ArticleScientific reports2021
Variable rather than extreme slow reaction times distinguish brain states during sustained attention.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- A comprehensive analysis of brain network complexity in task-based fMRI using entropy: systematic review.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Pooled it
- Differences in Ex-Gaussian Parameters from Response Time Distributions Between Individuals with and Without Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Meta-analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Perceptual Decision Efficiency and Optimal Sleep Quality Are Associated with Female College Soccer Injury Avoidance.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Spectral and non-spectral EEG measures in the prediction of working memory task performance and psychopathology.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Linking reaction time variability to physiological markers of arousal across timescales.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Tinnitus perception is linked to arousal dysfunction.iScience · 2026Article
- Building a construct-valid battery of performance and self-report indicators of sustained attention consistency.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Measuring Multisensory Integration in Clinical Settings: Comparing an Established Laboratory Method with a Novel Digital Health App.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Inferring internal states across mice and monkeys using facial features.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Computational Modeling Reveals Minimal Vigilance Changes in a Cognitive Monitoring Task.Computational brain & behavior · 2025Article
- N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor hypofunction causes recurrent and transient failures of perceptual inference.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2025Article
- Validating genuine changes in heartbeat-evoked potentials using pseudotrials and surrogate procedures.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Energy landscape analysis based on the Ising model: Tutorial review.PLOS complex systems · 2025Article
- Task-based effective connectivity finds alterations in frontoparietal network in Duchenne muscular dystrophy.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Neuroergonomic Attention Assessment in Safety-Critical Tasks: EEG Indices and Subjective Metrics Validation in a Novel Task-Embedded Reaction Time Paradigm.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Time-varying functional connectivity predicts fluctuations in sustained attention in a serial tapping task.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- A Nomothetic Span Approach to the Construct Validation of Sustained Attention Consistency: Re-Analyzing Two Latent-Variable Studies of Performance Variability and Mind-Wandering Self-Reports.Psychological research · 2024Article
- The Infraslow Frequency Oscillatory Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Over the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Enhances Sustained Attention.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
A common behavioral marker of optimal attention focus is faster responses or reduced response variability. Our previous study found two dominant brain states during sustained attention, and these states differed in their behavioral accuracy and reaction time (RT) variability. However, RT distributions are often positively skewed with a long tail (i.e., reflecting occasional slow responses). Therefore, a larger RT variance could also be explained by this long tail rather than the variance around an assumed normal distribution (i.e., reflecting pervasive response instability based on both faster and slower responses). Resolving this ambiguity is important for better understanding mechanisms of sustained attention. Here, using a large dataset of over 20,000 participants who performed a sustained attention task, we first demonstrated the utility of the exGuassian distribution that can decompose RTs into a strategy factor, a variance factor, and a long tail factor. We then investigated which factor(s) differed between the two brain states using fMRI. Across two independent datasets, results indicate unambiguously that the variance factor differs between the two dominant brain states. These findings indicate that 'suboptimal' is different from 'slow' at the behavior and neural level, and have implications for theoretically and methodologically guiding future sustained attention research.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.