Sensory source for stroop effects in persons after TBI: support from fNIRS-based investigation

Abstract

We recently read the interesting and informative paper BfNIRS-based investigation of performance on a Stroop task after TBI^ (Plenger et al. 2015). The authors were careful not to interpret the behavioral data as supporting a deficit in selective-attention in TBI, but rather that the BTBI group had significantly more difficulty performing the incongruent task.^We would like to further suggest that the compelling and novel imaging data provided in that study provides support for a sensory source for the increase in Stroop interference after TBI Schneider 2009, 2010;Ben-David et al. 2011, 2014.The color word Stroop test is the most commonly used tool to assess selective-attention in TBI. The classic Stroop test includes at least two tasks: (1) Naming the font color of a stimulus unrelated to color (dot color naming condition in Plenger et al. 2015; baseline condition); and (2) Naming the font color of a color-word, where the semantic content is mismatched with the print color -e.g., the word RED printed in blue (incongruent condition in Plenger et al. 2015). The latency difference between the two tasks is referred to as the Stroop Interference (SI). Generally, larger SIs are found for TBI patients than for healthy controls. This TBI-related increase in SI is typically taken to reflect a decrease in selective-attention after TBI. In a recent meta-analysis (Ben-David et al. 2011), we suggested that TBI-related changes in sensory processing, specifically color-vision, could explain (at least in part) this increase in SI after TBI. In our analysis, we found a TBI-related increase in baseline color-naming latencies that was significantly larger (by around 30 %) than a TBI-related increase in reading latencies (reading a word printed black on white). This imbalanced slowdown for color-naming after TBI was correlated with the TBI-related increase in SI. Indeed, Melara and Algom (2003) have suggested that the SI could be the outcome of faster access to the representation of the (semantic) word code than to the representation of the font-color code. In other words, we proposed that increased difficulty in color-vision processing after TBI could be the source for inflated SI, beyond any changes in selective attention. We note that the greater difficulty in color naming after TBI is not reflected in the behavioral data of Plenger et al. This may be a result of using error rates as the dependent variable, which may not be sensitive enough for gauging these small-scale differences in baseline color-naming.The fNIRS data collected by Plenger and colleagues may present some support for this sensory theory. For controls, there were additional loci of brain activity when

The Effect of Practice and Visual Feedback on Oral-Diadochokinetic Rates for Younger and Older Adults

“…This echoes the seminal work by Lindenberger and Baltes (1994) that found that 93% of age-related variance in cognitive performance was related to visual and auditory measures. For example, studies by Ben-David and colleagues have shown that visual changes in an older population (Ben-David & Schneider, 2009, 2010), as well as in various clinical populations (Ben-David, Nguyen, & van Lieshout, 2011; Ben-David, Shakuf, & van Lieshout, 2016; Ben-David, Tewari, Shakuf, & van Lieshout, 2014) were associated with reduced attentional performance.…”

Research progress of functional near-infrared spectroscopy in patients with psychiatric disorders

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