Lost in Time: Temporal Monitoring Elicits Clinical Decrements in Sustained Attention Post-Stroke

M. B Brosnan; P. M Dockree; S Harty; Damien Pearce; J M Levenstein; C. R Gillebert; M. A Bellgrove; R. G O'Connell; I. H Robertson; N Demeyere

doi:10.1017/S1355617721000242

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Lost in Time: Temporal Monitoring Elicits Clinical Decrements in Sustained Attention Post-Stroke

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Lost in Time: Temporal Monitoring Elicits Clinical Decrements in Sustained Attention Post-Stroke

M. B Brosnan, P. M Dockree, S Harty, Damien Pearce, J M Levenstein, C. R Gillebert, M. A Bellgrove, R. G O'Connell, I. H Robertson and N Demeyere

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, Vol.28(3), pp.249-257

2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617721000242

PMID: 33745486

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Abstract

stroke

sustained attention

right hemisphere

mental fatigue

clinical assessment

attention

Objectives: Mental fatigue, 'brain fog', and difficulties maintaining engagement are commonly reported issues in a range of neurological and psychiatric conditions. Traditional sustained attention tasks commonly measure this capacity as the ability to detect target stimuli based on sensory features in the auditory or visual domains. However, with this approach, discrete target stimuli may exogenously capture attention to aid detection, thereby masking deficits in the ability to endogenously sustain attention over time. Methods: To address this, we developed the Continuous Temporal Expectancy Task (CTET) where individuals continuously monitor a stream of patterned stimuli alternating at a fixed temporal interval (690 ms) and detect an infrequently occurring target stimulus defined by a prolonged temporal duration (1020 ms or longer). As such, sensory properties of target and non-target stimuli are perceptually identical and differ only in temporal duration. Using the CTET, we assessed stroke survivors with unilateral right hemisphere damage (N = 14), a cohort in which sustained attention deficits have been extensively reported. Results: Stroke survivors had overall lower target detection accuracy compared with neurologically healthy age-matched older controls (N = 18). Critically, stroke survivors performance was characterised by significantly steeper within-block performance decrements, which occurred within short temporal windows (similar to 3 1/2 min), and were restored by the break periods between blocks. Conclusions: These findings suggest that continuous temporal monitoring taxes sustained attention processes to capture clinical deficits in this capacity over time, and outline a precise measure of the endogenous processes hypothesised to underpin sustained attention deficits following right hemisphere stroke.

Details

Title: Lost in Time: Temporal Monitoring Elicits Clinical Decrements in Sustained Attention Post-Stroke
Authors: M. B Brosnan (Corresponding Author) - Trinity College Dublin
P. M Dockree (Author) - Trinity College Dublin
S Harty (Author) - Trinity College Dublin
Damien Pearce (Author) - Monash Univ, Sch Psychol Sci, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia
J M Levenstein (Author) - University of Oxford
C. R Gillebert (Author) - University of Oxford
M. A Bellgrove (Author) - Monash University
R. G O'Connell (Author) - Trinity College Dublin
I. H Robertson (Author) - Trinity College Dublin
N Demeyere (Author) - University of Oxford
Publication details: Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, Vol.28(3), pp.249-257
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date published: 2022
DOI: 10.1017/S1355617721000242
ISSN: 1469-7661; 1355-6177
PMID: 33745486
Copyright note: © INS. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2021 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the same Creative Commons licence is included and the original work is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use.
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Thompson Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99639279202621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Clinical Neurology; Neurosciences; Psychiatry; Psychology