The cue-to-target intervals (0, 400, and 800 msec) were selected based on previous studies with normal participants and patients with parietal damage (Posner et al. 1984; Fan et al. 2002). The ANT-R was compiled and run on a personal computer using E-Prime™ software (Psychology Software Tools, Pittsburgh, PA).

Figure 1 The schematic of the Attention Network Test-Revised (ANT-R). In each trial, depending on the cue condition (none, double, and valid or invalid cues), an asterisk “*” as the cue appears for 100 msec. After a variable duration (0, 400, or … The function of each of the three attentional networks is operationally defined as a comparison Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the performance (reaction time or accuracy) between one condition and the appropriate reference condition, resulting in scores for the attentional networks (Fan Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical et al. 2009). For the alerting network, the phasic alerting (benefit) effect is defined as follows: Alerting = RTno cue − RTdouble cue representing the benefit of alerting. For the orienting network, the validity includes Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the ability to disengage attention

from a previous location and to move and engage attention at a new location. Correspondingly, orienting operations are defined as follows: Validity = Disengaging + (ARRY-162 price moving + Engaging)= RTinvalid cue − RTvalid cue, which represents both the cost of an invalid cue and benefit of a valid cue. The validity effect has two subcomponents, disengaging and moving/engaging: (1) Disengaging = RTinvalid cue − RTdouble Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical cue for the cost of disengaging from invalid cue; (2) Moving + Engaging= RTdouble cue − RTvalid cue, for the benefit of target response under the valid cue condition. The Moving Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical + Engaging is equivalent to the computation of “orienting” defined in our previous study (Fan et al. 2002). In addition, Orienting time = RTvalid cue, 0 msec cue-to-target interval −RTvalid cue, 800 msec cue-to-target interval

is defined for the benefit of the target response because of the advanced orienting under the 800-msec cue-target interval condition. The conflict Idoxuridine effect, which is a cost, is defined as follows: Flanker conflict = RTflanker incongruent − RTflanker congruent. We have previously shown that the location incongruency effect (whether the location of the target – left or right – is on the same side as the target is pointing) is very small (Fan et al. 2009), and thus, we did not examine this effect- or location-related interactions in this study. The interaction effects are defined as follows: (1) Alerting by flanker conflict = (RTno cue, flanker incongruent − RTno cue, flanker congruent) − (RTdouble cue, flanker incongruent − RTdouble cue, flanker congruent). A negative value indicates a negative impact of alerting on flanker conflict processing.