Attentional blink and putative noninvasive dopamine markers: Two experiments to consolidate possible associations

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Anne Charlotte Trutti - , Leiden University (Author)
  • Zsuzsika Sjoerds - , Leiden University (Author)
  • Bernhard Hommel - , Leiden University (Author)

Abstract

Adaptive behavioral control involves a balance between top-down persistence and flexible updating of goals under changing demands. According to the metacontrol state model (MSM), this balance emerges from the interaction between the frontal and the striatal dopaminergic system. The attentional blink (AB) task has been argued to tap into the interaction between persistence and flexibility, as it reflects overpersistence-the too-exclusive allocation of attentional resources to the processing of the first of two consecutive targets. Notably, previous studies are inconclusive about the association between the AB and noninvasive proxies of dopamine including the spontaneous eye blink rate (sEBR), which allegedly assesses striatal dopamine levels. We aimed to substantiate and extend previous attempts to predict individual sizes of the AB in two separate experiments with larger sample sizes (N = 71& N = 65) by means of noninvasive behavioral and physiological proxies of dopamine (DA), such as sEBR and mood measures, which are likely to reflect striatal dopamine levels, and color discrimination, which has been argued to tap into the frontal dopamine levels. Our findings did not confirm the prediction that AB size covaries with sEBR, mood, or color discrimination. The implications of this inconsistency with previous observations are discussed.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1444-1457
Number of pages14
JournalCognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience
Volume19
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2019
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85070330743
WOS 000511620000008

Keywords

Keywords

  • Attentional blink, Dopamine, Eye blink rate, Color vision, Mood, Metacontrol, D-AMPHETAMINE CHALLENGE, DEEP BRAIN-STIMULATION, COLOR-VISION, COGNITIVE DEFICITS, SENSITIVITY, STRIATUM, TASK, DISCRIMINATION, SENSITIZATION, SUPPRESSION