Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T18:04:16.603Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Asymmetric Attention Networks: The Case of Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Sarit Yaakoby-Rotem  and
Ronny Geva
Sarit Yaakoby-Rotem
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Ronny Geva*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Ronny Geva, Department of Psychology, The Gonda Brain Research Center, The Developmental Neuropsychology lab, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel 529002. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Visuospatial attention-networks are represented in both hemispheres, with right-hemisphere dominance in adults. Little is known about the lateralization of the attentional-networks in children. To assess the lateralization of attentional-networks in children aged 5 years, performance on a Lateralized-Attention-Network-Test specifically designed for children (LANT-C) was compared with performance on the Attention-Network-Test for children (ANT-C). Participants were 82 children, aged 5–6 years (55% boys, middle–class, mainstream schooling). They were examined with both the ANT-C and the LANT-C along with evaluation of intelligence and attention questionnaires. Multiple analysis of variance showed a main effect for network, with high efficiency for orienting and lower executive efficiency (accuracy; p < .001; η2 = .282). An effect for procedure, elucidated higher efficiency in the ANT-C relatively to the LANT-C (accuracy; p < .01; η2 = .097). A procedure × network interaction effect was also found, showing that this procedure difference is present in the alerting and executive networks (accuracy; p < .05; η2 = .096). LANT-C analysis showed a left visual-field advantage in alerting, (accuracy; p < .05; η2 = .066), while executing with the right hand benefitted executive performance (response-time; p < .05; η2 = .06). Results extend previous findings manifesting a right-hemisphere advantage in children's alerting-attention, pointing to the importance of lateralization of brain function to the understanding of the integrity of attention-networks in children. (JINS, 2014, 20, 1–10)

Keywords

Attention networksChildrenHemispheric lateralizationVisuospatial attentionRight-hemisphere dominanceCerebral dominance
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , April 2014 , pp. 434 - 443
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2014 

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

Achenbach, T.M., Rescorla, L.A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA School-Age Forms and Profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families.Google Scholar
Allen, M.C. (2002). Preterm outcomes research: A critical component of neonatal intensive care. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews, 8, 221–233.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., Text Rivision). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.Google Scholar
Berger, A., Kofman, O., Livneh, U., Henik, A. (2007). Multidisciplinary perspectives on attention and the development of self-regulation. Progress in Neurobiology, 82, 256–286.Google Scholar
Castro-Barros, B.A., Lacerda, A.M., Righi, L.L., Ribeiro-do-Valle, L.E. (2010). Lateral asymmetry of voluntary attention orienting. Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research, 43(8), 745–758.Google Scholar
Colombo, J. (2001). The development of visual attention in infancy. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 337–367.Google Scholar
Corbetta, M., Kincade, J.M., Ollinger, J.M., McAvoy, M.P., Shulman, G.L. (2000). Voluntary orienting is dissociated from target detection in human posterior parietal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 3(3), 292–297.Google Scholar
De Luca, C.R., Leventer, R.J. (2008). Developmental trajectories of executive functions across the lifespan. In P. Anderson, V. Anderson, & R. Jacobs (Eds.), Executive functions and the frontal lobes: A lifespan perspective (Vol. 3–21). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Dean, R.S., Anderson, J.L. (1997). Lateralization of cerebral functions. In J.A.M. Horton, D. Wedding, & J. Webster (Eds.), The neuropsychology handbook foundations and assessment (Vol. 1, pp. 139–198). New York: Springer Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Dubois, J., Benders, M., Lazeyras, F., Borradori-Tolsa, C., Leuchter, R.H., Mangin, J.F., Hüppi, P.S. (2010). Structural asymmetries of perisylvian regions in the preterm newborn. Neuroimage, 52(1), 32–42.Google Scholar
Everts, R., Lidzba, K., Wilke, M., Kiefer, C., Mordasini, M., Schroth, G., Steinlin, M. (2009). Strengthening of laterality of verbal and visuospatial functions during childhood and adolescence. Human Brain Mapping, 30(2), 473–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fan, J., McCandliss, B.D., Flombaum, J.I., Thomas, K.M., Posner, M.I. (2001). Comparing images of conflict in frontal cortex. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York.Google Scholar
Fan, J., McCandliss, B.D., Sommer, T., Raz, A., Posner, M.I. (2002). Testing the efficiency and independence of attentional network. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14, 340–347.Google Scholar
Gerardi-Caulton, G. (2000). Sensitivity to spatial conflict and the development of self-regulation in children 24–36 months of age. Developmental Science, 3–4, 397–404.Google Scholar
Geva, R., Yaron, H., Kuint, J. (2013). Neonatal sleep predicts attention orienting and distractibility. Journal of Attention Disorders. doi: 10.1177/1087054713491493 Google Scholar
Glasel, H., Leroy, F., Dubois, J., Hertz-Pannier, L., Mangin, J.F., Dehaene-Lambertz, G. (2011). A robust cerebral asymmetry in the infant brain: The rightward superior temporal sulcus. Neuroimage, 58(3), 716–723.Google Scholar
Greene, D.J., Barnea, A., Herzberg, K., Rassis, A., Neta, M., Raz, A., Zaidel, E. (2008). Measuring attention in the hemispheres: The lateralized attention network test (LANT). Brain and Cognition, 66(1), 21–31.Google Scholar
Griffiths, R. (2006). The abilities of young children – Revised. London: Child Development Research Center – The Testing Agency.Google Scholar
Groen, M.A., Whitehouse, A.J., Badcock, N.A., Bishop, D.V. (2012). Does cerebral lateralization develop? A study using functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound assessing lateralization for language production and visuospatial memory. Brain Behavior, 2(3), 256–269.Google Scholar
Gurevitz, M., Geva, R., Varon, M., Leitner, Y. (2014). Early markers in infants and toddlers for development of ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 18, 14–22.Google Scholar
Habas, P.A., Scott, J.A., Roosta, A., Rajagopalan, V., Kim, K., Rousseau, F., Studholme, C. (2012). Early folding patterns and asymmetries of the normal human brain detected from in utero MRI. Cerebral Cortex, 22(1), 13–25.Google Scholar
Hale, T.S., McCracken, J.T., McGough, J.J., Smalley, S.L., Phillips, J.M., Zaidel, E. (2005). Impaired linguistic processing and atypical brain laterality in adults with ADHD. Clinical Neuroscience Research, 5, 255–263.Google Scholar
Hervé, P.Y., Zago, L., Petit, L., Mazoyer, B., Tzourio-Mazoyer, N. (2013). Revisiting human hemispheric specialization with neuroimaging. Trend in Cognitive Science, 17(2), 69–80.Google Scholar
Hill, J., Dierker, D., Neil, J., Inder, T., Knutsen, A., Harwell, J., Van Essen, D. (2010). A surface-based analysis of hemispheric asymmetries and folding of cerebral cortex in term-born human infants. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(6), 2268–2276.Google Scholar
Karunanayaka, P.R., Holland, S.K., Schmithorst, V.J., Solodkin, A., Chen, E.E., Szaflarski, J.P., Plante, E. (2006). Age-related connectivity changes in fMRI data from children listening to stories. Neuroimage, 34(1), 349–360.Google Scholar
Kasprian, G., Langs, G., Brugger, P.C., Bittner, M., Weber, M., Arantes, M., Prayer, D. (2011). The prenatal origin of hemispheric asymmetry: An in utero neuroimaging study. Cerebral Cortex, 21(5), 1076–1083.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Konrad, K., Neufang, S., Hanisch, C., Fink, G.R., Herpertz-Dahlmann, B. (2006). Dysfunctional attentional networks in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Evidence from an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Biological Psychiatry, 59(7), 643–651.Google Scholar
Loo, S.K., Barkley, A.R. (2005). Clinical utility of EEG in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Applied Neuropsychology, 12, 64–76.Google Scholar
McAlonan, G.M., Cheung, V., Cheung, C., Chua, E.S., Murphy, D.G.M., Suckling, J., Ho, T.P. (2007). Mapping brain structure in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A voxel-based MRI study of regional grey and white matter volume. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 154, 171–180.Google Scholar
Mesulam, M.M. (1990). Large-scale neurocognitive networks and distributed processing for attention, language, and memory. Annals of Neurology, 28(5), 597–613.Google Scholar
Petersen, S.E., Posner, M.I. (2012). The attention system of the human brain: 20 years after. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 35, 73–89. doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-062111-150525 Google Scholar
Posner, M.I., Dehaene, S. (1994). Attentional networks. Trends in Neurosciences, 17, 75–79.Google Scholar
Posner, M.I., Petersen, S.E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42.Google Scholar
Posner, M.I., Sheese, B.E., Odludas, Y., Tang, Y. (2006). Analyzing and shaping human attentional networks. Neural Networks, 19, 1422–1429.Google Scholar
Putnam, S.P., Rothbart, M.K. (2006). Devlopment of short and very short forms of the children's behavior questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 87(1), 103–113.Google Scholar
Raz, A. (2004). Anatomy of attentional networks. The Anatomical Record, 281B, 21–36.Google Scholar
Rolfe, M.H.S., Hausmann, M., Waldie, K.E. (2006). Hemispheric functioning in children with subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Attention Disorders, 10, 20–27.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M.K., Ahadi, S.A., Hershey, K.L., Fisher, P. (2001). Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: The Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Child Development, 72(5), 1394–1408.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M.K., Posner, M.I. (2001). Mechanism and variation in the development of attention networks. In C.N.M. Luciana (Ed.), Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience (pp. 353–363). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Rubia, K., Taylor, E., Smith, A.B., Oksannen, H., Overmeyer, S., Newman, S. (2001). Neuropsychological analyses of impulsiveness in childhood hyperactivity. British Journal of Psychiatry, 179, 138–143.Google Scholar
Rueda, M.R., Checa, P., Combita, L.M. (2012). Enhanced efficiency of the executive attention network after training in preschool children: Immediate changes and effects after two months. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2, 192–204.Google Scholar
Rueda, M.R., Fan, J., McCandliss, B.D., Halparin, J.D., Gruber, D.B., Lercari, L.P., Posner, M.I. (2004). Development of attentional networks in childhood. Neuropsychologia, 42(8), 1029–1040.Google Scholar
Rueda, M.R., Rothbart, M.K., McCandliss, B.D., Saccomanno, L., Posner, M.I. (2005). Training, maturation, and genetic influences on the development of executive attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102, 14931–14936.Google Scholar
Smyser, C.D., Snyder, A.Z., Neil, J.J. (2011). Functional connectivity MRI in infants: Exploration of the functional organization of the developing brain. Neuroimage, 56(3), 1437–1452.Google Scholar
Thiebaut de Schotten, M., Dell'Acqua, F., Forkel, S.J., Simmons, A., Vergani, F., Murphy, D.G., Catani, M. (2011). A lateralized brain network for visuospatial attention. Nature Neuroscience, 14(10), 1245–1246.Google Scholar