Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological aging
A right-hemisphere dominance for visuospatial attention has been invoked as the most prominent neural feature of pseudoneglect (i.e., the leftward visuospatial bias exhibited in neurologically healthy individuals) but the neurophysiological underpinnings of such advantage are still controversial. Pr...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.930877/full |
| _version_ | 1811188019132104704 |
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| author | Chiara Bagattini Marco Esposito Clarissa Ferrari Veronica Mazza Debora Brignani |
| author_facet | Chiara Bagattini Marco Esposito Clarissa Ferrari Veronica Mazza Debora Brignani |
| author_sort | Chiara Bagattini |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | A right-hemisphere dominance for visuospatial attention has been invoked as the most prominent neural feature of pseudoneglect (i.e., the leftward visuospatial bias exhibited in neurologically healthy individuals) but the neurophysiological underpinnings of such advantage are still controversial. Previous studies investigating visuospatial bias in multiple-objects visual enumeration reported that pseudoneglect is maintained in healthy elderly and amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), but not in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, we aimed at investigating the neurophysiological correlates sustaining the rearrangements of the visuospatial bias along the progression from normal to pathological aging. To this aim, we recorded EEG activity during an enumeration task and analyzed intra-hemispheric fronto-parietal and inter-hemispheric effective connectivity adopting indexes from graph theory in patients with mild AD, patients with aMCI, and healthy elderly controls (HC). Results revealed that HC showed the leftward bias and stronger fronto-parietal effective connectivity in the right as compared to the left hemisphere. A breakdown of pseudoneglect in patients with AD was associated with both the loss of the fronto-parietal asymmetry and the reduction of inter-hemispheric parietal interactions. In aMCI, initial alterations of the attentional bias were associated with a reduction of parietal inter-hemispheric communication, but not with modulations of the right fronto-parietal connectivity advantage, which remained intact. These data provide support to the involvement of fronto-parietal and inter-parietal pathways in the leftward spatial bias, extending these notions to the complex neurophysiological alterations characterizing pathological aging. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T14:13:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6443cbd54c49475bbb447db1a072aebb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1663-4365 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T14:13:30Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-6443cbd54c49475bbb447db1a072aebb2022-12-22T04:19:37ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience1663-43652022-09-011410.3389/fnagi.2022.930877930877Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological agingChiara Bagattini0Marco Esposito1Clarissa Ferrari2Veronica Mazza3Debora Brignani4Neurophysiology Lab, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, ItalyNeurophysiology Lab, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, ItalyUnit of Statistics, IRCCS Istituto Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, ItalyCenter for Mind/Brain Sciences CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto, ItalyDepartment of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, ItalyA right-hemisphere dominance for visuospatial attention has been invoked as the most prominent neural feature of pseudoneglect (i.e., the leftward visuospatial bias exhibited in neurologically healthy individuals) but the neurophysiological underpinnings of such advantage are still controversial. Previous studies investigating visuospatial bias in multiple-objects visual enumeration reported that pseudoneglect is maintained in healthy elderly and amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), but not in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, we aimed at investigating the neurophysiological correlates sustaining the rearrangements of the visuospatial bias along the progression from normal to pathological aging. To this aim, we recorded EEG activity during an enumeration task and analyzed intra-hemispheric fronto-parietal and inter-hemispheric effective connectivity adopting indexes from graph theory in patients with mild AD, patients with aMCI, and healthy elderly controls (HC). Results revealed that HC showed the leftward bias and stronger fronto-parietal effective connectivity in the right as compared to the left hemisphere. A breakdown of pseudoneglect in patients with AD was associated with both the loss of the fronto-parietal asymmetry and the reduction of inter-hemispheric parietal interactions. In aMCI, initial alterations of the attentional bias were associated with a reduction of parietal inter-hemispheric communication, but not with modulations of the right fronto-parietal connectivity advantage, which remained intact. These data provide support to the involvement of fronto-parietal and inter-parietal pathways in the leftward spatial bias, extending these notions to the complex neurophysiological alterations characterizing pathological aging.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.930877/fullvisuospatial biasAlzheimer’s diseasemild cognitive impairmentfronto-parietal networkinterhemispheric connectivitymultiple-objects enumeration |
| spellingShingle | Chiara Bagattini Marco Esposito Clarissa Ferrari Veronica Mazza Debora Brignani Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological aging Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience visuospatial bias Alzheimer’s disease mild cognitive impairment fronto-parietal network interhemispheric connectivity multiple-objects enumeration |
| title | Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological aging |
| title_full | Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological aging |
| title_fullStr | Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological aging |
| title_full_unstemmed | Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological aging |
| title_short | Connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect: New insights from healthy and pathological aging |
| title_sort | connectivity alterations underlying the breakdown of pseudoneglect new insights from healthy and pathological aging |
| topic | visuospatial bias Alzheimer’s disease mild cognitive impairment fronto-parietal network interhemispheric connectivity multiple-objects enumeration |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.930877/full |
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