The functional anatomy of intrinsic and phasic alertness—a PET study with auditory stimulation

Weis, Susanne; Fimm, Bruno; Longoni, Francesca; Dietrich, Thomas; Zahn, Roland; Herzog, H; Kemna, Lars J.; Hinckeldey, Klaus Willmes-von; Sturm, Walter

doi:10.1016/s1053-8119(00)90945-5

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Moreover, dysfunction of prefrontal regions of the brain cortex has largely been postulated in OSA patients (e.g., [ 12 , 58 ] In a recent study by our group on attention deficits in neurological patients, those suffering from partial anterior circulation infarcts were found to be more impaired in all attention tasks [ 86 ]. Finally, it is worth noting that the cognitive control of wakefulness and arousal (i.e., intrinsic alertness) arises from a network that includes cortical and subcortical structures (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, parietal cortex, thalamus, and brainstem) [ 72 , 73 , 75 ]. Overall, the present data are coherent with the idea that attention is a complex system of specific abilities highly susceptible to different kinds of damage related to both bottom-up and top-down neural mechanisms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intrinsic (also called endogenous) alertness refers to the cognitive (top-down) control of arousal; it is typically assessed by simple reaction time to a visual or auditory stimulus without a warning signal. By contrast, phasic (also called exogenous) alertness is the ability to increase one’s general level of attention for a short period in response to a cue or warning signal preceding the target stimulus [ 72 , 73 ]. Vigilance involves maintaining a certain level of arousal and alertness during a long task in order to detect infrequent but relevant stimuli (such as those that occur when driving a car on a highway at night (see [ 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 ]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Neuropsychological Profile of Attention Deficits of Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea: An Update on the Daytime Attentional Impairment

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) suffer from several neurocognitive disturbances. One of the neuropsychological processes most investigated in OSA patients is attention, but the results have been controversial. Here, we update the attention profile of OSA patients with the final aim to improve attention assessment, with a possible impact on clinical and medical-legal practices, in terms of which attention subdomains and parameters need consideration and which one is a high-risk OSA phenotype for attention dysfunctions. Method: For this purpose, we assessed 32 previously untreated OSA patients (26 men and 6 women) under 65 years of age (mean age 53.2 ± 7.3; mean education level 10.4 ± 3.4 years) suffering from moderate to severe sleep apnea and hypopnea (mean apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) 45.3 ± 22.9, range 16.1–69.6). A control group of 34 healthy participants matched with OSA patients for age, education level, and general cognitive functioning were also enrolled. The OSA patients and healthy participants were tested through an extensive computerized battery (Test of Attentional Performance, TAP) that evaluated intensive (i.e., alertness and vigilance) and selective (i.e., divided and selective) dimensions of attention and returned different outcome parameters (i.e., reaction time, stability of performance, and various types of errors). Data analysis: The data were analyzed by ANCOVA which compared the speed and accuracy performance of the OSA and control participants (cognitive reserve was treated as a covariate). The possible mechanisms underlying attention deficits in OSA patients were examined through correlation analysis among AHI, oxygenation parameters, sleepiness scores, and TAP outcomes and by comparing the following three phenotypes of patients: severe OSA and severe nocturnal desaturators (AHI++D+), severe OSA nondesaturators (AHI++D−), and moderate OSA nondesaturators (AHI+D−). Results: The results suggest that the OSA patients manifest deficits in both intensive and selective attention processes and that reaction time (RT) alone is ineffective for detecting and characterizing their problems, for which error analysis and stability of performance also have to be considered. Patients with severe OSA and severe hypoxemia underperformed on alertness and vigilance attention subtests. Conclusions: The data suggest the importance of evaluating attention deficits among OSA patients through several parameters (including performance instability). Moreover, the data suggest a multifaceted mechanism underlying attention dysfunction in OSA patients.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Neuropsychological Profile of Attention Deficits of Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea: An Update on the Daytime Attentional Impairment

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The assumption that an accessory stimulus can induce such a process is apparent in several more recently published reports (5,28). The hypothesis does not seem to be parsimonious since it assumes that the organism develops a temporally specific preparation for responding but a nonspecific sensorimotor preparation for responding.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relative contribution of expectancy and immediate arousal to the facilitatory effect of an auditory accessory stimulus

Del-Fava

Ribeiro-do-Valle

2004

Braz J Med Biol Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An auditory stimulus speeds up a digital response to a subsequent visual stimulus. This facilitatory effect has been related to the expectancy and the immediate arousal that would be caused by the accessory stimulus. The present study examined the relative contribution of these two influences. In a first and a third experiment a simple reaction time task was used. In a second and fourth experiment a go/no-go reaction time task was used. In each of these experiments, the accessory stimulus preceded the target stimulus by 200 ms for one group of male and female volunteers (G Fix ). For another group of similar volunteers (G Var ) the accessory stimulus preceded the target stimulus by 200 ms in 25% of the trials, by 1000 ms in 25% of the trials and was not followed by the target stimulus in 50% of the trials (Experiments 1a and 1b) or preceded the target stimulus by 200 ms in 6% of the trials and by 1000 ms in 94% of the trials (Experiments 2a and 2b). There was a facilitatory effect of the accessory stimulus for G Fix in the four experiments. There was also a facilitatory effect of the accessory stimulus at the 200-ms stimulus onset asynchrony for G Var in Experiments 1a and 1b but not in Experiments 2a and 2b. The facilitatory effects observed were larger in the go/no-go task than in the simple task. Taken together, these results suggest that expectancy is much more important than immediate arousal for the improvement of performance caused by an accessory stimulus.

show abstract

“…A warning cue, appearing 100-1000 ms before the target stimulus (Weis et al, 2000) can reduce reaction time, and this performance advantage is likely related, at least in part, to a change in alertness. Analyzing the neural correlates of phasic alertness revealed a more extended activation pattern compared to the intrinsic alertness condition, with additional activations in the thalamus as well as in the superior and ventrolateral frontal gyrus of the left hemisphere (Sturm & Willmes, 2001).…”

Section: Descriptors: Alertness Fnirs Optical Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain activation for alertness measured with functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)

et al. 2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Alertness is a basic psychological function within the construct of attention. The neural basis of alertness has been found in the right frontotemporal cortex and the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. The aim of the present study was to establish the measurement of functional brain activity during alertness with functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Therefore we measured the changes in brain oxygenation in two independent samples during an alertness condition and control conditions with 52 NIRS channels placed over the frontotemporal area. Based on a region of interest defined in the first sample (and on the literature) we showed in the second sample significantly higher activation during the alertness condition compared to the control conditions. This study proves the possibility of investigating the neural correlates of alertness using fNIRS.

show abstract

The functional anatomy of intrinsic and phasic alertness—a PET study with auditory stimulation

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

The Neuropsychological Profile of Attention Deficits of Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea: An Update on the Daytime Attentional Impairment

The Neuropsychological Profile of Attention Deficits of Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea: An Update on the Daytime Attentional Impairment

Relative contribution of expectancy and immediate arousal to the facilitatory effect of an auditory accessory stimulus

Brain activation for alertness measured with functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About