Behrmann M, Black S E, Murji S
Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890, USA.
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 1995 Apr;17(2):220-42. doi: 10.1080/01688639508405120.
Using neuropsychological evidence, this paper examines whether spatial attention functions as a domain-specific module or as a more general-purpose central processor. Data are presented from two spatial attention cuing tasks completed by subjects, with an acquired attentional deficit, and control subjects. In both tasks, an arrow indicated with high probability the side of response (response task) or the side of space on which the stimulus would appear (visuospatial task). In the response task, the stimuli appeared foveally and the response component was lateralized, and in the visuospatial task, the stimuli were lateralized and the response component remained constant in the midline. Only the neglect subjects showed a disproportionate increase in reaction time on both the response and visuospatial tasks when the arrow cued the subject to the ipsilateral side and the stimulus or response was on the side of space contralateral to the lesion. The substantial association across the two tasks suggests that a common underlying internal spatial representation subserves perception and action. While this finding is consistent with Fodor's view of a cross-domain processor, it does not meet all of his criteria of a central processor. We conclude, therefore, that the posterior attentional mechanism is strictly neither a module nor a central processor. Rather, these results suggest that a common attentional mechanism may subserve behavior in domains that are tightly coupled.
本文利用神经心理学证据，探讨空间注意力是作为一个特定领域的模块发挥作用，还是作为一个更通用的中央处理器发挥作用。研究数据来自两项空间注意力提示任务，任务由患有后天性注意力缺陷的受试者和对照组受试者完成。在这两项任务中，箭头都以高概率指示反应的一侧（反应任务）或刺激将出现的空间一侧（视觉空间任务）。在反应任务中，刺激出现在中央凹，反应成分是偏侧化的；在视觉空间任务中，刺激是偏侧化的，反应成分在中线保持不变。只有忽视症患者在箭头提示其向同侧方向且刺激或反应位于与病变对侧的空间一侧时，在反应任务和视觉空间任务中的反应时间都出现了不成比例的增加。两项任务之间的显著关联表明，一个共同的潜在内部空间表征服务于感知和行动。虽然这一发现与福多尔关于跨领域处理器的观点一致，但它并不符合他对中央处理器的所有标准。因此，我们得出结论，后部注意力机制严格来说既不是一个模块也不是一个中央处理器。相反，这些结果表明，一个共同的注意力机制可能服务于紧密耦合领域中的行为。
