Side-specific implicit training of attentional disengagement and reorienting.

Abstract

Some patients with parietal brain damage have problems disengaging their attention from ipsilesional stimuli. Although this disengage deficit has been described in the framework of the neglect syndrome, where it is particularly pronounced, no current treatment addresses this issue directly and side-specifically. In this study we propose a paradigm that could serve as such a training and - as a proof of concept - test its effects on the attentional allocation of healthy participants. We trained 36 participants between 20 and 35 years of age in a spatial orienting paradigm in which cues on one side were predictive of the opposite side, while the cues on the opposite side were neutral. We then compared reaction times before, during, and after this training. We could show that (1) this side-specific training specifically accelerated attentional disengagement from the predictive cues, (2) this effect persisted even when cues became unpredictive again, (3) it could be achieved implicitly, i.e., without the participants' knowledge of the true cue-target-relationship, and that (4) it indeed relied on the learning of the cue's predictiveness of the target location and not pure target occurrence probabilities. These results not only contribute to our knowledge about the spatial orienting of attention but might also form the basis for a new approach to treating the disengage deficit.