scholarly journals Parasympathetic and sympathetic activity are associated with individual differences in neural indices of selective attention in adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. e13079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Giuliano ◽  
Christina M. Karns ◽  
Theodore A. Bell ◽  
Seth Petersen ◽  
Elizabeth A. Skowron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Sympathetic Activity

scholarly journals Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Activity Are Associated with Individual Differences in Neural Indices of Selective Attention in Adults

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Giuliano ◽  
Christina M. Karns ◽  
Theodore A. Bell ◽  
Seth Petersen ◽  
Elizabeth A. Skowron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Sympathetic Activity ◽  
Mean Amplitude ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Parasympathetic Activity ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Autonomic Physiology

AbstractMultiple theoretical frameworks posit that interactions between the autonomic nervous system and higher-order neural networks are crucial for cognitive regulation. However, few studies have directly examined the relationship between measures of autonomic physiology and brain activity during cognitive tasks, and fewer studies have examined both the parasympathetic and sympathetic autonomic branches when doing so. Here, 93 adults completed an event-related potential (ERP) auditory selective attention task concurrently with measures of parasympathetic activity (high-frequency heart rate variability; HF-HRV) and sympathetic activity (pre-ejection period; PEP). We replicate previous findings showing effects of selective attention on mean amplitude of the N1 ERP component (Hillyard et al., 1973; Coch et al., 2005), and extend this result to show that the effects of selective attention were associated with baseline values of HF-HRV and PEP. Individuals with higher resting HF-HRV and shorter resting PEP showed larger effects of selective attention on their ERPs. Follow-up regression models demonstrated that HF-HRV and PEP accounted for unique variance in selective attention effects on N1 mean amplitude. These results are consistent with the neurovisceral integration model, which posits that greater parasympathetic activity is a marker of increased cognitive capacity, as well as other theoretical models which emphasize the role of heightened sympathetic activity in more efficient attention-related processing. The present findings highlight the importance of autonomic physiology in the study of individual differences in neurocognitive function, and given the foundational role of selective attention across cognitive domains, suggest that both parasympathetic and sympathetic activity may be key to understanding variability in brain function across a variety of cognitive tasks.

Individual Differences in Attention and the Prediction of Flight Criteria

1971 ◽  
Vol 33 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1335-1342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gopher ◽  
Daniel Kahneman
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Dichotic Listening ◽  
High Performance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Listening Test ◽  
Transient Instability ◽  
High Performance Aircraft

A dichotic listening test was constructed which requires S to monitor a relevant message and to ignore a concurrent message presented to the other ear. The test has promising validity for predicting different criteria of proficiency in flying high-performance aircraft. An analysis of the most valid type of errors suggests that a change in an existing orientation is accompanied by a transient instability of selective attention. Most errors in continuous attention are omissions, which indicate a failure of the listening set. Intrusions, which indicate a failure of selectivity, are rare and their frequency is not correlated to flight criteria.

scholarly journals Early Auditory Evoked Potential Is Modulated by Selective Attention and Related to Individual Differences in Visual Working Memory Capacity

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 2682-2690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Giuliano ◽  
Christina M. Karns ◽  
Helen J. Neville ◽  
Steven A. Hillyard
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Auditory Evoked Potential ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Auditory Selective Attention ◽  
Visual Change Detection ◽  
Listening Task

A growing body of research suggests that the predictive power of working memory (WM) capacity for measures of intellectual aptitude is due to the ability to control attention and select relevant information. Crucially, attentional mechanisms implicated in controlling access to WM are assumed to be domain-general, yet reports of enhanced attentional abilities in individuals with larger WM capacities are primarily within the visual domain. Here, we directly test the link between WM capacity and early attentional gating across sensory domains, hypothesizing that measures of visual WM capacity should predict an individual's capacity to allocate auditory selective attention. To address this question, auditory ERPs were recorded in a linguistic dichotic listening task, and individual differences in ERP modulations by attention were correlated with estimates of WM capacity obtained in a separate visual change detection task. Auditory selective attention enhanced ERP amplitudes at an early latency (ca. 70–90 msec), with larger P1 components elicited by linguistic probes embedded in an attended narrative. Moreover, this effect was associated with greater individual estimates of visual WM capacity. These findings support the view that domain-general attentional control mechanisms underlie the wide variation of WM capacity across individuals.

scholarly journals Orientation-invariance of individual differences in three face processing tasks

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 181350
Author(s):  
G. Meinhardt ◽  
B. Meinhardt-Injac ◽  
M. Persike
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Common Variance ◽  
Strong Inversion ◽  
Orientation Invariance

Numerous studies have reported impairments in perception and recognition, and, particularly, in part-integration of faces following picture-plane inversion. Whether these findings support the notion that inversion changes face processing qualitatively remains a topic of debate. To examine whether associations and dissociations of the human face processing ability depend on stimulus orientation, we measured face recognition with the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT), along with experimental tests of face perception and selective attention to faces and non-face objects in a sample of 314 participants. Results showed strong inversion effects for all face-related tasks, and modest ones for non-face objects. Individual differences analysis revealed that the CFMT shared common variance with face perception and face-selective attention, however, independent of orientation. Regardless of whether predictor and criterion had same or different orientation, face recognition was best predicted by the same test battery. Principal component decomposition revealed a common factor for face recognition and face perception, a second common factor for face recognition and face-selective attention, and two unique factors. The patterns of factor loadings were nearly identical for upright and inverted presentation. These results indicate orientation-invariance of common variance in three domains of face processing. Since inversion impaired performance, but did not affect domain-related associations and dissociations, the findings suggest process-specific but orientation-general mechanisms. Specific limitations by constraints of individual differences analysis and test selection are discussed.

scholarly journals Individual Differences in Temporal Selective Attention as Reflected in Pupil Dilation

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e0145056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Willems ◽  
Johannes Herdzin ◽  
Sander Martens
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Pupil Dilation

Subject-Task Interaction in Selective Attention Research

1973 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 259-262
Author(s):  
Steven Jay Gross ◽  
Samuel F. Moore ◽  
Stephen L. Stern
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Information Processing ◽  
Task Variables ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

Two methods of investigating human information processing, the one focusing on the manipulation of experimental tasks and the other emphasizing individual differences, were compared. The design utilized the experimental tasks of Treisman and Riley (1969) while examining for individual differences on the basis of Witkin's field-articulation dimension. The findings of Treisman and Riley were replicated, while no differences were found among Ss categorized on the individual-difference dimension, suggesting that task variables were most important in performance requiring selective attention.

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