Studying the integrated functional cognitive basis of sustained attention with a Primed Subjective-Illusory-Contour Attention Task

Abstract

Sustained attention plays an important role in everyday life, for work, learning, or when affected by attention disorders. Studies of the neural correlates of attention commonly treat sustained attention as an isolated construct, measured with computerized continuous performance tests. However, in any ecological context, sustained attention interacts with other executive functions and depends on lower level perceptual processing. Such interactions occur, for example, in inhibition of interference, and processing of complex hierarchical stimuli; both of which are important for successful ecological attention. Motivated by the need for more studies on neural correlates of higher cognition, I present an experiment to investigate these interactions of attention in 17 healthy participants measured with high-resolution electroencephalography. Participants perform a novel 2-alternative forced-choice computerised performance test, the Primed Subjective Illusory Contour Attention Task (PSICAT), which presents gestalt-stimuli targets with distractor primes to induce interference inhibition during complex-percept processing. Using behavioural and brain-imaging analyses, I demonstrate the novel result that task-irrelevant incongruency can evoke stronger behavioural and neural responses than the task-relevant stimulus condition; a potentially important finding in attention disorder research. PSICAT is available as an open-source code repository at the following url, allowing researchers to reuse and adapt it to their requirements. https://github.com/zenBen/Kanizsa_Prime/.

Reduced Power in Fronto-Parietal Theta EEG Linked to Impaired Attention-Sampling in Adult ADHD

“…TOVA was administered toward the beginning of the measurement session (as suggested by Greenberg et al, 2016 ; p. 24). The full session included preparation (30–40 min), pretest baseline measurement (5 min), TOVA (22 min), resting state vigilance measurement (20 min), a novel CPT (30 min; detailed in Cowley, 2018 ), and a post-test baseline measurement (2 min).…”

Strength of attention-sampling parietal EEG theta rhythm is linked to impaired inhibition in adult ADHD

“…There was a significant main effect of time on alpha power (RQ 3), as measured from both frontal ( F (10,56)=5.77, p <.0005, η 2 =.508) and parietal electrodes ( F (10,56)=4.68, p <.0005, η 2 =.455). That is, power in the extended alpha band (8-12 Hz) increased with time in both groups.…”

“…TOVA was administered towards the beginning of the measurement session (as suggested by Greenberg and Hughes (55, p-24)). The full session included preparation (30-40 min), pre-test baseline measurement (5 min), TOVA (22 min), resting state vigilance measurement (20 min), a novel CPT (30 mins; designed by (56)) and a post-test baseline measurement (2 mins).…”

Children’s inhibition skills are associated with their P3a latency—results from an exploratory study

“…Polich et al [ 107 ] investigated children and adults and found that there was a link between P3a latencies and working memory scores, such that the shorter the latency, the better scores were obtained in a digit span test. Studying the impact that inhibition of distractor-based interference had on visual attention in adults, Cowley [ 108 ] showed that intra-modal distractors (primers incongruent to following targets) had much larger effect on P3a amplitude than the task-relevant difference between target types, and this was mirrored by reaction times and error rates. In other words, the requirement to inhibit (incongruent distractors) caused much larger P3a and concomitant slow reaction times, compared to the requirement to shift task (select target types).…”