attention, Apuntes de Filología Inglesa

¡Descarga attention y más Apuntes en PDF de Filología Inglesa solo en Docsity!

Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 74, pp. 191-199, 1987 Behavioral and Psychophysiological Markers of Disordered Attention by Allan F. Mirsky* Behavioral and psychophysiological assays provide the most sensitive indication of whether a presurned neurotoxia has a delelerious effect on the nervous systere. The cfícets of lead on the nervous system are strongly suggestive that this agent can produce disturbances in attention; moreover, there ure clinical reports of such effects. The action of lead is also manifest in behaviors described as “hyperactive,” or reflecting “minimal brain damage." The core symptom in both disorders is probably impuirment in ut- tentian. The recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-11D of the American Psychiatric Association uses the ter Attention Deficit Disorder ta replace such terme as hyperactivity and minimal brain damage. Prior studies of the behavioral toxicity of lead may have used inadequate or incomplete assays of attention; this could in part account for the variability-in outromes, Recent research on allention suggests that il is a complex hehaviar consisting of a number of elements or components, each of which may he in part dependent upon a different region of the central nervous system. Behavioral assays should examine the componente of attentive vehuvior using tests which ure sensitive to Ue different elements. it is recora- mended that psychophysiological assays (using cognitive event-related potentials), although more difíicult and costly to implement, be used as well. These assays may provide a more dynamic view of altered information prucessing in 1he brain and help to lucalize and characterize the behavioral impairment. Introduction Many of the contributions in this symposium have pointed to the necessity of conducting behavioral assays of central nervous system functions that are presumed to have been compromised by toxicants. 1 is essential to assess the behavior carefully and thoroughly, using stendardized tests if at all possible. The study by Needleman and colleagues (7) of the behavioral effects of elevated dentine lead levels is a model in this regard. Standardized tests will permit comparisons to be made between the group that has presumably been damaged and other groups of subjects with disorders of different etiologies. In our research, we routinely assess patients and con- trol subjects with a comprehensive battery of neuropsy- chological and psyehometric tests designed to tap a wide variety of behavioral functions (Table 1). Specific ref- erences to most of the tests in the battery can he fomnd in Mirsky and Duncan (2) or in a later section of this paper, Tests measuring some aspect of attention are of spe-