scholarly journals Normal and Impaired Reflexive Orienting of Attention after Central Nonpredictive Cues

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Bonato ◽  
Konstantinos Priftis ◽  
Roberto Marenzi ◽  
Marco Zorzi
Keyword(s):  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Hemispatial Neglect ◽  
Exogenous Orienting ◽  
Reflexive Orienting ◽  
Right Brain ◽  
Peculiar Form ◽  
Peripheral Cues ◽  
Healthy Participants

Recent studies suggest that stimuli with directional meaning can trigger lateral shifts of visuospatial attention when centrally presented as noninformative cues. We investigated covert orienting in healthy participants and in a group of 17 right brain-damaged patients (9 with hemispatial neglect) comparing arrows, eye gaze, and digits as central nonpredictive cues in a detection task. Orienting effects elicited by arrows and eye gaze were overall consistent in healthy participants and in right brain-damaged patients, whereas digit cues were ineffective. Moreover, patients with neglect showed, at the shortest delay between cue and target, a disengage deficit for arrow cueing whose magnitude was predicted by neglect severity. We conclude that the peculiar form of attentional orienting triggered by the directional meaning of arrow cues presents some features previously thought to characterize only the stimulus-driven (exogenous) orienting to noninformative peripheral cues.

The Frontal Cortex and Exogenous Attentional Orienting

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 1913-1923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice J. Snyder ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Exogenous Orienting ◽  
Reflexive Orienting ◽  
Exogenous Cues ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Component Processes ◽  
Neural Underpinnings

Normal functioning of the attentional orienting system is critical for effective behavior and is predicated on a balanced interaction between goal-directed (endogenous) processes and stimulus-driven (exogenous) processes. Although both systems have been subject to much investigation, little is known about the neural underpinnings of exogenous orienting. In the present study, we examined the early facilitatory effects and later inhibition of return effects of exogenous cues in patients with frontal and parietal lesions. Three novel findings emerged from this study. First, unilateral frontoparietal damage appears not to affect the early facilitation effects of exogenous cues. Second, dorsolateral prefrontal damage, especially lesions involving the inferior frontal gyrus, produces an exogenous disengage deficit (i.e., the sluggish withdrawal of attention from the ipsilesional to the contralesional field). Third, a subset of patients with dorsolateral prefrontal damage, with lesions involving the middle frontal gyrus, have a reorienting deficit that extends in duration well beyond established boundaries of the normal reflexive orienting system. These results suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex plays an important role in exogenous orienting and that component processes of this system may be differentially impaired by damage to different parts of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Sex differences in eye gaze and symbolic cueing of attention

2005 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew P. Bayliss ◽  
Giuseppe di Pellegrino ◽  
Steven P. Tipper
Keyword(s):  
Normal Population ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Autism Spectrum Quotient ◽  
Exogenous Orienting ◽  
Brain Theory ◽  
Attention Systems ◽  
Symbolic Cues ◽  
Extreme Male Brain Theory ◽  
Gaze Cues

Observing a face with averted eyes results in a reflexive shift of attention to the gazed-at location. Here we present results that show that this effect is weaker in males than in females (Experiment 1). This result is predicted by the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism (Baron-Cohen, 2003), which suggests that males in the normal population should display more autism-like traits than females (e.g., poor joint attention). Indeed, participants′ scores on the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Stott, Bolton, & Goodyear, 2001) negatively correlated with cueing magnitude. Furthermore, exogenous orienting did not differ between the sexes in two peripheral cueing experiments (Experiments 2a and 2b). However, a final experiment showed that using non-predictive arrows instead of eyes as a central cue also revealed a large gender difference. This demonstrates that reduced orienting from central cues in males generalizes beyond gaze cues. These results show that while peripheral cueing is equivalent in the male and female brains, the attention systems of the two sexes treat noninformative symbolic cues very differently.

Reflexive orienting in response to eye gaze and an arrow in children with and without autism

2004 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsushi Senju ◽  
Yoshikuni Tojo ◽  
Hitoshi Dairoku ◽  
Toshikazu Hasegawa
Keyword(s):  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Reflexive Orienting

scholarly journals Eye Gaze Correlates of Motor Impairment in VR Observation of Motor Actions

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (01) ◽  
pp. 79-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Vourvopoulos ◽  
A. Bernardino ◽  
i Bermúdez Badia ◽  
J. Alves
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Smooth Pursuit ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Action Observation ◽  
Motor Impairment ◽  
Motor Deficits ◽  
Stroke Patients ◽  
Motor Actions ◽  
Healthy Participants

Summary Introduction: This article is part of the Focus Theme of Methods of Information in Medicine on “Methodologies, Models and Algorithms for Patients Rehabilitation”. Objective: Identify eye gaze correlates of motor impairment in a virtual reality motor observation task in a study with healthy participants and stroke patients. Methods: Participants consisted of a group of healthy subjects (N = 20) and a group of stroke survivors (N = 10). Both groups were required to observe a simple reach-and-grab and place-and-release task in a virtual environment. Additionally, healthy subjects were required to observe the task in a normal condition and a constrained movement condition. Eye movements were recorded during the observation task for later analysis. Results: For healthy participants, results showed differences in gaze metrics when comparing the normal and arm-constrained conditions. Differences in gaze metrics were also found when comparing dominant and non-dominant arm for saccades and smooth pursuit events. For stroke patients, results showed longer smooth pursuit segments in action observation when observing the paretic arm, thus providing evidence that the affected circuitry may be activated for eye gaze control during observation of the simulated motor action. Conclusions: This study suggests that neural motor circuits are involved, at multiple levels, in observation of motor actions displayed in a virtual reality environment. Thus, eye tracking combined with action observation tasks in a virtual reality display can be used to monitor motor deficits derived from stroke, and consequently can also be used for re -habilitation of stroke patients.

Differential Effects of Lowered Arousal on Covert and Overt Shifts of Attention

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 545-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Fimm ◽  
Klaus Willmes ◽  
Will Spijkers
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Tight Coupling ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Norepinephrine System ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Healthy Participants

AbstractBased on previous studies demonstrating detrimental effects of reduced alertness on attentional orienting our study seeks to examine covert and overt attentional orienting in different arousal states. We hypothesized an attentional asymmetry with increasing reaction times to stimuli presented to the left visual field in a state of maximally reduced arousal. Eleven healthy participants underwent sleep deprivation and were examined repeatedly every 4 hr over 28 hr in total with two tasks measuring covert and overt orienting of attention. Contrary to our hypothesis, a reduction of arousal did not induce any asymmetry of overt orienting. Even in participants with profound and significant attentional asymmetries in covert orienting no substantial reaction time differences between left- and right-sided targets in the overt orienting task could be observed. This result is not in agreement with assumptions of a tight coupling of covert and overt attentional processes. In conclusion, we found differential effects of lowered arousal induced by sleep deprivation on covert and overt orienting of attention. This pattern of results points to a neuronal non-overlap of brain structures subserving these functions and a differential influence of the norepinephrine system on these modes of spatial attention. (JINS, 2015,21, 545–557)

Spatio-temporal localisation of attentional orienting to gaze and peripheral cues

2012 ◽  
Vol 1439 ◽  
pp. 44-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoko Nagata ◽  
Sarah J. Bayless ◽  
Travis Mills ◽  
Margot J. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Peripheral Cues ◽  
Spatio Temporal

scholarly journals Focusing on the face or getting distracted by social signals? The effect of distracting gestures on attentional focus in natural interaction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Wykowska
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Social Cues ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Social Signals ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Reflexive Orienting ◽  
Natural Interaction ◽  
Pointing Gestures ◽  
The Face

Attentional orienting towards others’ gaze direction or pointing has been wellinvestigated in laboratory conditions. However, less is known about the operation ofattentional mechanisms in online naturalistic social interaction scenarios. It is equally plausible that following social directional cues (gaze, pointing) occurs reflexively, and/orthat it is influenced by top-down cognitive factors. In a mobile eye-tracking experiment,we show that under natural interaction conditions overt attentional orienting is notnecessarily reflexively triggered by pointing gestures or a combination of gaze shifts andpointing gestures. We found that participants conversing with an experimenter, who,during the interaction, would play out pointing gestures as well as directional gaze movements, continued to mostly focus their gaze on the face of the experimenter, demonstrating the significance of attending to the face of the interaction partner – in linewith effective top-down control over reflexive orienting of attention in the direction of social cues.

scholarly journals Measuring Gaze and Arrow Cuing Effects With a Short Test Adapted to Brain Damaged Patients With Unilateral Spatial Neglect: A Preliminary Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rindra Narison ◽  
Marie de Montalembert ◽  
Andrew Bayliss ◽  
Laurence Conty
Keyword(s):  
Older Patients ◽  
Brain Lesion ◽  
Brain Lesions ◽  
Spatial Neglect ◽  
Short Version ◽  
Unilateral Spatial Neglect ◽  
Right Brain ◽  
Short Test ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Healthy Participants

People with left unilateral spatial neglect (USN) following a right brain lesion show difficulty in orienting their attention toward stimuli presented on the left. However, cuing the stimuli with gaze direction or a pointing arrow can help some of them to compensate for this difficulty. In order to build a tool that helps to identify these patients, we needed a short version of the paradigm classically used to test gaze and arow cuing effects in healthy adults, adapted to the capacities of patients with severe attention deficit. Here, we tested the robustness of the cuing effects measured by such a short version in 48 young adult healthy participants, 46 older healthy participants, 10 patients with left USN following a right brain lesion (USN+), and 10 patients with right brain lesions but no USN (USN–). We observed gaze and arrow cuing effects in all populations, independently of age and presence or absence of a right brain lesion. In the neglect field, the USN+ group showed event greater cuing effect than older healthy participants and the USN– group. We showed that gaze and arrow cuing effects are powerful enough to be detected in a very short test adapted to the capacities of older patients with severe attention deficits, which increases their applicability in rehabilitation settings. We further concluded that our test is a suitable basis to develop a tool that will help neuropsychologists to identify USN patients who respond to gaze and/or arrow cuing in their neglect field.

Inhibition of Return, but Not Facilitation, Disappears Under Vigilance Decrease Due to Sleep Deprivation

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Martella ◽  
Andrea Marotta ◽  
Luis J. Fuentes ◽  
Maria Casagrande
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Inhibition Of Return ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Target Interval ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Peripheral Cues ◽  
Endogenous Component ◽  
Phasic Alerting

In this study, we assessed whether unspecific attention processes signaled by general reaction times (RTs), as well as specific facilitatory (validity or facilitation effect) and inhibitory (inhibition of return, IOR) effects involved in the attentional orienting network, are affected by low vigilance due to both circadian factors and sleep deprivation (SD). Eighteen male participants performed a cuing task in which peripheral cues were nonpredictive about the target location and the cue-target interval varied at three levels: 200 ms, 800 ms, and 1,100 ms. Facilitation with the shortest and IOR with the longest cue-target intervals were observed in the baseline session, thus replicating previous related studies. Under SD condition, RTs were generally slower, indicating a reduction in the participants’ arousal level. The inclusion of a phasic alerting tone in several trials partially compensated for the reduction in tonic alertness, but not with the longest cue-target interval. With regard to orienting, whereas the facilitation effect due to reflexive shifts of attention was preserved with sleep loss, the IOR was not observed. These results suggest that the decrease of vigilance produced by SD affects both the compensatory effects of phasic alerting and the endogenous component involved in disengaging attention from the cued location, a requisite for the IOR effect being observed.

Investigating gaze processing in euthymic bipolar disorder: Impaired ability to infer mental state and intention, but preservation of social attentional orienting

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (10) ◽  
pp. 2041-2051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Marotta ◽  
Roberto Delle Chiaie ◽  
Laura Bernabei ◽  
Rosangela Grasso ◽  
Massimo Biondi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Interpersonal Problems ◽  
Attentional Orienting ◽  
Impaired Ability ◽  
Cueing Task ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Mind

Euthymic bipolar disorder (BD) has been associated with subtle impairment in face processing. However, it is not known whether their difficulties extend to the processing of gaze. In the present study, two tasks, both of which rely on the ability to make use of the eye region of a pictured face, were used: the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test and the Eye-gaze cueing task. Compared to healthy controls, BD patients were impaired at judging mental state from images of the face but showed normal susceptibility to the direction of gaze as an attentional cue. These findings suggest that BD patients present selective gaze processing impairment, limited to the sensitivity to intention and emotion. This impairment could account at least partially for the higher levels of interpersonal problems generally observed in BD.

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