UR2NF Unité de Recherches en Neuropsychologie et Neuroimagerie Fonctionnelle, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus du Solbosch CP191, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt 50, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium.
Brain Cogn. 2011 Aug;76(3):382-9. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.04.002. Epub 2011 May 4.
Pseudoneglect is a slight but consistent leftward attentional bias commonly observed in healthy young populations, purportedly explained by right hemispheric dominance. It has been suggested that normal aging might be associated with a decline of the right hemisphere. According to this hypothesis, a few studies have shown that elderly tend to exhibit a rightward attentional bias in line bisection. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis in young and older participants using a perceptual landmark task. Results yield evidence for an age-related shift, from a strong attentional leftward bias in young adults toward a suppressed or even a reversed bias in the elderly. Right hemisphere impairment coupled to a left hemispheric compensation might explain the perceptual shift observed in older adults. However, a decline in corpus callosum function cannot be excluded. Alternatively, these results may be in agreement with the hypothesis of an age-related specific inhibition of return dysfunction, an overt attentional orienting mechanism, and/or a decrease of dopamine.
假性忽视是一种轻微但持续的左注意偏向，在健康的年轻人群中很常见，据称这可以用右半球优势来解释。有人认为，正常衰老可能与右半球的衰退有关。根据这一假设，一些研究表明，老年人在直线二分法中表现出向右的注意偏向。在本研究中，我们使用知觉地标任务在年轻和年长参与者中测试了这一假设。结果表明，年龄相关的转变，从年轻人的强烈左注意偏向，到老年人的抑制或甚至反转偏向。右半球损伤加上左半球代偿可能解释了在老年人中观察到的知觉转变。然而，也不能排除胼胝体功能下降的可能性。或者，这些结果可能与年龄相关的特定返回抑制功能障碍、明显的注意定向机制以及/或多巴胺减少的假设一致。
