Time-on-task effect in pseudoneglect

Abstract

Neurologically normal subjects systematically misbisect space during visual line-bisection or similar tasks, generally erring to the left of the veridical center when bisecting horizontal lines, a phenomenon referred to as pseudoneglect. This phenomenon is usually interpreted as enhanced attention toward the left hemispace resulting in an overestimation of the leftward extent of a line. While most studies have examined the role of attention in spatial bias using spatial cueing methods in bisection tasks, Manly et al. (Neuropsychologia 43(12):1721–1728, 2005) proposed an original paradigm in which the participants’ alertness was diminished by sleep deprivation or prolonged execution of a line-bisection task. The authors reported a significant rightward shift in attention related to declining alertness, but they did not control eye movements and, consequently, modifications of scanning and fixation strategies with fatigue cannot be ruled out in their study. Here we examine whether a diminution in alertness induced by a 60-min-long Landmark task would diminish (or even reverse) this attentional bias, when eye movements are absent. Participants performed a forced-choice judgment about the location of a transaction mark in relation to the veridical center of a horizontal line. The results confirmed a significant decrease in the leftward bias over the course of the session but, in contrast to the findings of Manly et al. (2005), we did not observe a reverse bias from the left to the right hemispace. The results are discussed within the context of the hemisphere-activation model.