title: Impaired conflict resolution and vigilance in euthymic bipolar disorder.
abstract: Difficulty attending is a common deficit of euthymic bipolar patients. However, it is not known whether this is a global attentional deficit or relates to a specific attentional network. According to the attention network approach, attention is best understood in terms of three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct networks-alerting, orienting, and executive control. In this study, we explored whether and which of the three attentional networks are altered in euthymic Bipolar Disorder (BD). A sample of euthymic BD patients and age-matched healthy controls completed the Attention Network Test for Interactions and Vigilance (ANTI-V) that provided not only a measure of orienting, executive, and alerting networks, but also an independent measure of vigilance (tonic alerting). Compared to healthy controls, BD patients have impaired executive control (greater interference), reduced vigilance (as indexed by a decrease in the d' sensitivity) as well as slower overall reaction times and poorer accuracy. Our results show that deficits in executive attention and sustained attention often persist in BD patients even after complete remission of affective symptoms, thus suggesting that cognitive enhancing treatments programmed to improve these deficits could contribute to improve their functional recovery.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia, "Sapienza" Università di Roma, Italy. Electronic address: andrea.marotta@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marotta
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Acute Psychiatric Ward (Servizio Psichiatrico di Diagnosi e Cura - SPDC), Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto Delle
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Chiaie
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia, "Sapienza" Università di Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Alfredo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spagna
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Acute Psychiatric Ward (Servizio Psichiatrico di Diagnosi e Cura - SPDC), Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bernabei
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia, "Sapienza" Università di Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sciarretta
authors.affiliation: ERI-Lectura - Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad de Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roca
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Acute Psychiatric Ward (Servizio Psichiatrico di Diagnosi e Cura - SPDC), Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Biondi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia, "Sapienza" Università di Roma, Italy. Electronic address: maria.casagrande@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casagrande
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017008:Negotiating; D009949:Orientation; D011930:Reaction Time
keywords: Alerting; Attention Network Test (ANT); Bipolar disorders; Executive control; Orienting; Vigilance