Journal article
The effects of visual distraction following traumatic brain injury
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, v 4(2), pp 127-136
Mar 1998
PMID: 9529822
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Clinical assessments of individuals with traumatic
brain injury (TBI) typically report attentional difficulties,
with distractibility prominent among these complaints.
However, laboratory-based measures have often failed to
find disproportionate distraction among patients with TBI,
as compared to control participants. In this experiment,
we tested 21 patients hospitalized for rehabilitation following
recent TBI and 21 demographically comparable control subjects
on a visual reaction time go–no-go task in which
the target was preceded or followed by a brightly colored
moving visual stimulus, appearing above the target location.
Early distractors actually served as warning stimuli, improving
accuracy and speed for both participant groups. Distractors
occurring at or shortly after the time of target presentation
had no significant impact on accuracy or response bias
in either group, but did produce slowing of RT that was
significantly greater for patients than for controls. The
distractor that produced maximal slowing occurred 100 ms
after the presentation of the target or foil. Repeated
testing sessions led to reduction in the impact of the
distractor and loss of the group difference in RT impact.
The degree of RT slowing induced by distraction was modestly
related to injury severity, as measured by the current
score on the Disability Rating Scale, and the time until
the patient first followed verbal commands. There was also
a trend of greater RT slowing among individuals with focal
orbitofrontal lesions, as assessed on neuroimaging studies.
These results document a greater susceptibility to extraneous
visual distraction among patients with TBI in comparison
to controls. The fact that this difference appears only
in the RT domain, and is greatest when the distractor follows
the target, suggests that the primary impact of visual
distractors is on response preparation and execution rather
than target detection. (JINS, 1998, 4,
127–136).
Metrics
Details
- Title
- The effects of visual distraction following traumatic brain injury
- Creators
- John Whyte - Temple UniversityMegan Fleming - Allegheny University of the Health SciencesMarcia Polansky - Allegheny University of the Health SciencesChris Cavallucci - Moss Rehabilitation Hospitaland H. Branch Coslett - Temple University
- Publication Details
- Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, v 4(2), pp 127-136
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Number of pages
- 10
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- [Retired Faculty]
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000075146200004
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-0031960339
- Other Identifier
- 991019168490504721
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InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Clinical Neurology
- Neurosciences
- Psychiatry
- Psychology