Effects of regular or irregular event schedules on cerebral hemovelocity during a sustained attention task

Abstract

Transcranial Doppler sonography was used to measure bilateral cerebral blood flow velocity during sustained attention task performance where the background event schedule occurred in a synchronous (temporally regular) or asynchronous (temporally irregular) manner. Perceptual sensitivity was greater in the synchronous case and declined over time in both conditions. Blood flow velocity was greater in the more difficult asynchronous condition and declined over time in both conditions in the right hemisphere, but the decline in blood flow velocity was limited to the asynchronous condition in the left hemisphere. The results are interpreted in terms of a resource model of sustained attention.

Using cerebral hemovelocity to measure workload during a spatialised auditory vigilance task in novice and experienced observers

“…More specifically, when tasks impose a high degree of psychophysical demand, cerebral hemodynamics can be elevated for both hemispheres, whereas when tasks are less demanding, haemodynamic effects associated with workload are restricted to the right hemisphere (e.g. Shaw et al 2012). In this study, these findings appear to be reversed; the right hemisphere is more elevated in the harder condition (monaural radio) than the left, whereas in the easier condition both hemispheres are declining significantly over time.…”

“…The absolute level of blood flow velocity is directly related to increases in task difficulty (Hitchcock et al 2003;Shaw et al 2009Shaw et al , 2012Warm, Matthews, and Parasuraman 2009), and the vigilance decrement is paralleled by a temporal decline in cerebral hemovelocity (Schnittger et al 1997;Shaw et al 2009). In addition, the CBFV effects are lateralised to the right cerebral hemisphere, consistent with PET and fMRI studies that point to a right-hemispheric system in the functional control of vigilance performance (Parasuraman, Warm, and See 1998).…”

The Effects of Stereoscopic Depth on Vigilance Task Performance and Cerebral Hemodynamics

“…In accord with several prior investigations using 2D displays, CBFV was significantly higher in the right than in the left cerebral hemisphere when 2D signals were involved indicating a right hemispheric system in the functional control of vigilance when 2D signals are to be detected (Shaw, Finomore, Warm, & Matthews, 2012;Warm et al, 2008;. Like the 2D condition, CBFV in the 3D condition was also significantly greater in the right than in the left hemisphere demonstrating that right hemispheric control also occurs for vigilance performance in the detection of 3D signals.…”

Passive perceptual learning versus active searching in a novel stimuli vigilance task

“…Research employing positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) indicate that attention resources may be related to changes in cerebral blood flow in the frontal cortex and in particular the pre-frontal cortex (Langner and Eickhoff 2013;Lim et al 2010). This work has also been corroborated by studies using less restrictive neuroimaging technology including functional near infrared spectroscopy (Carter et al 2013;De Joux et al 2013;Helton et al 2007Helton et al , 2010Ossowski et al 2011;Stevenson et al 2011), functional transcranial Doppler sonography (Helton et al 2007;Hitchcock et al 2003;Matthews et al 2010;Shaw et al 2009Shaw et al , 2012Shaw et al , 2013, and functional tympanic membrane temperature (Helton 2010;Helton et al 2009a, b). Moreover, researchers have begun to explore the possibility of enhancing resourcing during vigilance by employing transcranial direct current stimulation to increase the activity of the neural systems involved in sustaining attention (McIntire et al 2014;Nelson et al 2014).…”