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Published on: December 7, 2018
Developmental lag of visuospatial attention in Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Giorgia Piccini1, Simone Gazzellini1, Adele D'Amico1
1Department of Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
Insights
Children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) show attention deficits in both voluntary and automatic systems. Their attentional skills are delayed by approximately three years compared to age-matched peers.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Neurology
Background:
- Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is associated with attention deficits.
- Previous research has primarily focused on voluntary attention in DMD.
- A comprehensive characterization of attentional skills in DMD is lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate deficits in both voluntary and automatic visuospatial attention systems in children with DMD.
- To compare the attentional performance of DMD patients with age-matched healthy males and younger healthy males.
- To determine the developmental level of attention in DMD patients.
Main Methods:
- Visuospatial attention tasks assessing voluntary and automatic attention.
- Comparison of performance between 20 males with DMD, 20 age-matched healthy males, and 20 younger healthy males.
- Statistical analysis of task performance data.
Main Results:
- DMD patients exhibited significantly worse performance on the voluntary attention task compared to age-matched controls, performing similarly to younger controls.
- DMD patients also showed less efficient performance on the automatic attention task compared to age-matched controls, performing similarly to younger children.
- Attention in DMD patients was found to be approximately three years below their chronological age.
Conclusions:
- Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients demonstrate deficits in both voluntary and automatic visuospatial attention.
- The attentional development in DMD patients is significantly delayed, corresponding to a developmental level of about three years younger than their age.
- These findings highlight the pervasive impact of DMD on cognitive functions, specifically attention.
Abstract:
Children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) present a specific deficit of voluntary attention but to date there has been no clear characterization of their attentional skills. The present study investigated the hypothesis that DMD patients present deficits of both voluntary and automatic visuospatial attention systems and that their performance could be equivalent to that of younger healthy males. Twenty males (mean age 10 years) with diagnosis of DMD, 20 age-matched healthy males (10 years 3 months) and 20 healthy younger males (7 years 6 months) were required to perform two visuospatial attention tasks: voluntary and automatic. In the voluntary task, the performance of the DMD group was significantly worse than that of the age-matched group, and equal to that of the younger controls. In the automatic attention task also, the performance of the DMD patients was less efficient than that of the age-matched controls and equal to that of the younger children. This study supports the previous report of voluntary attention deficit in DMD and extends the evidence to include also an automatic attention system deficit. The development level of attention in DMD patients is below that expected for their age and corresponds to a delay of about three years.
