scholarly journals Missed targets, reaction times, and arousal are related to trait anxiety and attention to pain during an experimental vigilance task with a painful target

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 462-472
Author(s):  
Nichole M. Emerson ◽  
Timothy J. Meeker ◽  
Joel D. Greenspan ◽  
Mark I. Saffer ◽  
Claudia M. Campbell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Continuous Performance Task ◽  
Vigilance Performance ◽  
Neo Five Factor Inventory ◽  
High Trait Anxiety ◽  
Attention To Pain

Although hypervigilance may play a role in some clinical pain syndromes, experimental vigilance toward painful stimuli has been studied infrequently. We evaluated vigilance toward pain by using a continuous performance task (CPT), in which subjects responded to moderately intense painful target stimuli, occurring in a train of mildly painful nontargets. We assessed nondetected targets (misses), reaction times (RTs), and psychological activation (tense arousal). During time on task in CPTs of other sensory modalities, there is an increase in misses and RTs (vigilance decrement). We hypothesized that our CPT would influence vigilance performance related to pain, anxiety, and limitation of attentional resources. The results showed a decrement in vigilance over time as misses increased, although RTs were unchanged. While mind-wandering did not influence vigilance performance, intrinsic attention to pain drove both hit RTs and number of misses. This resulted in pain-focused subjects performing worse on the CPT pain task with slower RTs and more misses per block. During the CPT, the change in stimulus salience was related to the change in pain intensity, while pain unpleasantness correlated with tense arousal. CPT performance during experimental vigilance to pain and psychological activation were related to trait anxiety, as measured by the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and neuroticism, as measured by the NEO five factor inventory. Trait anxiety and neuroticism may play important roles in an individual’s predisposition to dwell on pain and interpret pain as threatening. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Subjects detected moderately painful target stimuli in a train of mildly painful nontarget stimuli, which resulted in vigilance performance metrics including missed targets, reaction times, and psychological activation. These performance metrics were related to intrinsic attention to pain and trait anxiety. Subjects with high trait anxiety and neuroticism scores, with a predisposition to attend to pain, had greater tense arousal and poorer vigilance performance, which may be important psychological aspects of vigilance to pain.

scholarly journals During Vigilance to Painful Stimuli: Slower Response Rate Related to High Trait Anxiety, whereas a Faster Response Rate is related to High State Anxiety

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J Meeker ◽  
Nichole M. Emerson ◽  
Jui-Hong Chien ◽  
Mark I. Saffer ◽  
Oscar Joseph Bienvenu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Response Bias ◽  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
State Anxiety ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Lower Response Rate ◽  
State And Trait Anxiety ◽  
High Trait ◽  
High Trait Anxiety ◽  
Over Time

A pathological increase in vigilance, or hypervigilance, may be related to pain intensity in some clinical pain syndromes and may result from attention bias to salient stimuli mediated by anxiety. During a continuous performance task where subjects discriminated painful target stimuli from painful nontargets, we measured detected targets (hits), nondetected targets (misses), nondetected nontargets (correct rejections), and detected nontargets (false alarms). Using signal detection theory, we calculated response bias, the tendency to endorse a stimulus as a target, and discriminability, the ability to discriminate a target from nontarget. Due to the relatively slow rate of stimulus presentation our primary hypothesis was that sustained performance would result in a more conservative response bias reflecting a lower response rate over time on task. We found a more conservative response bias with time on task and no change in discriminability. We predicted that greater state and trait anxiety would lead to a more liberal response bias. A multivariable model provided partial support for our prediction; high trait anxiety related to a more conservative response bias (lower response rate), while high state anxiety related to a more liberal bias. This inverse relationship of state and trait anxiety is consistent with reports of effects of state and trait anxiety on reaction times to threatening stimuli. In sum, we report that sustained attention to painful stimuli was associated with a decrease in the tendency of the subject to respond to any stimulus over time on task, while the ability to discriminate target from nontarget is unchanged.

scholarly journals The Sustained Attention to Response Task Shows Lower Cingulo-Opercular and Frontoparietal Activity in People with Narcolepsy Type 1: An fMRI Study on the Neural Regulation of Attention

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 419
Author(s):  
Jari K. Gool ◽  
Ysbrand D. van der Werf ◽  
Gert Jan Lammers ◽  
Rolf Fronczek
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Response Task

Vigilance complaints often occur in people with narcolepsy type 1 and severely impair effective daytime functioning. We tested the feasibility of a three-level sustained attention to response task (SART) paradigm within a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment to understand brain architecture underlying vigilance regulation in individuals with narcolepsy type 1. Twelve medication-free people with narcolepsy type 1 and 11 matched controls were included. The SART included four repetitions of a baseline block and two difficulty levels requiring moderate and high vigilance. Outcome measures were between and within-group performance indices on error rates and reaction times, and functional MRI (fMRI) parameters: mean activity during the task and between-group activity differences across the three conditions and related to changes in activation over time (time-on-task) and error-related activity. Patients—but not controls—made significantly more mistakes with increasing difficulty. The modified SART is a feasible MRI vigilance task showing similar task-positive brain activity in both groups within the cingulo-opercular, frontoparietal, arousal, motor, and visual networks. During blocks of higher vigilance demand, patients had significantly lower activation in these regions than controls. Patients had lower error-related activity in the left pre- and postcentral gyrus. The time-on-task activity differences between groups suggest that those with narcolepsy are insufficiently capable of activating attention- and arousal-related regions when transitioning from attention initiation to stable attention, specifically when vigilance demand is high. They also show lower inhibitory motor activity in relation to errors, suggesting impaired executive functioning.

scholarly journals Sleep quality, occupational factors, and psychomotor vigilance performance in the U.S. Navy sailors

SLEEP ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiotis Matsangas ◽  
Nita Lewis Shattuck
Keyword(s):  
Sleep Quality ◽  
Sleep Duration ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Poor Sleep ◽  
Vigilance Performance ◽  
Occupational Factors ◽  
Enlisted Personnel ◽  
Psychomotor Vigilance ◽  
The U.S

Abstract Study Objectives This field study (a) assessed sleep quality of sailors on the U.S. Navy (USN) ships while underway, (b) investigated whether the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scores were affected by occupational factors and sleep attributes, and (c) assessed whether the PSQI could predict impaired psychomotor vigilance performance. Methods Longitudinal field assessment of fit-for-duty USN sailors performing their underway duties (N = 944, 79.0% males, median age 26 years). Participants completed questionnaires, wore actigraphs, completed logs, and performed the wrist-worn 3-min Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT). Results Sailors slept on average 6.60 ± 1.01 h/day with 86.9% splitting their sleep into more than one episode/day. The median PSQI Global score was 8 (interquartile range [IQR] = 5); 80.4% of the population were classified as “poor sleepers” with PSQI scores >5. PSQI scores were affected by sailor occupational group, rank, daily sleep duration, and number of sleep episodes/day. Sleep quality showed a U-shape association with daily sleep duration due to the confounding effect of split sleep. Sailors with PSQI scores >9 had 21.1% slower reaction times (p < 0.001) and 32.8%–61.5% more lapses combined with false starts (all p < 0.001) than sailors with PSQI scores ≤9. Compared to males and officers, females and enlisted personnel had 86% and 23% higher risk, respectively, of having PSQI scores >9. Sailors in the PSQI > 9 group had more pronounced split sleep. Conclusions Working on Navy ships is associated with elevated PSQI scores, a high incidence of poor sleep, and degraded psychomotor vigilance performance. The widely used PSQI score>5 criterion should be further validated in active-duty service member populations.

Performance in Vigilance Tasks is Related to Both State and Contextual Motivation

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1145-1149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis R. Dewar ◽  
Nicholas W. Fraulini ◽  
Victoria L. Claypoole ◽  
James L. Szalma
Keyword(s):  
Intrinsic Motivation ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Vigilance Performance ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
State Motivation

Vigilance, or sustained attention, is the ability to maintain attention to stimuli over a prolonged period of time. Synonymous with the study of sustained attention is the vigilance decrement, which is a decline in performance as a function of time on task. In the present study, we examined the effects of state motivation (i.e., motivation measured immediately prior to the task) and context-based motivation (i.e., motivation that stems from task instructions) on vigilance performance in a sensory-based vigilance task. Forty-three participants completed a 24-minute vigilance task, as well as measures of stress and workload. The results indicated that those higher in state intrinsic motivation and motivating instructions outperformed their peers in terms of hits and false alarms. We conclude that motivation may help facilitate vigilant attention.

Driver Vigilance in Automated Vehicles: Hazard Detection Failures Are a Matter of Time

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric T. Greenlee ◽  
Patricia R. DeLucia ◽  
David C. Newton
Keyword(s):  
Safety Concern ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Automated Vehicles ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Automated Vehicle ◽  
Hazard Detection ◽  
And Performance

Objective: The primary aim of the current study was to determine whether monitoring the roadway for hazards during automated driving results in a vigilance decrement. Background: Although automated vehicles are relatively novel, the nature of human-automation interaction within them has the classic hallmarks of a vigilance task. Drivers must maintain attention for prolonged periods of time to detect and respond to rare and unpredictable events, for example, roadway hazards that automation may be ill equipped to detect. Given the similarity with traditional vigilance tasks, we predicted that drivers of a simulated automated vehicle would demonstrate a vigilance decrement in hazard detection performance. Method: Participants “drove” a simulated automated vehicle for 40 minutes. During that time, their task was to monitor the roadway for roadway hazards. Results: As predicted, hazard detection rate declined precipitously, and reaction times slowed as the drive progressed. Further, subjective ratings of workload and task-related stress indicated that sustained monitoring is demanding and distressing and it is a challenge to maintain task engagement. Conclusion: Monitoring the roadway for potential hazards during automated driving results in workload, stress, and performance decrements similar to those observed in traditional vigilance tasks. Application: To the degree that vigilance is required of automated vehicle drivers, performance errors and associated safety risks are likely to occur as a function of time on task. Vigilance should be a focal safety concern in the development of vehicle automation.

Does Depleting Self-Control Result in Poorer Vigilance Performance?

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-425
Author(s):  
Kelly Satterfield ◽  
Amanda E. Harwood ◽  
William S. Helton ◽  
Tyler H. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Control Theory ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Resource Control ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Vigilance Decrement ◽  
Vigilance Performance ◽  
Typing Task

Objective: To investigate whether depleting self-control prior to vigilance results in a steeper vigilance decrement. Background: The resource-control theory of vigilance asserts that an inherent bias toward self-generated mind-wandering draws attentional resources away from the primary task. This study seeks to test whether depleting self-control, the potential mechanism of self-generated mind-wandering, results in poorer vigilance performance. Method: This study featured a between-subjects design where participants either completed a typing task that depleted self-control resources or a standard typing task that did not require self-control before performing a vigilance task. In the self-control depletion condition, participants typed a passage while omitting any “e” and “space” keys. In the standard typing task, participants typed the same passage without skipping any keys. Following both typing tasks, participants in both conditions completed an identical 12-min vigilance task. Results: Results demonstrated decreased accuracy and increased reaction times over time for both groups. Depleting self-control did not result in significant differences in accuracy, reaction time, nor a steeper vigilance decrement. Conclusion: These results provide evidence against resource-control theory and self-control as an explanation for vigilance, and provide further support for cognitive resource theory as the predominant explanation for vigilance impairments. Application: It is still unclear exactly what constitutes a “resource.” A better understanding of the nature of these resources can help researchers and practitioners identify how they can be replenished, which could enhance human performance in situations requiring vigilance such as baggage screening.

Does Aerobic Exercise Decrease Brain Activation?

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karla A. Kubitz ◽  
Konstantinos Pothakos
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Times ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Beta Activity ◽  
Significant Group ◽  
Eeg Activity ◽  
Time Interaction ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Group Effects

In the present study, participants were randomly assigned to an exercise or a nonexercise group to measure brain activation (spontaneous EEG activity), affect, and cognitive functioning before and after a 15-min treatment period. Exercisers (a) sat quietly for 5 min, (b) exercised for 15 min, (c) recovered for 5 min, and (d) completed a 15-min vigilance task. Nonexercisers did not exercise. There was a significant (a) Condition × Band × Time interaction for EEG activity, (b) Condition × Time interaction for Activation-Deactivation Adjective Checklist (AD ACL) scores, and (c) Condition × Time interaction for reaction times (RTs). Post hoc tests showed (a) no significant group effects at the baseline and 15-min vigilance periods, and (b) significant group effects at the postexercise and 5-min vigilance periods. Exercisers had lower levels of brain activation (i.e., more theta and alpha activity and less beta activity), higher AD ACL scores, and slower RTs than nonexercisers during these periods.

Exploring the Effects of Extraversion on Social Facilitation and Vigilance Task Performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 1216-1220
Author(s):  
Victoria L. Claypoole ◽  
Grace E. Waldfogle ◽  
Alexis R. Neigel ◽  
James L. Szalma
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Vigilance Task ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Personality Factors ◽  
Vigilance Performance ◽  
Mere Presence ◽  
Design Factors ◽  
And Task

Vigilance, or sustained attention, is the ability to maintain attention for extended periods of time. Recently, research on vigilance has focused on identifying individual differences and task design factors that may improve cognitive-based vigilance performance. One such factor is social facilitation, which leads to improved task performance when at least one individual is present. But, relatively little is known about the personality factors, such as extraversion or introversion, which may influence the effects of social presence, and in turn affect vigilance performance. Given this gap in the literature, the present research seeks to determine how personality, specifically extraversion, is related to vigilance performance in the presence of another individual. A total of 39 observers completed a 24-minute vigilance task either alone, in the mere presence of another person, or in the evaluative presence of another person (i.e., an individual monitoring their performance). The results indicated that extraversion was negatively correlated to the proportion of correct detections and sensitivity ( A’).

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