Attention Network Tests in ASD

Abstract

Attention has been conceptualized as a multicomponent system comprised of three isolable but interacting networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control (Posner and Petersen 1990). Alerting refers to the achievement and maintenance of a state of readiness to respond, orienting refers to the selection of an input pathway for further processing, and executive control refers to resolution of conflict between competing inputs and responses. The Attention Network Test (ANT), first described by Fan et al. (2002), was developed as a computerized tool for assessing the efficacy of each network. In the ANT, participants are asked to fixate on a central cross responding to target arrows, which appear either above or below fixation. Targets are sometimes preceded by asterisks appearing at the