Alterações atencionais na distrofia muscular de duchenne / Attentional disturbance in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

OBJECTIVE: Considering the divergence in the literature regarding the base of the cognitive deficits in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) patients, the objective of this work was to investigate their attention performance using psychophysical tests. METHODS: 25 boys with DMD (GD) and 25 healthy boys (GC), which were 10 to 16 years old, were tested in a choice reaction time task. They were instructed to respond as fast as possible to a lateralized visual target stimulus with the same side hand. Attention was automatically oriented by a peripheral spatially non-informative prime stimulus or, alternatively, voluntarily oriented by a central spatially informative cue. RESULTS: Reaction times (RT) were higher for GD than for GC in both automatic attention (p<0,001) and voluntary attention tests (p<0,001), as expected. RTs in voluntary attention tests were smaller than on automatic attention tests for GD (p<0,001) but not for GC (p=0,200). The attentional effect (difference between RT in the opposite/invalid condition and RT in the same/valid condition) was found not to differ between the two groups in the case of automatic attention (p=0,846); however it was greater for GD than for GC in the case of voluntary attention (p<0,001). Interlateral asymmetries have not been observed. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that patients with DMD are less efficient to allocate both automatic and voluntary attention. The lack of the expected motor preparation by the patients when the peripheral prime stimulus was used suggests a disturbance of temporal attention. The larger cost and benefit observed when the endogenous visual cue was used suggests a delay in maturation of the executive functions necessary to adequately allocate voluntary attention.

ASSUNTO(S)

cognição attention cognition atenção distrofia muscular muscular dystrophy

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