title: Attentional impairments in Huntington's disease: A specific deficit for the executive conflict.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Huntington's disease (HD) is characterized by motor and cognitive impairments including memory, executive, and attentional functions. However, because earlier studies relied on multidetermined attentional tasks, uncertainty still abounds regarding the differential deficit across attentional subcomponents. Likewise, the evolution of these deficits during the successive stages of HD remains unclear. The present study simultaneously explored 3 distinct networks of attention (alerting, orienting, executive conflict) in preclinical and clinical HD.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-eight HD patients (18 preclinical) and 38 matched healthy controls completed the attention network test, an integrated and theoretically grounded task assessing the integrity of 3 attentional networks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Preclinical HD was not characterized by any attentional deficit compared to controls. Conversely, clinical HD was associated with a differential deficit across the 3 attentional networks under investigation, showing preserved performance for alerting and orienting networks but massive and specific impairment for the executive conflict network. This indexes an impaired use of executive control to resolve the conflict between task-relevant stimuli and interfering task-irrelevant ones.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinical HD does not lead to a global attentional deficit but rather to a specific impairment for the executive control of attention. Moreover, the absence of attentional deficits in preclinical HD suggests that these deficits are absent at the initial stages of the disease. In view of their impact on everyday life, attentional deficits should be considered in clinical contexts. Therapeutic programs improving the executive control of attention by neuropsychology and neuromodulation should be promoted. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maurage
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0553-6149
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heeren
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Saint-Luc University Hospital.
authors.forename: Magali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lahaye
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Saint-Luc University Hospital.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jeanjean
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Beauvallon Psychiatric Hospital.
authors.forename: Lamia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guettat
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pathology and Genetics.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verellen-Dumoulin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Liège University Hospital.
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Halkin
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain.
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Billieux
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Saint-Luc University Hospital.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Constant
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003463:Cues; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009949:Orientation; D011930:Reaction Time