Effects of regular or irregular event schedules on cerebral hemovelocity during a sustained attention task

Transcranial Doppler sonography was used to measure bilateral cerebral blood flow velocity during sustained attention task performance where the background event schedule occurred in a synchronous (temporally regular) or asynchronous (temporally irregular) manner. Perceptual sensitivity was greater in the synchronous case and declined over time in both conditions. Blood flow velocity was greater in the more difficult asynchronous condition and declined over time in both conditions in the right hemisphere, but the decline in blood flow velocity was limited to the asynchronous condition in the left hemisphere. The results are interpreted in terms of a resource model of sustained attention.

[1]  J. Antrobus,et al.  Signal-detection performance by subjects differing in predisposition to daydreaming. , 1967, Journal of consulting psychology.

[2]  J. P. Frankmann,et al.  Theories of vigilance. , 1962 .

[3]  Joel S. Warm,et al.  The Psychophysics of Vigilance , 1980 .

[4]  Joel S. Warm,et al.  Listening with a dual brain: Hemispheric asymmetry in sustained attention , 1980 .

[5]  E. Levin,et al.  Nicotine–Haloperidol Interactions and Cognitive Performance in Schizophrenics , 1996, Neuropsychopharmacology.

[6]  William S. Helton,et al.  Sustained attention to local and global target features is different: Performance and tympanic membrane temperature , 2009, Brain and Cognition.

[7]  A. D. Fisk,et al.  Event asynchrony and signal regularity in sustained attention , 1986 .

[8]  M. Loeb,et al.  The Psychology of Vigilance , 1982 .

[9]  P. Hancock,et al.  Cerebral lateralization of vigilance: A function of task difficulty , 2010, Neuropsychologia.

[10]  David A. Bridwell,et al.  Interactions between endogenous and exogenous attention during vigilance , 2009, Attention, perception & psychophysics.

[11]  D. Washburn,et al.  Task engagement, cerebral blood flow velocity, and diagnostic monitoring for sustained attention. , 2010, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[12]  R. Schandry,et al.  Functional transcranial Doppler sonography as a tool in psychophysiological research. , 2003, Psychophysiology.

[13]  M. Gazzaniga,et al.  Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind , 1998 .

[14]  William S. Helton,et al.  Conscious thought and the sustained attention to response task , 2009, Consciousness and Cognition.

[15]  S. Hart,et al.  Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of Empirical and Theoretical Research , 1988 .

[16]  F. Vidal,et al.  Functional Anatomy of the Attentional Modulation of Time Estimation , 2004, Science.

[17]  E. Goldstein.  Cross‐Talk Between Psychophysics and Physiology in the Study of Perception , 2008 .

[18]  P. Roland,et al.  Bilateral activation of fronto-parietal networks by incrementing demand in a working memory task. , 1997, Cerebral cortex.

[19]  D. Washburn,et al.  A transcranial Doppler sonography study of shoot/don’t-shoot responding , 2009, Behavior research methods.

[20]  W. N. Dember,et al.  Sensory Determinants of Workload and Stress in Sustained Attention , 1999 .

[21]  I. Robertson,et al.  `Oops!': Performance correlates of everyday attentional failures in traumatic brain injured and normal subjects , 1997, Neuropsychologia.

[22]  I. Radermacher,et al.  Functional anatomy of intrinsic alertness: evidencefor a fronto-parietal-thalamic-brainstem network in theright hemisphere , 1999, Neuropsychologia.

[23]  L. Heytens,et al.  Transcranial Doppler sonography. , 1989, Acta neurologica Belgica.

[24]  John A. Detre,et al.  Imaging brain fatigue from sustained mental workload: An ASL perfusion study of the time-on-task effect , 2010, NeuroImage.

[25]  W. Helton,et al.  Signal salience and the mindlessness theory of vigilance. , 2008, Acta psychologica.

[26]  Peter A. Hancock,et al.  Defeating Terrorism: What Can Human Factors/Ergonomics Offer? , 2002 .

[27]  Tyler H. Shaw,et al.  Effects of sensory modality on cerebral blood flow velocity during vigilance , 2009, Neuroscience Letters.

[28]  Rune Aaslid,et al.  Transcranial Doppler Sonography , 1986, Springer Vienna.

[29]  Joel S. Warm,et al.  Optimism, pessimism, and false failure feedback: Effects on vigilance performance , 1999 .

[30]  E. Goldstein.  Blackwell handbook of perception , 2001 .

[31]  Judi E. See,et al.  Meta-analysis of the sensitivity decrement in vigilance. , 1995 .

[32]  Andrew P. Smith,et al.  Handbook of human performance , 1992 .

[33]  W. N. Dember,et al.  Vigilance: Taxonomy And Utility , 1987 .

[34]  Joel S. Warm,et al.  Cerebral Hemodynamics and Vigilance Performance , 2009 .

[35]  M. Hoptman,et al.  How and why do the two cerebral hemispheres interact? , 1994, Psychological bulletin.

[36]  Lynn C. Robertson,et al.  A Review of Hemispheric Asymmetry: What's Right and What's Left , 1994, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[37]  Raja Parasuraman,et al.  Using Transcranial Doppler Sonography to Measure Cognitive Load in a Command and Control Task , 2010 .

[38]  B. Gulyás,et al.  Activation by Attention of the Human Reticular Formation and Thalamic Intralaminar Nuclei , 1996, Science.

[39]  P. A. Lewis,et al.  A right hemispheric prefrontal system for cognitive time measurement , 2006, Behavioural Processes.

[40]  Judi E. See,et al.  Brain systems of vigilance. , 1998 .

[41]  W. N. Dember,et al.  Tests of vigilance taxonomy. , 1998 .

[42]  Neil A. Macmillan,et al.  Detection Theory: A User's Guide , 1991 .

[43]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Time-Related Changes in Neural Systems Underlying Attention and Arousal During the Performance of an Auditory Vigilance Task , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[44]  S. Dimond,et al.  Tactual and auditory vigilance in split-brain man. , 1979, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[45]  Raja Parasuraman,et al.  Neuroergonomics: The Brain at Work , 2006 .

[46]  M Allen.  Models of hemispheric specialization. , 1983, Psychological bulletin.

[47]  R. A. Bailey.  Designing Experiments and Analyzing Data: a Model Comparison Perspective, 2nd edn , 2005 .

[48]  Raja Parasuraman,et al.  Monitoring an Automated System for a Single Failure: Vigilance and Task Complexity Effects , 1996, Hum. Factors.

[49]  Joel S. Warm,et al.  Vigilance Requires Hard Mental Work and Is Stressful , 2008, Hum. Factors.

[50]  Raja Parasuraman,et al.  Varieties of attention , 1984 .

[51]  Scott E. Maxwell,et al.  Designing Experiments and Analyzing Data: A Model Comparison Perspective , 1990 .

[52]  Joel S. Warm,et al.  Effects of the rate and regularity of background events on sustained attention , 1981 .

[53]  J. Yager,et al.  Stroke in Children and Young Adults , 1995 .

[54]  Raymond S. Nickerson,et al.  Looking Ahead: Human Factors Challenges in A Changing World , 1992 .

[55]  C. Frith,et al.  A fronto-parietal network for rapid visual information processing: a PET study of sustained attention and working memory , 1996, Neuropsychologia.

[56]  John L. Bradshaw,et al.  Human cerebral asymmetry , 1978, Trends in Neurosciences.

[57]  E. Stein,et al.  Multiple Neuronal Networks Mediate Sustained Attention , 2003, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[58]  S. S. Stevens.  Cross-modality validation of subjective scales for loudness, vibration, and electric shock. , 1959, Journal of experimental psychology.

[59]  Kelley S. Parsons,et al.  The abbreviated vigilance task and cerebral hemodynamics , 2007, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[60]  James L. Szalma,et al.  Effects of Sensory Modality and Task Duration on Performance, Workload, and Stress in Sustained Attention , 2004, Hum. Factors.

[61]  R. Aaslid.  Transcranial Doppler Examination Techniques , 1986 .

[62]  J. Antrobus,et al.  A Factor-Analytic Study of Daydreaming and Conceptually-Related Cognitive and Personality Variables , 1963, Perceptual and motor skills.

[63]  I. Robertson,et al.  The absent mind: further investigations of sustained attention to response , 1999, Neuropsychologia.

[64]  A. Nobre,et al.  Orienting attention in time: behavioural and neuroanatomical distinction between exogenous and endogenous shifts , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[65]  W. T. Seidel,et al.  Evidence of difficulties in sustained attention in children with ADDH , 1990, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[66]  Dudley G. Letbetter.  A Handbook of Human Performance , 1982 .

[67]  Mark W. Wiggins,et al.  Vigilance decrement during a simulated general aviation flight , 2011 .

[68]  Arthur D. Fisk,et al.  Event Asynchrony And Task Demands In Sustained Attention , 1987 .

[69]  Joel S. Warm,et al.  Viewing psychology as a whole : the integrative science of William N. Dember , 1998 .

[70]  Luke Clark,et al.  Sustained attention deficit in bipolar disorder. , 2002, The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science.

[71]  Guy Vingerhoets,et al.  Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography Monitoring of Cerebral Hemodynamics During Performance of Cognitive Tasks: A Review , 2000, Neuropsychology Review.

[72]  A. Coenen,et al.  Mental effort causes vigilance decrease due to resource depletion. , 2004, Acta psychologica.

[73]  Edward M. Hitchcock,et al.  Automation cueing modulates cerebral blood flow and vigilance in a simulated air traffic control task , 2003 .