The major focus of this proposal is on a better understanding of auditory attentional mechanisms in probable Alzheimer's disease (PAD). In addition, to assess early, pre-attentive, mainly automatic information processing and short-term storage of auditory information in PAD we will record the mismatch negativity (MMN), which is an event-related brain potential (ERP) component reflecting the short-term storage of auditory information outside the focus of awareness. To assess the more controlled aspects of auditory attention, we will use selective or directed attention paradigms that manipulate the stimulus features that must be attended. These paradigms give rise to early and late ERP components (processing negativities; PN) that reflect, respectively, selection of stimuli based on the attributes that characterize stimuli in the attended channel, and selective rehearsal of these attributes. Neuropathological data suggest that primary auditory cortex, upon which MMN generation depends, is intact in PAD. By contrast, auditory, temporo-parietal and frontal cortical association areas (comprising an attentional network), upon which intact early and late ERP signs of selective attention depend, may be damaged in PAD. These data lead to the expectation that ERP signs of pre-attentive auditory mechanisms may be relatively intact in mild and moderately demented patients, whereas ERP signs of selective attention will vary with disease severity. ERPs will be recorded from 30 scalp placements in order to determine whether MMN and PN component scalp distributions and, by implication, their underlying neural sources, differ systematically between the patient and control groups and/or conditions of the different experiments. The data will be relevant to preattentive processing related to sensory memory, to selective attention based on complex features, age-related pathological changes in these mechanisms, and their physiological underpinnings.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01AG009988-04A1
Application #
2051241
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 3 (HUD)
Project Start
1991-08-15
Project End
1999-07-31
Budget Start
1995-08-01
Budget End
1996-07-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
1995
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
167204994
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10032
Friedman, David; Nessler, Doreen; Kulik, Julianna et al. (2011) The brain's orienting response (novelty P3) in patients with unilateral temporal lobe resections. Neuropsychologia 49:3474-83
Friedman, David; Goldman, Robin; Stern, Yaakov et al. (2009) The brain's orienting response: An event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation. Hum Brain Mapp 30:1144-54
Czernochowski, Daniela; Fabiani, Monica; Friedman, David (2008) Use it or lose it? SES mitigates age-related decline in a recency/recognition task. Neurobiol Aging 29:945-58
Friedman, David; Nessler, Doreen; Johnson Jr, Ray et al. (2008) Age-related changes in executive function: an event-related potential (ERP) investigation of task-switching. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 15:95-128
Friedman, David; Nessler, Doreen; Johnson Jr, Ray (2007) Memory encoding and retrieval in the aging brain. Clin EEG Neurosci 38:2-7
Wang, JingTian; Friedman, David; Ritter, Walter et al. (2006) Aging effects on the ERP correlates of involuntary attentional capture in speech sound analysis. Neurobiol Aging 27:1164-79
Frangos, Jason; Ritter, Walter; Friedman, David (2005) Brain potentials to sexually suggestive whistles show meaning modulates the mismatch negativity. Neuroreport 16:1313-7
Wang, Jingtian; Friedman, David; Ritter, Walter et al. (2005) ERP correlates of involuntary attention capture by prosodic salience in speech. Psychophysiology 42:43-55
Friedman, David (2003) Cognition and aging: a highly selective overview of event-related potential (ERP) data. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 25:702-20
Gaeta, Helen; Friedman, David; Ritter, Walter (2003) Auditory selective attention in young and elderly adults: the selection of single versus conjoint features. Psychophysiology 40:389-406

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