ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the abnormality of cerebral laterality of the three attentional networks (alerting, orienting, executive control) in patients with bipolar depression disorder. Methods Patients with bipolar depression disorder (n=28) and healthy controls (n=40) were selected. Lateralized Attention Network Test (LANT) was used to explore the efficiency of the networks in bilateral cerebral hemisphere. Results In the response time (RT), there was a significant interaction between groups and hemispheres in orienting network (F=4.67, P=0.03). The result of post hoc test indicated that the RT in the orienting function was significantly longer in the left hemisphere than in the right in control group (t=-4.47, P＜0.05). There was no significant difference in the orienting network between the left and right hemisphere in patients with the depressive bipolar disorder. Conclusion Attention is impaired in patients with depressive bipolar disorder in which the disappearance of left hemisphere advantage of orienting network is the main manifestation of attention impairments.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate gender differences in the attentional network in 5-year-old children.Methods:A totally of 70 healthy children [31 girls,(62.5 ± 2.6 months old;39 boys,(63.3 ± 2.8) months old] from the top class of kindergarten were enrolled in the study.A modified version of the Attention Network Test (ANT) was used to assess the attentional networks (alerting,orienting,and executive control).Results:The mean rate of accuracy was higher than 90％.A significant gender difference was found in the alerting network,boys scored higher than girls [(139 ± 54) ms vs.(109 ± 49) ms,P ＜ 0.05].No gender difference was found in the orienting or executive control networks (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion:It suggests that 5-year-old children are fully capable of completing the attentional networks test,and the 5-year-old boy's alert function may be stronger than that of girls.
ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the causal influences between activated regions in executive control network when participants were performing attention network test (ANT)under passive hyperthermia using Granger causality analysis.Methods Thirty male healthy participants which were randomly divided into control group (n=1 5)and experimental group (n=1 5)performed ANT task during two thermal conditions:hyperthermic condition (50℃)and normothermic condition (20℃)during functional magnetic reso-nance imaging.The data processing was performed using statistical parametric mapping 8 (SPM8).Granger causality analysis was performed on the resulted activated regions,as well as the correlations of the GC values with the reaction time in both groups.Results Between-group comparisons on Granger causality analysis revealed significantly enhanced influences of anterior cingulate gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,and bidirectional influences between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right superior parietal lobule,but decreased influence between right superior parietal lobule and right inferior parietal lobule.The correlation analysis showed significant correlation between GC value of right superior parietal lobule to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the reaction time in control group (r=-0.558,P =0.031),but yet there was no significant correlation in experimental group (r=0.355,P =0.257).Conclusion Heat stress affected the causal influences within the executive control network,which subse-quently disrupted the executive control performance during passive hyperthermia.