Modulação da atenção visuoespacial com estimulação transcraniana por corrente contínua em córtex parietal

• Ano de defesa: 2013
• Autor(a) principal: Hara, Ana Clara Portela
• Orientador(a): Boggio, Paulo Sérgio
• Banca de defesa: Macedo, Elizeu Coutinho de , Battistella, Linamara Rizzo
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Distúrbios do Desenvolvimento
• Departamento: Psicologia
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: pseudonegligência; estimulação transcraniana por corrente contínua; córtex parietal posterior; movimento ocular
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: pseudoneglect; transcranial direct current stimulation; right posterior parietal cortex; eye-tracking
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA
• Link de acesso: http://dspace.mackenzie.br/handle/10899/22530

The human visual attention and cognitive processes involved still arouse interest in investigations and have gaps. Perform a reading task or look for a parking spot are common actions of our day-to-day life that require the recruitment of our visual attentional system. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC) in the performance of visuospatial attention tasks, such as Bisection of Lines test and Visual Search test in young healthy volunteers. In order to analyze differences and similarities between different types of stimulation (anodic and cathodic simulation) as well as the pseudoneglect phenomenon, participated 21 young adults of which 90.47% female, 95.23% with incomplete higher education; right handed and with a mean age of 22.66 ± 3.04 (mean ± standard deviation). The results showed that participants were faster in the second assessment compared to baseline for both tasks. In addition, volunteers were faster in the Line Bisection test when the large lines was at left. Another important finding of the study was the longer fixation time in the left visual hemifield when faced with larger lines on the left in the Line Bisection Task. Furthermore, similar results when there are target to the left or right was find in the Visual Search test. Was also observe an increase in fixation time on right hemifield after cathodal stimulation in the Visual Search test compared to baseline. Therefore, these findings come against pseudoneglect phenomenon, as well as inhibition of the right posterior parietal cortex with the Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation can have induced a decrease in this phenomenon. The present study brought important contributions to the understanding of pseudoneglect phenomenon, and showed that tDCS can be an important tool for research and future intervention possibilities.