Attention Flashcards
What is sustained attention?
Maintaining attention during continuous and repetitive activities.
Attention components of sohlberg and mateer’s clinical taxonomy of attention
Sustained attention Executive control (selective, alternating, suppression, working memory)
What is selective attention?
Ability to focus attention on a selective tasks while inhibiting responses to no target info
What is alternating attention?
Shifting focus between tasks, stimuli or response sets
What is working memory?
Ability to hold and manipulate information in the mind
What is unilateral neglect?
AKA hemi spatial neglect
Is a CONSEQUENCE of right hemisphere lesion that impairs attention
Does unilateral neglect happen with left hemisphere lesions?
Yes but it is not as common
What is neglect in regards to brain damage?
Decreased ability to detect, orient toward or respond to stimuli on the space OPPOSITE the lesion
When a person fails to read left sides of words and/or lines of text after having a right hemisphere lesion, what is it called?
Neglect Dyslexia
Patients with parietal lesions have trouble disengaging from which side?
Ipsilateral side
The right hemisphere directs attention what what side of space?
Left hemisphere?
Right: Both Sides
Left: only contralateral side
Why is a right hemisphere lesion more severe in terms of attention?
Because right directs both sides while left of directs contralateral side (right hemispace) THEREFORE one side will experience neglect
Damage to the right hemisphere causes:
Unilateral neglect
Sustained attention
Vigilance
Arousal
What is SART? What can it measure?
Sustained attention response test
Measures response times.
Right hemisphere stroke victims take longer to process items than left hemisphere stroke victims
TBI has been shown to cause what?
Slowed cognitive processing Attention (vigilance, sustained attention, selective attention, divided attention) problems Executive control (inhibiting distractions)
What is the difference between SART results of patients with TBI compare to those with right hemisphere lesions?
Right hemisphere had slower reaction times
TBI had Quicker reactions but they were less accurate
TBI patient’s deficit of executive control of attention makes it hard to?
Resist distraction
During testing of TBI patients, what do auditory distractors do? What do visual distractors do?
Visual: slow reaction time
Auditory: poor performance
Are TBI patients susceptible to internal distraction?
Yes!
How do you know if TBI patients have impairment in divided attention task?
Depends on the TYPE of task.
Episodic/semantic memory processing SHOWS impairments
Task that DO NOT require memory components DO NOT show impairment
Do we know the primary deficit in TBI patients?
No! Depends on:
Severity, time after onset, premorbid functioning, presence of coexisting conditions (stress/depression) etc.
T/F: dementia with Lewy bodies is the only disorder in which attention deficits are key in diagnosis according to DSM-V?
True!!
But attention impairments are common in neuro cognitive disorders.
What impairments are shown early in the diagnosis of AD (Alzheimer’s)?
Executive control
Divided attention
Is attention the main focus of assessment of dementia?
No!! But it’s helpful in obtaining diagnostic information
Damage of the left hemisphere causing language impairment is MAJOR in defining?
Aphasia
In patients with aphasia, is attention the main focus?
No but it helps with treatment
What does aphasia impair?
Language performance NOT underlying linguistic competency.
Which components of attention are commonly impaired in clients with aphasia?
Arousal, vigilance and sustained attention in linguistic AND no linguistic tasks
