title: Covert orientation of visual attention after closed head injury.
abstract: The ability to orient visual attention covertly was studied in 11 patients who had suffered a moderate or severe closed head injury (CHI) at least 1 year previously. Their performance was compared to nine matched controls using a cued reaction time (RT) task which measured the RT benefit of valid directional cueing and the RT cost of miscueing. The CHI and control groups did not differ in overall RT. Relative to controls, the CHI group showed normal cost but hardly any benefit, indicating that the normal capacity to pre-align attention with a cued location was impaired.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, University of Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Cremona-Meteyard
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Geffen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D016489:Head Injuries, Closed / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology