The speed of visual attention in schizophrenia: Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence

Luck, Steven J.; Fuller, Rebecca; Braun, Elsie L.; Robinson, Benjamin M.; Summerfelt, Ann; Gold, James M.

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2006.03.040

Cited by 89 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…To extract this component from overlapping visual (target) selection-nonspecific eventrelated potentials (ERPs), it is recommended to subtract the waveforms recorded ipsilateral to the target location from the contralateral waveforms, resulting in the contralateral-minusipsilateral PCN difference wave. The amplitude of this PCN wave typically is interpreted as indicating the amount of attentional-resource allocation required for a task, and its latency has been regarded as marking the transition from preattentive sensory coding to the stage of focal-attentional selection (18,19). Recently, the timing of the PCN has been shown to depend on a variety of factors, including bottom-up stimulus intensity (20) and saliency (21,22) as well as top-down featural (23) and dimensional set (24), illustrating the flexibility of human visuocortical processing as a function of external (stimulus) and internal (system) settings.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How the speed of motor-response decisions, but not focal-attentional selection, differs as a function of task set and target prevalence

Töllner

Rangelov

Müller

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Over the last decades, the visual-search paradigm has provided a powerful test bed for competing theories of visual selective attention. However, the information required to decide upon the correct motor response differs fundamentally across experimental studies, being based, for example, on the presence, spatial location, or identity of the target item. This variability raises the question as to whether estimates of the time taken for (i) focalattentional selection, (ii) deciding on the motor response, and (iii) response execution generalize across search studies or are specific to the demands of a particular task set. To examine this issue, we presented physically identical stimulus material in four different search task conditions, requiring target localization, detection, discrimination, or compound responses, and combined mental chronometry with two specific electroencephalographic brain responses that are directly linkable to either preattentive or postselective levels of visual processing. Behaviorally, reactions were fastest for localization, slowest for compound responses, and of intermediate speed for detection and discrimination responses. At the electroencephalographic level, this effect of task type manifested in the timing of the stimulus-and response-locked lateralized readiness potential (indexing motor-response decisions), but not posterior contralateral negativity (indexing focal-attentional selection), component. This result demonstrates that only the stage of preattentive visual coding generalizes across task settings, whereas processes that follow focal target selection are dependent on the nature of the task. Consequently, this task set-specific pattern has fundamental implications for all types of experimental paradigms, within and beyond visual search, that require humans to generate motor responses on the basis of external sensory stimulation.decision making | stimulus-response translation | visual attention D eciding upon the appropriate motor (e.g., vocal, manual) response is one of the most ubiquitous tasks posed by everyday life. In most instances, such decisions are determined by relevant or salient sensory (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile) information extracted from the multitude of stimuli present in the external world by selective-attention mechanisms (1, 2). Over the last century, a remarkable variety of experimental paradigms (e.g., visual search, dual task, task switching) has been developed to approximate such decision-making processes in the laboratory. One prominent example, which has provided a powerful test bed for competing theories of visual selective attention (3-5), is visual search. In the standard visual-search paradigm, humans or other primates are presented with a display that can contain a target item among a variable number of distractor items, with reaction times (RT) to the target and response accuracy providing the critical performance measures. Interestingly, however, when study designs are compared in terms of their underlying task settings [i.e., stimul...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How the speed of motor-response decisions, but not focal-attentional selection, differs as a function of task set and target prevalence

Töllner

Rangelov

Müller

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The implementation of selection was recently assessed using event-related potentials (ERPs) in the context of a visual search task (48). Subjects searched for either a red target or a green target in an array of gray distractor objects, and the attention-related N2pc component (49,50) was used to measure the allocation of attention to the target.…”

Section: The Implementation Of Selection In Schizophreniamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Construct of Attention in Schizophrenia

Luck

Gold²

2008

Biological Psychiatry

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271

232

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Schizophrenia is widely thought to involve deficits of attention. However, the term attention can be defined so broadly that impaired performance on virtually any task could be construed as evidence for a deficit in attention, and this has slowed cumulative progress in understanding attention deficits in schizophrenia. To address this problem, we divide the general concept of attention into two distinct constructs: input selection, the selection of task-relevant inputs for further processing; and rule selection, the selective activation of task-appropriate rules. These constructs are closely tied to working memory, because input selection mechanisms are used to control the transfer of information into working memory and because working memory stores the rules used by rule selection mechanisms. These constructs are also closely tied to executive function, because executive systems are used to guide input selection and because rule selection is itself at key aspect of executive function. Within the domain of input selection, it is important to distinguish between the control of selection -the processes that guide attention to task-relevant inputs-and the implementation of selectionthe processes that enhance the processing of the relevant inputs and suppress the irrelevant inputs. Current evidence suggests that schizophrenia involves a significant impairment in the control of selection but little or no impairment in the implementation of selection. Consequently, the CNTRICS participants agreed by consensus that attentional control should be a priority target for measurement and treatment research in schizophrenia.Theorists have suggested that schizophrenia involves disorders of attention beginning with the original clinical descriptions of the illness (1,2). However, the term attention has many meanings, and impairment in almost any task could be construed as a consequence of a deficit in attention. The situation is further complicated by the fact that-even when narrowly defined -attention serves to modulate and enhance the functioning of other cognitive systems (e.g., perception, memory, response selection) and interacts extensively with working memory and executive control systems, making it difficult to isolate the role of impairments in attention from impairments in these other systems.The goal of this article is to present a framework for conceptualizing attention that derives from recent advances from the fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. This framework can be used to organize both the types of experimental paradigms that are used to

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“…Several neuroimaging studies of response selection have looked specifically at individuals with schizophrenia Gallinat et al, 2002;Woodward et al, 2009;McAllindon et al, 2009;Luck et al, 2006;Luck et al, 2009). Other studies have used simple RT as a paradigm in people with schizophrenia (Barch et al, 2003).…”

Section: Neuroimaging Studies Of Response Selection In Schizophreniamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Luck has performed a series of EEG studies in an effort to localise when the cognitive deficit in response selection in people with schizophrenia occurs (Luck et al, 2006;Luck et al, 2009). The first of this series is reported in Luck et al (2006), Experiment 1 and tries to identify if there is a deficit in speed of allocation of attention.…”

Section: Neuroimaging Studies Of Response Selection In Schizophreniamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Directions in Research into Response Selection Slowing in Schizophrenia

McAllindon¹,

Tibbo²

2012

Schizophrenia in the 21st Century

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The speed of visual attention in schizophrenia: Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence

Cited by 89 publications

References 69 publications

How the speed of motor-response decisions, but not focal-attentional selection, differs as a function of task set and target prevalence

How the speed of motor-response decisions, but not focal-attentional selection, differs as a function of task set and target prevalence

The Construct of Attention in Schizophrenia

Directions in Research into Response Selection Slowing in Schizophrenia

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