Top 11 Attention Disorders (and Associated Symptoms)

Mental disorders can also affect our ability to maintain awareness.

Attention is one of the most basic cognitive processes, since it allows us to focus mental resources on specific foci in order to carry out other psychological operations, such as the perception of environmental stimuli. Different types of disorders, both organically based and not, can cause alterations in this function.

In this article we will describe the characteristics of the 11 main attention disorders.. Most of them fall into the category of hypoprosexias (disorders due to attentional deficits), although it is also important to mention hyperprosexias, aprosexias, paraprosexias and pseudoaprosexias.

The main disorders of attention

Psychopathological disorders of attention are generally classified according to how they affect this cognitive function: specifically, we speak of aprosexia, hyperprosexia or hypoprosexia, among other terms, depending on whether they involve increased, decreased or decreased attention.depending on whether they involve an increase, decrease or absence of attentional resources. In any case, these concepts are somewhat confusing.

Hypoprosexias, which are characterized by a reduced ability to attend to stimuli, are the most common attention disorders. Within this category we find phenomena such as distractibility, emotional attentional lability, attention inhibition, neglect syndrome, attention fatigue, apathy or perplexity.

1. Aprosexia

Aprosexia is defined as the total absence of attention.In this sense we could say that it constitutes an extreme form of hypoprosexia. The phenomenon of stupor, in which the person does not respond to almost any type of stimulation and which is associated with psychosis, epilepsy, toxic consumption and brain damage, is the best example of aprosexia.

2. Pseudoaprosexia

In the literature on psychopathology of attention this term is used to refer to cases that apparently correspond to the signs of aprosexia, but do not involve true attention disturbances. Thus, pseudoaprosexias are framed in hysterical and simulation contexts, mainlymainly.

3. Hyperprosexia

We speak of hyperprosexia when, in the context of a transient alteration of consciousness (mainly caused by manic episodes or drug use), there is an intensification and/or excessive focus of attention, often accompanied by hypervigilance and hyperlucency. Such as hypoprosexia, destabilizes attention and worsens performance..

4. Paraprosexia

This concept is used to describe two different types of disturbances. Karl Jaspers spoke of paraprosexia as the anomalous direction of attention that occurs in disorders such as hypochondria that occurs in disorders such as hypochondria, in which excessive preoccupation with certain physical signs can increase them. Other authors consider paraprosexia to be similar to attentional instability.

5. Distraction

In psychopathological contexts such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, manic episodes or twilight states typical of epilepsy, there is a marked instability of the attentional focus. In this sense, distractibility is a type of hypoprosexiaas are the rest of the alterations that we will mention.

6. Attentive emotional lability

The context "emotional attentional lability" is used in a very specific way to define disturbances in the stability and performance of attention that states of intense anxiety, e.g., those that might occur in disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder.for example, those that might occur in disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder.

7. Inattention or inhibition of attention

In these cases the term refers to a reduced ability to direct attention to a particular focus. The inhibition of attention can have an organic origin (in which case it usually causes disorientation and memory problems) or psychological, as in melancholic depression and chronic psychosis.

8. Attentional fatigue

Post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression, brain tumors and infections or neurodegenerative disorders, especially dementia, frequently cause alterations due to deficits in attentional functions. People with attentional fatigue tend to feel tired in general and have memory problems..

9. Apathetic inattention

We find manifestations of attentional apathy in very different contexts: in conditions of intense fatigue and sleep, due to malnutrition, due to the abusive consumption of certain psychoactive substances, in diffuse neurodegenerative disorders or in asthenic-apathetic states. In some cases it is simply attributed to the subject's personality..

10. Perplexity

In the area of psychopathology of attention, the term "perplexity" defines a type of qualitative alteration of this function that implies a inability to give meaning to perceived stimuli, as well as to their own behaviors.as well as to their own behaviors. Although this is a highly contested concept, it could be applied to phenomena such as twilight states.

11. Neglect syndrome

Left spatial hemineglect syndrome (or simply "neglect syndrome") is a very particular brain disorder that appears as a consequence of focal lesions in the right hemisphere of the brain. The most representative symptoms include spatial neglectinattention and akinesia for one half of the body or of the visual field.

Bibliographic references:

• Froján, M.X. and Santacreu, J. (1999). What is a psychological treatment. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva.
• Gavino, A. (2002). Guía de ayuda para el terapeuta cognitivo-conductual. Madrid: Pirámide.
• Luciano, M.C. (1996). Manual de psicología clínica. Childhood and adolescence. Valencia: Promolibro.