Visual attention in HIV-1 infection.

Twenty-seven nondemented HIV-seropositive men and 13 seronegative controls performed 2 versions of a spatial attention task that engaged either automatic or controlled attentional processing. Subjects also performed a third task requiring divided attention, which tested for potential deficits in attentional resources. HIV-seropositive symptomatic subjects were impaired on the automatic processing task, whereas asymptomatic subjects performed the task normally compared with controls. In contrast, no differences were observed among the 3 groups on the controlled attention task. However, both seropositive groups showed deficits on the divided attention task. These results suggest that deficits in selective attention are present early in the course of HIV-1 infection. The most prominent impairment is seen on tasks that are highly demanding of attentional resources, whereas deficits in automatic processing develop later in the disease process.