scholarly journals Exploring reward-related attention selectivity deficits in Parkinson’s disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. D. Pilgrim ◽  
Zhen-Yi Andy Ou ◽  
Madeleine Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Adaptive Modulation ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Reward Value ◽  
Automatic Attention ◽  
Reward Information

AbstractAn important aspect of managing a limited cognitive resource like attention is to use the reward value of stimuli to prioritize the allocation of attention to higher-value over lower-value stimuli. Recent evidence suggests this depends on dopaminergic signaling of reward. In Parkinson’s disease, both reward sensitivity and attention are impaired, but whether these deficits are directly related to one another is unknown. We tested whether Parkinson’s patients use reward information when automatically allocating their attention and whether this is modulated by dopamine replacement. We compared patients, tested both ON and OFF dopamine replacement medication, to older controls using a standard attention capture task. First, participants learned the different reward values of stimuli. Then, these reward-associated stimuli were used as distractors in a visual search task. We found that patients were generally distracted by the presence of the distractors but that the degree of distraction caused by the high-value and low-value distractors was similar. Furthermore, we found no evidence to support the possibility that dopamine replacement modulates the effect of reward on automatic attention allocation. Our results suggest a possible inability in Parkinson’s patients to use the reward value of stimuli when automatically allocating their attention, and raise the possibility that reward-driven allocation of resources may affect the adaptive modulation of other cognitive processes.

scholarly journals Selective attention is insensitive to reward and to dopamine in Parkinson’s disease

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Pilgrim ◽  
Zhen-Yi Andy Ou ◽  
Madeleine Sharp
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Striatal Dopamine ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
High Reward ◽  
Executive Deficits ◽  
Reward Information

AbstractPatients with Parkinson’s disease exhibit reduced reward sensitivity in addition to early cognitive deficits, among which attention impairments are common. Attention allocation is controlled at multiple levels and recent work has shown that reward, in addition to its role in the top-down goal-directed control of attention, also guides the automatic allocation of attention resources, a process thought to rely on striatal dopamine. Whether Parkinson’s patients, due to their striatal dopamine loss, suffer from an inability to use reward information to guide the allocation of their attention is unknown. To address this question, we tested Parkinson’s patients (n=43) ON and OFF their dopaminergic medication, and compared them to a group of older controls (n=31). We used a standard two-phase attention capture task in which subjects were first implicitly trained to make colour-reward associations. In the second phase, the previously reward-associated colours were used as distractors in a visual search task. We found that patients did not use reward information to modulate their attention; they were similarly distracted by the presence of low and high-reward distractors. However, contrary to our predictions, we did not find evidence that dopamine modulated this inability to use reward to guide attention allocation. Additionally, we found slightly increased overall distractibility in Parkinson’s patients compared to older controls, but interestingly, the degree of distractibility was not influenced by dopamine replacement. Our results suggest that loss of reward-guided attention allocation may contribute to early attention deficits and raise the possibility that this inability to prioritize cognitive resource allocation could contribute to executive deficits more broadly in Parkinson’s disease.

The Change Processes in Selective Attention during Adulthood. Inhibition or Processing Speed?

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Introzzi ◽  
Eliana Zamora ◽  
Yesica Aydmune ◽  
María Marta Richard’s ◽  
Ana Comesaña ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Response Speed ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Speed Task

Abstract Selective attention is involved in multiple daily activities. Several authors state that it experiences a decline after 20 years, although there is no agreement regarding the cognitive processes that explain it. Two theories dominate the discussion: The theory of inhibitory inefficiency and the theory of processing speed. At the same time, it has been suggested that there could be complementary relations between both; however, it is not clear what the contribution of inhibition and processing speed is on the changes of selective attention. Therefore, the present study proposes to analyze this contribution, in adults between 20 and 80 years old. To assess selective attention and inhibitory control, two indices of a visual search task were obtained in which participants must identify a target stimulus among a set of distracting stimuli. To evaluate the processing speed, a response speed task was used. The main results indicate that, from the age of 60, a gradual decrease in selective attention begins and that this decline can be largely explained by a decrease in processing speed and inhibitory control. We discuss about the literature on the development of selective attention, the contribution of processing speed, and the inhibitory inefficiency hypothesis.

scholarly journals The role of dopamine in action control: insights from medication effects in Parkinson’s disease

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marit Ruitenberg ◽  
Nelleke van Wouwe ◽  
Scotty Wylie ◽  
Elger Abrahamse
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Action Control ◽  
Motor Functioning ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Medication Effects ◽  
Medication Status

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurological disorder associated primarily with overt motor symptoms. Several studies show that PD is additionally accompanied by impairments in covert cognitive processes controlling motor functioning (e.g., action planning, adaptation, inhibition), and that dopaminergic medication may modulate such action control. In this review we aim to leverage findings from studies in this domain to elucidate the role of dopamine (DA) in action control. A qualitative review of studies that investigated the effects of medication status (on vs. off) on action control in PD suggests a component-specific role for DA in action control, although the expression of medication effects depends on characteristics of both the patients and experimental tasks used to measure action control. We discuss these results in the light of findings from other research lines examining the role of DA in action control (e.g., animal research, pharmacology), and recommend that future studies use multi-method, within-subject approaches to model DA effects on action control across different components as well as underlying striatal pathways (ventral vs. dorsal).

Do New Objects Capture Attention?

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven L. Franconeri ◽  
Andrew Hollingworth ◽  
Daniel J. Simons
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Attention Capture ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
Perceptual Object ◽  
Brightness Change

The visual system relies on several heuristics to direct attention to important locations and objects. One of these mechanisms directs attention to sudden changes in the environment. Although a substantial body of research suggests that this capture of attention occurs only for the abrupt appearance of a new perceptual object, more recent evidence shows that some luminance-based transients (e.g., motion and looming) and some types of brightness change also capture attention. These findings show that new objects are not necessary for attention capture. The present study tested whether they are even sufficient. That is, does a new object attract attention because the visual system is sensitive to new objects or because it is sensitive to the transients that new objects create? In two experiments using a visual search task, new objects did not capture attention unless they created a strong local luminance transient.

Measuring cognitive processes in patients with parkinson's disease

1991 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fioravanti ◽  
R. W. Kulhavy ◽  
F. D. Cesare ◽  
L. C. Caterino ◽  
W. A. Stock
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Processes

scholarly journals Dopamine replacement remediates risk aversion in Parkinson’s disease in a value-independent manner

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariya V. Cherkasova ◽  
Jeffrey C. Corrow ◽  
Alisdair Taylor ◽  
Shanna C. Yeung ◽  
Jacob L. Stubbs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Risk Tolerance ◽  
Independent Manner ◽  
A Value ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Reward Value ◽  
Expected Values ◽  
Gain Frame

ABSTRACTIntroductionClinical evidence suggests that Parkinson’s Disease (PD) patients are risk averse. Dopaminergic therapy has been reported to increase risk tolerance, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Some studies have suggested an amplification of subjective reward value, consistent with the role of dopamine in reward value coding. Others have reported value-independent risk enhancement. We evaluated the value-dependence of the effects of PD and its therapy on risk using tasks designed to sensitively measure risk over a wide range of expected values.Method36 patients with idiopathic PD receiving levodopa monotherapy and 36 healthy matched controls performed two behavioural economic tasks aimed at quantifying 1) risk tolerance/ aversion in the gain frame and 2) valuation of potential gains relative to losses. PD patients performed the tasks on and off their usual dose of levodopa in randomized order; controls performed the same tasks twice.ResultsRelative to the controls, unmedicated PD patients showed significant value-independent risk aversion in the gain frame, which was normalized by levodopa. PD patients did not differ from controls in their valuation of gains relative to losses. However, across both tasks and regardless of medication, choices of the patients were more determined by expected values of the prospects than those of controls.ConclusionDopamine deficiency in PD was associated with risk aversion, and levodopa promoted riskier choice in a value-independent manner. PD patients also showed an increased sensitivity to expected value, which was independent of levodopa and does not appear to result directly from dopamine deficiency.

Visual Search Processes in Healthy Aging

Perception ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 26 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 4-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Tales ◽  
T Troscianko ◽  
S R Butler
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Size Task

It is well established that there are two limiting types of visual search, a pre-attentive parallel and an attention-related serial process. Such different types of processing may depend upon different regions of the visual cortex and such a measurable dissociation of function could provide a useful marker for particular types of cortical pathology, such as that associated with Parkinson's disease, aging, and Alzheimer's disease. For example, recent studies in this laboratory have shown that people with Parkinson's disease have abnormal parallel but normal serial search functions. Plude and Doussard-Roosevelt (1989 Psychology and Aging4 98 – 105) found no difference in parallel processing between older and young adults, but found that older adults performed worse on a conjunction task. The aim of the present experiment was to extend this research and look at the effect of aging on other types of visual search task and to compare these findings to patients with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease to determine if different patterns of visual function occur. Twenty-five young adults (mean age 32.6 years) and twenty-five older adults (mean age 63.4 years) performed both a conjunction task and a task involving the detection of a target only slightly larger than the distractors (the ‘size’ task). Our hypothesis was that for both types of visual search there would be an increase in search slope in the older adult group compared to the younger adults. Results of a 2-factor (1 between and 1 within) ANOVA performed on the slope values indicate statistically significant main effects of both age ( F=7.661, p<0.008) and search task ( F=25.426, p<0.0001), where in both the conjunction and size task the slope value was significantly greater for the older than for the younger adults. The slope for the size task was significantly greater than that for the conjunction task for both age groups. The results therefore support our hypothesis and further work is in progress to determine the effects of Alzheimer's disease on different types of visual search processing.

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