The Attentional Boost Effect in Young and Adult Euthymic Bipolar Patients and Healthy Controls

Abstract

In the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE), stimuli encoded with to-be-responded targets are later recognized more accurately than stimuli encoded with to-be-ignored distractors. While this effect is robust in young adults, evidence regarding healthy older adults and clinical populations is sparse. The present study investigated whether a significant ABE is present in bipolar patients (BP), who, even in the euthymic phase, suffer from attentional deficits, and whether the effect is modulated by age. Young and adult euthymic BP and healthy controls (HC) presented with a sequence of pictures paired with target or distractor squares were asked to pay attention to the pictures and press the spacebar when a target square appeared. After a 15-min interval, their memory of the pictures was tested in a recognition task. The performance in the detection task was lower in BP than in HC, in both age groups. More importantly, neither young nor adult BP exhibited a significant ABE; for HC, a robust ABE was only found in young participants. The results suggest that the increase in the attentional demands of the detection task in BP and in adult HC draws resources away from the encoding of target-associated stimuli, resulting in elimination of the ABE. Clinical implications are discussed.

The attentional boost effect overcomes dual-task interference in choice-response tasks

“…Recognition memory was better for targetpaired images than images encoded on their own. This pattern of results was replicated in subsequent studies and extended to tests of older adults (Bechi Gabrielli et al, 2021;Rossi-Arnaud et al, 2018). Given that the current study used the three-condition (target/distractor/blank) design, why did we find a relative boost rather than an absolute boost?…”

It is a match! Timely response to a specific target boosts concurrent task processing.

“…Our study focused on a sample of healthy individuals aged between 18 and 45 years, a demographic that aligns with previous research on the ABE (Mulligan et al, 2014; Spataro et al, 2013; Swallow & Jiang, 2010, 2013; Yebra et al, 2019). However, the findings may not be applicable to children or older adults due to age-related changes in attention (Bechi Gabrielli et al, 2018, 2021; Prull, 2019). Additional research is needed to investigate the extent to which the results can be extrapolated to other age groups and individuals with a neurological or psychiatric condition (Bechi Gabrielli et al, 2021; Kéri et al, 2013; Rossi-Arnaud et al, 2014).…”

Both target detection and response contribute to the attentional boost effect.

“…Our study population was healthy young adults between the ages of 18 and 45 years—a population representative of existing studies on the attentional boost effect (Mulligan et al, 2014; Spataro et al, 2013; Swallow & Jiang, 2010, 2013; Yebra et al, 2019). Because of age-related changes in attention, the results may not generalize to young children or older adults (Bechi Gabrielli et al, 2018, 2021; Prull, 2019). In addition, neurological or psychiatric conditions may affect the attentional boost effect (Bechi Gabrielli et al, 2021; Kéri et al, 2013; Rossi-Arnaud et al, 2014).…”

“…Because of age-related changes in attention, the results may not generalize to young children or older adults (Bechi Gabrielli et al, 2018, 2021Prull, 2019). In addition, neurological or psychiatric conditions may affect the attentional boost effect (Bechi Gabrielli et al, 2021;Kéri et al, 2013;Rossi-Arnaud et al, 2014).…”