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I den föreliggande studien undersöktes effekten av en kort mindfulnessövning på inhiberingsförmågan hos ett urval av media-multitaskare, något som definieras som att typiskt sett använda sig av fler än en media samtidigt. Studien var ett internetbaserat experiment där deltagarna delades randomiserat in till antingen en mindfulnessbetingelse (n = 18) eller en kontrollbetingelse bestående av klassisk musik (n = 22). Deltagarna (ålder 20–60 år) rekryterades via facebook, universitet samt posters därmed enligt ett bekvämlighetsurval. De hade ingen tidigare erfarenhet av mindfulnessmeditation och hade inga psykiatriska diagnoser. Det primära utfallsmåttet var inhiberingsförmåga mätt med Eriksen flanker task. Det gjordes även mätningar av mindfulnesstillstånd samt av upplevd stress. Studiens resultat visade att båda grupperna förbättrade sin inhiberingsförmåga, men påvisade ingen skillnad mellan grupperna. Det fanns heller ingen skillnad i skattat mindfulnesstillstånd mellan grupperna. Resultatet indikerar att effekten på inhiberingsförmåga inte var beroende av nivå på självskattad stress men bör tolkas med försiktighet på grund av möjliga svagheter i metoden. Då en focused attention (FA) mindfulnessövning kontra klassisk musik inte skilde sig signifikant i mindfulnesstillstånd bör framtida forskning undersöka validiteten av konstruktet mindfulness. Nyckelord: Inhibering, mindfulness, Eriksen flanker task, exekutiva funktioner. / The present study examined the connection between inhibition and a short mindfulness exercise on a sample of media-multitaskers, defined as a person using more than one media at the same time. The study was an internet-based experiment in which the partcipants were randomly assigned to a mindfulness condition (n = 18) or a control condition (n = 22) in which listened to classical music. Participants (20–60 years) were recruited through facebook, university and posters, the selection was a convenience sample. They had no former experience of mindfulness meditation and had no psychiatric diagnosis. The primary measure was the ability of inhibition measured with the Eriksen flanker task. Additional measures were state mindfulness and self-perceived stress. Both groups improved their inhibition-ability with no significant difference between groups. There was no additional difference in self-assessed mindfulnessstate between groups. Results indicate that the inhibition-ability does not depend on the level of self-assessed stress but this should in addition be interpreted with caution because of methodological shortcomings. As a focused attention (FA) mindfulness exercise to classical music didn’t significantly differ in mindfulness state future research should examinethe validity of the construct mindfulness.

Wie bereits mehrfach in anderen Studien beschrieben (Falkenstein et al., 1991; Gehring et al., 1993; Holroyd & Coles, 2002) konnte ein signifikanter Unterschied im EEG nach richtigen Antworten im Vergleich zu Fehlern in einem Zeitfenster von -35 bis 108 ms und von 110 bis 450 ms gezeigt werden. Die als Differenz aus den negativsten beziehungsweise positivsten Peaks nach falschen und richtigen Antworten berechnete „error-related negativity“ (ERN) und „error positivity“ (Pe) als wichtigste Komponenten der Fehlerverarbeitung zeigten im Vergleich zu anderen Studien zwar geringere, aber trotzdem vergleichbare Werte. Um den Einfluss von genetischen Unterschieden auf die Fehlerverarbeitung deutlich zu machen, wurde in dieser Studie untersucht, inwieweit Polymorphismen des Dopamintransporters (DAT), der Catechol-O-Methyl-Transferase (COMT) und des Phosphoproteins Stathmin Einfluss auf die Ausprägung der ERN und der Pe nehmen. Bezüglich des DAT-Polymorphismus konnte ein signifikanter Einfluss weder auf die ERN noch auf die Pe nachgewiesen werden. Hier ist zu vermuten, dass der Polymorphismus den Dopaminhaushalt der Basalganglien nicht nennenswert beeinträchtigt und demnach keinen Einfluss auf die Fehlerverarbeitung hat. Im Hinblick auf den COMT – Polymorphismus zeigte sich zwar kein Effekt auf die ERN, bei der Pe konnte man allerdings signifikante Unterschiede zwischen den Gruppen feststellen. Hier zeigten die homozygoten Träger des „val“ – Allels signifikant höhere Pe – Amplituden als die homozygoten Träger des „met“ – Allels. Heterozygote Personen lagen hinsichtlich der Pe – Amplitude zwischen den beiden anderen Gruppen. Dieser Effekt entspricht zwar nicht den Ergebnissen von anderen Studien (Egan et al., 2005; Frank et al., 2007), sollte aber dennoch Gegenstand weiterführender Forschung sein. Der Polymorphismus im Gen des Phosphoproteins Stathmin beeinflusste zwar die Amplitude der Pe nicht, zeigte aber signifikante Auswirkungen auf die ERN, wobei hier Träger des T-Allels signifikant kleinere ERN-Amplituden aufwiesen als Probanden, die dieses Allel nicht trugen. Allerdings wurde deutlich, dass dieser Effekt nach genauerer Analyse nicht stabil gegenüber Veränderungen war. Trotzdem ist davon auszugehen, dass dieser Polymorphismus die Funktion des ACC und damit auch die Fehlerverarbeitung beeinflusst, wodurch die Notwendigkeit weiterer Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiet des Phosphoproteins Stathmin gegeben ist. / As already published in several studies (Falkenstein et al., 1991; Gehring et al., 1993; Holroyd & Coles, 2002) a significant difference after correct answers compared to errors could be shown in EEG in a time window of -35 to 108ms and 110 to 450ms. The error related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) showed comparable values to other studies. To demonstrate the influence of genetic difference to the error processing, this study researched the influence of dopamine transporter (DAT), catechol-o-methyl transferase (COMT) and Stathmine to ERN and Pe. The DAT polymorphism does not have any significant influence to ERN and Pe. The COMT polymorphism shows no significant influence to ERN, but there is a significant influence to Pe. The genetic polymorphism of Stathmine does not have any impact on the amplitude of Pe but shows significant influence to ERN.

The current study sought to test the existence of a phenomenon known as sensory-specific satiety, in which attentional bias for food cues is specifically diminished for a consumed food, and the role of gender in such biases. In order to do so, the experiment used a version of the Flanker Task in which participants were shown image groups containing a target image and congruent or incongruent distracting flanker images. Participants (17 males, 22 females) were randomly assigned to consume one of two foods depicted in the flanker task (Ritz Bitz sandwiches or miniature Golden Oreos). Results did not support the idea of sensory-specific satiety, as we found a general reduction in reaction time rather than interactions in target/flanker congruency, suggesting that task performance was not driven by attentional bias to the food cues. However, there was an interesting interaction effect for session, consumption, and gender, such that women were faster than men for the consumed food post-satiety. Results may be explained by differences in motivation potentially caused by dissimilarities in dopamine levels. Additionally, results of the current experiment in combination with previous research could provide insight on gender differences in obesity.

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Au quotidien, nos ressources attentionnelles sont sollicitées de part et d’autre et la capacité à diriger notre attention sur une tâche et ignorer les distractions (le contrôle attentionnel) est cruciale. Pour mieux comprendre cette influence, les facteurs émotionnels pouvant moduler l’attention sont étudiés. L’omniprésence de la musique, et des émotions qu’elle induit, dans les activités quotidiennes soulève des questions quant à son effet sur cette capacité. Les résultats des études explorant l’effet de la musique de fond sur le contrôle attentionnel sont divergents, ils sont parfois nuisibles ou nuls, mais généralement bénéfiques. Il est possible que cette divergence s’explique par la diversité des caractéristiques émotionnelles (p.ex. le caractère relaxant ou stimulant) de la musique de fond utilisée dans les études. Le contrôle attentionnel peut également être modulé par les variations individuelles de l’anxiété (p.ex. des niveaux faible ou élevé de l’état et du trait d’anxiété). Considérer (a) les niveaux d’activation de la musique de fond et (b) des variations individuelles d’anxiété pourrait clarifier comment le contrôle attentionnel est influencé dans la vie quotidienne. Pour cela, deux groupes tirés d’une population adulte non-clinique ont été testés, un ayant un niveau d’état et de trait d’anxiété faible et un autre ayant un niveau d’état et de trait d’anxiété plus élevé. Tous les participants ont réalisé la tâche Flanker dans trois conditions : avec la présentation de musiques stimulantes et relaxantes, ainsi qu’en silence. Les résultats indiquent que l’effet Flanker est similaire entre les trois conditions pour le groupe à anxiété faible. En revanche, pour le groupe à anxiété plus élevée, l’effet Flanker est significativement augmenté avec la musique relaxante comparativement au silence. Ces résultats suggèrent que l’effet de l’activation de la musique de fond sur le contrôle attentionnel varie selon le niveau d’anxiété. / Daily, attentional control is solicited to maintain attention on a desired task and inhibit distractions. Knowingly, emotional factors are studied to further understand attentional modulation. With the omnipresence of music, and the emotions it induces, in daily activities, its impact on attentional control arises questioning. Studies exploring the effect of background music on attentional control have shown inconsistent results, supporting its effect is sometimes detrimental or null, but mostly beneficial. Differences in the emotional characteristics of music could possibly explain the inconsistent results shown in studies exploring the effect of emotions on attentional control. Additionally, individual variations in emotional states have been shown to impact attentional control capacities, namely variations in anxiety (low/high trait and state anxiety). Considering activation levels of music (stimulating/relaxing) and individual levels of anxiety (low/high) could clarify how attentional control is impacted in the daily life. This study aims explored the effect of (a) the activation levels of background music and (b) individual differences in anxiety on attentional control capacities using the Flanker task. To this aim, a low state-and-trait anxiety group and a high state-and-trait anxiety groups drawn form a non-clinical population were tested under three conditions: with presentation of stimulating and relaxing music, and in silence. For the low-anxiety group, the Flanker effect was similar between the three conditions. On the other hand, for the high-anxiety group, the Flanker effect was significantly increased with the relaxing background music compared to silence. These results suggest that the effect of background music activation levels on attentional control varies as a function of anxiety levels.

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Previous findings in healthy humans suggest that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) modulate emotional processing via earlier changes in attention. However, many previous studies have provided inconsistent findings. One possible reason for such inconsistencies is that these studies did not control for the influence of either sex or sex hormone fluctuations. To address this inconsistency, we administered 20 mg escitalopram or placebo for seven consecutive days in a randomized, double-blind, placebocontrolled design to sixty healthy female participants with a minimum of 3 months oral contraceptive (OC) intake. Participants performed a modified version of an emotional flanker task before drug administration, after a single dose, after 1 week of SSRI intake, and after a 1-month wash-out period. Supported by Bayesian analyses, our results do not suggest a modulatory effect of escitalopram on behavioral measures of early attentional-emotional interaction in female individuals with regular OC use. While the specific conditions of our task may be a contributing factor, it is also possible that a practice effect in a healthy sample may mask the effects of escitalopram on the attentional-emotional interplay. Consequently, 1 week of escitalopram administration may not modulate attention toward negative emotional distractors outside the focus of attention in healthy female participants taking OCs. While further research in naturally cycling females and patient samples is needed, our results represent a valuable contribution toward the preclinical investigation of antidepressant treatment.

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