Pupillary Correlates of Fluctuations in Sustained Attention

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 1241-1253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nash Unsworth ◽  
Matthew K. Robison ◽  
Ashley L. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Pupil Diameter ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Short Isis ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Tonic Pupil ◽  
Pupillary Responses ◽  
Attention Performance ◽  
Attention To Task

The current study examined pupillary correlates of fluctuations and lapses of sustained attention. Participants performed a sustained attention task with either a varied ISI or a fixed ISI (fixed at 2 or 8 sec) while pupil responses were continuously recorded. The results indicated that performance was worse when the ISI was varied or fixed at 8 sec compared with when the ISI was fixed at 2 sec, suggesting that varied or long ISI conditions require greater intrinsic alertness compared with constant short ISIs. In terms of pupillary responses, the results demonstrated that slow responses (indicative of lapses) were associated with greater variability in tonic pupil diameter, smaller dilation responses during the ISI, and subsequently smaller dilation responses to stimulus onset. These results suggest that lapses of attention are associated with lower intrinsic alertness, resulting in a lowered intensity of attention to task-relevant stimuli. Following a lapse of attention, performance, tonic pupil diameter, and phasic pupillary responses, all increased, suggesting that attention was reoriented to the task. These results are consistent with the notion that pupillary responses track fluctuations in sustained attention.

Assessing the effects of caffeine and theanine on the maintenance of vigilance during a sustained attention task

2012 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 2320-2327 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. Foxe ◽  
Kristen P. Morie ◽  
Peter J. Laud ◽  
Matthew J. Rowson ◽  
Eveline A. de Bruin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Attention Task

Interactive effects of background facial emotion stimulus and target salience on sustained attention performance in schizophrenia

2012 ◽  
Vol 135 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 90-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Hyouk Park ◽  
Jin-Chan Noh ◽  
Jin Hun Kim ◽  
Jaewon Lee ◽  
Jin Young Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Attention Performance

Deficits in a sustained attention task following nicotine withdrawal in rats

2004 ◽  
Vol 178 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 211-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Shoaib ◽  
Lisiane Bizarro
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Nicotine Withdrawal ◽  
Attention Task

scholarly journals Dynamics of cerebral responses to sustained attention performance during one night of sleep deprivation

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanqiang Zhu ◽  
Yibin Xi ◽  
Ningbo Fei ◽  
Yuchen Liu ◽  
Xinxin Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Deprivation ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Attention Performance

scholarly journals Interpersonal early-life trauma alters amygdala connectivity and sustained attention performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. e00684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca C. Fortenbaugh ◽  
Vincent Corbo ◽  
Victoria Poole ◽  
Regina McGlinchey ◽  
William Milberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Trauma ◽  
Attention Performance

scholarly journals Overlapping attentional networks yield divergent behavioral predictions across tasks: Neuromarkers for diffuse and focused attention?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther X.W. Wu ◽  
Gwenisha J. Liaw ◽  
Rui Zhe Goh ◽  
Tiffany T.Y. Chia ◽  
Alisia M.J. Chee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Attentional Blink ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Attention Networks ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Performance Predictions ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Reading Recall ◽  
The Common ◽  
Attention Performance ◽  
Behavioral Predictions

AbstractAttention is a critical cognitive function, allowing humans to select, enhance, and sustain focus on information of behavioral relevance. Attention contains dissociable neural and psychological components. Nevertheless, some brain networks support multiple attentional functions. Connectome-based Predictive Models (CPM), which associate individual differences in task performance with functional connectivity patterns, provide a compelling example. A sustained attention network model (saCPM) successfully predicted performance for selective attention, inhibitory control, and reading recall tasks. Here we constructed a visual attentional blink (VAB) model (vabCPM), comparing its performance predictions and network edges associated with successful and unsuccessful behavior to the saCPM’s. In the VAB, attention devoted to a target often causes a subsequent item to be missed. Although frequently attributed to attentional limitations, VAB deficits may attenuate when participants are distracted or deploy attention diffusely. Participants (n=73; 24 males) underwent fMRI while performing the VAB task and while resting. Outside the scanner, they completed other cognitive tasks over several days. A vabCPM constructed from these data successfully predicted VAB performance. Strikingly, the network edges that predicted better VAB performance (positive edges) predicted worse selective and sustained attention performance, and vice versa. Predictions from the saCPM mirrored these results, with the network’s negative edges predicting better VAB performance. Furthermore, the vabCPM’s positive edges significantly overlapped with the saCPM’s negative edges, and vice versa. We conclude that these partially overlapping networks each have general attentional functions. They may indicate an individual’s propensity to diffusely deploy attention, predicting better performance for some tasks and worse for others.Significance statementA longstanding question in psychology and neuroscience is whether we have general capacities or domain-specific ones. For such general capacities, what is the common function? Here we addressed these questions using the attentional blink (AB) task and neuroimaging. Individuals searched for two items in a stream of distracting items; the second item was often missed when it closely followed the first. How often the second item was missed varied across individuals, which was reflected in attention networks. Curiously, the networks’ pattern of function that was good for the AB was bad for other tasks, and vice versa. We propose that these networks may represent not a general attentional ability, but rather the tendency to attend in a less focused manner.

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