Attentional Control

a r t i c l e i n f o Previously, electroencephalographic (EEG) delta–beta coupling (positive correlation between power in the fast beta and slow delta frequency bands) has been related to affective processing. For instance, differences in delta–beta coupling have been observed between people in a psychological stress condition and controls. We previously reported relationships between attentional threat processing and delta–beta coupling and individual differences in attentional control. The present study extended and replicated these findings in a large mixed gender sample (N = 80). Results demonstrated that emotional Stroop task interference for threatening words was related to self-reported attentional inhibition capacity and frontal delta–beta coupling. There was no clear gender difference for delta–beta coupling (only a non-significant trend) and the relationship between delta–beta coupling and attentional threat-processing was not affected by gender. These results rep-licate ...

Le but de cette étude était d'examiner l'effet d'un programme d'activités physiques sur la stabilité et le contrôle attentionnel de la posture lors de la réalisation concomitante d'une tâche cognitive attentionnelle chez des personnes âgées en perte d'autonomie.Douze personnes âgées (M = 81,4 ± 9 ans), institutionnalisées en structure gériatrique ont participé à un programme d'activités physiques de type posture–équilibration–motricité (PEM) pendant 12 semaines à raison de deux séances d'une heure par semaine. Les paramètres stabilométriques de surface et de longueur du trajet parcouru par le centre de pression plantaire (CPP), les yeux ouverts (YO) et les yeux fermés (YF), en condition simple-tâche et en condition double-tâche sur sol dur ont été analysés avant et après le programme d'entraînement. En condition double-tâche, les sujets effectuaient, lors de l'évaluation stabilométrique, une tâche cognitive attentionnelle de génération de chiffres aléatoires.Les principaux résultats ont révélé que seule la longueur du trajet parcouru par le CPP était plus importante en condition double-tâche qu'en condition simple-tâche (p = 0,05). Lors de l'évaluation initiale, la performance à la tâche cognitive était significativement moins bonne en condition double-tâche (debout) qu'en condition simple-tâche (assis), seulement dans la modalité YF mais pas dans la modalité YO (p < 0,05). Toutefois, à l'issue du programme d'entraînement, les performances à la tâche cognitive ne se différenciaient plus (n.s.) pour les deux conditions assis YF et debout YF.L'entraînement a permis d'améliorer la capacité des sujets à réaliser une tâche mentale attentionnelle tout en maintenant un équilibre correct, notamment les yeux fermés. Bien que les performances stabilométriques semblaient moins bonnes en condition double-tâche qu'en condition simple-tâche, ces résultats pourraient être interprétés comme une amélioration, suite au programme d'entraînement, du contrôle attentionnel du maintien de la posture. Les limites méthodologiques de cette étude sont ensuite discutées.We aimed to examine the effect of a physical activity program on postural sway and on the attentional control of postural abilities in elderly frail adults.Twelve older adults (age 81.4 ± 9 years) institutionalised in a geriatric care institution participated in the physical activity program posture–balance–mobility (PBM) twice a week (1 hour per session) for 12 weeks. We analysed stabilometric data for surface and length of the center of pressure (COP) sway, with eyes open and eyes closed, under single-task and dual-task conditions on a firm floor before and after the training program. During the static postural evaluation and under the dual-task condition, subjects performed an attention-demanding cognitive task, the random number generation task.Only the length of COP sway was more important under the dual-task condition than under the single-task condition (p = 0.05). At baseline, cognitive performance was significantly weaker under the dual-task condition (standing) than under the single-task condition (seated), with eyes closed but not eyes open (p < 0.05). However, after the training program, the performance of the cognitive task did not significantly differ between the dual-task condition with eyes closed and the single-task condition with eyes closed.The training program allowed elderly subjects to improve their ability to perform an attention-demanding cognitive task while standing still, in particular with their eyes closed. Although balance seemed to be less stable under the dual-task condition than under the single-task condition, these results could be interpreted as an improvement of the attentional control of postural stability.

The aim of the present review was to investigate the theoretical framework of working memory as it relates to the control of attention in sport and thereby apply cognitive psychological theory to sports, but also use the sports domain to advance cognitive theory. We first introduce dual-process theories as an overarching framework for
attention-related research in sports. Then a central mechanism is highlighted how working memory is involved in the control of attention in sports by reviewing research demonstrating that the activated contents in working memory control the focus of attention. The second part of the paper reviews literature showing that working memory capacity is an important individual difference variable that is predictive of controlling attention in a goal-directed manner and avoiding distraction and interference in sports. Finally, we address the question whether differences in working memory capacity contribute to sport expertise.

Across multiple societies, we see a shift from regimes of truth (ROT) to “regimes of
posttruth” (ROPT) characterized by proliferating “truth markets.” ROT corresponded
to disciplinary society, tighter functioning between media/political/education apparatuses, scientific discourses, and dominant truth-arbiters. ROPT corresponds to societies of control, where power exploits new “freedoms” to participate/produce/express (as well as consume/diffuse/evaluate). These developments further correspond to postpolitics/ postdemocracy, where issues, discourses, and agency for sociopolitical change remain constrained, despite the enabling of a new range of cultural and pseudopolitical participation around, among other things, truth. ROPT emerge out of postpolitical/postdemocratic strategies common to control societies where especially resource rich political actors attempt to use data-analytic knowledge to manage the field of appearance and participation, via attention and affect.

People with anxiety disorders show an attentional bias for threat (AB), and Attention Bias Modification (ABM) procedures have been found to reduce this bias. However, the underlying processes accounting for this effect remain poorly understood. One explanation suggests that ABM requires the modification of attention control, driven by the recruitment of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In the present double-blind study, we examined whether modifying left DLPFC activation influences the effect of ABM on AB. We used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to directly modulate cortical excitability of the left DLPFC during an ABM procedure designed to reduce AB to threat. Anodal tDCS increases excitability, whereas cathodal tDCS decreases it. We randomly assigned highly trait-anxious individuals to one of three conditions: 1) ABM combined with cathodal tDCS, 2) ABM combined with anodal tDCS, or 3) ABM combined with sham tDCS. We assessed the effects of these manipulat...

When facing penalty kicks in football (soccer), goalkeepers frequently incorporate strategies that are designed to distract the kicker. However, no direct empirical evidence exists to ascertain what effect such visual distractions have on the attentional control, and performance, of footballers. Eighteen experienced footballers took five penalty kicks under counterbalanced conditions of threat (low vs. high) and goalkeeper movement (stationary vs. waving arms) while wearing eye-tracking equipment. Results suggested that participants were more distracted by a moving goalkeeper than a stationary one and struggled to disengage from a moving goalkeeper under situations of high threat. Significantly more penalties were saved on trials when the goalkeeper was moving and shots were also generally hit closer to the goalkeeper (centrally) on these trials. The results provide partial support for the predictions of attentional control theory and implications for kickers and goalkeepers are discussed.

The aim of this study was to test the predictions of attentional control theory using the quiet eye period as an objective measure of attentional control. Ten basketball players took free throws in two counterbalanced experimental conditions designed to manipulate the anxiety they experienced. Point of gaze was measured using an ASL Mobile Eye tracker and fixations including the quiet eye were determined using frame-byframe analysis. The manipulation of anxiety resulted in significant reductions in the duration of the quiet eye period and free throw success rate, thus supporting the predictions of attentional control theory. Anxiety impaired goal-directed attentional control (quiet eye period) at the expense of stimulus-driven control (more fixations of shorter duration to various targets). The findings suggest that attentional control
theory may be a useful theoretical framework for examining the relationship between anxiety and performance in visuomotor sport skills.

The current study sought to test the predictions of attentional control theory (ACT) in a sporting environment. Fourteen experienced footballers took penalty kicks under low- and high threat counterbalanced conditions while wearing a gaze registration system. Fixations to target locations (goalkeeper and goal area) were determined using frame-by-frame analysis. When anxious, footballers made faster first fixations and fixated for significantly longer toward the goalkeeper. This disruption in gaze behavior brought about significant reductions in shooting accuracy, with shots becoming significantly centralized and within the goalkeeper’s reach. These findings support the predictions of ACT, as anxious participants were more likely to focus on the “threatening” goalkeeper, owing to an increased influence of the stimulus-driven attentional control system.

The journal of Cognitive Computation is defined in part by the notion that biologically inspired computational accounts are at the heart of cognitive processes in both natural and artificial systems. Many studies of various important aspects of cognition (memory, observational learning, decision making, reward prediction learning, attention control, etc.) have been made by modelling the various experimental results using ever-more sophisticated computer programs. In this manner progressive inroads have been made into gaining a better understanding of the many components of cognition. Concomitantly in both science and science fiction the hope is periodically re-ignited that a man-made system can be engineered to be fully cognitive and conscious purely in virtue of its execution of an appropriate computer program. However, whilst the usefulness of the computational metaphor in many areas of psychology and neuroscience is clear, it has not gone unchallenged and in this article I will review a group of philosophical arguments that suggest either such unequivocal optimism in computationalism is misplaced—computation is neither necessary nor sufficient for cognition—or panpsychism (the belief that the physical universe is fundamentally composed of elements each of which is conscious) is true. I conclude by highlighting an alternative metaphor for cognitive processes based on communication and interaction.

Our visual system is fovea-heavy, which means that in-depth processing occurs only in the centre of
the retina, forcing the eyes to make constant movements in order to bring visual elements into focus. Despite this, eye movements go largely unnoticed and the environment is perceived as visually stable. Pre-saccadic shifts of attention might be guaranteeing this stability by easing the transition from one foveated image to another. Before an eye movement attention shifts to the location where the eyes will land and visual elements presented there are preferentially processed. A similar mechanism, also based on the allocation of attention in eye-centred coordinates, is known as remapping. It allows attention to be maintained on locations of interest across eye movements, while accounting for the retinal displacement caused by each upcoming movement. In the current thesis, we are concerned with how the visual elements present in the environment shape the allocation of attention before eye movements. We first aimed to determine whether pre-saccadic shifts of attention are a precondition of all saccades, irrespective of goals. We showed that whether the saccade was goal-directed, to the intended target, or involuntary, erroneously directed to a capturing distractor, made little difference to the pre-saccadic shift of attention. Retinal displacement caused by involuntary saccades was also accounted for by the visual system. Next, the project focused on how the presented visual elements affect the programming of eye movements, by investigating how the decision to make an eye movement is affected by the number of target alternatives. We saw evidence that a larger set-size can reduce saccadic reaction times without increasing the error rate, a finding not predicted by a popular model. Further, whether the presence of visual elements in and around the saccade landing point influences the shifts of attention was investigated. We demonstrate that objects and their arrangement shape the distribution of attention, and that the effect is not driven by saccade metrics alone. Finally, we look at the spatial and temporal distribution of visual attention when a saccade target is removed shortly before the eye movement.

Better tools for assessing cognitive impairment in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are required to enable diagnosis of the disease before substantial neurodegeneration has taken place and to allow for detection of subtle changes in the early stages of progression of the disease. The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association convened a meeting to discuss state-of-the