A dimensional approach to care: implementing a stepped model for ICD-11 personality disorders.

Attention is a core cognitive function that enables adaptive behavior by selecting relevant stimuli while suppressing distractions(). Shifting attention is a critical subcomponent of attention, allowing organisms to flexibly redirect their focus in response to changing environmental conditions. Consequently, attention has a substantial impact on an individual’s personal and social life, and any impairment in this cognitive ability can lead to serious and potentially irreversible problems(). The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a central role in cognitive control, including attention(). Several extensive pieces of evidence from neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and lesion studies indicate that attentional processing in the human brain exhibits a degree of hemispheric lateralization, such that spatial and non-spatial attention networks tend to show right-hemisphere dominance, particularly within prefrontal cortical regions. However, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in patients with brain injury demonstrate that complex attentional functions require interaction between both hemispheres(). Attention deficits are common after stroke and have a profound impact on daily functioning. Accordingly, improving attentional impairments represents a key therapeutic goal in neurological disorders such as stroke().