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Andersson M, Ystad M, Lundervold A, et al. Correlations between measures of executive attention and cortical thickness of left posterior middle frontal gyrus - a dichotic listening study. Behav Brain Funct. 2009;5:41doi: 10.1186/1744-9081-5-41.
Andersson, M., Ystad, M., Lundervold, A., & Lundervold, A. J. (2009). Correlations between measures of executive attention and cortical thickness of left posterior middle frontal gyrus - a dichotic listening study. Behavioral and brain functions : BBF, 541. https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-5-41
Andersson, Martin, et al. "Correlations between measures of executive attention and cortical thickness of left posterior middle frontal gyrus - a dichotic listening study." Behavioral and brain functions : BBF vol. 5 (2009): 41. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-5-41
Andersson M, Ystad M, Lundervold A, Lundervold AJ. Correlations between measures of executive attention and cortical thickness of left posterior middle frontal gyrus - a dichotic listening study. Behav Brain Funct. 2009 Oct 01;5:41. doi: 10.1186/1744-9081-5-41. PMID: 19796388; PMCID: PMC2761925.
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Behav Brain Funct. 2009 Oct 01;5:41. doi: 10.1186/1744-9081-5-41.

Correlations between measures of executive attention and cortical thickness of left posterior middle frontal gyrus - a dichotic listening study.

Behavioral and brain functions : BBF

Martin Andersson, Martin Ystad, Arvid Lundervold, Astri J Lundervold

Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway. [email protected].

PMID: 19796388 PMCID: PMC2761925 DOI: 10.1186/1744-9081-5-41

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The frontal lobe has been associated to a wide range of cognitive control functions and is also vulnerable to degeneration in old age. A recent study by Thomsen and colleagues showed a difference between a young and old sample in grey matter density and activation in the left middle frontal cortex (MFC) and performance on a dichotic listening task. The present study investigated this brain behaviour association within a sample of healthy older individuals, and predicted a positive correlation between performance in a condition requiring executive attention and measures of grey matter structure of the posterior left MFC.

METHODS: A dichotic listening forced attention paradigm was used to measure attention control functions. Subjects were instructed to report only the left or the right ear syllable of a dichotically presented consonant-vowel syllable pair. A conflict situation appears when subjects are instructed to report the left ear stimulus, caused by the conflict with the bottom-up, stimulus-driven right ear advantage. Overcoming this processing conflict was used as a measure of executive attention. Thickness and volumes of frontal lobe regions were derived from automated segmentation of 3D magnetic resonance image acquisitions.

RESULTS: The results revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between the thickness measure of the left posterior MFC and performance on the dichotic listening measures of executive attention. Follow-up analyses showed that this correlation was only statistically significant in the subgroup that showed the typical bottom-up, stimulus-driven right ear advantage.

CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the left MFC is a part of an executive attention network, and that the dichotic listening forced attention paradigm may be a feasible tool for assessing subtle attentional dysfunctions in older adults.

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