3b. Attention

Question 1

Selective attention can be subdivided in…? (3x)

Answer 1

Top-down attention = “look for a blue bike” –> happens under your own control

Bottom-up attention = happens less under your own control and is thus more automatically, e.g. the pink bike may draw your attention

Effects of selection history = a factor that might influence attention, e.g. if you always put your bike right, this is where you might direct your attention to

Question 2

Eye tracking

Why can eye movement patterns be used as an index of memory?

Answer 2

Since at first, people will look at a familiar object, but after that they devote more time at the novel one. This is already evident in very young children, since they do not master the language yet.

Question 3

Eye tracking

Why can eyemovement patterns provide us information about social cognition?

Answer 3

E.g. patients with ASD have abnormal gaze patterns (less eye fixations around the eyes).

Question 4

Eye tracking

To what 3 things can pupil size react?

And what are these phenomena called?

Answer 4

1. Brightness = pupil light response (PLR)
2. Near fixation = pupil near response (PNR)
3. Increased cognitive activity (arousal, mental effort, harder task) = psychosensory pupil response (PPR)

Question 5

Treatment

What is neurofeedback?

Example for ADHD patients.

Answer 5

Neurofeedback provides the brain a mirror by visualizing what’s happening in the brain. The aim is to train the brain to increase or decrease activity in certain frequencies.

Children with ADHD have higher levels of delta & theta brain waves (which are associated with cognitive control and motor activity). An example: an air balloon goes up when bèta increases, and down when bèta decreases. So the aim is to increase attention levels, and decrease activity and impulsivity levels.

Question 6

Treatment

Why do some studies find effects of neurofeedback? Name 4 general non-specific effects.

Answer 6

1. Cognitive training: repeating this may have a beneficial effect on cognition in general.
2. Investment bias: “i’m doing this for weeks”, of course there should be an effect.
3. Placebo effect: people may think already beforehand that it will work.
4. Natural cause: spontaneous remission, growing over attention problems.

Question 7

Treatment

Which 2 types of treatments for hemi spatial neglect (attention problem) can you name?

Answer 7

1. Extrensic/top-down approach: e.g. visual scanning training –> “imagine you’re a lighthouse and scan left and right”, to redirect attention and make them aware of the left-side. This can have pretty long-term effects.
2. Intrinsic/bottom-up approach: e.g. prism glasses –> these shift the world a bit to the neglected side. Also here, you can see an after-treatment effect.

Question 8

Diagnostics

What is VRLAT?

What are positive aspects? (4x)

And what is 1 negative aspect?

Answer 8

VR Lateralized Attention Test: can be used to test hemineglect in post-stroke patients. You have to travel along a virtual path, identify objects on both sides, and avoid colliding with the objects.

Positive:

• Strong sensitivity and specificity
• Minimal practice effects
• Strong validity
• It outperforms paper and pencil tasks in the prediction of real-world collisions

Negative:
- Interaction with VR systems may be challenging for stroke patients (motor problems)

Question 9

Diagnostics

What does the MonAmour test?

Answer 9

It combines the assessment of both egocentric as allocentric stimuli (and different modalities).

Question 10

Diagnostics

An objective measure based on Posner & Petersen’s influential theory of attention networks –> resulting in a personal attentional profile.

Which tests can be used when assessing the following domains?

1. Sustained attention
2. Selective attention
3. Orienting of attention
4. Executive attention

Answer 10

1. Sustained attention: Continuous Performance Test –> a target is presented only a few trials, so people have to really pay attention and respond when seeing a target.
2. Selective attention: Line Orientation Task or Conjunctive Search Task –> participants have to respond to a blue square among blue circles and red squares
3. Orienting of attention: Peripheral Cueing Paradigm –> there are 2 boxes and 1 will be highlighted, which can predict the onset of a target on that side (valid trial) or not (invalid trial)
4. Executive attention: Location-Direction Stroop-like Task –> participants repond to the direction that the arrow is pointing towards, with congruent and incongruent trials (how well can you deal with conflicting information?)

Question 11

Which test allows to measure types of attention, offering an objective measure of attentional performance?

Answer 11

The Nesplora AURA VR test