scholarly journals Effects of mid-frontal brain stimulation on sustained attention

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martine R. van Schouwenburg ◽  
Ilja G. Sligte ◽  
Michael R. Giffin ◽  
Franziska Günther ◽  
Dirk Koster ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Electrical Current ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Frontal Brain ◽  
Subject Design ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
Over Time

AbstractSustained attention is defined as the ability to maintain attention over longer periods of time, which typically declines with time on task (i.e., the vigilance decrement). Previous studies have suggested an important role for the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in sustained attention. In two experiments, we aimed to enhance sustained attention by applying transcranial electrical current stimulation over the mPFC during a sustained attention task. In the first experiment, we applied transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in a between-subject design (n=97): participants received either anodal, cathodal, or sham stimulation. Contrary to our prediction, we found no effect of stimulation on the vigilance decrement. In the second experiment, participants received theta and alpha transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) in two separate sessions (n=47, within-subject design). Here, we found a frequency-dependent effect on the vigilance decrement, such that contrary to our expectation, participants’ performance over time became worse after theta compared to alpha stimulation. However, this result needs to be interpreted with caution given that this effect could be driven by differential side effects between the two stimulation frequencies. To conclude, across two studies, we were not able to reduce the vigilant decrement using tDCS or theta tACS.

scholarly journals Sustaining attention for a prolonged period of time increases temporal variability in cortical responses

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon C. Reteig ◽  
Ruud L. van den Brink ◽  
Sam Prinssen ◽  
Michael X Cohen ◽  
Heleen A. Slagter
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Temporal Variability ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Initial Level ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Related Potentials

AbstractOur ability to stay focused is limited: prolonged performance of a task typically results in mental fatigue and decrements in performance over time. This so-called vigilance decrement has been attributed to depletion of attentional resources, though other factors such as reductions in motivation likely also play a role. In this study, we examined three EEG markers of attentional control, to elucidate which stage of attentional processing is most affected by time-on-task and motivation. To elicit the vigilance decrement, participants performed a sustained attention task for 80 minutes without breaks. After 60 minutes, participants were motivated by an unexpected monetary incentive to increase performance in the final 20 minutes. We found that task performance and self-reported motivation declined rapidly, reaching a stable levels well before the motivation manipulation was introduced. Thereafter, motivation increased back up to the initial level, and remained there for the final 20 minutes. While task performance also increased, it did not return to the initial level, and fell to the lowest level overall during the final 10 minutes. This pattern of performance changes was mirrored by the trial-to-trial consistency of the phase of theta (3–7 Hz) oscillations, an index of the variability in timing of the neural response to the stimulus. As task performance decreased, temporal variability increased, suggesting that attentional stability is crucial for sustained attention performance. The effects of attention on our two other EEG measures—early P1/N1 event-related potentials and pre-stimulus alpha (9–14 Hz) power—did not change with time-on-task or motivation. In sum, these findings show that the vigilance decrement is accompanied by a decline in only some facets of attentional control, which cannot be fully brought back online by increases in motivation. The vigilance decrement might thus not occur due to a single cause, but is likely multifactorial in origin.

Performance in Vigilance Tasks is Related to Both State and Contextual Motivation

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1145-1149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis R. Dewar ◽  
Nicholas W. Fraulini ◽  
Victoria L. Claypoole ◽  
James L. Szalma
Keyword(s):  
Intrinsic Motivation ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Vigilance Performance ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
State Motivation

Vigilance, or sustained attention, is the ability to maintain attention to stimuli over a prolonged period of time. Synonymous with the study of sustained attention is the vigilance decrement, which is a decline in performance as a function of time on task. In the present study, we examined the effects of state motivation (i.e., motivation measured immediately prior to the task) and context-based motivation (i.e., motivation that stems from task instructions) on vigilance performance in a sensory-based vigilance task. Forty-three participants completed a 24-minute vigilance task, as well as measures of stress and workload. The results indicated that those higher in state intrinsic motivation and motivating instructions outperformed their peers in terms of hits and false alarms. We conclude that motivation may help facilitate vigilant attention.

Psychometric Curves Reveal Three Mechanisms of Vigilance Decrement

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762110075
Author(s):  
Jason S. McCarley ◽  
Yusuke Yamani
Keyword(s):  
Response Bias ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Hierarchical Modeling ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Perceptual Sensitivity ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Bayesian Hierarchical ◽  
Attentional Lapses

The vigilance decrement is a decline in signal detection rate that occurs over time on a sustained-attention task. The effect has typically been ascribed to conservative shifts of response bias and losses of perceptual sensitivity. Recent work, though, has suggested that sensitivity losses in vigilance tasks are spurious, and other findings have implied that attentional lapses contribute to vigilance failures. To test these possibilities, we used Bayesian hierarchical modeling to compare psychometric curves for the first and last blocks of a visual vigilance task. Participants were a convenience sample of 99 young adults. Data showed evidence for all three postulated mechanisms of vigilance loss: a conservative shift of response bias, a decrease in perceptual sensitivity, and a tendency toward more frequent attentional lapses. Results confirm that sensitivity losses are possible in a sustained-attention task but indicate that mental lapses can also contribute to the vigilance decrement.

Event-related cerebral hemodynamics in 2-D and 3-D Visual Vigilance Tasks

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1558-1562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric T. Greenlee ◽  
Joel S. Warm ◽  
Gregory J. Funke ◽  
Robert E. Patterson ◽  
Adam J. Strang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Cerebral Blood Flow Velocity ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Optimal Detection ◽  
Hemodynamic Effects ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Sustained Performance ◽  
Global Cerebral Blood Flow ◽  
Over Time

Recently, Greenlee et al. (2015) demonstrated that a stereoscopic 3-D display attenuated the vigilance decrement, stabilizing optimal detection performance. Yet, the 3-D display did not halt the decline in global cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV), an index of cortical resource utilization, which typically accompanies the vigilance decrement. One possible explanation for this enigmatic finding is that global CBFV may not have been sensitive enough to detect the neurological correlates of superior sustained performance in the 3-D condition. Perhaps a more fine-grained measure of CBFV would reveal the underlying neural markers. To explore that possibility, event-related analyses were employed to uncover moment-to-moment changes in CBFV. These analyses revealed that CBFV increased selectively in response to signal detections in the 3-D condition but not in the 2-D. Like performance in the 3-D condition, the detection-related CBFV response in that condition remained stable over time on task. These findings indicate that event-related measurement of detection-specific neural activity can uncover hemodynamic effects that may otherwise be buried by the tides of global CBFV. Implications for future CBFV research are discussed.

Vigilance all the way down: Vigilance decrement in jumping spiders resembles that of humans

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1530-1538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber Melrose ◽  
Ximena J Nelson ◽  
Yinnon Dolev ◽  
William S Helton
Keyword(s):  
Signal Detection ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Animal Cognition ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Fundamental Characteristic ◽  
Sensory Receptors ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Jumping Spiders ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
Peripheral Sensory

The inability to maintain signal detection performance with time on task, or vigilance decrement, is widely studied in people. Despite suggestions that limitations in sustained attention may be a fundamental characteristic of animal cognition, there has been limited research on the vigilance decrement in other animals. We conducted two experiments to explore vigilance in jumping spiders. Our first experiment established that the vigilance decrement, decline in signal detections with time on task, occurs in these spiders in laboratory settings. Our second experiment tested whether this phenomenon was simply the result of habituation of sensory receptors by employing two dishabituation manipulations. Neither dishabituation manipulation appeared to have an effect. Thus, the vigilance decrement in spiders appears to be due to something more than simply peripheral sensory habituation. We suggest that limitations in sustained attention may be a widespread phenomenon among animals that needs addressing when theorising about the vigilance decrement.

scholarly journals Sustaining Attention for a Prolonged Duration Affects Dynamic Organizations of Frequency-Specific Functional Connectivity

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 677-692
Author(s):  
Jia Liu ◽  
Yongjie Zhu ◽  
Hongjin Sun ◽  
Tapani Ristaniemi ◽  
Fengyu Cong
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Tensor Component ◽  
Phase Lag ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Sensorimotor Network ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Prolonged Duration ◽  
Low Dimensional

Abstract Sustained attention encompasses a cascade of fundamental functions. The human ability to implement a sustained attention task is supported by brain networks that dynamically formed and dissolved through oscillatory synchronization. The decrement of vigilance induced by prolonged task engagement affects sustained attention. However, little is known about which stage or combinations are affected by vigilance decrement. Here, we applied an analysis framework composed of weighted phase lag index (wPLI) and tensor component analysis (TCA) to an EEG dataset collected during 80 min sustained attention task to examine the electrophysiological basis of such effect. We aimed to characterize the phase-coupling networks to untangle different phases involved in sustained attention and study how they are modulated by vigilance decrement. We computed the time–frequency domain wPLI from each block and subject and constructed a fourth-order tensor, containing the time, frequency, functional connectivity (FC), and blocks × subjects. This tensor was subjected to the TCA to identify the interacted and low-dimensional components representing the frequency-specific dynamic FC (fdFC). We extracted four types of neuromakers during a sustained attention task, namely the pre-stimulus alpha right-lateralized parieto-occipital FC, the post-stimulus theta fronto-parieto-occipital FC, delta fronto-parieto-occipital FC, and beta right/left sensorimotor FCs. All these fdFCs were impaired by vigilance decrement. These fdFCs, except for the beta left sensorimotor network, were restored by rewards, although the restoration by reward in the beta right sensorimotor network was transient. These findings provide implications for dissociable effects of vigilance decrement on sustained attention by utilizing the tensor-based framework.

scholarly journals Effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation over right-DLPFC on vigilance tasks depend on the arousal level

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Martínez-Pérez ◽  
Miriam Tortajada ◽  
Lucía B. Palmero ◽  
Guillermo Campoy ◽  
Luis J. Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Alternating Current ◽  
Arousal Level ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation ◽  
The Right

AbstractCurrent theoretical accounts on the oscillatory nature of sustained attention predict that entrainment via transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at alpha and theta frequencies on specific areas of the prefrontal cortex could prevent the drops in vigilance across time-on-task. Nonetheless, most previous studies have neglected both the fact that vigilance comprises two dissociable components (i.e., arousal and executive vigilance) and the potential role of differences in arousal levels. We examined the effects of theta- and alpha-tACS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in both components of vigilance and in participants who differed in arousal level according to their chronotype and time of testing. Intermediate-types performed the vigilance tasks when their arousal level was optimal, whereas evening-types performed the vigilance tasks when their arousal levels were non-optimal. Both theta- and alpha-tACS improved arousal vigilance in the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT), whereas alpha-tACS, but not theta-tACS, improved executive vigilance in the sustained attention to response task (SART), and counteracted the typical vigilance decrement usually observed in this task. Importantly, these stimulation effects were only found when arousal was low (i.e., with evening-types performing the tasks at their non-optimal time of day). The results support the multicomponent view of vigilance, the relevance of heeding individual differences in arousal, and the role of alpha oscillations as a long-range cortical scale synchronization mechanism that compensates the decrements in performance as a function of time-on-task by exerting and maintaining cognitive control attributed to activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Spatial and sustained attention in relation to smoking status: behavioural performance and brain activation patterns

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 1485-1495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Vossel ◽  
Tracy Warbrick ◽  
Arian Mobascher ◽  
Georg Winterer ◽  
Gereon R Fink
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Smoking Status ◽  
Response Speed ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
The Right ◽  
Over Time

Nicotine enhances attentional functions. Since chronic nicotine exposure through smoking induces neuroadaptive changes in the brain at a structural and molecular level, the present functional MRI (fMRI) study aimed at investigating the neural mechanisms underlying visuospatial and sustained attention in smokers and non-smokers. Visuospatial attention was assessed with a location-cueing paradigm, while sustained attention was measured by changes in response speed over time. During invalid trials, neural activity within the basal forebrain was selectively enhanced in smokers and higher basal forebrain activity was associated with increased parietal cortex activation. Moreover, higher levels of expired carbon monoxide in smokers before scanning were associated with higher parietal cortex activation and faster responses to invalidly cued targets. Smokers showed a slowing of responses and additionally recruited an area within the right supramarginal gyrus with increasing time on task. Activity decreases over time were observed in visual areas in smokers. The data provide evidence for altered attentional functions in smokers as compared with non-smokers, which were partly modulated by residual nicotine levels and were observed at a behavioural level for sustained and at a neural level for spatial and sustained attention.

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