Getting oriented: Redefining attention deficits in Parkinson's disease
Ori Peleg1, Rébaï Soret2, Pom Charras3
1Laboratory for Early Markers of Neurodegeneration, Center for the Study of Movement, Cognition, and Mobility, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Neurological Institute.
Neuropsychology
|September 26, 2024
Summary
Parkinson's disease (PD) patients show intact basic attention functions. Deficits in attention orienting emerge only when cognitive processes, like motor preparation, are needed to interpret cues.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neurology
Background:
- Parkinson's disease (PD) impacts motor and cognitive functions, including attention.
- Previous research focused on spatial attention in PD, but cueing format's role in attentional orienting and alerting remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how exogenous and endogenous cueing formats influence visuospatial attention in PD patients.
- To assess attentional orienting benefits, reorienting costs, and alerting abilities in PD.
Main Methods:
- Ninety PD patients and 72 healthy controls completed a spatial attention task.
- The task involved cueing (temporal, spatial, valid, invalid) under exogenous and endogenous conditions.
Main Results:
- PD patients showed response time benefits only for endogenous cueing requiring probabilistic prediction.
- No significant differences were found in reorienting costs, inhibition of return, or alerting between PD patients and controls.
Conclusions:
- Basic attentional orienting and alerting functions appear preserved in PD.
- Attentional challenges in PD may arise when complex cognitive processes, such as motor preparation, are necessary for cue utilization.
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