title: Attention and emotion in anosognosia: evidence of implicit awareness and repression?
abstract: Accounts of anosognosia for hemiplegia have long suggested some implicit knowledge of deficit, where lack of awareness is driven by the emotionally-aversive consequences of bringing deficit-related thoughts to consciousness. The present study investigates this issue using an attentional-capture paradigm, presenting words associated with hemiplegia-related deficit. As anticipated, non-anosognosics showed reduced latencies (i.e., facilitation) for emotionally threatening words. In striking contrast, anosognosics showed increased latencies (i.e., interference), a finding which supports the claim of implicit awareness. The effect appears to be due to newly-learned associations to disability-related words: where anosognosics show a pattern of performance previously described as repression.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, Wales, UK.
authors.forename: Ilaria B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Nardone
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Aikaterini
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fotopoulou
authors.forename: Oliver H
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Turnbull
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003717:Denial, Psychological; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult