tasking on the vigilance decrement phenomenon. We examined the executive (i.e., detecting infrequent critical signals) and arousal (i.e., sustaining a fast reaction to stimuli without much control on responses) vigilance decrements as a function of task load. Ninety-six participants performed either a single signal-detection (i.e., executive vigilance) task, a single reaction time (i.e., arousal vigilance) task, or a dual vigilance task with the same stimuli and procedure. All participants self-reported their fatigue’ state along the session. Exploratory analyses included data from a previous study with a triple task condition. Task load significantly modulated the executive but not the arousal vigilance decrement. Interestingly, the largest increase in mental fatigue was observed in the single executive vigilance task condition. We discuss limitations of classic vigilance theories to account for the vigilance decrement and changes in mental fatigue as a function of task load.Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness, grants number PSI2017-84926-P and PID2020-114790GB-I00Secretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, ArgentinaConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET)Asociación Universitaria Iberoamericana de Posgrado (AUIP) in cooperation with the Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento de la Junta de Andalucía, Españ

Attention to space and time: Independent or interactive systems? A narrative review

While there is ample evidence for the ability to selectively attend to where in space and when in time a relevant event might occur, it remains poorly understood whether spatial and temporal attention operate independently or interactively to optimize behavior. To elucidate this important issue, we provide a narrative review of the literature investigating the relationship between the two. The studies were organized based on the attentional manipulation employed (endogenous vs. exogenous) and the type of task (detection vs. discrimination). Although the reviewed findings depict a complex scenario, three aspects appear particularly important in promoting independent or interactive effects of spatial and temporal attention: task demands, attentional manipulation, and their combination. Overall, the present review provides key insights into the relationship between spatial and temporal attention and identifies some critical gaps that need to be addressed by future research.Universidad de Granada/ CBU

Effectiveness of a neuropsychological treatment for confabulations after brain injury: A clinical trial with theoretical implications

The study is part of a doctoral dissertation by Estrella Ródenas, supervised by the other three authors.Confabulators consistently generate false memories without intention to deceive and with great feelings of rightness. However, to our knowledge, there is currently no known effective treatment for them. In order to fill this gap, our aim was to design a neuropsychological treatment based on current theoretical models and test it experimentally in 20 confabulators sequentially allocated to two groups: an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received nine sessions of treatment for three weeks (three sessions per week). The sessions consisted of some brief material that participants had to learn and recall at both immediate and delayed time points. After this, patients were given feedback about their performance (errors and correct responses). Pre- and post-treatment measurements were recorded. Confabulators in the control group were included in a waiting list for three weeks, performed the pre- and post- measurements without treatment, and only then received the treatment, after which a post-treatment measurement was recorded. This applied to only half of the participants; the other half quit the study prematurely. Results showed a significant decrease in confabulations and a significant increase in correct responses in the experimental group; by contrast, patients in the control group did not improve during the waiting list period. Only control group patients who subsequently received the treatment after serving as controls improved. The effects of the treatment were generalized to patients’ everyday lives, as reported by relatives, and persisted over time. This treatment seems to be effective and easy to implement and consequently of clinical interest. Moreover, it also has theoretical implications regarding the processes related to the genesis and/or maintenance of confabulations. In particular, results point to a deficit in early stages of memory retrieval with the preservation of later strategic monitoring processes. Specifically, some of the processes involved may include selective attention or early conflict detection deficits. Future research should test these hypotheses.This research was carried out in San Rafael University Hospital in Granada, Spain, and was supported by the research grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education to Juan Lupiáñez (PSI2011-22416 and PSI2014-52764-P) and to María Jesús Funes (PSI2012-34158), the research grant from the Regional Government of Andalusia to María Jesús Funes (SEJ-6351), and the research grant from the Progress and Health Foundation of the Regional Government of Andalusia to Mónica Triviño (PI-0361-2014)