Embodiment modifies attention allotment for the benefit of dual task performance
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Iwasaki Y
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9283402 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:How does visual attention affect spatial resolution? In texture-segmentation tasks, exogenous (involuntary) attention automatically increases resolution at the attended location, which improves performance where resolution is too low (at the periphery) but impairs performance where resolution is already too high (at central locations). Conversely, endogenous (voluntary) attention improves performance at all eccentricities, which suggests a more flexible mechanism. Here, using selective adaptation to spatial frequency, we investigated the mechanism by which endogenous attention benefits performance in resolution tasks. Participants detected a texture target that could appear at several eccentricities. Adapting to high or low spatial frequencies selectively affected performance in a manner consistent with changes in resolution. Moreover, adapting to high, but not low, frequencies mitigated the attentional benefit at central locations where resolution was too high; this shows that attention can improve performance by decreasing resolution. Altogether, our results indicate that endogenous attention benefits performance by modulating the contribution of high-frequency information in order to flexibly adjust spatial resolution according to task demands.
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Project description:Animals navigate using cognitive maps. However, how they adaptively exploit these maps in changing environments is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the problem-solving behaviors of mice in a complicated maze in which multiple routes with different intersections were available (Test 1). Although all mice eventually settled on the shortest route, mice that initially exhibited more trial-and-error exploration solved the maze more rapidly. We then introduced one or two barriers that obstructed learned routes such that mice had to establish novel roundabout detours (Tests 2/3). Solutions varied among mice but were predictable based on individual early trial-and-error patterns observed in Test 1: mice that had initially explored more extensively found better solutions. Finally, when the barriers were removed (Test 4), all mice reverted to the best solution after active exploration. Thus, early active exploration helps mice to develop optimal strategies.
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Project description:We test people's ability to optimize performance across two concurrent tasks. Participants performed a number entry task while controlling a randomly moving cursor with a joystick. Participants received explicit feedback on their performance on these tasks in the form of a single combined score. This payoff function was varied between conditions to change the value of one task relative to the other. We found that participants adapted their strategy for interleaving the two tasks, by varying how long they spent on one task before switching to the other, in order to achieve the near maximum payoff available in each condition. In a second experiment, we show that this behavior is learned quickly (within 2-3 min over several discrete trials) and remained stable for as long as the payoff function did not change. The results of this work show that people are adaptive and flexible in how they prioritize and allocate attention in a dual-task setting. However, it also demonstrates some of the limits regarding people's ability to optimize payoff functions.
| S-EPMC5969112 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Consistent spatial patterns of coherent activity, representing large-scale networks, have been reliably identified in multiple populations. Most often, these studies have examined "stationary" connectivity. However, there is a growing recognition that there is a wealth of information in the time-varying dynamics of networks which has neural underpinnings, which changes with age and disease and that supports behavior. Using factor analysis of overlapping sliding windows across 25 participants with Parkinson disease (PD) and 21 controls (ages 41-86), we identify factors describing the covarying correlations of regions (dynamic connectivity) within attention networks and the default mode network, during two baseline resting-state and task runs. Cortical regions that support attention networks are affected early in PD, motivating the potential utility of dynamic connectivity as a sensitive way to characterize physiological disruption to these networks. We show that measures of dynamic connectivity are more reliable than comparable measures of stationary connectivity. Factors in the dorsal attention network (DAN) and fronto-parietal task control network, obtained at rest, are consistently related to the alerting and orienting reaction time effects in the subsequent Attention Network Task. In addition, the same relationship between the same DAN factor and the alerting effect was present during tasks. Although reliable, dynamic connectivity was not invariant, and changes between factor scores across sessions were related to changes in accuracy. In summary, patterns of time-varying correlations among nodes in an intrinsic network have a stability that has functional relevance.
| S-EPMC4313397 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionParkinson's disease patients carrying a heterozygous mutation in the gene glucocerebrosidase (GBA-PD) show faster motor and cognitive decline than idiopathic Parkinson's disease (iPD) patients, but the mechanisms behind this observation are not well understood. Successful dual tasking (DT) requires a smooth integration of motor and nonmotor operations. This study compared the DT performances between GBA-PD and iPD patients.MethodsEleven GBA-PD patients (p.N370S, p.L444P) and eleven matched iPD patients were included. Clinical characterization included a motor score (Unified PD Rating Scale-III, UPDRS-III) and nonmotor scores (Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA, and Beck's Depression Inventory). Quantitative gait analysis during the single-task (ST) and DT assessments was performed using a wearable sensor unit. These parameters corrected for UPDRS and MoCA were then compared between the groups.ResultsUnder the DT condition "walking while checking boxes," GBA-PD patients showed slower gait and box-checking speeds than iPD patients. GBA-PD and iPD patients did not show significant differences regarding dual-task costs.ConclusionThis pilot study suggests that DT performance with a secondary motor task is worse in GBA-PD than in iPD patients. This finding may be associated with the known enhanced motor and cognitive deficits in GBA-PD compared to iPD and should motivate further studies.
| S-EPMC5551514 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Older adults show higher dual task performance decrements than younger adults. While this is assumed to be related to attentional capacity reductions, the precise affected functions are not specified. Such specification is, however, possible based on the "theory of visual attention" (TVA) which allows for modeling of distinct attentional capacity parameters. Furthermore, it is unclear whether older adults show qualitatively different attentional effects or whether they show the same effects as younger adults experience under more challenging conditions. By varying the complexity of the secondary task, it is possible to address this question. In our study, participants performed a verbal whole report of briefly presented letter arrays. TVA-based fitting of report performance delivered parameters of visual threshold t0, processing speed C, and visual short-term memory (VSTM) storage capacity K. Furthermore, participants performed a concurrent motor task consisting of continuous tapping of a (simple or complex) sequence. Both TVA and tapping tasks were performed under single and dual task conditions. Two groups of 30 younger adults each performed either the simple or complex tapping, and a group of 30 older adults performed the simple tapping condition. In older participants, VSTM storage capacity declined under dual task conditions. While no such effect was found in younger subjects performing the simple tapping sequence under dual task conditions, the younger group performing the complex tapping task under dual task conditions also showed a significant VSTM capacity reduction. Generally, no significant effect on other TVA parameters or on tapping accuracy was found. Comparable goodness-of-fit measures were obtained for the TVA modeling data in single and dual tasks, indicating that tasks were executed in a qualitatively similar, continuous manner, although quantitatively less efficiently under dual- compared to single-task conditions. Taken together, our results show that the age-specific effects of motor-cognitive dual task interference are reflected by a stronger decline of VSTM storage capacity. They support an interpretation of VSTM as central attentional capacity, which is shared across visual uptake and concurrent motor performance. Capacity limits are reached earlier, and already under lower motor task complexity, in older compared to younger adults.
| S-EPMC6129777 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Cognitive tasks impact postural control when performed concurrently as dual-tasks. This is presumed to result from capacity limitations in relevant brain regions. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activation of the left motor, temporal, and dorsal-lateral prefrontal brain regions of younger (n=6) and older (n=10) adults. Brain activation was measured during an auditory choice reaction task (CRT) and standing on a dynamic posturography platform, both as single-tasks and concurrently as dual-task. Body sway was assessed by median absolute deviation (MAD) of anterior-posterior translation of the center of mass (COM). Brain activation was measured as changes in oxy-hemoglobin by fNIRS. During both single- and dual-task conditions, we found that older adults had greater brain activation relative to younger adults. During dual task performance, the total activation was less than expected from the sum of individual conditions for both age groups, indicating a dual-task interference (reduction in younger adults=53% [p=0.02]; in older adults=53%; [p=0.008]). This reduction was greater for the activation attributable to the postural task (reduction younger adults=75% [p=0.03]; older adults=59% [p=0.005]) compared to the CRT task (reduction younger adults=10%, [p=0.6]; older adults=7.3%, [p=0.5]) in both age groups. Activation reduction was not accompanied by any significant changes in body sway in either group (older adults: single-task MAD=0.94cm, dual-task MAD=1.10cm, p=0.20; younger adults: single-task RMS=0.95cm, dual-task MAD=1.08cm, p=0.14). Our results indicate that neural resources devoted to postural control are reduced under dual-task conditions that engage attention.
| S-EPMC5585862 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have difficulty in performing a dual-task. It has been suggested that the cerebellum is important in dual-tasking. We used functional MRI to investigate the role of the cerebellum in performing a dual motor and cognitive task in PD patients. We have examined whether there are any areas additionally activated for dual-task performance, and compared the neural activity and functional connectivity pattern in the cerebellum between PD patients and healthy controls. We found that the right cerebellar vermis and left lobule V of cerebellar anterior lobe were additionally activated for dual-task performance in healthy controls and for motor task in PD patients. We didn't find any cerebellar regions additionally activated while performing dual-task in PD patients. In addition, the right cerebellar vermis had enhanced connectivity with motor and cognitive associated networks in PD patients. PD patients have limited cerebellar resources that are already utilized for single tasks and, for dual tasks, cannot augment as necessary in order to integrate motor and cognitive networks.
| S-EPMC5372469 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Younger children have more difficulty in sharing attention between two concurrent tasks than do older participants, but in addition to this developmental change, we documented changes in the nature of attention sharing. We studied children 6-8 and 10-14 years old and college students (in all, 104 women and 76 men; 3% Hispanic, 3% Black or African American, 3% Asian, 7% multiracial, and 84% White). On each dual-task trial, the participant received an array of colored squares to be retained for a subsequent probe recognition test and then an easy or more difficult signal requiring a quick response (a speeded task, clicking a key on the same side of the screen as the signal or the opposite side). Finally, each trial ended with the presentation of the array item recognition probe and the participant's response to it. In our youngest age group (6-8 years), array memory was often displaced by the speeded task performed under load, especially when it was the opposite-side task, but speeded-task accuracies were unaffected by the presence of an array memory load. In contrast, in older participants (10-14 years and college students), the memory load was maintained better, with some cost to the speeded task. With maturity, participants were better able to adopt a proactive stance in which not only present processing demands but also upcoming demands were taken into account, allowing them to balance the demands of the two tasks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
| S-EPMC7959247 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundStair walking, especially in dual-task conditions, is a challenging daily routine for older adults. The purpose of this study is to investigate gait and postural control and explore the possible reasons for the fall risk encountered by healthy older adults under dual-task conditions during stair descent.MethodsThirty healthy older female adults (aged 67?±?1 years, standing height of 1.64?±?0.17?m, body mass of 66.01?±?4.27?kg, and education of 8.92?±?0.95 years) were randomly recruited from local communities and instructed to perform stair descent in a step-by-step manner on a standardized staircase under single-task (stair descent) and dual-task (stair descent with subtraction in series of three) conditions. Multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures was performed to test the significance of multiple comparisons of kinematic variables in the single- and dual-task conditions. A paired t-test with Bonferroni adjustment was performed when a significant difference was detected.ResultsGait speed, foot clearance, and hip flexion angle at the cross of the support leg decreased considerably, and step width increased remarkably among the healthy older adults under the dual-task condition relative to the situation in the single-task condition during stair descent.ConclusionThe gait performance and posture control of the healthy older female adults were disturbed by the second cognitive task. These adults implemented a compensation strategy to enhance their body stability under the dual-task condition during stair descent.
| S-EPMC6323185 | biostudies-literature