scholarly journals Baseline Differences in Anxiety Affect Attention and tDCS-Mediated Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin C. Gibson ◽  
Melissa Heinrich ◽  
Teagan S. Mullins ◽  
Alfred B. Yu ◽  
Jeffrey T. Hansberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Category Learning ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Attentional Control Theory ◽  
Remote Associates Test

Variable responses to transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) protocols across individuals are widely reported, but the reasons behind this variation are unclear. This includes tDCS protocols meant to improve attention. Attentional control is impacted by top-down and bottom-up processes, and this relationship is affected by state characteristics such as anxiety. According to Attentional Control Theory, anxiety biases attention towards bottom-up and stimulus-driven processing. The goal of this study was to explore the extent to which differences in state anxiety and related measures affect visual attention and category learning, both with and without the influence of tDCS. Using discovery learning, participants were trained to classify pictures of European streets into two categories while receiving 30 min of 2.0 mA anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS over the rVLPFC. The pictures were classifiable according to two separate rules, one stimulus and one hypothesis-driven. The Remote Associates Test (RAT), Profile of Mood States, and Attention Networks Task (ANT) were used to understand the effects of individual differences at baseline on subsequent tDCS-mediated learning. Multinomial logistic regression was fit to predict rule learning based on the baseline measures, with subjects classified according to whether they used the stimulus-driven or hypothesis-driven rule to classify the pictures. The overall model showed a classification accuracy of 74.1%. The type of tDCS stimulation applied, attentional orienting score, and self-reported mood were significant predictors of different categories of rule learning. These results indicate that anxiety can influence the quality of subjects’ attention at the onset of the task and that these attentional differences can influence tDCS-mediated category learning during the rapid assessment of visual scenes. These findings have implications for understanding the complex interactions that give rise to the variability in response to tDCS.

Post-event processing in social anxiety: Investigation using Attentional Control Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 247-267
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Sluis ◽  
◽  
Mark J. Boschen ◽  
David L. Neumann ◽  
Karen Murphy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Event Processing ◽  
Attentional Control Theory

scholarly journals Top–Down Attentional Control in Parkinson's Disease: Salient Considerations

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 848-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roshan Cools ◽  
Robert Rogers ◽  
Roger A. Barker ◽  
Trevor W. Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Set Shifting ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Salient Dimension ◽  
Dimensional Salience

Cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been hypothesized to reflect a failure of cortical control. In keeping with this hypothesis, some of the cognitive deficits in PD resemble those seen in patients with lesions in the lateral pFC, which has been associated with top–down attentional control. However, there is no direct evidence for a failure of top–down control mechanisms in PD. Here we fill this gap by demonstrating disproportionate control by bottom–up attention to dimensional salience during attentional set shifting. Patients needed significantly more trials to criterion than did controls when shifting to a low-salient dimension while, remarkably, needing significantly fewer trials to criterion than did controls when shifting to a high-salient dimension. Thus, attention was captured by bottom–up attention to salient information to a greater extent in patients than in controls. The results provide a striking reinterpretation of prior set-shifting data and provide the first direct evidence for a failure of top–down attentional control, resembling that seen after catecholamine depletion in the pFC.

Striatal contributions to category learning: Quantitative modeling of simple linear and complex nonlinear rule learning in patients with Parkinson's disease

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 710-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. TODD MADDOX ◽  
J. VINCENT FILOTEO
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
Category Learning ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
Quantitative Model ◽  
Perceptual Categorization ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Rule Application ◽  
Frontal Lobe Functioning

The contribution of the striatum to category learning was examined by having patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and matched controls solve categorization problems in which the optimal rule was linear or nonlinear using the perceptual categorization task. Traditional accuracy-based analyses, as well as quantitative model-based analyses were performed. Unlike accuracy-based analyses, the model-based analyses allow one to quantify and separate the effects of categorization rule learning from variability in the trial-by-trial application of the participant's rule. When the categorization rule was linear, PD patients showed no accuracy, categorization rule learning, or rule application variability deficits. Categorization accuracy for the PD patients was associated with their performance on a test believed to be sensitive to frontal lobe functioning. In contrast, when the categorization rule was nonlinear, the PD patients showed accuracy, categorization rule learning, and rule application variability deficits. Furthermore, categorization accuracy was not associated with performance on the test of frontal lobe functioning. Implications for neuropsychological theories of categorization learning are discussed. (JINS, 2001, 7, 710–727.)

Anxiety, Processing Efficiency, and Cognitive Performance

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazanin Derakshan ◽  
Michael W. Eysenck
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Performance Effectiveness ◽  
Theoretical Predictions ◽  
Attentional Control Theory ◽  
Efficiency Theory ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Switching Attention

There have been many attempts to account theoretically for the effects of anxiety on cognitive performance. This article focuses on two theories based on insights from cognitive psychology. The more recent is the attentional control theory ( Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007 ), which developed from the earlier processing efficiency theory ( Eysenck & Calvo, 1992 ). Both theories assume there is a fundamental distinction between performance effectiveness (quality of performance) and processing efficiency (the relationship between performance effectiveness and use of processing resources), and that anxiety impairs processing efficiency more than performance effectiveness. Both theories also assume that anxiety impairs the efficiency of the central executive component of the working memory system. In addition, attentional control theory assumes that anxiety impairs the efficiency of two types of attentional control: (1) negative attentional control (involved in inhibiting attention to task-irrelevant stimuli); and (2) positive attentional control (involved in flexibly switching attention between and within tasks to maximize performance). Recent (including unpublished) research relevant to theoretical predictions from attentional control theory is discussed. In addition, future directions for theory and research in the area of anxiety and performance are presented.

scholarly journals Anxiety, anticipation and contextual information: A test of attentional control theory

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1037-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. Cocks ◽  
Robin C. Jackson ◽  
Daniel T. Bishop ◽  
A. Mark Williams
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Attentional Control Theory

An EEG study of the combined effects of top-down and bottom-up attentional selection under varying task difficulty

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Einat Rashal ◽  
Mehdi Senoussi ◽  
Elisa Santandrea ◽  
Suliann Ben Hamed ◽  
Emiliano Macaluso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Target Selection ◽  
Attentional Selection ◽  
Combined Effects ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Search Tasks

This work reports an investigation of the effect of combined top-down and bottom-up attentional control sources, using known attention-related EEG components that are thought to reflect target selection (N2pc) and distractor suppression (PD), in easy and difficult visual search tasks.

Examining the effects of musical type and intensity in performing the flanker task: A test of attentional control theory applied to non-emotional distractions

2020 ◽  
pp. 030573562092259
Author(s):  
Michael D Oliver ◽  
Jacob J Levy ◽  
Debora R Baldwin
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Sound Intensity ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Attentional Control Theory ◽  
And Performance

Music alters the interplay between components of cognition and performance; however, there are inconclusive findings on how. One explanation may be Attentional Control Theory, which states that anxiety places demands on cognitive resources producing adverse effects on cognitive performance. Similarly, characteristics of music alter cognitive faculties resulting in poor performance. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate effects on cognition specific to influences of music through the lens of Attentional Control Theory. In an attempt to explain how music impacts cognitive performance, we asked 141 college students (63.1% female) to complete the flanker task while listening to either lyrical or non-lyrical music at differing sound intensities. Results revealed a significant main effect of music type on flanker performance; however, no significant differences emerged with sound intensity. Findings suggest music with lyrics, rather than intensity, impairs cognition in adults, thereby elucidating the importance of avoiding music with lyrics during active tasks. Moreover, musical lyrics worsen performance by either interfering with selective attention processing of goal-relevant information or altering working memory capacity resulting in decreases in processing efficiency and performance effectiveness. Therefore, findings support the use of attentional control theory as a means of explaining differences in cognitive performance due to characteristics of music.

Anxiety, Inhibition, Efficiency, and Effectiveness

2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazanin Derakshan ◽  
Tahereh L. Ansari ◽  
Miles Hansard ◽  
Leor Shoker ◽  
Michael W. Eysenck
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Error Rate ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Antisaccade Task ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Performance Effectiveness ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
High Anxious ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Attentional Control Theory

Effects of anxiety on the antisaccade task were assessed. Performance effectiveness on this task (indexed by error rate) reflects a conflict between volitional and reflexive responses resolved by inhibitory processes (Hutton, S. B., & Ettinger, U. (2006). The antisaccade task as a research tool in psychopathology: A critical review. Psychophysiology, 43, 302–313). However, latency of the first correct saccade reflects processing efficiency (relationship between performance effectiveness and use of resources). In two experiments, high-anxious participants had longer correct antisaccade latencies than low-anxious participants and this effect was greater with threatening cues than positive or neutral ones. The high- and low-anxious groups did not differ in terms of error rate in the antisaccade task. No group differences were found in terms of latency or error rate in the prosaccade task. These results indicate that anxiety affects performance efficiency but not performance effectiveness. The findings are interpreted within the context of attentional control theory (Eysenck, M. W., Derakshan, N., Santos, R., & Calvo, M. G. (2007). Anxiety and cognitive performance: Attentional control theory. Emotion, 7 (2), 336–353).

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