Background: Once a person identifies a visual object, the ability to detect
a second object is impaired for the next few hundred milliseconds. This at
tentional blink is reported to increase in subjects with neglect due to acu
te right hemisphere lesions. Method: To examine neural substrates of the at
tentional blink, the authors examined the performance of 13 subjects with c
hronic focal brain lesions visualized by MRI and nine control subjects with
out neurologic impairments on a rapid serial visual presentation task that
used letters as targets. Results: Attentional blink length in the lesion gr
oup was more than twice that of controls (p < 0.05). The magnitude of the a
ttentional blink deficit was greatest when the second target appeared 200 m
s after the first target, recovering close to baseline by 1,200 ms. Abnorma
l attentional blink occurred (even in the absence of neglect) with lesions
in the occipitotemporal areas (associated with "object" vision) and the pre
frontal cortices (thought to mediate visual working memory). Conclusions: A
ttentional blink length and attentional blink magnitude measure different c
omponents of the attentional blink process. Abnormal attentional blink can
occur with different chronic focal brain lesions in a network of structures
for vision and attention, and it has no special status in hemispatial negl
ect. Abnormal attentional blink may help explain difficulties on rapid, vis
ually demanding cognitive tasks such as reading and automobile driving and
may explain performance deficits in brain damaged patients with nonspatial
disorders of visual processing.