IS THERE A DIVIDED ATTENTION-DEFICIT IN PATIENTS WITH EARLY PARKINSONS-DISEASE

Authors
Citation
Mh. Sharpe, IS THERE A DIVIDED ATTENTION-DEFICIT IN PATIENTS WITH EARLY PARKINSONS-DISEASE, Cortex, 32(4), 1996, pp. 747-753
Citations number
33
Categorie Soggetti
Neurosciences,"Behavioral Sciences
Journal title
CortexACNP
ISSN journal
00109452
Volume
32
Issue
4
Year of publication
1996
Pages
747 - 753
Database
ISI
SICI code
0010-9452(1996)32:4<747:ITADAI>2.0.ZU;2-Z
Abstract
Divided attention was studied in a group of patients with early Parkin son's disease and compared to normal controls matched for age, gender and intellectual status using a dichotic monitoring task. The Parkinso n patients had more difficulty dividing their attention between two co mpeting auditory inputs than the normal subjects. This impairment in d ivided attention or general attentiveness may be due to changes in the ascending monoamine projections, which have been shown to have a role in auditory attention, A right ear advantage (REA) was also observed. Not only were speech messages discriminated better by the right than the left ear, but these messages were processed more quickly by the ri ght ear.