Boosting Reward-based Attention Through VEstibular STimulation

The exploration of space is more effective when intrinsically rewarding elements are located in the visual scene. Thus, rewards could be exploited as a novel rehabilitation approach to various attentional disorders. The first part of the project aims to characterize these effects at the behavioural level. The interventional part consists then in the administration of Caloric Vestibular Stimulation (CVS), which by means of injection of a small quantity of water in the external ear activates the vestibular organs and subsequently vestibular-related brain areas. Among the observed brain activations, the possibility to reach cingulate areas appears particularly interesting because it foreshadows the possibility to further enhance attentional capture by rewards.

CVS will be delivered to patients with brain lesion of the right hemisphere, engaged in cancellation tasks requiring the processing of targets of different nature (e.g. monetary or neutral). The main prediction is that CVS administration would enhance spatial exploration in terms of center of gravity of the cancellation and improved accuracy as a function of the type of target processed (e.g. its value).