No Evidence That Sleep Deprivation Effects and the Vigilance Decrement Are Functionally Equivalent: Comment on Veksler and Gunzelmann (2017)

Veksler and Gunzelmann (2017) make an extraordinary claim, which is that sleep deprivation effects and the vigilance decrement are functionally equivalent. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, which is missing from Veksler and Gunzelmann's study. Their behavioral data offer only weak theoretical constraint, and to the extent their modeling exercise supports any position, it is that these two performance impairments involve functionally distinct underlying mechanisms.     

Anxiety and hypervigilance to cardiopulmonary sensations in non-cardiac chest pain patients with and without psychiatric disorders

We investigated body vigilance, cardiac anxiety, and the mediating role of interoceptive fear on pain in patients with non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP; a syndrome of chest pain in the absence of identifiable organic etiology). Patients were more attentive to cardiac-congruent sensations than cardiac-incongruent sensations (e.g., gastrointestinal, cognitive dyscontrol; p's < .001). Patients with a DSM-IV Axis I anxiety or mood disorder were more body vigilant compared to patients who did not have a disorder (p's < .05). Patients with anxiety disorders were particularly vigilant to and fearful of cardiac sensations relative to patients without anxiety disorders. Latent variable path models examined the extent that interoceptive fear mediated the association between body vigilance and cardiac anxiety on chest pain. Within each model, diagnostic status, body vigilance, and cardiac anxiety were exogenous and predicted interoceptive fear that in turn predicted pain. Separate models examined body vigilance and cardiac anxiety, and both models fit the data well. Findings showed partial mediation for the body vigilance factor, and full mediation for the cardiac anxiety factor. Interoceptive fear played a mediating role in both models. The syndrome of NCCP may persist partly due to conscious hypervigilance to and fear of cardiac-congruent body sensations, particularly among anxious patients.     

Biased recipients encounter biased sources: Effect of ethical (dis‐)agreement between recipient and author on evaluating scientific claims

Scientific claims that are connected to ethical concerns are frequently brought forward by communicators who are not ethically neutral. This study investigated how far recipients' evaluation of such claims is guided by vigilance toward a potential ethical source bias rather than their own ethical bias. One hundred ten individuals opposed to capital punishment read a topic‐related text by an ethically positioned source. A scientific claim in the text either supported or did not support the recipient's ethical stance; in addition, the source either shared or opposed their stance. Results showed that recipients are guided to some extent by their own ethically motivated reasoning: They agree more consistently with sources sharing their ethical stance and consider these sources to be more credible. Recipients appear to be principally aware that a source's ethical stance may bias its scientific message, but this vigilance seems to depend on their own ethical disagreement with the source.     

Positive post‐disaster images: A daydream machine?

This study explores the impact of post‐earthquake images inserted in a vigilance task, in terms of performance, self‐reports of task‐focus, and cerebral activity using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Vigilance tasks present a sequence of stimuli in which only a few are pre‐designated critical or target stimuli requiring an overt response from the participant. Seventy‐one residents participated (51 women, 20 men) by taking part in a vigilance task with task‐irrelevant images inserted in the sequence. There were three conditions consisting positive (emotive inducing), negative (emotive inducing), and control (devoid of meaning) images embedded in the vigilance task to assess possible impacts on vigilance performance. The images were obtained through crowdsourcing and represented parts of the city 3–4 years post‐earthquake. Task performance was assessed with signal detection theory metrics of sensitivity A’ and bias β’’. This enables the separation of an individual's ability to accurately discriminate critical signals from non‐critical stimuli (sensitivity) and shifts in their willingness to respond to any stimuli whether critical or not (bias). Individuals viewing the positive images, relating to progress, rebuild, or aesthetic aspects within the city, had a more conservative response bias (they responded less to both rare critical and distractor stimuli) than those in the other conditions. These individuals also reported lower task‐focus, as would be expected. However, contrary to expectations, indicators of cerebral activity (fNIRS) did not differ significantly between the experimental groups. These results, when combined, suggest that mind wandering events may be being generated when exposed to positive post‐earthquake images.     

Cognitive and psychomotor tests as predictors of on-road driving ability in older primary care patients

This study examined the accuracy with which different cognitive and psychomotor assessment tools were able to predict driving ability among older primary care patients. A cross-sectional study of 50 older drivers (with an average age of 73.1 ± 7.0 years) was conducted. Participants who had been referred by their physicians for psychological assessment following a fitness-to-drive examination underwent both an on-road driving test and a cognitive assessment protocol that included the Senior Drivers Battery (SDB) that is currently administered at the Mobility and Land Transports Institute (MLTI) in Portugal, the Useful Field of View (UFOV) test, the Stroke Drivers Screening Assessment (SDSA), Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE-R), the Trail Making Test, the Key Search test, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) Vocabulary and Block Design tests. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the performances of the participants on the SDSA, ACE-R, UFOV and SDB were the best predictors of on-road driving. Specific measures of processing speed and divided attention, visuospatial abilities, executive functions, psychomotor speed and global cognitive functioning may be useful for predicting unsafe driving. The practical implications of these findings are discussed with a view to developing new assessment models for determining driving fitness in older adults.