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Updated: Jul 27, 2026
11:01
Examining the Characteristics of Episodic Memory using Event-related Potentials in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease
Published on: August 30, 2011
Attentional control in Alzheimer's disease
A D Baddeley1, H A Baddeley, R S Bucks
1Departments of Experimental Psychology and Care of the Elderly, University of Bristol, UK.
Brain : a Journal of Neurology
|July 19, 2001
Summary
Alzheimer's disease impairs executive functions, particularly the ability to divide attention. Early Alzheimer's patients show specific deficits in dual-task performance, not global attention decline.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neurology
Background:
- Executive function, including attentional control, declines in early Alzheimer's disease (AD).
- Debate exists whether this decline is a global deficit or affects specific attentional domains differently.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether attentional control deficits in Alzheimer's disease are domain-specific.
- To examine three proposed domains: focal attention, resistance to distraction, and dual-task performance.
Main Methods:
- Alzheimer's disease patients and elderly/young controls performed tasks assessing focal attention (reaction times), visual search (distraction), and divided attention (dual-task).
- Two difficulty levels were used for each attentional domain.
Main Results:
- No significant difference in focal attention tasks between AD patients and controls.
- AD patients showed increased susceptibility to distractors in visual search compared to controls.
- AD patients exhibited marked impairment in dual-task performance, unlike the elderly control group.
Conclusions:
- Attentional control deficits in Alzheimer's disease are not global but domain-specific.
- Findings support a specific dual-task processing deficit in early Alzheimer's disease.
- Executive functions in AD may need to be fractionated for targeted interventions.
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