Nitrogen narcosis measured by dual-task performance.

Evidence From Dual-Task Performance

Increased demands on cognitive control trigger changes in processing mode. One such modulation involves a shift from parallel to serial processing. This study assessed the role of control demand in determining whether dual-task processing is performed serially or in parallel. We used two critical indices, based on the response-selection bottleneck model, to show that response selection was seri...

Limitations in Dual-Task Performance

Subjective and behavioural responses to nitrogen narcosis and alcohol.

RATIONALE There is a widespread assumption that nitrogen narcosis is comparable to alcohol intoxication, a similarity that may extend to patterns of tolerance. It has been suggested this indicates evidence of a shared biological mechanism but there is a paucity of experimental data to support these claims. OBJECTIVE The current study aimed to test this assumption by comparing subjective (rati...

Attentional Limitations in Dual-task Performance

People's ability (or inability) to do different activities or tasks at the same time is a topic of much interest not only to psychologists, but also to the proverbial "person in the street". It is natural to wonder about what we as human beings can and cannot do. An understanding of our limitations should also have practical value, because the intelligent design of human/machine systems depends...

Dual Task Performance in Parkinson’s Disease

Several studies have found dual tasking to be impaired in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but unaffected by healthy ageing. It is not known if this deficit is specific to AD, or also present in other neurodegenerative disorders that can occur in later life, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Therefore, this study investigated dual tasking in 13 people with PD, 26 AD and 42 healthy age-matched controls...