This study investigated the link between meditation, self-reported mindfulness and cognitive flexibility as well as other attentional functions. It compared a group of meditators experienced in mindfulness meditation with a meditation-naïve control group on measures of Stroop interference and the "d2-concentration and endurance test". Overall the results suggest that attentional performance and...

Cognitive training has become a billion-dollar industry with the promise that exercising a cognitive faculty (e.g., attention) on simple "brain games" will lead to improvements on any task relying on the same faculty. Although this logic seems sound, it assumes performance improves on training tasks because attention's capacity has been enhanced. Alternatively, training may result in attentiona...

Cancer survivors are exposed to several risk factors for cognitive dysfunction, such as general anesthesia, surgical trauma, and adjuvant therapies. In our recent study we showed that thalamic volume reduction and attentional dysfunction occurred shortly after surgery. Here, we examined the 6-month prognosis of the 20 patients with breast cancer who underwent surgery. Seven patients did not rec...

The Detection-Response Task is a method for assessing the attentional effects of cognitive load in a driving environment. Drivers are presented with a sensory stimulus every 3-5 s, and are asked to respond to it by pressing a button attached to their finger. Response times and hit rates are interpreted as indicators of the attentional effect of cognitive load. The stimuli can be visual, tactile...

BACKGROUND Most studies examining psychotropic medication use on cognition in older persons with dementia include measures of global cognitive function. The present study examined the relationship between different types of psychotropic medication and specific cognitive functions in older people with dementia. METHODS Two hundred and six institutionalized older adults with dementia (180 women...

Studies are reviewed that examine how perceptual and attentional systems operate in the cortically disconnected human. The data indicate that even though both simple and complex perceptual information associated with the cognitive activities of each disconnected half brain show virtually no interactions, the attentional system remains largely integrated in the split-brain patient. It also appea...

Metabolic syndrome is more prevalent in schizophrenia than in the general population and is associated with an increased rate of morbidity. It has been associated with cognitive impairments in schizophrenia, which are a core deficit in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Sensory gating deficit is also a core deficit in schizophrenia. The principal objective of this study was to investigate the...

Tests evaluating the attentional-executive system are widely used in clinical practice. However, proximity of an objective cognitive test with real-world situations (ecological validity) is not frequently investigated. The present study evaluate the association between measures of the Five Digit Test (FDT) and the Oral Trails Test (OTT) with self-reported cognitive failures in everyday life as ...

Adolescence has been characterized as a period of both opportunity and vulnerability. Numerous clinical conditions, including substance-use disorders, often emerge during adolescence. These maladaptive behaviors have been linked to problems with cognitive control, yet few studies have investigated how rewards differentially modulate attentional processes in adolescents versus adults. Here, we t...