TY - JOUR A1 - Liebe, Thomas A1 - Dordevic, Milos A1 - Kaufmann, Jörn A1 - Avetisyan, Araks A1 - Skalej, Martin A1 - Müller, Notger Germar T1 - Investigation of the functional pathogenesis of mild cognitive impairment by localisation-based locus coeruleus resting-state fMRI JF - Human Brain Mapping N2 - Dementia as one of the most prevalent diseases urges for a better understanding of the central mechanisms responsible for clinical symptoms, and necessitates improvement of actual diagnostic capabilities. The brainstem nucleus locus coeruleus (LC) is a promising target for early diagnosis because of its early structural alterations and its relationship to the functional disturbances in the patients. In this study, we applied our improved method of localisation-based LC resting-state fMRI to investigate the differences in central sensory signal processing when comparing functional connectivity (fc) of a patient group with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n = 28) and an age-matched healthy control group (n = 29). MCI and control participants could be differentiated in their Mini-Mental-State-Examination (MMSE) scores (p < .001) and LC intensity ratio (p = .010). In the fMRI, LC fc to anterior cingulate cortex (FDR p < .001) and left anterior insula (FDR p = .012) was elevated, and LC fc to right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ, FDR p = .012) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC, FDR p = .021) was decreased in the patient group. Importantly, LC to rTPJ connectivity was also positively correlated to MMSE scores in MCI patients (p = .017). Furthermore, we found a hyperactivation of the left-insula salience network in the MCI patients. Our results and our proposed disease model shed new light on the functional pathogenesis of MCI by directing to attentional network disturbances, which could aid new therapeutic strategies and provide a marker for diagnosis and prediction of disease progression. KW - attention KW - locus coeruleus KW - mild cognitive impairment KW - resting-state fMRI Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26039 SN - 1097-0193 VL - 43 SP - 5630 EP - 5642 PB - Wiley CY - New York, NY, USA ET - 18 ER - TY - THES A1 - Meinke, Anja T1 - Nikotineffekte auf räumliche Aufmerksamkeitsprozesse bei Nichtrauchern T1 - Effects of nicotine on visual attention in non-smokers N2 - Nikotin in den unterschiedlichsten Darreichungsformen verringert bei verschiedenen Spezies im räumlichen Hinweisreizparadigma die Kosten invalider Hinweisreize. Welcher Teilprozess genau durch Nikotin beeinflusst wird, ist bislang nicht untersucht worden. Die gängige Interpretation ist, daß Nikotin das Loslösen von Aufmerksamkeit von einem bisher beachteten Ort erleichtert. In fünf Studien, drei elektrophysiologischen und zwei behavioralen wurden drei mögliche Mechanismen der Nikotinwirkung an Nichtrauchern untersucht. Experiment 1 und 2 gingen der Frage nach, ob Nikotin eine Modulation sensorischer gain Kontrolle bewirkt. Dazu wurden ereigniskorrelierte Potentiale (EKP) im Posner-Paradigma erhoben und die Wirkung von Nikotin auf die aufmerksamkeitsassoziierten Komponenten P1 und N1 betrachtet. Nikotin verringerte die Kosten invalider Hinweisreize bei Aufmerksamkeitslenkung durch endogene Hinweisreize, nicht aber bei exogenen Hinweisreizen. Die P1 und N1 Komponenten zeigten sich unbeeinflusst von Nikotin, damit findet also die Annahme einer Wirkung auf sensorische Suppression keine Unterstützung. In Experiment 3 und 4 wurde untersucht, ob Nikotin einen Effekt auf kostenträchtige unwillkürliche Aufmerksamkeitsverschiebungen, Distraktionen, hat. In Experiment 3 wurden in einem räumlichen Daueraufmerksamkeitsparadigma Distraktionen durch deviante Stimulusmerkmale ausgelöst und die Wirkung von Nikotin auf eine distraktionsassoziierte Komponente des EKP, die P3a, betrachtet. In Experiment 4 wurde in einem Hinweisreizparadigma durch zusätzliche Stimuli eine Distraktion ausgelöst und die Nikotinwirkung auf die Reaktionszeitkosten untersucht. Nikotin zeigte keinen Einfluss auf Distraktionskosten in beiden Studien und auch keine Wirkung auf die P3a Komponente in Experiment 3. In Experiment 4 wurde zusätzlich die Wirkung von Nikotin auf das Loslösen von Aufmerksamkeit untersucht, indem die Schwierigkeit des Loslösens variiert wurde. Auch hier zeigte sich keine Nikotinwirkung. Allerdings konnte in beiden Studien weder die häufig berichtete generelle Reaktionszeitverkürzung noch die Verringerung der Kosten invalider Hinweisreize repliziert werden, so dass zum Einen keine Aussage über die Wirkung von Nikotin auf Distraktionen oder den Aufmerksamkeitsloslöseprozess gemacht werden können, zum Anderen sich die Frage stellte, unter welchen Bedingungen Nikotin einen differentiellen Effekt überhaupt zeigt. Im letzten Experiment wurde hierzu die Häufigkeit der Reaktionsanforderung einerseits und die zeitlichen Aspekte der Aufmerksamkeitslenkung andererseits variiert und der Effekt des Nikotins auf den Validitätseffekt, die Reaktionszeitdifferenz zwischen valide und invalide vorhergesagten Zielreizen, betrachtet. Nikotin verringerte bei Individuen, bei denen Aufmerksamkeitslenkung in allen Bedingungen evident war, in der Tendenz den Validitätseffekt in der ereignisärmsten Bedingung, wenn nur selten willentliche Aufmerksamkeitsausrichtung notwendig war. Dies könnte als Hinweis gedeutet werden, dass Nikotin unter Bedingungen, die große Anforderungen an die Vigilanz stellen, die top-down Zuweisung von Aufmerksamkeitsressourcen unterstützt. N2 - Nicotine has consistently been shown to improve performance on a range of attentional tasks. In spatial cueing (Posner-type) paradigms, where a cue indicates the likely location of a subsequent target stimulus, nicotine influences the ability to react to invalidly cued targets across different species and ways of administration. Previous research suggested that the cholinergic effect is due to a facilitated disengagemant of attention from the cued location. In five studies with nonsmoking subjects, three candidate mechanisms of nicotinic action were examined. Experiment 1 and experiment 2 investigated whether nicotine modulates attentional processes of sensory gain control. In a Posner-paradigm event-related potentials (ERP) were measured and the effect of nicotine on the attention-related components P1 and N1 was assessed. Behaviorally, nicotine reduced the costs of invalid cueing when cues were endogenous, but not with exogenous cues. Electrophysiologically, the P1 and N1 components were not affected by nicotine. These data provide therefore no support for the notion of a nicotine-modulated attentional suppression. In experiment 3 and 4 the effect of nicotine on involuntary distracting attention shifts was investigated. In experiment 3 ERPs were measured in a spatial sustained attention paradigm, where rare changes in a target stimulus attribute were used as distractors. The effect of nicotine on the distraction-associated P3a component was assessed. In experiment 4 the effect of nicotine on the reaction time costs of additional distracting stimuli was studied in a Posner paradigm. In both studies nicotine did not show an effect on distractions, neither in the reaction time costs nor in the parameters of the P3a component. Experiment 4 also investigated whether nicotine has an effect on the disengagement of attention by varying the difficulty of disengaging one's focus from the cued location. Again, nicotine did not show an effect. However, experiment 3 and 4 also neither replicated the commonly reported general nicotinic reduction of reaction times nor the differential reduction of the costs of invalid cueing. Therefore, regarding the effect of nicotine on distraction and on the disengagement of attention the data remain inconclusive. However, these data suggest that there are conditions and mechanisms moderating nicotinic action, that are still unknown. Accordingly, experiment 5 made the attempt to determine such conditions. Response frequency and temporal characteristics of attention orientation were varied. In individuals, who evidently had shifted their attention, nicotine reduced the validity effect under uneventful conditions, when attention was not to be shifted in each trial. This might suggest that nicotine facilitates the top-down allocation of attentional resources in vigilance-demanding situations. KW - Nicotin KW - Aufmerksamkeit KW - Kognition KW - Acetylcholin KW - Ereigniskorreliertes Potenzial KW - attention KW - nicotine KW - actylcholine KW - cognition KW - event-related potentials Y1 - 2006 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7659 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ehlert, Antje A1 - Poltz, Nadine A1 - Quandte, Sabine A1 - Kohn-Henkel, Juliane A1 - Kucian, Karin A1 - Aster, Michael von A1 - Esser, Günter T1 - Taking a closer look: The relationship between pre-school domain general cognition and school mathematics achievement when controlling for intelligence JF - Journal of Intelligence N2 - Intelligence, as well as working memory and attention, affect the acquisition of mathematical competencies. This paper aimed to examine the influence of working memory and attention when taking different mathematical skills into account as a function of children’s intellectual ability. Overall, intelligence, working memory, attention and numerical skills were assessed twice in 1868 German pre-school children (t1, t2) and again at 2nd grade (t3). We defined three intellectual ability groups based on the results of intellectual assessment at t1 and t2. Group comparisons revealed significant differences between the three intellectual ability groups. Over time, children with low intellectual ability showed the lowest achievement in domain-general and numerical and mathematical skills compared to children of average intellectual ability. The highest achievement on the aforementioned variables was found for children of high intellectual ability. Additionally, path modelling revealed that, depending on the intellectual ability, different models of varying complexity could be generated. These models differed with regard to the relevance of the predictors (t2) and the future mathematical skills (t3). Causes and conclusions of these findings are discussed. KW - intellectual ability KW - intelligence KW - pre-school KW - mathematical development KW - school mathematics KW - longitudinal KW - numerical skills KW - working memory KW - attention Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10030070 SN - 2079-3200 VL - 10 SP - 1 EP - 23 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Schweiz ET - 3 ER -