Differences of brain mechanism between selective attention and sustained attention:evidences from event-related potentials / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:At present, researches about attention mainly concentrate on the relationship between attention and other psychological phenomena, but studies concerning different types of attention itself (sustained attention versus selective attention) are few. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the brain mechanisms of sustained and selective attentions which have different roles in the cognitive process. METHODS:Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured when 18 col ege students’ participants (half male and half female) were performing selective and sustained attention tasks. The program was written in E-Prime and displayed on a computer, and the experimental task was adapted from Karl et al. reported experimental paradigm, including selective attention and sustained attention tasks. The time of fixation point given was 500 ms, and the time of three randomly abreast pictures given was 300 ms. Al the participants were asked to make rapid and accurate response as much as possible. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The ERPs elicited by the two attention tasks were different in the aspects of time process, wave crest and latency. The brain regions activated by the sustained attention were wider than those by selective attention. The ERPs elicited by the sustained attention mainly presents as positive waves, whereas those elicited by the selective attention were reflected as both positive and negative waves. The EPRs elicited by the sustained attention were N100 and N250, but in the metaphase, selective attention elicited the P180. These may indicate that event choice appears in the middle stage of the task. Besides, the reversion of EPRs elicited by the two attention tasks in the anterior and posterior scalp is likely to be a generality of al attentions.