Early contingent negative variation of the EEG and attentional flexibility are reduced in hypotension

Abstract

This study explored the question as to whether hypotension is related to decreased attentional performance and reduced cortical activation. A total of 50 females aged 19-44 years participated in the study. Attentional performance was assessed using three subtests of the Attentional and Cognitive Efficiency (ACE) battery. Contingent negative variation (CNV) as a measure of cortical activation was registered during a constant fore-period reaction time paradigm: two conditions were defined using tones as S1 (80 or 60 dB) and S2 (70 dB). The following results were obtained. Hypotensive patients performed significantly more poorly on one subtest of the ACE, which indicates a reduced speed for switching from a routine to a controlled response (quantifying attentional flexibility). They also had longer reaction times and revealed a significantly smaller amplitude of the early CNV component. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between systolic blood pressure and the amplitude of the early CNV component. The data support previous findings that hypotension can be related to lowered cortical activation and indicate that specific aspects of attentional performance might be negatively affected by hypotension. ᮊ 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.Keywords: Hypotension; Systolic blood pressure; Contingent negative variation; Reaction time; Attentional flexibility; ACE battery Essential hypotension can be described as the chronic condition of low blood pressure that is independent from another illness or pathology. There is no general agreement as to when exactly the diagnosis 'hypotension' applies. Most authors *Corresponding author. Tel.: q49-7531-88-4606; fax: q49-7531-88-2891. E-mail address: nathan.weisz@uni-konstanz.de (N. Weisz).suggest a systolic blood pressure (SBP) below 100-110 mmHg as a cut-off value. (Weiss and Donat, 1982;Pschyrembel, 1993). We refer to the 'essential' form when speaking of hypotension in this work, which should not be confused with secondary (i.e. symptomatic) or orthostatic forms. Even though essential hypotension is by far the most common type of hypotension (90%; Phillipp, 1993), its aetiology is still unknown.

Comparison of 24-hour cardiovascular and autonomic function in paraplegia, tetraplegia, and control groups: Implications for cardiovascular risk

“…Literature in the general population suggests an association between chronic hypotension and cognitive deficits, [30][31][32][33][34] poorer reporting of general health, 35,36 increased reporting of fatigue, 35-37 impaired social well-being, 38 and a higher incidence of depression. 35 In addition, because daytime SBP was significantly reduced in the TETRA group, but nighttime SBP did not differ from the other groups, the nocturnal SBPdip was diminished.…”

Functionally dissociated aspects in anterior and posterior electrocortical processing of facial threat

“…This dissimilarity might well evoke a different cascade of electrophysiological effects. The eCNV is assumed to reflect underlying cortical activity through massive depolarisation of apical dendrites (Weisz et al, 2002) and suggested to function as a warning-type signal (Weerts and Lang, 1973). Interestingly as can be read from the Introduction, Wilkinson and Ashby (1974) suggested that the CNV in a poststimulus time period might index selective attention.…”

“…However, the neural signature of the positive going waveform remains somewhat elusive. In particular negative going waveforms over posterior regions, including the eCNV are assumed to reflect underlying cortical activation through massive depolarisation of apical dendrites (Weisz et al, 2002). Since a slow negative going wave has been found to be indicative of allocation of cortical resources (Altenmuller and Gerloff, 1999) and the CNV in ä post-stimulus trace reflects selective attention paid to a highly relevant stimulus (Wilkinson and Ashby, 1974), it is feasible that threatening angry facial expressions will elicit an eCNV rather than a positive going waveform.…”

Decentralized cardiovascular autonomic control and cognitive deficits in persons with spinal cord injury

“…In otherwise healthy non-SCI individuals, hypotension was associated with slowed cognitive speed, 60 fewer word recall, 61 decreased accuracy of response, 13 limited attention, 61 prolonged reaction Individuals with SCI above T1 tend to be persistently hypotensive with periods of episodic orthostatic hypotension. 44,45,47,[49][50][51][52][67][68][69] Our preliminary data suggest that systolic blood pressure (SBP) is persistently lower in individuals with tetraplegia over a typical 24-hour period compared to persons with high paraplegia (T2-T5) and non-SCI controls ( Fig.…”