AUTHOR=Xia Kun , Han Yongsheng , Zhou Lanlan , Hu Sheng , Rao Rao , Shan Shu , Hua Lei 

TITLE=Attention impairment in patients with cervical dystonia: An attention network test study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.952567

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.952567

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the attentional networks function characteristics of patients with CD. Methods: A total of 29 patients with cervical dystonia (CD) and 26 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. All subjects participated in the study underwent the Attention Network Test (ANT), which evaluated the efficiencies of three independent attention networks (alerting, orienting, and executive control), as well as reaction time (RT) and accuracy. Results: Significant differences between CD patients (9.86±27.95 ms) and HCs (33.62±23.41 ms) were observed in the alerting network (t=-3.40, P<0.05). In contrast, orienting network (t=0.26, P=0.79), executive control network (Z=-0.55, P=0.58), the total mean reaction time (t=-2.6, P=0.79) and the total accuracy rate (Z=-1.67, P=0.09) demonstrated no significant differences between two groups. Conclusions: Patients with CDs showed a significant deficit in the alerting network. However, they did not show any deficit in the orienting and executive control networks.