Close menu

SURE

Sunderland Repository records the research produced by the University of Sunderland including practice-based research and theses.

The Role of the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Attentional Bias

Knight, Helen, Smith, Daniel T. and Ellison, Amanda (2020) The Role of the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Attentional Bias. Neuropsychologia. p. 107631. ISSN 0028-3932

Item Type: Article

Abstract

The DLPFC is thought to be critically involved in maintaining attention away from behaviourally irrelevant information, and in the establishment of attentional control settings. These play an important role in the phenomenon of top-down bias to features in the visual field – also known as attentional bias. This paper probes the involvement of the left DLPFC in attentional bias by manipulating its cortical excitability via tDCS and then analysing these effects following an induced attentional bias towards the colour green. Although both anodal and cathodal tDCS over the left DLPFC decrease distractibility caused by biased but irrelevant objects, further interrogation of our data reveals theoretically differential mechanisms for each type of stimulation. Anodal tDCS appears to increase cognitive control over attentional bias-related items that are behaviourally irrelevant, allowing for their efficient disregard. In contrast, cathodal tDCS appears to lessen the overall effect of the induced attentional bias, potentially by reducing the influence of top-down modulated attentional control settings thus preventing the implementation of the control setting favouring green items. These results suggest a potential causal role of the left DLPFC in the cognitive mechanism underlying attentional bias.

[img] Microsoft Word
The Role of the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Attentional Bias.docx - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (1MB)

More Information

Depositing User: Leah Maughan

Identifiers

Item ID: 12641
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107631
ISSN: 0028-3932
URI: http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/12641
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020....

Users with ORCIDS

ORCID for Helen Knight: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0120-6281

Catalogue record

Date Deposited: 28 Sep 2020 08:34
Last Modified: 11 Sep 2021 02:38

Contributors

Author: Helen Knight ORCID iD
Author: Daniel T. Smith
Author: Amanda Ellison

University Divisions

Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing > School of Psychology

Actions (login required)

View Item (Repository Staff Only) View Item (Repository Staff Only)