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A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging

The study of lateralized visuospatial attention bias in non-clinical samples has revealed a systematic group-level leftward bias (pseudoneglect), possibly as a consequence of right hemisphere (RH) dominance for visuospatial attention. Pseudoneglect appears to be modulated by age, with a reduced or e...

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Autores principales: Benwell, Christopher S. Y., Thut, Gregor, Grant, Ashley, Harvey, Monika
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4051195/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24959142
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00113
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author Benwell, Christopher S. Y.
Thut, Gregor
Grant, Ashley
Harvey, Monika
author_facet Benwell, Christopher S. Y.
Thut, Gregor
Grant, Ashley
Harvey, Monika
author_sort Benwell, Christopher S. Y.
collection PubMed
description The study of lateralized visuospatial attention bias in non-clinical samples has revealed a systematic group-level leftward bias (pseudoneglect), possibly as a consequence of right hemisphere (RH) dominance for visuospatial attention. Pseudoneglect appears to be modulated by age, with a reduced or even reversed bias typically present in elderly participants. It has been suggested that this shift in bias may arise due to disproportionate aging of the RH and/or an increase in complementary functional recruitment of the left hemisphere (LH) for visuospatial processing. In this study, we report rightward shifts in subjective midpoint judgment relative to healthy young participants whilst elderly participants performed a computerized version of the landmark task (in which they had to judge whether a transection mark appeared closer to the right or left end of a line) on three different line lengths. This manipulation of stimulus properties led to a similar behavioral pattern in both the young and the elderly: a rightward shift in subjective midpoint with decreasing line length, which even resulted in a systematic rightward bias in elderly participants for the shortest line length (1.98° of visual angle, VA). Overall performance precision for the task was lower in the elderly participants regardless of line length, suggesting reduced landmark task discrimination sensitivity with healthy aging. This rightward shift in the attentional vector with healthy aging is likely to result from a reduction in RH resources/dominance for attentional processing in elderly participants. The significant rightward bias in the elderly for short lines may even suggest a reversal of hemisphere dominance in favor of the LH/right visual field under specific conditions.
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spelling pubmed-40511952014-06-23 A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging Benwell, Christopher S. Y. Thut, Gregor Grant, Ashley Harvey, Monika Front Aging Neurosci Neuroscience The study of lateralized visuospatial attention bias in non-clinical samples has revealed a systematic group-level leftward bias (pseudoneglect), possibly as a consequence of right hemisphere (RH) dominance for visuospatial attention. Pseudoneglect appears to be modulated by age, with a reduced or even reversed bias typically present in elderly participants. It has been suggested that this shift in bias may arise due to disproportionate aging of the RH and/or an increase in complementary functional recruitment of the left hemisphere (LH) for visuospatial processing. In this study, we report rightward shifts in subjective midpoint judgment relative to healthy young participants whilst elderly participants performed a computerized version of the landmark task (in which they had to judge whether a transection mark appeared closer to the right or left end of a line) on three different line lengths. This manipulation of stimulus properties led to a similar behavioral pattern in both the young and the elderly: a rightward shift in subjective midpoint with decreasing line length, which even resulted in a systematic rightward bias in elderly participants for the shortest line length (1.98° of visual angle, VA). Overall performance precision for the task was lower in the elderly participants regardless of line length, suggesting reduced landmark task discrimination sensitivity with healthy aging. This rightward shift in the attentional vector with healthy aging is likely to result from a reduction in RH resources/dominance for attentional processing in elderly participants. The significant rightward bias in the elderly for short lines may even suggest a reversal of hemisphere dominance in favor of the LH/right visual field under specific conditions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC4051195/ /pubmed/24959142 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00113 Text en Copyright © 2014 Benwell, Thut, Grant and Harvey. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Benwell, Christopher S. Y.
Thut, Gregor
Grant, Ashley
Harvey, Monika
A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging
title A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging
title_full A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging
title_fullStr A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging
title_full_unstemmed A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging
title_short A rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging
title_sort rightward shift in the visuospatial attention vector with healthy aging
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4051195/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24959142
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00113
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