Prospective memory (PM) deficits have recently been documented in individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). In this paper, we investigated whether these deficits are due to the failure of retrospective memory processes. We also examined the role played by attentional/executive processes in PM functioning. We enrolled 24 individuals with aMCI and 24 healthy controls (NCs). In t...

Lesions of the basal forebrain (BF) cortical cholinergic system impair performance on a rodent five-choice visual attentional task. This study examines the effects on the same task of selective depletion of acetylcholine from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) using 192 IgG-saporin, the cholinergic immunotoxin. Rats were trained to detect brief visual stimuli, either presented unpredictably both tempo...

In vivo microdialysis was used to measure acetylcholine (ACh) efflux in the frontoparietal cortex while rats performed in one of two operant tasks. One task was designed and validated to generate measures of sustained attention, while the other task was designed to minimize explicit demands on sustained attentional resources (low-demand task). Transferring animals from the baseline environment ...

There is emerging evidence that attentional biases are related to the consumption of substances such as alcohol and tobacco, and that attentional bias modification can reduce unwanted consumption of these substances. We present evidence for the first time to our knowledge that the same logical argument applies in the food and eating domain. We conducted two experiments that used a modified dot ...

Depression is associated with attentional biases for emotional information that are proposed to reflect stable vulnerability factors for the development and recurrence of depression. A key question for researchers is whether those who have recovered from depression also exhibit attentional biases, and if so, how similar these biases are to those who are currently depressed. To address this ques...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Research has provided evidence for an association between attentional biases for substance-related stimuli and the development and maintenance of a variety of addictive behaviours. Attempts at reducing attentional bias amongst harmful and dependent drinkers have provided evidence to suggest that reduced attentional bias in heavy drinkers would lead to necessary reductions in alc...

Attentional biases toward threats (ABTs) have been described in high anxious individuals and in clinical samples whereas they have been rarely reported in non-clinical samples (Bar-Haim et al., 2007; Cisler and Koster, 2010). Three kinds of ABTs have been identified (facilitation, difficulty of disengagement, and avoidance) but their mechanisms and time courses are still unclear. This study aim...