Habituation and sensitization of the orienting response following bilateral anterior cingulotomy

Skin conductance response (SCR) was measured in an orienting response (OR) and habituation paradigm in 10 post-cingulotomy and age-matched control subjects. While both groups habituated, the cingulotomy patients exhibited a slower habituation rate, and greater variability across trials compared to controls. Habituation abnormalities were not associated with increased sensitization, as neither extended habituation training or dishabituation differentiated the groups. An increased frequency of spontaneous SCR activations occurred post-cingulotomy. The results suggest that the cingulate cortex influences the temporal stability of habituation. These findings are consistent with the subtle attentional dysfunction noted following cingulate damage.

[1]  K. Heilman,et al.  Hypoarousal in patients with the neglect syndrome and emotional indifference , 1978, Neurology.

[2]  K. Heilman,et al.  Right hemispheric dominance for mediating cerebral activation , 1979, Neuropsychologia.

[3]  C. Rowell,et al.  DISHABITUATION AND AROUSAL IN THE RESPONSE OF SINGLE NERVE CELLS IN AN INSECT BRAIN , 1968 .

[4]  K. Heilman,et al.  Neglect after cingulectomy , 1973, Neurology.

[5]  Hanna Damasio,et al.  Intact electrodermal skin conductance responses after bilateral amygdala damage , 1989, Neuropsychologia.

[6]  H. Ursin,et al.  Habituation to electrical stimulation of the brain in unanesthetized cats. , 1967, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[7]  K. Pribram,et al.  Arousal, activation, and effort in the control of attention. , 1975, Psychological review.

[8]  A. Luria.  Higher Cortical Functions in Man , 1980, Springer US.

[9]  M. Mesulam.  A cortical network for directed attention and unilateral neglect , 1981, Annals of neurology.

[10]  M. Raichle,et al.  Localization of a human system for sustained attention by positron emission tomography , 1991, Nature.

[11]  F Mauguiere,et al.  The duality of the cingulate gyrus in monkey. Neuroanatomical study and functional hypothesis. , 1980, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[12]  Karl H. Pribram,et al.  The GSR of monkeys during orienting and habituation and after ablation of the amygdala, hippocampus and inferotemporal cortex ☆ , 1965 .

[13]  J. Pardo,et al.  Deficits in Selective Attention Following Bilateral Anterior Cingulotomy , 1991, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[14]  H. Feldman,et al.  Families of lines: random effects in linear regression analysis. , 1988, Journal of applied physiology.

[15]  H. Jasper,et al.  Habituation of the arousal reaction. , 1956, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[16]  R. Thompson,et al.  Habituation and dishabituation to dorsal root stimulation in the isolated frog spinal cord. , 1972, Behavioral biology.

[17]  Irving Kupfermann,et al.  Neuronal Correlates of Habituation and Dishabituation of the Gill-Withdrawal Reflex in Aplysia , 1970, Science.

[18]  R. Kaplan,et al.  Dissociation of autonomic and subjective responses to emotional slides in right hemisphere damaged patients , 1994, Neuropsychologia.

[19]  R. F. Thompson,et al.  Habituation: a model phenomenon for the study of neuronal substrates of behavior. , 1966, Psychological review.

[20]  Some regular relations between the galvanic skin response and changes in EEG during localized damage to the limbic (rhinencephalic) structures of the human brain , 1970 .