Georgiou N, Bradshaw J L, Phillips J G, Bradshaw J A, Chiu E
Department of Psychology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Brain. 1995 Oct;118 ( Pt 5):1305-18. doi: 10.1093/brain/118.5.1305.
Tourette's syndrome and Huntington's disease have long been clinically associated with attentional deficits. In this study, we aimed to determine the nature and quantify the extent of such deficits. A technique was devised to ascertain the efficiency with which Tourette's syndrome and Huntington's disease patients could shift and direct attention away from naturally expected stimulus-response (S-R) linkages. This was done by varying the relationships formed between stimulus and response location. Attentional efficiency was indicated by relative speed of responding to relevant (congruent) and irrelevant (incongruent) stimuli, in a paradigm developed from the Simon effect. There were five conditions progressively increasing in complexity. The stimuli consisted of left and right pointing arrows and, in some cases, various conditionality manipulations were also employed, such that in the presence of a certain symbol (i.e. 'x') the nature of the response had to be reversed, whereas in the presence of an alternative symbol (i.e. '='), the response was compatible with the direction of the arrow. As predicted, Tourette's syndrome and Huntington's disease patients, regardless of medication or depression status and unlike controls, were particularly disadvantaged in responding to various conflicting S-R configurations. Tourette's syndrome and Huntington's disease patients may experience difficulties in making attentional shifts, or in inhibiting inappropriate responses; they may also be more susceptible (than controls) to the conflict that can arise when the spatial code formed for the stimulus is irrelevant for selecting the appropriate response. We conclude that our findings support the notion that cognitive deficits in Tourette's syndrome and Huntington's disease may stem from abnormalities of the major pathways interconnecting the basal ganglia and the frontal lobes.
抽动秽语综合征和亨廷顿舞蹈症长期以来在临床上都与注意力缺陷有关。在本研究中，我们旨在确定此类缺陷的本质并量化其程度。我们设计了一种技术，以确定抽动秽语综合征和亨廷顿舞蹈症患者能够将注意力从自然预期的刺激 - 反应（S - R）联系中转移并引导开的效率。这是通过改变刺激与反应位置之间形成的关系来实现的。在从西蒙效应发展而来的范式中，注意力效率由对相关（一致）和不相关（不一致）刺激的相对反应速度来表示。存在五个复杂度逐渐增加的条件。刺激由向左和向右的箭头组成，在某些情况下，还采用了各种条件性操作，即当出现某个符号（即“x”）时，反应的性质必须反转，而当出现另一个符号（即“=”）时，反应与箭头方向一致。正如所预测的，抽动秽语综合征和亨廷顿舞蹈症患者，无论其用药情况或抑郁状态如何，与对照组不同，在对各种相互冲突的S - R配置做出反应时特别不利。抽动秽语综合征和亨廷顿舞蹈症患者在进行注意力转移或抑制不适当反应时可能会遇到困难；他们也可能（比对照组）更容易受到当为刺激形成的空间编码与选择适当反应无关时可能出现的冲突的影响。我们得出结论，我们的研究结果支持这样一种观点，即抽动秽语综合征和亨廷顿舞蹈症中的认知缺陷可能源于连接基底神经节和额叶的主要通路的异常。
