Attentional blink in adolescents with varying levels of impulsivity

• Published in: Journal of psychiatric research Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 197 - 205
• Main Authors: Ray Li, Chiang-shan, Chen, Sue-Huei, Lin, Wei-hao, Yang, Yong-Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2005; Elsevier
• Subjects: ADHD; Adolescent; Attention; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - physiopathology; Attentional blink; Biological and medical sciences; Blinking - physiology; Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders - physiopathology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gating; Humans; Impulsivity; Male; Personality traits; Personality. Affectivity; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Severity of Illness Index; Temporal; Time Factors; Attentional blink; ADHD; Impulsivity; Temporal; Gating; Attention; Human; Healthy subject; Hyperactivity; Cognition; Personality; Experimental study; Student; Time variation; Attentional disorder; Vision; Adolescent; Risk factor; Information processing; Perception; Neuropsychologia; Target detection; Comparative study; Visual task
• ISSN: 0022-3956; 1879-1379
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2004.06.003

We explore the temporal attention function in a non-clinical sample of adolescents varying in impulsivity, as assessed with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. In a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation task, in which two targets (T 1 and T 2) were presented in close temporal proximity among distractors, participants tried to identify T 1 and detect T 2 in one (dual-task) experiment and only to detect T 2 in a second, control (single-task) experiment. The sensitivity of T 2 detection was analyzed using signal detection theory. The attentional blink – the impairment in T 2 detection following the identification of T 1 – was increased in magnitude and protracted in adolescents with high impulsivity, compared with those with low impulsivity. Moreover, a few more participants with high impulsivity appeared to have a blink temporally weighing toward a later time, an observation also made in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in an earlier study. Taken together, these findings suggest impairment in temporal attention in adolescents with high impulsivity. As in ADHD children, a gating deficit may play a central role in this attention impairment.