Attention network test — The impact of social information on executive control, alerting and orienting

Federico, Francesca; Marotta, Andrea; Adriani, Tiziana; Maccari, Lisa; Casagrande, Maria

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.02.006

Cited by 36 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…This represents the benefit of alerting on the speed of the response to the target (Fan et al, 2002(Fan et al, , 2009Federico et al, 2013;Martella, Casagrande, & Lupianez, 2011). The so-called conflict effect is calculated by subtracting the mean RTs of the congruent flanking conditions from the mean RTs of incongruent flanking conditions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To examine the executive control of social information, such as eye-gaze direction, in this study, we used some variants (Federico, Marotta, Adriani, Maccari, & Casagrande, 2013) of the Attention Network Test (ANT; Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, & Posner, 2002), an experimental measure of the three attention networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control (Petersen & Posner, 2012;Posner & Petersen, 1990). Different types of stimuli have been used in different versions of ANT paradigm, such as fish (Rueda, Fan, et al, 2004), cars (Marotta et al, 2015;Roca et al, 2012), fruits (Spagna et al, 2014) and faces (Federico et al, 2013). Alerting is assessed by comparing reaction times (RTs) to targets preceded by alerting cues informing on the temporal onset of the target with those not preceded by any cue (i.e., warning effect).…”

Section: Cognitive Control and The Attention Network Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alerting is assessed by comparing reaction times (RTs) to targets preceded by alerting cues informing on the temporal onset of the target with those not preceded by any cue (i.e., warning effect). In a recent study (Federico et al, 2013), we compared social variants of the ANT with schematic or real faces, to the ANT with fish stimuli in a sample of healthy adults, and results showed that photographs of faces positively affected executive control, as compared to both schematic face and fish. Of particular relevance to this study, in the ANT, the executive control has been generally measured by a flanker task in which participants are required to identify the direction of a central arrow target flanked by congruent or incongruent stimuli (arrows in the same or in the opposite direction as the target, respectively).…”

Section: Cognitive Control and The Attention Network Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three age groups of children aged 6, 8, and 10 years performed two social variants of the ANT 1 (in which schematic or real faces looking to the left or right were used as target and flanker stimuli; Federico et al, 2013) and the Child ANT with fishes as stimuli (Rueda, Fan, et al, 2004;. Three age groups of children aged 6, 8, and 10 years performed two social variants of the ANT 1 (in which schematic or real faces looking to the left or right were used as target and flanker stimuli; Federico et al, 2013) and the Child ANT with fishes as stimuli (Rueda, Fan, et al, 2004;.…”

Section: The Present Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development in attention functions and social processing: Evidence from the Attention Network Test

Federico

Marotta

Martella

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

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According to the attention network approach, attention is best understood in terms of three functionally and neuroanatomically distinct networks - alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Recent findings showed that social information influences the efficiency of these networks in adults. Using some social and non-social variants of the Attentional Network Test (ANT), this study was aimed to evaluate the development of the three attention networks in childhood, also assessing the development of the ability to manage social or non-social conflicting information. Sixty-six children (three groups of 6, 8, and 10 years of age) performed three variants of the original ANT, using fish, schematic, or real faces looking to the left or right as target and flanker stimuli. Results showed an improvement from 6 to 8 and 10 years of age in reaction time (RT) and accuracy, together with an improvement of executive control and a decrement in alerting. These developmental changes were not unique to social stimuli, and no differences were observed between social and no-social variants of the ANT. However, independently from the age of the children, a real face positively affected the executive control (as indexed by RTs) as compared to both a schematic face and a fish. Findings of this study suggest that attentional networks are still developing from 6 to 10 years of age and underline the importance of face information in modulating the efficiency of executive control. Statement of contribution What is already known? Younger children made more errors and slower reaction times (RTs) than older children, in line with the majority of the past selective attention studies. Younger children showed both greater conflict and alerting effect than older children. The prediction that younger children would display larger interference effects than older children was supported. What does this study add? Extending the findings observed in adults and children, independently from their age, demonstrated greater cognitive interference (i.e., slower RTs and higher percentage of errors to incongruent relative to congruent conditions) when fish and schematic faces were presented than when photographs of real faces were used as stimuli. Like adults, children have a greater ability in the control of social information as compared to non-social information. These results seem to indicate that the ability to handle social conflicts proceeds in parallel with the ability to manage non-social conflicting information.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cognitive Control and The Attention Network Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cognitive Control and The Attention Network Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Present Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development in attention functions and social processing: Evidence from the Attention Network Test

Federico

Marotta

Martella

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

Self Cite

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“…The alerting network provides the ability to increase vigilance to an impending stimulus. This network consists of thalamic and some specific anterior and posterior cortical sites, and involves the cortical projection of the norepinephrine system (Fan et al, 2005, 2009; Federico et al, 2013). The orienting network is responsible for reflexively or voluntarily shifting visuospatial attention to a specific location to sample sensory input (Corbetta et al, 2000; Yantis et al, 2002; Fan et al, 2005; Kincade et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral and neural interaction between spatial inhibition of return and the Simon effect

Wang¹,

Fuentes²,

Vivas³

et al. 2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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It has been well documented that the anatomically independent attention networks in the human brain interact functionally to achieve goal-directed behaviors. By combining spatial inhibition of return (IOR) which implicates the orienting network with some executive function tasks (e.g., the Stroop and the flanker tasks) which implicate the executive network, researchers consistently found that the interference effects are significantly reduced at cued compared to uncued locations, indicating the functional interaction between the two attention networks. However, a unique, but consistent effect is observed when spatial IOR is combined with the Simon effect: the Simon effect is significantly larger at the cued than uncued locations. To investigate the neural substrates underlying this phenomenon, we orthogonally combined the spatial IOR with the Simon effect in the present event-related fMRI study. Our behavioral data replicated previous results by showing larger Simon effect at the cued location. At the neural level, we found shared spatial representation system between spatial IOR and the Simon effect in bilateral posterior parietal cortex (PPC); spatial IOR specifically activated bilateral superior parietal cortex while the Simon effect specifically activated bilateral middle frontal cortex. Moreover, left precentral gyrus was involved in the neural interaction between spatial IOR and the Simon effect by showing significantly higher neural activity in the “Cued_Congruent” condition. Taken together, our results suggest that due to the shared spatial representation system in the PPC, responses were significantly facilitated when spatial IOR and the Simon effect relied on the same spatial representations, i.e., in the “Cued_Congruent” condition. Correspondingly, the sensorimotor system was significantly involved in the “Cued_Congruent” condition to fasten the responses, which indirectly resulted in the enhanced Simon effect at the cued location.

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Attentional Development

Ristic

Enns

2015

Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science

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This chapter documents a seismic shift that has occurred in the field of attentional development over the past decade, both in the content of the empirical data being collected and in the theoretical ideas being used to understand them. We trace the origins of this paradigm shift by first examining the past. Research during the latter half of the 20th century was dominated by the information‐processing framework, which views attention as a localizable, domain‐general, and situationally invariant cognitive faculty, with its primary role in filtering sensory information in the service of task goals. However, during the first decade of the 2000s, researchers began to study how individual, emotional, and social aspects of life influence everyday attention behavior. Mounting evidence from these studies revealed that the classic information‐processing framework could not provide a complete account of attentional development. Thus, at present, attention is becoming viewed as a concept that cannot be isolated from social and emotional aspects of development. With regard to future directions, we outline a dynamic view of attention, in which attention is viewed as a cognitive facility, integrating the demands of “cool” cognition (i.e., the information‐processing capacities) with the “hot” functions spanning temperament, emotion, social communication, individual histories, and cultural context. If this trend continues, attentional development in the next decade will be studied as the outcome of complex interactions between an individual's biology, their life history, and their social environment.

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Attention network test — The impact of social information on executive control, alerting and orienting

Cited by 36 publications

References 40 publications

Development in attention functions and social processing: Evidence from the Attention Network Test

Development in attention functions and social processing: Evidence from the Attention Network Test

Behavioral and neural interaction between spatial inhibition of return and the Simon effect

Attentional Development

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