PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF TREATMENTS ON VISUAL ATTENTIONAL PROCESSES IN YOUNG GIRLS WHO SURVIVED TO ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC-LEUKEMIA (ALL)

Cranial irradiation (CI) and intrathecal chemotherapy (IT-C), while de creasing the risk of CNS relapse in ALL, have neurotoxic effects. The long-term effects of IT-C or a combination of IT-C and CI on visual at tention were evaluated in girls. While the smaller differences between the reaction times for the two conditions obtained in the IT-C group may be related to a different strategy in resources allocation, the sh orter latencies obtained on a prefrontal positivity (PP) in irradiated patients could be related to an incomplete maturation of the prefront al lobes or a dysfunction of the connections between the basal ganglia and prefrontal lobes.