HUMAN CLINICAL STUDIES OF ATTENTION DISORDERS

这项研究包括三个相关的调查领域， 说明神经心理学因素的临床条件下， 注意力不集中是主要症状的人。 一个主要重点 （1）阐明脑干病理生理学的性质，如果有的话， 例如癫痫小发作或失神，幼儿自闭症， 精神分裂症和相关疾病;（2）另一个主要重点是 扩展缺席时注意力丧失的神经行为分析 以促进制定替代治疗策略 对于这样的患者。 这两个项目都是一个更大的努力的一部分， 其目的是（3）开发一个全面和系统的分类， 人类的注意力障碍 这项研究最终将 包括对患有脑损伤、癫痫、痴呆 疾病和大脑代谢疾病。

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 brainstem 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.