HUMAN CLINICAL STUDIES OF ATTENTION DISORDERS

这项研究包括三个相关领域的调查涉及 详细说明潜在临床情况的神经心理因素 注意力不集中是主要症状的人类。一个主要重点 是关于(1)阐明脑干病理生理学的性质，如果有的话，在 如小发作或失神癫痫，婴儿自闭症， 精神分裂症及相关疾病；(2)另一个主要重点是 扩展缺席注意力丧失的神经行为分析 癫痫，以促进制定替代治疗策略 对于这样的病人。这两个项目都是更大努力的一部分 它的目的是(3)发展全面和系统的分类 人类的注意力障碍。后一项研究最终将 包括对脑部病变、癫痫发作、痴呆患者的研究 疾病和大脑的代谢性疾病。

This research comprises three related areas of investigation concerned with specifying neuropsychological factors underlying clinical conditions in humans in which disturbed attention is a major symptom. A major emphasis is on (1) illuminating the nature of brain stem pathophysiology, if any, in such entities as petit mal or absence epilepsy, infantile autism, schizophrenia, and related diseases; (2) an additional major emphasis is on extending the neurobehavioral analysis of attention loss in absence epilepsy so as to facilitate developing alternative treatment strategies for such patients. Both of these projects form part of a larger effort which is aimed at (3) developing a comprehensive and systematic taxonomy of attentional disorders in humans. This latter study will eventually comprise study of patients with cerebral lesions, seizures, dementing diseases, and metabolic illnesses of the brain.