Visuospatial attention disturbance in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
OBJECTIVE
The cognitive deficits present in the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are not yet well characterized. Attention, considered to be the brain mechanism responsible for the selection of sensory stimuli, could be disturbed in DMD, contributing, at least partially, to the observed global cognitive deficit. The aim of this study was to investigate attentional function in individuals with DMD.


METHODS
Twenty-five males (mean age 12y; SD 2y 2mo) with DMD and 25 healthy males (mean age 12y; SD 2y) were tested in a visuospatial task (Posner computerized test). They were instructed to respond as quickly as possible to a lateralized visual target stimulus with the ipsilateral hand. Their attention was automatically orientated by a peripheral prime stimulus or, alternatively, voluntarily orientated by a central spatially informative cue.


RESULTS
The main result obtained was that the attentional effect (sum of the benefit and the cost of attention) did not differ between the two groups in the case of automatic attention (p=0.846) but was much larger for individuals with DMD than for comparison individuals in the case of voluntary attention (p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
The large voluntary attentional effect exhibited by the participants with DMD seems similar to that of younger children, suggesting that the disease is associated with delayed maturation of voluntary attention mechanisms.
de Moura
Maria Clara Drummond Soares
MC
Neuroscience and Behavior Program, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. mclaramoura@usp.br
Do Valle
Luiz Eduardo Ribeiro
LE
Resende
Maria Bernadete Dutra
MB
Pinto
Katia Osternack
KO
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics; D002648:Child; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D001330:Electronic Data Processing / Q000379:methods; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020388:Muscular Dystrophy, Duchenne / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic