Dual target identification and the attentional blink in Parkinson's disease

J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2003 May;25(3):361-75. doi: 10.1076/jcen.25.3.361.13811.

Abstract

In healthy adults, deficits in identifying a second target following a previously attended target in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) occur between intertarget intervals of approximately 100-500 ms. This Attentional Blink (AB) is investigated in nondemented medicated Parkinson's patients using a modification of the standard paradigm that required the identification of two red letters embedded in a black letter distractor stream. Parkinson's patients and controls produced an equivalent AB, although with a different pattern of errors. Thus, the processing and clearance of information was largely preserved in nondemented Parkinson's patients, without evidence of bradyphrenia. However, perseveration of earlier RSVP items in short-term memory was thought to explain the different pattern of errors.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Attention*
  • Blinking / physiology*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Discrimination Learning
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Parkinson Disease / physiopathology*
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Reaction Time
  • Refractory Period, Psychological
  • Visual Perception / physiology*