Attention allows us to select relevant information from the background. Although several studies have described that cannabis use induces deleterious effects on attention, it remains unclear if cannabis dependence affects the attention network systems differently.

While several studies have shown a bilingual advantage in cognitive control, others have refuted such findings, leading to debates regarding the existence of bilingual benefits. The current study conducts two experiments to investigate this issue, focusing on the effect of the age of second language immersion in young adult non-immigrant bilinguals. We use a colour-word Stroop task to assess linguistic cognitive control, and an Attention Network Test to examine non-linguistic cognitive control. Results show significant differences between Simultaneous and Early Sequential bilinguals (typically grouped together as ‘early’) in the Stroop task, but these only become apparent when both languages are mixed. Simultaneous bilinguals also show improved Executive Control efficiency, particularly in the presence of alerting and orienting cues, suggesting enhanced attentional skills for this group. We discuss these findings with respect to participant grouping and task effects, noting the importance of the language environment.

Impairments in attention and information processing speed are common in multiple sclerosis (MS) and may contribute to impairments of other cognitive abilities. This study examined attentional efficiency, information processing speed and intra-individual variability in response speed using the Attention Network Test-Interactions (ANT-I) in mildy-affected patients with MS. Thirty-one patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 30 age, sex, and education-matched controls completed the ANT-I, as well as the Paced Auditory Serial Attention Test (PASAT), as a standard clinical measure of information processing efficiency. As expected, patients with MS were slower in reaction time performance on the ANT-I and had poorer performance on the PASAT compared to controls. Patients with MS also demonstrated poorer efficiency in their executive control of attention on the ANT-I, suggesting difficulties with top-down allocation of attention. In addition, the MS group demonstrated greater intra-individual variability in the responses to the ANT-I even when their slower overall response time and other factors such as practice were accounted for. Intra-individual variability was found to best predict group membership compared to PASAT scores and other ANT-I scores. These results suggest that intra-individual variability may provide sensitive, unique and important information regarding cognitive functioning in early MS. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–8)

The present study investigated the impact of bilingualism on efficiency of alerting, orienting and executive attention by means of the Lateralized Attention Network Test (LANT). Young adult bilinguals who had been exposed to their second language before the age of four years showed a reduced conflict cost and a larger alerting effect in terms of response time (RT), while no difference between bilinguals and monolinguals was observed in overall RT. Bilinguals also outperformed monolinguals on accuracy in both conflict and non-conflict trials, though the effect in the latter condition was very small. Moreover, while a left visual field advantage for accuracy of conflict resolution was present in the monolingual group, bilinguals did not show the asymmetry. The findings suggest that bilingualism enhances the efficiency of executive network while reducing its lateralization. The larger alerting effect in bilinguals is hypothesized to be related to bilinguals’ more efficient executive control, which may support processes of response anticipation or temporal orienting.

This study investigated whether early especially efficient utilization of executive functioning in young bilinguals would transcend potential cultural benefits. To dissociate potential cultural effects from bilingualism, four-year-old U.S. Korean–English bilingual children were compared to three monolingual groups – English and Korean monolinguals in the U.S.A. and another Korean monolingual group, in Korea. Overall, bilinguals were most accurate and fastest among all groups. The bilingual advantage was stronger than that of culture in the speed of attention processing, inverse processing efficiency independent of possible speed-accuracy trade-offs, and the network of executive control for conflict resolution. A culture advantage favoring Korean monolinguals from Korea was found in accuracy but at the cost of longer response times.

The Attention Network Test (ANT) uses visual stimuli to separately assess the attentional skills of alerting (improved performance following a warning cue), spatial orienting (an additional benefit when the warning cue also cues target location), and executive control (impaired performance when a target stimulus contains conflicting information). This study contrasted performance on auditory and visual versions of the ANT to determine whether the measures it obtains are influenced by presentation modality. Forty healthy volunteers completed both auditory and visual tests. Reaction-time measures of executive control were of a similar magnitude and significantly correlated, suggesting that executive control might be a supramodal resource. Measures of alerting were also comparable across tasks. In contrast, spatial-orienting benefits were obtained only in the visual task. Auditory spatial cues did not improve response times to auditory targets presented at the cued location. The different spatial-orienting measures could reflect either separate orienting resources for each perceptual modality, or an interaction between a supramodal orienting resource and modality-specific perceptual processing (JINS, 2006, 12, 485–492.)