Clinical, experimental, and functional imaging studies suggest overlapping neuronal networks and functional interactions of alertness and visuospatial attention within the right hemisphere of the brain. To examine the interaction of arousal and visuospatial attention in peripersonal and extrapersonal virtual space, we tested 20 healthy male adults during 24 hr of sleep deprivation at four points during the night (9 p.m., 1 a.m., 5 a.m., and 9 a.m.). The main finding concerning covert orienting in a virtual environment is a highly significant slowing of reorientation toward the left visual hemifield in extrapersonal space due to decreased arousal. The results provide additional evidence for the proposed anatomical and functional overlap of the two attentional systems and indicate a modulation of visuospatial attention by the level of arousal in extrapersonal space. (JINS, 2008, 14, 309–317.)
Fragestellung: Der essentielle Tremor (ET) ist eine häufige Erkrankung bei der neben motorischen auch nicht-motorische Störungen anzutreffen sind. Dazu gehört im Bereich der kognitiven Funktionen eine verminderte Wortflüssigkeit, welche bei älteren ET-Patienten nach langer Krankheitsdauer beschrieben wurde (1). Ungeklärt ist jedoch, ob auch bei jungen ET-Patienten eine verminderte Wortflüssigkeit vorliegt. Die Verschlechterung der Wortflüssigkeit ist zudem auch eine Nebenwirkung der Tiefen Hirnstimulation (THS) unter Dauernutzung (2). Eine bedarfsgesteuerte Verwendung der Tiefen Hirnstimulation „on demand“ (3) hat hingegen verschiedene Vorteile (z.B. Vermeidung einer Toleranzentwicklung, geringere Stimulationsintensitäten) und könnte zudem eine geringere Beeinträchtigung der Wortflüssigkeit nach sich ziehen.
Background Data on gender-specific profiles of cognitive functions in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) are rare and inconsistent, and possible disease-confounding factors have been insufficiently considered. Method The LANDSCAPE study on cognition in PD enrolled 656 PD patients (267 without cognitive impairment, 66% male; 292 with mild cognitive impairment, 69% male; 97 with PD dementia, 69% male). Raw values and age-, education-, and gender-corrected Z scores of a neuropsychological test battery (CERAD-Plus) were compared between genders. Motor symptoms, disease duration, l- dopa equivalent daily dose, depression - and additionally age and education for the raw value analysis - were taken as covariates. Results Raw-score analysis replicated results of previous studies in that female PD patients were superior in verbal memory (word list learning, p = 0.02; recall, p = 0.03), while men outperformed women in visuoconstruction ( p = 0.002) and figural memory ( p = 0.005). In contrast, gender-corrected Z scores showed that men were superior in verbal memory (word list learning, p = 0.02; recall, p = 0.02; recognition, p = 0.04), while no difference was found for visuospatial tests. This picture could be observed both in the overall analysis of PD patients as well as in a differentiated group analysis. Conclusions Normative data corrected for gender and other sociodemographic variables are relevant, since they may elucidate a markedly different cognitive profile compared to raw scores. Our study also suggests that verbal memory decline is stronger in women than in men with PD. Future studies are needed to replicate these findings, examine the progression of gender-specific cognitive decline in PD and define different underlying mechanisms of this dysfunction.
The present study investigated the influence of virtual depth on attentional asymmetries in healthy young participants (n = 20), by administering a variation of a luminance judgment task as well as a line bisection task in different depth locations (peripersonal, extrapersonal) within three-dimensional virtual space. Pseudoneglect was present in both tasks and depth locations with clear emphasis on peripersonal space. The results show highly significant attentional asymmetries in virtual space that are comparable to real space and suggest that Virtual Reality (VR) is an appropriate tool for assessing visuo-spatial attention in virtual space.
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