Hypoprosexia: symptoms, causes and treatment

The attention span is essential in the course of our daily lives, it allows us to focus on something consciously and continuously over time. Attention is one of the basic cognitive functions of the human mind, along with memory, perception, and sensation.

There are many conditions that can affect attention, either making it worse or better. Attention disorders appear when attention levels have decreased enough to be considered deficient. Attention disturbances are classified into two types: quantitative and qualitative.

In Quantitative Attention Disorders, the ability to pay attention is excessive or deficient. In qualitative disorders, the quality of attention or the same form are altered, people are unable to correctly synthesize what they capture through attention.

When attention is diminished, the diagnosis is hypoprosexia, which encompasses different alterations. In this article we will talk about the different conditions that cause hypoprosexia, but first we will make a brief introduction about attention and its disorders.

• Related article: "Top 11 Attention Disorders (and Associated Symptoms)"

Hypoprosexia and attention disorders

Attention is the process of focusing on one particular thing while ignoring other things; it is a cognitive function and is closely related to consciousness. According to Bleuler, attention is when something (ideas, impressions…) arouses our interest and we focus on those things, leaving everything else out. Attention does not have only one form, different types of attention have been described, such as sustained attention, selective attention and divided attention, among others.

Extending the description of it, attention is the process that allows us to focus on relevant information, ignoring irrelevant information to carry out our actions. Attention is a cognitive process that can generate, select, direct and maintain the level of activation necessary to process information that is important to us. Acts as a filter to focus on important information. Mindfulness helps us focus on the task at hand to learn as much as possible and avoid making mistakes.

Attention may be altered. There are many things that can affect the functioning of attention and affect the decision of what to pay attention to and why. how long, these factors can come from the environment (external) or from the person and, therefore, depend on each individual.

Disturbance in attention can also be pathological. There are different illnesses related to attention, either because you can't pay enough attention, or pay too much, or because the ability isn't working properly.

Attention disorders have been investigated for many years. Today theories continue to change as new evidence emerges. classically, Attention disorders have been classified into hypoprosexia, aprosexia, pseudoprosexia, paraprosexia, and hyperprosexia.. We will briefly explain the latter, and then detail hypoprosexia in depth.

1. Aprosexia

People with aprosexia have total lack of attention; it is the greatest reduction of the attentional focus.

• You may be interested: "Aprosexia: symptoms and causes of difficulty sustaining attention"

2. Pseudoaprosexia

People do not pay attention to the environment, although attention span is not affected.

3. paraprosexia

People with paraprosexia focus attention in an abnormal way.

4. hyperprosexias

people focus excessively and temporary attention.

• Related article: "Hyperprosexia: symptoms and treatment of this attentional disorder"

Hypoprosexia and its effects

Hypoprosexia, or attentional distractibility, is a disorder that involves a decreased attention span. This disorder occurs frequently, but is considered not very pathological.

Distracted attention is a disorder in which a person has difficulty concentrating on one thing for an extended period of time, their attention shifts from one thing to another and they get distracted by ease. This disorder often appears frequently in people who have depression, schizophrenia or intellectual disability.

hypoprosexia involves a continual shift in the element of focus, attention, or mental engagement. There is also usually a constant change in the course of thoughts and the mechanism by which ideas are associated, which together constitute a flight of ideas. People who have mania or other disorders often have hypoprosexia.

In short, hypoprosexia is the most common attention disturbance and indicates a reduced ability to focus on things. Within the general category of the disorder, hypoprosexia or hypoprosexia, depending on how we see it, we find different alterations in the attention capacity that include the following.

1. Distractibility

Attentional distractibility is seen as sudden changes in attention and focusing on many things at once. The person focuses for a short time and responds to many stimuli. The attentional capacity exists, but in an unstable way.

This hyperactive behavior appears in patients with ADHD, and can also be seen in people who are intoxicated with drugs or alcohol or in people who suffer from manic disorders. Distractibility can appear in patients for organic reasons, frequently at night.

• You may be interested: "I have trouble concentrating: possible causes and solutions"

2. neglect syndrome

Patients with left spatial neglect syndrome cannot pay attention to things on the left side due to a brain injury on the right side of the brain.

Patients with right spatial neglect syndrome have a lesion but in the left hemisphere.

The patient will not pay attention to anything he sees on one side, or only to some things. The patients' eyes function normally, but have an internal problem with the representation of space.

Inattention and lack of movement for half the visual field or the body are the most common symptoms of neglect syndrome.

• Related article: "Hemi-neglect: patients for whom the left side does not exist"

3. apathetic inattention

There are manifestations of attentional apathy for very different reasons. When there is a picture of asthenia-apathy, attention is focused slowly and is difficult to maintain.. The patient has difficulty concentrating on things because he is extremely tired, needs more sleep, has been malnourished or because of psychoactive drugs. Impaired attention can also be seen in more generalized degenerative processes.

Apathetic inattention occurs when a patient has extreme fatigue, needs more sleep, has abused psychoactive drugs, or is malnourished. It usually appears in patients who present degenerative processes in both the subcortical and cortical part of the brain. In contrast, motivational inattention occurs in patients who have severe personality disorders.

4. perplexity of attention

The term "perplexity" refers to a qualitative alteration of attention. The subject does not achieve the synthesis of the content of the attention, he cannot specify the meaning of what he is focusing on or the relationships between the things he is focusing on. Although it is a concept that presents disagreement, it could be applied to states where the subject is half conscious, such as twilight states.

5. emotional attentional lability

Some disorders that affect mental health, such as generalized anxiety disorder, can cause intense anxiety, which can impair stability and performance of attention. The concept of attentional emotional lability is used to describe the alteration of attention that derives from states of anxiety.

• You may be interested: "Emotional psychology: main theories of emotion"

6. attentional fatigue

Attentional fatigability refers to the exhaustion of attention that occurs as a result of brain causes, such as tumors, dementia, or trauma, etc.

Post-traumatic stress, depression, brain tumors and infections, and neurodegenerative diseases can cause attention deficit problems. People who experience attentional fatigue usually feel tired and have memory problems.

• Related article: "5 signs of poor mental health that you should not overlook"

Treatment of hypoprosexia

Attention is a capacity that we use to focus on what surrounds us and on our internal states. There are many things that demand our attention, and attention can be disturbed by many different things: depression, ADHD in children, even dementia. Disturbances in attention are not usually considered primary symptoms or diagnoses in mental illness, rather attention problems focus on cognitive rehabilitation therapies.

There are many methods to stimulate cognitive functioning: daily cognitive stimulation is already part of the routine of many people. New technologies are a form of cognitive stimulation that help improve attention span, working memory, and processing speed. There are also workshops for adults where they can learn different activities and exercises for daily cognitive stimulation, and how to put them into practice. In addition, there are different methods of neurotechnology used to stimulate the brain and work on the attention span that may have deteriorated over the years.