Hudson John M, Flowers Kenneth A, Walster Kerri L
Department of Psychology, University of Lincoln, UK.
J Neuropsychol. 2014 Mar;8(1):140-6. doi: 10.1111/jnp.12008. Epub 2013 Jan 16.
Across different studies, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) demonstrate impairments on numerous measures of attentional control that are classically associated with frontal lobe functioning. One aspect of attentional control that has not been examined in TLE is the ability to execute two modality-specific tasks concurrently. We sought to examine the status of dual-task coordination in TLE. We further examined the cohorts' performance on a range of traditional measures of attentional control. Eighteen TLE patients and 22 healthy controls participated in the study. Dual-task performance involved comparing the capacity to execute a tracking and a digit recall task simultaneously with the capacity to execute the tasks separately. We also administered measures of: set shifting (odd-man-out test), sustained attention (elevator counting), selective attention (elevator counting with distraction), and divided attention (trail making test). We found that the proportional decrement in dual-task performance relative to single-task performance did not vary between the groups (TLE = 92.48%; controls = 93.70%), nor was there a significant difference in sustained attention (p > .10). Patients with TLE did demonstrate marked deficits in selective attention (p < .0001), divided attention (p < .01), and set shifting (p < .01). These findings add to the knowledge about cognitive dysfunction in TLE, indicating that impairments in attentional control in TLE tend to be selective. The greatest deficits appear to be on tasks that invoke a high level of processing resources. In contrast, sustained attention is less compromised and the capacity to allocate cognitive resources appears to be normal in patients with TLE.
在不同的研究中，颞叶癫痫（TLE）患者在众多传统上与额叶功能相关的注意力控制指标上表现出受损。注意力控制的一个方面尚未在TLE中得到研究，即同时执行两项特定模态任务的能力。我们试图研究TLE中双任务协调的状况。我们进一步考察了该队列在一系列传统注意力控制指标上的表现。18名TLE患者和22名健康对照者参与了这项研究。双任务表现涉及比较同时执行追踪任务和数字回忆任务的能力与分别执行这些任务的能力。我们还进行了以下测量：定势转移（异常项目检测测试）、持续注意力（电梯计数）、选择性注意力（有干扰的电梯计数）和分散注意力（连线测验）。我们发现，相对于单任务表现，双任务表现的比例下降在两组之间没有差异（TLE组 = 92.48%；对照组 = 93.70%），持续注意力也没有显著差异（p > 0.10）。TLE患者在选择性注意力（p < 0.0001）、分散注意力（p < 0.01）和定势转移（p < 0.01）方面确实表现出明显缺陷。这些发现增加了对TLE认知功能障碍的认识，表明TLE中注意力控制的受损往往具有选择性。最大的缺陷似乎出现在需要高水平处理资源的任务上。相比之下，TLE患者的持续注意力受损较小，分配认知资源的能力似乎正常。
