Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T15:04:06.473Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spatial negative priming in early Alzheimer's disease: Evidence for reduced cognitive inhibition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2006

FRANCES L. VAUGHAN ,
ELIZABETH A. HUGHES ,
ROBERT S.P. JONES ,
ROBERT T. WOODS  and
STEVEN P. TIPPER
FRANCES L. VAUGHAN
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, United Kingdom North Wales Brain Injury Service, Conwy & Denbighshire NHS Trust, United Kingdom
ELIZABETH A. HUGHES
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, South Essex Partnership NHS Trust, Essex, United Kingdom
ROBERT S.P. JONES
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, United Kingdom
ROBERT T. WOODS
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, United Kingdom
STEVEN P. TIPPER
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, Bangor, United Kingdom
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Some studies of negative priming and other tasks assumed to reflect inhibitory functions suggest a decline in inhibitory processes in Alzheimer's disease. However, none of the measures used in previous studies can be interpreted as an unambiguous reflection of distractor inhibition. The present study investigates whether reductions in negative priming associated with Alzheimer's disease reflect reduced distractor inhibition, rather than perceptual review processes. Individuals with early Alzheimer's disease were predicted to show reduced negative priming on a spatial localization task designed to provide an unambiguous measure of distractor inhibition. Sixteen clinical participants showed significantly less negative priming than old and young healthy control groups, which is interpreted as evidence for reduced distractor inhibition in early dementia. A second analysis indicated that, within the clinical sample only, negative priming effect size was significantly correlated with prime trial response speed. Clinical participants showing the least negative priming were slower to respond to an initial stimulus. The results may mean that people with early Alzheimer's disease have a reduced capacity to use excitatory as well as inhibitory processes in selection. (JINS, 2006, 12, 416–423.)

Keywords

Alzheimer diseaseDementiaInhibitionAttentionCognitive scienceNeuropsychology
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , May 2006 , pp. 416 - 423
Copyright
© 2006 The International Neuropsychological Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Amieva, H., Lafont, S., Auriacombe, S., Le Carret, N., Dartigues, J-F., Orgogozo, J-L., & Fabrigoule, C. (2002). Inhibitory breakdown and dementia of the Alzheimer type: A general phenomenon? Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 24, 503–516.Google Scholar
Amieva, H., Lafont, S., Auriacombe, S., Rainville, C., Orgogozo, J.M., Dartigues, J.F., & Fabrigoule, C. (1998). Analysis of error types in the Trailmaking test evidences an inhibitory deficit in dementia of the Alzheimer type. Journal of Clinical, & Experimental Neuropsychology, 20, 280–285.Google Scholar
Balota, D.A. & Ferraro, F.R. (1993). A dissociation of frequency and regularity effects in pronunciation performance across young and healthy adults, older adults and individuals with senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Journal of Memory and Language, 32, 573–592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beardsall, L. & Huppert, F.A. (1994). Improvement in NART word reading in demented and normal older persons using the Cambridge Contextual Reading Test. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 16, 232–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beech, A., Powell, T., McWilliam, J., & Claridge, G. (1989). Evidence of reduced ‘cognitive inhibition’ in schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychology, 28, 109–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collette, F., Van der Linden, M., & Salmon, E. (1999). Executive dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease. Cortex, 35, 57–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connelly, S.L. & Hasher, L. (1993). Aging and the inhibition of spatial location. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 19, 1238–1250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dagenbach, D. & Carr, T. (1994). Inhibitory processes in perceptual recognition: Evidence for a center-surround attentional mechanism. In D. Dagenbach & T. Carr (Eds.), Inhibitory processes in attention, memory and language. San Diego: Academic Press.
Dalrymple-Alford, E.C. & Budayr, B. (1966). Examination of some aspects of the Stroop color-word test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 23, 1211–1214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faust, M.E., Balota, D.A., Duchek, J.M., Gernsbacher, M.A., & Smith, S. (1997). Inhibitory control in sentence comprehension in individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer type. Brain and Language, 57, 225–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faust, M.E., Balota, D.A., Spieler, D.H., & Ferraro, F.R. (1999). Individual differences in information processing rate and amount: Implications for group differences in response latency. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 777–799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grady, C.L., Haxby, J.V., Horwitz, B., Sundaram, M., Berg, G., Schapiro, M., Friedland, R.P., & Rappoport, S.I. (1988). Longitudinal study of the early neuropsychological and cerebral metabolic changes in dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 10, 576–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graf, P., Tuokko, H., & Gallie, K. (1990). Attentional deficits in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. In J.T. Enns (Ed.), The development of attention: Research and theory. Elsevier: North Holland.
Hasher, L., Stoltzfus, E.R., Zacks, R.T., & Rypma, B. (1991). Age and inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 17, 163–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haxby, J.V., Grady, C.L., Koss, E., Horowitz, B., Heston, L.L., Schapiro, M.B., Friedland, R.P., & Rappoport, S.I. (1990). Longitudinal study of cerebral metabolic asymmetries and associated neuropsychological patterns in early dementia of the Alzheimer type. Archives of Neurology, 47, 753–760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houghton, G. & Tipper, S. (1994). A model of inhibitory mechanisms in selective attention. In D. Dagenbach & T. Carr (Eds.), Inhibitory processes in attention, memory and language. San Diego: Academic Press.
Houghton, G., Tipper, S.P., Weaver, B., & Shore, D.I. (1996). Inhibition and interference in selective attention: Some tests of a neural network model. Visual Cognition, 3, 119–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, C.P., Berg, L., Danziger, W.L., Coben, L., & Martin, R. (1982). A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 566–572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, D., Treisman, A., & Gibbs, B.J. (1992). The reviewing of object files: Object-specific integration of information. Cognitive Psychology, 24, 175–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langley, L.K., Overmier, J.B., Knopman, D.S., & Prod'Homme, M.M. (1998). Inhibition and habituation: Preserved mechanisms of attentional selection in aging and Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychology, 12, 353–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laplante, L., Everett, J., & Thomas, J. (1992). Inhibition through negative priming with Stroop stimuli in schizophrenia. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 31, 307–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, D.S. & Jacoby, L. (1994). Stroop process dissociations: The relationship between facilitation and interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 219–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, D.G. (1979). Strategies, content and the mechanisms of response inhibition. Memory and Cognition, 7, 382–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, D.G. (1985). Further investigations of inhibitory mechanisms in attention. Memory and Cognition, 13, 74–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowd, J.M. & Oseas-Kreger, D.M. (1991). Aging, inhibitory processes, and negative priming. Journal of Gerontology, 46, 340–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKhann, G., Drachman, D., Folstein, M., Katzman, R., Price, D., & Stadlan, E.M. (1984). Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: Report of the NINCDS-ADRDA work group under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services task force on Alzheimer's disease. Neurology, 34, 939–944.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mead, L.A., Mayer, A.R., Bobholz, J.A., Woodley, S.J., Cunningham, J.M., Hammeke, T.A., & Rao, S.M. (2002). Neural basis of the Stroop interference task: Response competition or selective attention? Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8, 735–742.Google Scholar
Milliken, B., Tipper, S.P., & Weaver, B. (1994). Negative priming in a spatial localization task: Feature mismatching and distractor inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 624–646.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neill, W.T. (1977). Inhibition and facilitation processes in selective attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 3, 444–450.Google Scholar
Neill, W.T., Valdes, L.A., Terry, K.M., & Gorfein, D.S. (1992). Persistence of negative priming: II. Evidence for episodic trace retrieval. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 18, 993–1000.Google Scholar
Nelson, H.E. & Willison, J.R. (1991). The National Adult Reading Test manual (2nd ed.). Windsor, Berks: NFER-Nelson.
Parasuraman, R. & Haxby, J.V. (1993). Attention and brain function in Alzheimer's Disease. Neuropsychology, 7, 242–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, J. & Kanwisher, N. (1994). Negative priming for spatial locations: Identity mismatching not distractor inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 20, 613–623.Google Scholar
Perry, R.J. & Hodges, J.R. (1999). Attention and executive deficits in Alzheimer's disease: A critical review. Brain, 122, 383–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, R.J. & Hodges, J.R. (2000). Fate of patients with questionable (very mild) Alzheimer's disease: Longitudinal profiles of individual subjects' decline. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 11, 342–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, R.J., Watson, P., & Hodges, J.R. (2000). The nature and staging of attention dysfunction in early (minimal and mild) Alzheimer's disease: Relationship to episodic and semantic memory impairment. Neuropsychologia, 38, 252–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rafal, R. & Henik, A. (1994). The neurology of inhibition. In D. Dagenbach & T. Carr (Eds.), Inhibitory processes in attention, memory and language. San Diego: Academic Press.
Rizzo, M., Anderson, S.W., Dawson, J., Myers, R., & Ball, K. (2000). Visual attention impairments in Alzheimer's disease. Neurology, 54, 1954–1959.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simone, P.M. & Baylis, G.C. (1997). Selective attention in a reaching task: Effect of normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception, & Performance, 23, 595–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spieler, D.H., Balota, D.A., & Faust, M.E. (1996). Stroop performance in healthy younger and older adults and in individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception, & Performance, 22, 461–479.Google Scholar
Stoltzfus, E.R., Hasher, L., Zacks, R.T., Ulivi, M.S., & Goldstein, D. (1993). Investigations of inhibition and interference in younger and older adults. Journal of Gerontology, 48, 179–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, M.P., Faust, M.E., & Balota, D.A. (1995). Identity negative priming in older adults with dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Neuropsychology, 9, 537–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipper, S.P. (1985). The negative priming effect: Inhibitory priming by ignored objects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 37A, 571–590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipper, S.P. (1991). Less attentional selectivity as a result of declining inhibition in older adults. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 29, 45–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipper, S.P. (2001). Does negative priming reflect inhibitory mechanisms? A review and integration of conflicting views. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A, 321–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipper, S.P. & McLaren, J. (1990). Evidence for efficient visual selectivity in children. In J.T. Enns (Ed.), Advances in psychology. The development of selective attention: Research and theory. North Holland: Elsevier Science Publishers,.
Tipper, S.P., Brehaut, J.C., & Driver, J. (1990). Selection of moving and static objects for the control of spatially directed action. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 16, 492–504.Google Scholar
Tipper, S.P., Weaver, B., & Houghton, G. (1994). Behavioral goals determine inhibitory mechanisms of selective attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47A, 809–840.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tipper, S.P., Weaver, B., & Milliken, B. (1995). Spatial negative priming without mismatching: Comment on Park and Kanwisher (1994). Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 21, 1220–1229.Google Scholar
Verhaeghen, P. & De Meersman, L. (1998). Aging and the negative priming effects: A meta-analysis. Psychology and Aging, 13, 435–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, F.L. & Tipper, S.P. (1997). Reduced negative priming in high schizotypes does reflect reduced cognitive inhibition: Evidence from a spatial localization task. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 2, 67–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woods, R.T. (1996). Cognitive approaches to the management of dementia. In R.G. Morris (Ed.), The cognitive neuropsychology of Alzheimer-type dementia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.