Poster D7, Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 5:15 – 7:00 pm, Restaurant Hall
Attention processes in children with attentional difficulties and in children with reading difficulties as revealed using brain event-related potentials
Praghajieeth Raajhen Santhana Gopalan1, Otto Loberg1, Kaisa Lohvansuu1, Jarmo Hämäläinen1, Paavo Leppänen1;1University of Jyväskylä, Department of Psychology, Finland
Visual attention-related processes include three functional sub-components: alerting, orienting, and inhibition. Here we examined these components using brain event-related potentials and their neuronal source activations during the Attention Network Test (ANT) in children with attentional difficulties (AD) and reading difficulties (RD). EEG was measured with 128 electrodes and combined with simultaneous eye-tracking and reaction time data, from three groups of Finnish sixth-graders aged 12-13 years (control = 83; AD = 15; RD = 23). In the ANT test, participants were asked to detect the direction of a middle target fish out of a group of five fish. The target stimulus was either preceded by a cue (centre, double, or spatial) or without a cue, in order to manipulate the alerting and orienting sub-processes of attention. The direction of the target fish can either be congruent or incongruent in relation to the flanker fish, thereby manipulating the inhibition sub-processes of attention. Reaction time (RT) performance of AD group showed reduced orienting effects compared to other groups. No differences were found between groups on RT of alerting and inhibition effects. Neuronal source analysis revealed significant group differences in the occipital, medial temporal and medial frontal lobes in AD and RD groups. RT performances showed that AD and RD group might have limited ability to maintain the spatial attentional focus. The neuronal source differences between groups suggest that there is a reduced top-down control which exhibits a deficit in disengaging and processing of relevant visual target information.
Themes: Control, Selection, and Executive Processes, Disorders: Developmental
Method: Electrophysiology (MEG/EEG/ECOG)