Attention Dysfunction in Senile Dementia

Abstract

A group of 14 patients suffering from senile dementia were compared with 40 normal and 20 non-brain-damaged psychiatric controls on a visual vigilance task. The senile Ss were able to perform at a level appropriate to their ages when the task involved a simple S-R paradigm. When the complexity of the task was increased by requiring the short-term retention of response-relevant information, brain-damaged patients were markedly less efficient. Over-responsiveness was the characteristic error of the brain-damaged patients. Dementia may be associated with a disorder of selective attention.