Contributions:ANTTask

Synopsis

The main purpose of the Attention Network Test (ANT) task is to test the alerting, orienting, and executive control networks in children and adults. It is based on the ANT task designed by J. Fan (Fan, J., McCandliss, B. D., Sommer, T., Raz, A., & Posner, M. I. (2002). Testing the efficiency and independence of attentional networks. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(3), 340-7.) This task presents sequential visual stimuli to the user of the BCI2000 system. The subject will be shown an arrow on the screen pointing either to the left or to the right. In some trials, the arrow will be flanked by two arrows to the left and two arrows to the right. The subject's task is to respond to the direction of the CENTRAL arrow. The subject should hold the mouse in both hands and press the left mouse button with the left thumb if the central arrow points to the left, or press the right mouse button with the right thumb if the central arrow points to the right.

In some trials, there will be asterisk cues indicating when or where the arrow will occur. If the cue is at the center or both above and below fixation it indicates that the arrow will appear shortly. If the cue is only above or below fixation it indicates both that the trial will occur shortly and where it will occur.

Timeline

Figure 1: Single trial timeline.

Figure 2: State value in different target condition

Figure 3: Cue value in different cue condition

Visual Representation

We also have the lateral version of ANTTask

Versioning

Authors

Huiling Huang (huiling@neurotechcenter.org)

Version History

2022-05-04: Initial public release by Huiling Huang (huiling@neurotechcenter.org)

Parameters

WindowDiagonalInCm

The value of the window diagonal in inches (most common screens are 22 inches = 55.88cm).

ViewingDistanceInCm

The distance of the screen from the eyes(cm).

EyeOpenTextDuration, EyeCloseTextDuration

Duration of introduction of eyes open/close.

TimerValueOpen, TimerValueClose

Duration of eyes open/close.

BlankEverySecondTrial

Make things dark and boring to encourage alpha on trials when we are not stimulating.

TrialDuration

Duration of one trial.

FirstFixationDurationMin, FirstFixationDurationMax

Minimum/Maximum duration of First Fixation phase.

CueDuration

Duration of cue.

MiddleFixationDuration

Duration of Middle Fixation phase.

ReactionTimeMin, ReactionTimeMax

Minimum/Maximum duration of reaction time.

CueIconList

List of cue images path.

TargetMatrix

Matrix of target images path.

TargetR90Matrix

Target rotates 90-degree stimulus matrix.

BlockSequence

The sequence of the number of trials in each experiment block.

PracticeBlockSize

The number of trials in practice block.

EnableEyeOpenOrClose

Enable or disable the countdown timer at the beginning of the experiment.

EnableRotate90

Enable or disable to rotate cue and target 90 degrees.

EnableFirstDurExternally

Enable set firstFixationDuration by other modules.

NumberOfStimTrialTypes

The default value is 2, which means there are two stimulation types:
0: no stimulation;
1: In-phase stimulation;
2: Out-of-phase stimulation.

StimulusEccentricityInDegrees

Used to compute CrossToTargetDistance and CrossToCueDistance if these are set to 'auto'.

CrossToCueDistance

The distance between fixation cross and cue in relative coordinates (between 0 and 1)(set to auto to compute from StimulusEccentricityInDegrees).

CrossToTargetDistance

The distance between fixation cross and target in relative coordinates (between 0 and 1)(set to auto to compute from StimulusEccentricityInDegrees).

CrossWidth, CrossHeight

The width/height of fixation cross in relative coordinates (between 0 and 1).

CueWidth, CueHeight

The width/height of cue in relative coordinates (between 0 and 1).

TargetWidth, TargetHeight

The width/height of the target in relative coordinates (between 0 and 1).

ProgressBar

Display progress bar.

ProgressBarHeight, ProgressBarWidth

Progress bar height/width in pixels.

ProgressBarBackgroundColor, ProgressBarForegroundColor

Color of progress bar background/foreground.

PhotoDiodePatch

Display a photo diode patch on the stimulus window. Recording from a photo diode located on that patch will allow triggering on actual stimulus delivery (see User_Reference:P3TemporalFilter#OnsetExpression).

PhotoDiodePatchHeight, PhotoDiodePatchWidth

Photo diode patch height/width in relative coordinates (between 0 and 1).

PhotoDiodePatchLeft, PhotoDiodePatchTop

Photo diode patch left/top position in relative coordinates (between 0 and 1).

PhotoDiodePatchShape

Photo diode patch shape: 0 rectangle, 1 ellipse.

PhotoDiodePatchActiveColor

Photo diode patch color when active (RGB color in format 0xrrggbb).

PhotoDiodePatchInactiveColor

Photo diode patch color when inactive, (RGB color in format 0xrrggbb, use 0xff000000 for transparent).

States

PhaseNumber

The index of phase in each trial. (8 bits) 1: Pre Cue; 2: Cue; 3: Pre Stimulus; 4: Stimulus; 5: Post Stimulus.

TrialNumber

Index of trials. (16 bits)

FirstFixationDuration

List of the duration of first fixation phase in each trial. (microsecond, 32 bits)

ReactionTime

List of reaction time in each trial.(microsecond, 32 bit)

LastFixationDuration

List of the duration of last fixation phase in each trial. (microsecond, 32 bits)

BlockNumber

Index of experiment block.

TargetDirection

Regular:
1: pointing left; 2: pointing right.
Rotate 90 degrees:
1: pointing up; 2: pointing down.

FlankerDirection