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Abstract:
Dividing attention may be a way to simulate frontal-lobe
damage in healthy adults. The goal of this study was to examine the
pattern of deficits with divided attention on several cognitive
tasks which could be classified as either executive (i.e., frontal)
or non-executive. The executive tasks included letter, category,
and alternating fluency, form B of the Trail-Making Task, and the
Stroop task. Non-executive tasks included answering general
knowledge questions, solving anagrams, and form A of the
Trail-Making Task. Participants performed all tasks both alone and
with a concurrent sequential finger-tapping task. Results showed
impairment on executive tasks that required cognitive switching,
specifically letter fluency and form B of the Trail-Making task,
whereas other putatively executive tasks, and all non-executive
tasks, were not strongly affected by tapping. The pattern of data
implies a dissociation not only between executive and non-executive
tasks but also between tasks with and without switching. The act of
switching from one task to another, or from one type of stimulus to
another, may represent a higher-order or supervisory capacity that
typically interacts with, but is separable from, other executive
functions such as the inhibition of prepotent responses.
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