Showing papers on "Vigilance (psychology) published in 2011"
TL;DR: The model is a unified, mechanistic account of one-choice RT under conditions of sleep deprivation, and successfully maps the rate of accumulation of stimulus information onto independently derived predictions of alertness.
Abstract: One-choice reaction-time (RT) tasks are used in many domains, including assessments of motor vehicle driving and assessments of the cognitive/behavioral consequences of sleep deprivation. In such tasks, subjects are asked to respond when they detect the onset of a stimulus; the dependent variable is RT. We present a cognitive model for one-choice RT tasks that uses a one-boundary diffusion process to represent the accumulation of stimulus information. When the accumulated evidence reaches a decision criterion, a response is initiated. This model is distinct in accounting for the RT distributions observed for one-choice RT tasks, which can have long tails that have not been accurately captured by earlier cognitive modeling approaches. We show that the model explains performance on a brightness-detection task (a “simple RT task”) and on a psychomotor vigilance test. The latter is used extensively to examine the clinical and behavioral effects of sleep deprivation. For the brightness-detection task, the model explains the behavior of RT distributions as a function of brightness. For the psychomotor vigilance test, it accounts for lapses in performance under conditions of sleep deprivation and for changes in the shapes of RT distributions over the course of sleep deprivation. The model also successfully maps the rate of accumulation of stimulus information onto independently derived predictions of alertness. The model is a unified, mechanistic account of one-choice RT under conditions of sleep deprivation.
164 citations
TL;DR: The results suggest that there is impaired function in an attention network comprising anterior In/FO and MFC in patients with CAE, which may allow the development of improved treatments targeted at these networks.
155 citations
TL;DR: Results indicated that threat of shock amplified stress, measured using retrospective ratings and concurrent facial electromyography, and double-dissociated early sensory-specific processing from later task-directed processing of emotionally neutral stimuli, demonstrating that stress can have strikingly different consequences at different processing stages.
Abstract: Stress can fundamentally alter neural responses to incoming information. Recent research suggests that stress and anxiety shift the balance of attention away from a task-directed mode, governed by prefrontal cortex, to a sensory-vigilance mode, governed by the amygdala and other threat-sensitive regions. A key untested prediction of this framework is that stress exerts dissociable effects on different stages of information processing. This study exploited the temporal resolution afforded by event-related potentials to disentangle the impact of stress on vigilance, indexed by early perceptual activity, from its impact on task-directed cognition, indexed by later postperceptual activity in humans. Results indicated that threat of shock amplified stress, measured using retrospective ratings and concurrent facial electromyography. Stress also double-dissociated early sensory-specific processing from later task-directed processing of emotionally neutral stimuli: stress amplified N1 (184–236 ms) and attenuated P3 (316–488 ms) activity. This demonstrates that stress can have strikingly different consequences at different processing stages. Consistent with recent suggestions, stress amplified earlier extrastriate activity in a manner consistent with vigilance for threat (N1), but disrupted later activity associated with the evaluation of task-relevant information (P3). These results provide a novel basis for understanding how stress can modulate information processing in everyday life and stress-sensitive disorders.
150 citations
TL;DR: Gaze data suggest that individuals with AN show no early vigilance but later avoidance when confronted with food information, which suggests that initially, AN patients perceive incentive salience from food information because they process food pictures in the same way healthy control subjects do.
133 citations
TL;DR: Results support the view that the vigilance decrement results from high cognitive resource demands, not from cognitive under-load (e.g., boredom or mindlessness), and suggest utilization of common executive resources.
Abstract: In this study, we examined the impact of concurrent verbal and spatial working memory demands on performance on an alpha-numeric successive target detection task. Seven hundred and forty-five participants performed a target detection task while simultaneously performing either a spatial or a verbal working memory task or they performed matched no-memory control tasks. The vigilance decrement, both an increase in target detection response times and a decrease in perceptual sensitivity A' to target stimuli over time, was exacerbated by concurrent working memory load. The spatial and verbal working memory loads both impacted vigilance performance suggesting utilization of common executive resources. Overall, these results support the view that the vigilance decrement results from high cognitive resource demands (e.g., hard work), not from cognitive under-load (e.g., boredom or mindlessness).
133 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed that the cognitive control system fails to maintain active the goal of the vigilance task over prolonged periods of time (goal habituation), and hypothesized that momentarily deactivating this goal (via a switch in tasks) would prevent the activation level of the Vigilance goal from ever habituating.
122 citations
TL;DR: A systematic review confirmed a conflict between sleep-wake cycle and light-dark cycle in night work, which has been associated with a variety of mental and physical disorders and may negatively impact on work safety, performance, and productivity.
Abstract: Background: Disrupted circadian rhythm, especially working night duty together with irregular sleep patterns, sleep deprivation, and fatigue, creates an occupational health risk associated with diminished vigilance and work performance.
Purpose: This study reviewed the effect of shift rotations on employee cortisol profile, sleep quality, fatigue, and attention level.
Methods: Researchers conducted a systematic review of relevant articles published between 1996 and 2008 that were listed on the following databases: SCOPUS, OVID, Blackwell Science, EBSCO Host, PsycINFO, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, and CEPS. A total of 28 articles were included in the review.
Results: Previous research into the effects of shift work on cortisol profiles, sleep quality, fatigue, and attention used data assessed at evidence Levels Ⅱ to Ⅳ. Our systematic review confirmed a conflict between sleep-wake cycle and light-dark cycle in night work. Consequences of circadian rhythm disturbance include disruption of sleep, decreased vigilance, general feeling of malaise, and decreased mental efficiency. Shift workers who sleep during the day (day sleepers) experience cortisol secretion increases, which diminish the healing power of sleep and enjoy 1 to 4 hours less sleep on average than night sleepers. Sleep debt accumulation results in chronic fatigue. Prolonged fatigue and inadequate recovery result in decreased work performance and more incidents. Rotation from day shift to night shift and its effect on shift workers was a special focus of the articles retained for review.
Conclusions: Disturbed circadian rhythm in humans has been associated with a variety of mental and physical disorders and may negatively impact on work safety, performance, and productivity.
122 citations
TL;DR: There is potential for the design of a countermeasure system that can be strategically activated by an automated system monitoring driver performance, and a strategically placed concurrent task can improve performance when vigilance is at its lowest.
Abstract: Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the nature of concurrent task interference during a vigilance task and to determine whether a concurrent task improves performance with decreased vigilance. Background: Research has repeatedly shown that engaging in a cell phone conversation while driving increases the risk of getting into crashes. At the same time, it has also been found that task monotony could lead to an increase in crash risk. There is evidence that suggests that engaging in a concurrent task reduces the effects of monotony, leading to an improvement in vigilance task performance. Method: A monotonous drive in a driving simulator was used to investigate the effects of a concurrent verbal task. Three task conditions were used: no verbal task, continuous verbal task, and late verbal task. Results: When engaged in a secondary verbal task, drivers showed improved lane-keeping performance and steering control when vigilance was lowest. Conclusion: A strategically placed concurrent task can improve performance when vigilance is at its lowest. Application: There is potential for the design of a countermeasure system that can be strategically activated by an automated system monitoring driver performance.
106 citations
TL;DR: The findings indicate that while right middle frontal gyrus regions are sensitive to demands for attentional effort and control, they may not be sufficient to maintain performance under challenge, and suggest that the dSAT may be a useful tool for translational cross-species and clinical research.
103 citations
TL;DR: Sleep deprivation and circadian phase increased response time, lapses, anticipations, standard deviation of response times and time on task decrements for visual and auditory PVTs, and imply that the general pattern of change in attention during sleep deprivation is similar among sensory–motor behavioral response modalities.
Abstract: To date, no detailed examination of the pattern of change in reaction time performance for different sensory modalities has been conducted across the circadian cycle during sleep deprivation. Therefore, we compared sustained auditory and visual attention performance during 40 h of sleep deprivation assessing multiple metrics of auditory and visual psychomotor vigilance tasks (PVT). Forty healthy participants (14 women) aged 30.8 +/- 8.6 years were studied. Subjects were scheduled for an approximately 8 h sleep schedule at home prior to three-six laboratory baseline days with an 8 h sleep schedule followed by 40 h sleep deprivation. Visual and auditory PVTs were 10 min in duration, and were administered every 2 h during sleep deprivation. Data were analysed with mixed-model anova. Sleep deprivation and circadian phase increased response time, lapses, anticipations, standard deviation of response times and time on task decrements for visual and auditory PVTs. In general, auditory vigilance was faster and less variable than visual vigilance, with larger differences between auditory and visual PVT during sleep deprivation versus baseline. Failures to respond to stimuli within 10 s were four times more likely to occur to visual versus auditory stimuli. Our findings highlight that lapses during sleep deprivation are more than just long responses due to eye closure or visual distraction. Furthermore, our findings imply that the general pattern of change in attention during sleep deprivation (e.g. circadian variation, response slowing, lapsing and anticipations, time on task decrements and state instability) is similar among sensory-motor behavioral response modalities. Language: en
83 citations
TL;DR: The obtained results suggest that the proposed new test (ANTI-Vigilance or ANTI-V) is useful to achieve a direct measure of vigilance and could be considered as a new tool available in cognitive, clinical or behavioural neurosciences for analysing vigilance in addition to the usual ANT scores.
TL;DR: Reduced Drd4 expression in HT mice impairs attentional performance, but not other behaviors associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, and the use of signal and non-signal stimuli in the 5C-CPT enabled the differentiation of response disinhibition from motor impulsivity in a vigilance task.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used the Attention Network Test (ANT) to investigate the efficiency of the three attentional networks (alerting, orienting and executive control) within a single task.
Abstract: Sleep deprivation alters attentional functions like vigilance or tonic alerting (i.e., sustaining an alert state over a period of time). However, the effects of sleep loss on both orienting and executive control are still not clear, and no study has assessed whether sleep deprivation might affect the relationships among these three attentional systems. In order to investigate the efficiency of the three attentional networks—alerting, orienting and executive control—within a single task, we used the Attention Network Test (ANT). Eighteen right-handed male participants took part in the experiment, which took place on two consecutive days. On the first day, each participant performed a 20 min training session of the ANT. On the second day, participants remained awake for 24 h during which time the ANT was performed once at 5:00 p.m. and once at 4:00 a.m. Results showed an overall slowing of reaction times in the nocturnal session, indicating a strong decrease in vigilance. Furthermore, sleep deprivation did affect attentional orienting and executive control. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that the tonic component of alerting interacts with both attentional orienting and executive functions.
TL;DR: It is highlighted that the treatment of sleep difficulties in FM patients may help with some of their cognitive complaints and Vigilance and alertness showed several relations with depression, anxiety and sleep quality.
Abstract: Cognitive complaints are common among subjects with fibromyalgia (FM). Yet, few studies have been able to document these deficits with cognitive tasks. A main limitation of existing studies is that attention has been broadly defined and the tasks used to measure attention are not designed to cover all the main components of the attentional system. Research on attention has identified three primary functions of attention, known as alerting, orienting and executive functioning. This study used the attentional network test-interactions task to explore whether and which of the three attentional networks are altered in FM. Results showed that FM patients have impaired executive control (greater interference), reduced vigilance (slower overall reaction time) and greater alertness (higher reduction in errors after a warning cue). Vigilance and alertness showed several relations with depression, anxiety and sleep quality. Sleep dysfunction was a significant predictor for alertness, whereas there were no significant predictors for vigilance. These findings highlight that the treatment of sleep difficulties in FM patients may help with some of their cognitive complaints.
TL;DR: Findings provide evidence for unconscious threat processing in specific phobia, with the magnitude of amygdala responses specifically potentiated by sustained hypervigilance for threat.
TL;DR: Results suggest that, among the ocular variables, PERCLOS can prevent error or accident caused by low vigilance most effectively.
TL;DR: Data analysis revealed that the attention training used in the present study led to significant improvements of various aspects of attention, including vigilance, divided attention, and flexibility, while the visual perception training had no specific effects.
Abstract: Pharmacological treatment of children with ADHD has been shown to be successful; however, medication may not normalize attention functions. The present study was based on a neuropsychological model of attention and assessed the effect of an attention training program on attentional functioning of children with ADHD. Thirty-two children with ADHD and 16 healthy children participated in the study. Children with ADHD were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions, i.e., an attention training program which trained aspects of vigilance, selective attention and divided attention, or a visual perception training which trained perceptual skills, such as perception of figure and ground, form constancy and position in space. The training programs were applied in individual sessions, twice a week, for a period of four consecutive weeks. Healthy children did not receive any training. Alertness, vigilance, selective attention, divided attention, and flexibility were examined prior to and following the interventions. Children with ADHD were assessed and trained while on ADHD medications. Data analysis revealed that the attention training used in the present study led to significant improvements of various aspects of attention, including vigilance, divided attention, and flexibility, while the visual perception training had no specific effects. The findings indicate that attention training programs have the potential to facilitate attentional functioning in children with ADHD treated with ADHD drugs.
TL;DR: The association and temporal interaction between fine-graded EEG-vigilance stages and markers of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity during the transition from wakefulness to sleep onset warrants more detailed exploration and was focus of the presented study.
Abstract: The temporal dynamics of electroencephalogram (EEG)-vigilance as a measure of tonic cortical arousal are discussed as pathogenetic factors in neuropsychiatric disorders. Although there is broad knowledge about the interaction of cortical arousal and activity of the autonomous nervous system (ANS) during different sleep stages, the association and temporal interaction between fine-graded EEG-vigilance stages and markers of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity during the transition from wakefulness to sleep onset warrants more detailed exploration and was focus of the presented study. A 15-min resting-EEG, electrocardiogram (ECG), and skin conductance level (SCL) were recorded from 54 healthy subjects. Using an EEG-algorithm (VIGALL), 1-s segments were classified into seven different vigilance stages. Associations and temporal interactions between EEG-vigilance stages and heart rate variability (HRV), heart rate (HR), and SCL were computed using correlation analysis, regression analysis, and cross-corre...
TL;DR: In this paper, a resource model of vigilance and measures of cerebral blood flow velocity and subjective state obtained from a short battery of high-workload tasks were used to predict individual performance on subsequent tasks.
Abstract: Vigilance or sustained attention is a critical aspect of operational tasks including air-traffic control, airport security, industrial quality control and inspection, and medical screening and monitoring. Consequently, the selection of personnel for assignments involving vigilance is a key ergonomic concern. As reviewed herein, traditional approaches to personnel selection for tasks requiring vigilance have concentrated on unidimensional measures involving sensory acuity, aptitude, sex, age and personality factors. These approaches have been ineffective. In this article, we suggest an alternative approach in which the selection issue is considered in terms of a theory-driven analysis of different types of vigilance tasks and multidimensional predictors. As an example of that approach, we made use of a resource model of vigilance and measures of cerebral blood flow velocity and subjective state obtained from a short battery of high-workload tasks to successfully predict individual performance on subsequent...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the effects of verbal assessment of subjective driver state on objective indicators of vigilance state during a monotonous daytime drive, and concluded that a short verbal assessment has positive effects on drivers' vigilance state.
Abstract: To investigate the effects of verbal assessment of subjective driver state on objective indicators of vigilance state during a monotonous daytime drive, a real road driving study was conducted. During a 4-h drive participants' subjective state (sleepiness, inattention, monotony) was assessed every 20 min by an investigator accompanying the drive. The assessment procedure consisted of roughly 1 min of verbal interaction. Physiological indicators (EEG alpha spindle rate, blink duration, heart rate) revealed a significant improvement of vigilance state during the communication episode as compared to a pre-assessment baseline. The activation persisted for up to 2 min following the end of the verbal interaction. Reaction times supported these findings by indicating a significant decrease after the communication. The P3 amplitude of the auditory event-related potential did not show any consistent results. It can be concluded that a short verbal assessment has positive effects on drivers' vigilance state. However, these effects persist only for a very limited time. The implications of these findings for the frequency of verbal assessment during experimental studies and for the use of verbal communication as a fatigue countermeasure are discussed. Keywords: Driver distraction;
TL;DR: Overall performance was lower than in the neutral picture condition and the negative picture condition had elevated levels of energetic arousal, tense arousal and task-related thoughts, which provide support for indirect cost models of negative emotional stimuli on target detection performance.
TL;DR: A specific role of slow oscillations in the subsequent daytime ability to maintain sustained attention and to encode novel declarative information but not to maintain response speed or to build implicit memories is suggested.
Abstract: Total sleep deprivation in healthy subjects has a profound effect on the performance on tasks measuring sustained attention or vigilance. We here report how a selective disruption of deep sleep only, that is, selective slow-wave activity (SWA) reduction, affects the performance of healthy well-sleeping subjects on several tasks: a "simple" and a "complex" vigilance task, a declarative learning task, and an implicit learning task despite unchanged duration of sleep. We used automated electroencephalogram (EEG) dependent acoustic feedback aimed at selective interference with-and reduction of-SWA. In a within-subject repeated measures crossover design, performance on the tasks was assessed in 13 elderly adults without sleep complaints after either SWA-reduction or after normal sleep. The number of vigilance lapses increased as a result of SWA reduction, irrespective of the type of vigilance task. Recognition on the declarative memory task was also affected by SWA reduction, associated with a decreased activation of the right hippocampus on encoding (measured with fMRI) suggesting a weaker memory trace. SWA reduction, however, did not affect reaction time on either of the vigilance tasks or implicit memory task performance. These findings suggest a specific role of slow oscillations in the subsequent daytime ability to maintain sustained attention and to encode novel declarative information but not to maintain response speed or to build implicit memories. Of particular interest is that selective SWA reduction can mimic some of the effects of total sleep deprivation, while not affecting sleep duration.
TL;DR: The data suggest that differences in EEG-vigilance might influence alterations of nFDGu in disorders such as depression or MCI, as reported by previous studies.
TL;DR: The results suggest that alterations in ACC functioning may underlie vigilance decline and can be viewed as evidence that the action monitoring functions of the ACC can be positively affected by motivation.
TL;DR: The findings indicate coupling between the spontaneous fluctuations in skin temperature and vigilance during the day and are compatible with the hypothesis of overlap in brain networks involved in the regulation of temperature and Vigilance.
Abstract: Skin temperatur e shows spontaneous ultradian fluctuations during everyday-life wakefulness. Previous work showed that mild manipulations of skin temperature affect human sleep and vigilance, presumably by influencing neuronal systems involved in both thermal sensing and arousal regulation. We therefore examined whether fluctuations in skin temperature are associated with those in vigilance level under conditions similar to everyday-life situa- tions requiring sustained attention. eight healthy participants (30.1 ± 8.1 years, M ± SD) participated in a 2-day protocol, during which vigilance and skin tem- perature were assessed 4 times per day in a silent, dimly lit, temperature- controlled room. Vigilance was assessed by measuring reaction speed and lapses on a novel sustained vigilance task specifically designed to increase lapse rate and range of reaction times. Skin temperature was sampled at 30-second inter- vals from 3 locations: distal, intermediate, and proximal temperatures were obtained from the middle finger (T finger ), the wrist (T wrist ), and the infraclavicular area (T chest ), respectively. Furthermore, 3 distal to proximal gradients were cal- culated. Mixed-effect regression analyses were used to evaluate the association of the fluctuations in temperatures and gradients and those in response speed and lapse probability. especially the spontaneous fluctuations in proximal tem- perature were negatively associated with fluctuations in response speed and positively with lapse rate. If individual T chest temperature ranges were classified into 10 deciles, they accounted for 23% of the variance in response speed and 11% of the variance in lapse rate. The findings indicate coupling between the spontaneous fluctuations in skin temperature and vigilance during the day and are compatible with the hypothesis of overlap in brain networks involved in the regulation of temperature and vigilance. From an applied point of view, especially proximal skin temperature assessment may be of use in vigilance monitoring.
TL;DR: It is shown that only brain areas involved in sustaining attention over short durations of time are related to processing irrelevant stimuli and suggested that these areas can be segregated into two functionally different networks, one possibly involved in motivation, the other in arousal.
TL;DR: In this article, the effect of negative emotional and neutral visual stimuli on temporal aspects of attention has been investigated, and it was found that overall performance efficiency was negatively influenced by the negative-arousing pictures and was interpreted to favor resource depletion.
Abstract: Objectives: The present study was designed to explore whether target detection in a vigilance task is influenced by task-irrelevant negative emotional and neutral picture stimuli and to test predictions derived from the boredom-mindlessness versus resource depletion accounts of vigilance performance.Background: Previous research indicates that emotional stimuli can capture spatial attention. Research on the effect of negative emotional and neutral visual stimuli on temporal aspects of attention has not, however, been researched in detail.Method: For this study, 51 participants (15 men and 36 women) were assigned at random to one of three vigilance conditions: a visual vigil with task-irrelevant negative-arousing pictures, a visual vigil with task-irrelevant neutral pictures, or a no-picture visual vigil control. Vigilance performance was assessed in all conditions.Results: Overall performance efficiency was negatively influenced by the negative-arousing pictures and was interpreted to favor resource deple...
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identified seven separate brain networks involved in a simulated driving task in small samples of young drivers: bilateral components of the parietooccipital sulcus, including portions of cuneus, precuneus and lingual gyrus; mainly occipital areasd for low-order visual processing; bilateral visual association and parietal areas; motor cortex and cellebellar areas, for gross motor control and motor planning; orbitofrontal and cingulated, for error monitoring and inhibition, including motivation, risk assessment, and internal space;
Abstract: Publisher Summary Driver crash rates increase up to age 18 or 19 years and decline slowly thereafter. Crash risk is the greatest during the first 6 months or 1000 km of independent driving. Understanding the full implications of absolute and differential stages of brain development for driving remains in its early stages. Because behaviors emanate from integrated activity among distributed networks, a research priority is to link brain regions and circuits with relevant cognitions, including those relating to safety and risk perception, and behaviors relevant to avoiding danger and managing risk. For example, identified seven separate brain networks involved in a simulated driving task in small samples of young drivers: bilateral components of the parietooccipital sulcus, including portions of cuneus, precuneus, and lingual gyrus—involved in visual monitoring; mainly occipital areasdfor low-order visual processing; bilateral visual association and parietal areas—for high-order visual processing and visuomotor integration; motor cortex and cellebellar areas—for gross motor control and motor planning; orbitofrontal and cingulated—for error monitoring and inhibition, including motivation, risk assessment, and internal space; and medial frontal, parietal, and posterior cingulatedfor vigilance, including spatial attention, visual stream, monitoring, and external space. Comparing task performance of adolescent samples aged 15 and 16 and 18–20 years, proposed greater amplitude in anterior cingulated cortex activity among the older group. This brain region, associated with performance errors and self-monitoring, was found to be more mature in the older group.