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ERIC Number: EJ905555
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Jun
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0028-3932
EISSN: N/A
Attentional Bias as Trait: Correlations with Novelty Seeking
Tomer, Rachel
Neuropsychologia, v46 n7 p2064-2070 Jun 2008
Pseudoneglect is traditionally viewed as reflecting right hemisphere specialization for processing spatial information, which brings about relatively greater activation of the right hemisphere and orienting towards the contralateral space. Such interpretation implies that the leftward attentional bias is a population trait. Animal studies, however, suggest that orienting bias is a trait of the individual and individual differences in the direction and magnitude of this orienting bias reflect individual differences in asymmetry in dopaminergic brain systems, which are also reflected in other behavioral differences. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that healthy individuals show consistent attentional bias, the direction and magnitude of which varies among individuals and is associated with the degree of novelty seeking, a temperament trait associated with dopamine asymmetry. Forty-nine right-handed participants performed the greyscales task on two separate occasions and completed the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. Although on average some degree of leftward attentional bias was observed on both occasions, both the direction and the magnitude of the bias differed greatly, with some individuals showing a strong leftward bias whereas others showed a strong rightward bias. A highly significant correlation was found between degree and magnitude of this bias on the two testing sessions, supporting the hypothesis that it may reflect an individual trait. As predicted, higher scores on novelty seeking were associated with rightward attentional bias, suggesting that this bias may reflect asymmetries in dopaminergic circuits in healthy individuals. (Contains 4 figures.)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A