Aging effects on extrapersonal (far-space) attention: Cancellation and line bisection performance from 179 healthy adults

Morse, Helen, Jolly, Amy A., Browning, Hannah, Clark, Allan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2965-8941, Pomeroy, Valerie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4487-823X and Rossit, Stephanie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6640-2289 (2023) Aging effects on extrapersonal (far-space) attention: Cancellation and line bisection performance from 179 healthy adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. ISSN 1382-5585

Preview

PDF (Morse_etal_2023_ANC) Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (3MB) | Preview

Abstract

Assessment of cognitive impairments is a vital part of clinical practise. Cancellation (visual search) and line bisection are commonly used tasks to assess visuospatial attention. Despite the fact visuospatial attention is engaged in both near (within reach) and far-space (out of reach), most studies have been conducted in near-space alone. Moreover, despite their use in clinical practice, it is unclear whether cancellation and bisection tasks are related. Here, we investigated the impact of aging on cancellation and line bisection performance in far-space in a large healthy sample. We provide age-related norms for assessing visuospatial attention in far-space calculated from a sample of 179 healthy adults, between the ages of 18-94 (mean age = 49.29). Cancellation and bisection were presented on a large television screen in far-space and completed using a wireless remote. Aging was accompanied by longer task duration for both tasks, slower search speed, and poorer quality of search. However, there was no significant effect of aging on line bisection error. There was a significant correlation between the two tasks in that longer task duration in line bisection was associated with slower search speed and poorer quality of search. Overall, participants presented a leftward bias during cancellation and line bisection akin to pseudo-neglect. Moreover, we also found that irrespective of age, search speed was faster in males than females. We offer novel evidence that performance on cancellation and line bisection tasks are related to one another in far-space, but are also sensitive to age-related decline, and even sex differences.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability statement: The data and analyses scripts conducted in R (version 2022.07.0 Build 548; R Core Team, Citation2022) are available at https://osf.io/uzdwk/. The CENT task is available at https://github.com/UEANeuroLab. Funding information: The development of the Computerized Extrapersonal Neglect Test was funded by UEA Innovation Proof of Concept (PoC) Fund and in collaboration with Evolv Rehabilitation Technologies (https://evolvrehab.com/). Helen Morse is currently supported by a post-graduate fellowship awarded by the Stroke Association (SA PGF 19\100016).
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Services and Primary Care Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Clinical Trials Unit Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Norwich Institute for Healthy Aging Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Rehabilitation Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Lifespan Health
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	15 Dec 2022 01:15
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 03:37
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/90044
DOI:	10.31234/osf.io/6w8ep

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item