Need to void and attentional process interrelationships

Abstract

Objectives: To determine whether a strong urge to void could affect a person's attentional performance. To determine whether an attentional task could decrease a strong urge to void a prospective study was performed.

Subjects and methods: Healthy adults were asked to perform two neuropsychological tests, the modified Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (mPASAT) and the Psychology Experiment Building Language Continuous Performance Test (pCPT), under two different conditions: no need to void, and a strong urge to void defined by a score of >70/100 mm on a visual analogue scale.

Results: In all, 21 healthy volunteers were included. There was no statistical difference between the mPASAT scores from the two sessions (P = 0.57). The mean total error score of the pCPT increased with the individual's urge to void (P = 0.043). The mean omission score decreased, but was not statistically different (P = 0.129), the commission error score increased with the urge to void (P = 0.017), with a shorter reaction time for the inter-stimuli intervals of 1 (P<0.001) and 2 s (P = 0.036), suggesting a tendency to hurry.

Conclusions: A strong urge to void can alter attentional performance, with a tendency to hurry, in healthy volunteers taking part in a sustained attention test pCPT involving the use of the anterior cingulate cortex.

Keywords: attention; brain; neuropsychology; sensation; urge; urinary bladder.