Test-retest reliability of the attention network test from the perspective of intrinsic network organization.

The attention network test (ANT), developed based on the triple-network taxonomy by Posner and colleagues, has been widely used to examine the efficacy of alerting, orienting and executive control in clinical and developmental neuroscience studies. Recent research suggests the imperfect reliability of the behavioural ANT and its variants. However, the classical ANT fMRI task's test-retest reliability has received little attention. Moreover, it remains ambiguous whether the attention-related intrinsic network components, especially the dorsal attention, ventral attention and frontoparietal network, manifest acceptable reliability. The present study approaches these issues by utilizing an openly available ANT fMRI dataset for participants with Parkinson's disease and healthy elderly. The reproducibility of group-level activations across sessions and participant groups and the test-retest reliability at the individual level were examined at the voxel, region and network levels. The intrinsic network was defined using the Yeo-Schaefer atlas. Our results reveal three critical facets: (1) the overlapping of the group-level contrast map between sessions and between participant groups was unsatisfactory; (2) the reliability of alerting, orienting and executive, defined as a contrast between conditions, was worse than estimates of specific conditions. (3) Dorsal attention, ventral attention, visual and somatomotor networks showed acceptable reliability for the congruent and incongruent conditions. Our results suggest that specific condition estimates might be used instead of the contrast map for individual or group-difference studies.

Molecular signatures of attention networks.

Attention network theory proposes three distinct types of attention-alerting, orienting, and control-that are supported by separate brain networks and modulated by different neurotransmitters, that is, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and dopamine. Here, we explore the extent of cortical, genetic, and molecular dissociation of these three attention systems using multimodal neuroimaging. We evaluated the spatial overlap between fMRI activation maps from the attention network test (ANT) and cortex-wide gene expression data from the Allen Human Brain Atlas. The goal was to identify genes associated with each of the attention networks in order to determine whether specific groups of genes were co-expressed with the corresponding attention networks. Furthermore, we analyzed publicly available PET-maps of neurotransmitter receptors and transporters to investigate their spatial overlap with the attention networks. Our analyses revealed a substantial number of genes (3871 for alerting, 6905 for orienting, 2556 for control) whose cortex-wide expression co-varied with the activation maps, prioritizing several molecular functions such as the regulation of protein biosynthesis, phosphorylation, and receptor binding. Contrary to the hypothesized associations, the ANT activation maps neither aligned with the distribution of norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and dopamine receptor and transporter molecules, nor with transcriptomic profiles that would suggest clearly separable networks. Independence of the attention networks appeared additionally constrained by a high level of spatial dependency between the network maps. Future work may need to reconceptualize the attention networks in terms of their segregation and reevaluate the presumed independence at the neural and neurochemical level.

Inverted U-shape-like functional connectivity alterations in cognitive resting-state networks depending on exercise intensity: An fMRI study.

Acute physical activity influences cognitive performance. However, the relationship between exercise intensity, neural network activity, and cognitive performance remains poorly understood. This study examined the effects of different exercise intensities on resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and cognitive performance. Twenty male athletes (27.3 ± 3.6 years) underwent cycling exercises of different intensities (high, low, rest/control) on different days in randomized order. Before and after, subjects performed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and a behavioral Attention Network Test (ANT). Independent component analysis and Linear mixed effects models examined rsFC changes within ten resting-state networks. No significant changes were identified in ANT performance. Resting-state analyses revealed a significant interaction in the Left Frontoparietal Network, driven by a non-significant rsFC increase after low-intensity and a significant rsFC decrease after high-intensity exercise, suggestive of an inverted U-shape relationship between exercise intensity and rsFC. Similar but trend-level rsFC interactions were observed in the Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) and the Cerebellar Basal Ganglia Network. Explorative correlation analysis revealed a significant positive association between rsFC increases in the right superior parietal lobule (part of DAN) and better ANT orienting in the low-intensity condition. Results indicate exercise intensity-dependent subacute rsFC changes in cognition-related networks, but their cognitive-behavioral relevance needs further investigation.

Nurturing attention through nature.

BACKGROUND: Previous research suggests an association between exposure to nature and improved attention. However, no observational studies explored the underlying mechanisms or considered bluespace, and none used Polish data. We investigated the association between exposure to nature and attention, and whether it was mediated by nature perception, physical activity and sleep duration. METHODS: Data derived from the case-control NeuroSmog study comprised 195 participants with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 457 participants without ADHD, all aged 10 to 13. Attention was evaluated using the computerized attention network test and the continuous performance test. Lifelong and current exposure to nature, determined by percentage of grass and tree cover and water presence within 500m buffer around residences, as well as domestic garden, were examined through linear, log-linear and negative binomial regressions. Potential pathways were explored using structural equation modelling. RESULTS: Participants with ADHD with higher exposure to tree cover tended to have improved orienting ability, shorter reaction time and fewer correct rejections, while participants without ADHD tended to show decreased alertness and improved orienting ability. Participants with ADHD with higher exposure to grass cover tended to have longer reaction time, decreased alertness, improved orienting ability, reduced target discrimination ability, fewer correct rejections and less risky response style, while participants without ADHD tended to show decreased orienting ability, more mistakes, longer reaction time, better hit rate and more risky response style. Participants without ADHD with water in their neighbourhood tended to have improved orienting ability, fewer mistakes and better hit rate. Participants without ADHD with a garden tended to show improved target discrimination ability, better hit rate and more risky response style. No mediating pathways were revealed. CONCLUSION: Tree cover and presence of garden and water tended to be associated with improved attention in Polish adolescents while grass tended to have negative impact.

Attention network training promotes selective attention of children with low socioeconomic status.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the difference of selective attention efficiency between children with low and high socioeconomic status (SES) and the promotional effect of attention network training (an attention network test was used as the training task) on selective attention in children with the low SES. A total of 139 10- to 12-year-old children participated in two experiments (71 in Experiment 1 and 68 in Experiment 2). The results suggest that selective attention and switch ability of children with high SES are better than those of children with low SES. After attention network training, selective attention, switch ability, and working memory of low-SES children improved significantly. The findings provide evidence that attention network training could enhance selective attention in low-SES children and that the beneficial training effect could also transfer to switch ability and working memory. The research may provide a promising method to compensate cognitive delay of low-SES children.

The impact of threat of shock-induced anxiety on alerting, orienting, and executive function in women: an ERP study.

The present study used a combination of the Threat-of-Shock paradigm and the Attention Network Test (ANT) to investigate how induced anxiety affects alerting, orienting, and executive control and whether individual differences in threat sensitivity moderate these effects. Forty-two female subjects completed the ANT task in alternation under shock-threat and no-shock ("safe") conditions while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The results showed that anxiety induced by the threat of shock had a significant impact on alerting and executive control functions at the neural level. Specifically, alerting-related N1 and stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) differences between double cue and no cue conditions were greater in the threat versus safe state, suggesting that the induced anxiety promoted the early perception of cues and preparation for the target. Moreover, executive control-related P3 and sustained potential (SP) differences between incongruent and congruent trials were greater in the threat versus safe state, indicating that the induced anxiety might improve the attentional allocation efficiency and stimulate subjects to recruit more cognitive resources to resolve conflicts. However, orienting-related ERPs were not affected by the threat of shock, but the threat of shock promoted the processing efficiency of spatial-cue at the behavioral level. Analysis of individual differences revealed that trait anxiety moderated the attentional allocation efficiency when performing executive control related tasks in the threat versus safe state. Our findings demonstrate the adaptive significance of the threat of shock-induced anxiety in that being in an anxious state can enhance individuals' alerting, orienting, and executive functions.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation over posterior parietal cortex modulates alerting and executive control processes in attention.

Attention includes three different functional components: generating and maintaining an alert state (alerting), orienting to sensory events (orienting), and resolving conflicts between alternative actions (executive control). Neuroimaging and patient studies suggest that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in all three attention components. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has repeatedly been applied over the PPC to study its functional role for shifts and maintenance of visuospatial attention. Most TMS-PPC studies used only detection tasks or orienting paradigms to investigate TMS-PPC effects on attention processes, neglecting the alerting and executive control components of attention. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of PPC in all three functional components of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. To this end, we disrupted PPC with TMS (continuous theta-burst stimulation), to modulate subsequent performance on the Lateralized-Attention Network Test, used to assess the three attention components separately. Our results revealed hemifield-specific effects on alerting and executive control functions, but we did not find stimulation effects on orienting performance. While this field of research and associated clinical development have been predominantly focused on orienting performance, our results suggest that parietal cortex and its modulation may affect other aspects of attention as well.

Attention networks and the intrinsic network structure of the human brain.

Attention network theory distinguishes three independent systems, each supported by its own distributed network: an alerting network to deploy attentional resources in anticipation, an orienting network to direct attention to a cued location, and a control network to select relevant information at the expense of concurrently available information. Ample behavioral and neuroimaging evidence supports the dissociation of the three attention domains. The strong assumption that each attentional system is realized through a separable network, however, raises the question how these networks relate to the intrinsic network structure of the brain. Our understanding of brain networks has advanced majorly in the past years due to the increasing focus on brain connectivity. The brain is intrinsically organized into several large-scale networks whose modular structure persists across task states. Existing proposals on how the presumed attention networks relate to intrinsic networks rely mostly on anecdotal and partly contradictory arguments. We addressed this issue by mapping different attention networks at the level of cifti-grayordinates. Resulting group maps were compared to the group-level topology of 23 intrinsic networks, which we reconstructed from the same participants' resting state fMRI data. We found that all attention domains recruited multiple and partly overlapping intrinsic networks and converged in the dorsal fronto-parietal and midcingulo-insular network. While we observed a preference of each attentional domain for its own set of intrinsic networks, implicated networks did not match well to those proposed in the literature. Our results indicate a necessary refinement of the attention network theory.

Attentional network changes in subjective cognitive decline.

BACKGROUND: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is known as the intermediate stage between normal cognitive aging and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Although elderly with SCD usually perform close to normal in standardized tests, the detailed function of attention networks in this group has not been studied yet. AIMS: The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of attention networks, as a possible indicator of cognitive disorder, in older individuals with subjective memory complaint and MCI. METHOD: The attention network test (ANT) was used to examine and compare the performance of three attention networks of alerting, orientation, and executive control in 17 elderly with SCD, 30 multiple domain amnestic MCI subjects, and 15 healthy controls. RESULTS: Although the orienting network had almost the same performance in all groups (p = 0.25), the performance of alerting (p = 0.01) and executive control networks (p = 0.02) were significantly different among the three groups: the SCD group performed poorly in both networks compared with the controls and did not differ significantly from the MCI group (p ≥ 0.05). However, controlling for general age-related slowing abolished the group difference in executive control index. More importantly, our results showed that alerting network that was affected in SCD group had high sensitivity in differentiating this group from controls (0.94%). CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that despite normal performance in neuropsychological tests, the SCD elderly may face significant degrees of attention processing problems, especially in maintaining alerting to external stimuli which might be helpful in diagnosing individuals at risk and designing proper attention-based interventions.

Is There Reduced Hemodynamic Brain Activation in Multiple Sclerosis Even with Undisturbed Cognition?

Cognitive impairments related to changes in deep gray matter and other brain regions occur in up to 70% of people with multiple sclerosis. But do such brain changes also occur in patients without significant cognitive impairment? Eighteen participants with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and fifteen healthy controls participated in this study. Cognitive status, depression, and fatigue were assessed using the Multiple Sclerosis Inventory of Cognition (MUSIC), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). fMRI was recorded while a participant performed the modified attention network test (ANT). The effects of ANT executive attention network on hemodynamic activation of a priori defined regions of interest, including the hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), thalamus, caudate nucleus, pallidum, and putamen were studied. The individual lesion load was estimated. For fMRI data analysis a general linear model with randomization statistics including threshold-free cluster enhancement as implemented in the FSL software was used. Participants with RRMS showed reduced activation of the executive attention network in the hippocampus, pallidum, and ACC. The thalamus was involved in both group activations but did not differ between groups. In summary, functional changes in the brain can also be demonstrated in RRMS patients without cognitive deficits. The affected brain regions can best be assigned to the attention network for executive control. This association could likely serve as a biological indicator of susceptibility to imminent cognitive impairment in MS.

Investigating the efficacy of attentional bias modification on individuals with spider phobia through the emotional attention network test.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the attention network function of spider phobics before and after attentional bias modification (ABM) through conduction of an emotional attention network test (eANT). METHODS: Scores from an eANT, an approach-avoidance task, and various scales were used to examine the training effect of a single ABM session among participants (30 individuals with spider phobia and 30 controls). RESULTS: At baseline, alertness scores in response to spider images were higher in the phobia group than in the control group (x̄ = 51.81 vs. 30.35 ms). After ABM, this score decreased in the phobia group, indicating their lower susceptibility to distraction by images of spiders. However, ABM training did not considerably alleviate their fear of and avoidance behavior toward spiders. CONCLUSION: This study elucidates the (1) vigilance-avoidance pattern among individuals with spider phobia when encountering spider-related stimuli and (2) change in underlying attentional mechanisms after ABM training.

Altered static and dynamic functional network connectivity in temporal lobe epilepsy with different disease duration and their relationships with attention.

The brain network alterations associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) progression are still unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate altered patterns of static and dynamic functional network connectivity (sFNC and dFNC) in TLE with different durations of disease. In this study, 19 TLE patients with a disease duration of ≤5 years (TLE-SD), 24 TLE patients with a disease duration of >5 years (TLE-LD), and 21 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and attention network test. We used group independent component analysis to determine the target resting-state networks. Sliding window correlation and k-means clustering analysis methods were used to obtain different dFNC states, temporal properties, and temporal variability. We then compared sFNC and dFNC between groups and found that compared with HCs, TLE-SD patients had increased sFNC between the dorsal attention network and sensorimotor network/visual network (VN), but decreased sFNC between the inferior-posterior default mode network and VN. In the strongly connected dFNC state, TLE-SD patients spent more time, had greater mean dwell time, and showed greater inconsistent abnormal network connectivity. There was a significant negative correlation between the temporal variability of auditory network- left fronto-parietal network connectivity and orienting effect. No significant differences in sFNC and dFNC were detected between TLE-LD and HC groups. These findings suggest that the damage and functional brain network abnormalities gradually occur in TLE patients after the onset of epilepsy, which might lead to functional network reorganization and compensatory remodeling as the disease progresses.

The Alerting and Orienting Systems of Attention Are Modified by Cannabis Dependence.

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. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate whether customary consumption of cannabis or cannabis dependence impacts the alerting, orienting, and executive control systems in young adults; to find out whether it is related to tobacco or alcohol dependence and if cannabis use characteristics are associated with the attention network systems. METHOD: One-hundred and fifty-four healthy adults and 102 cannabis users performed the Attention Network Test (ANT) to evaluate the alerting, orienting, and executive control systems. RESULTS: Cannabis use enhanced the alerting system but decreased the orienting system. Moreover, those effects seem to be associated with cannabis dependence. Out of all the cannabis-using variables, only the age of onset of cannabis use significantly predicted the efficiency of the orienting and executive control systems. CONCLUSION: Cannabis dependence favors tonic alertness but reduces selective attention ability; earlier use of cannabis worsens the efficiency of selective attention and resolution of conflicts.

Brain changes associated with impaired attention function in chronic pain.

Attention function is thought to be important in chronic pain, with the pathology of chronic pain closely associated with cognitive-emotional components. However, there have been few neuroimaging studies of the relationship between attention function and chronic pain. We used the method of functional connectivity analysis for resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) data and the Attention Network Test-Revision (ANT-R) to clarify the attention-related pathology of chronic pain. We performed rs-fMRI and ANT-R on a group of 26 chronic pain (somatoform pain disorder) patients and 28 age-matched healthy controls. A significant group difference in validity effects, a component of ANT-R, emerged (F1,46 = 5.91, p = 0.019), and the chronic pain group exhibited slower reaction times. Decreased brain connectivity of the left insula and left frontal regions was confirmed in chronic pain patients (pFWE < 0.05), and connectivity was negatively correlated with validity effects (r = -0.29, permutation test p = 0.033). Further, decreased functional connectivity strength of the right insula and left temporal gyrus in the chronic pain group were confirmed (pFWE < 0.05). We conclude that poor control of attention function results from deficits of functional connectivity in the left insula and left frontal regions in chronic pain.

The ANT Executive Control Index: No Evidence for Temporal Decrement.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested whether indices of executive control, alertness, and orienting measured with Attention Network Test (ANT) are vulnerable to temporal decrement in performance. BACKGROUND: Developing the resource theory of sustained attention requires identifying neurocognitive processes vulnerable to decrement. Executive control processes may be prone to impairment in fatigue states. Such processes are also highlighted in alternative theories. Determining the role of executive control in vigilance can both advance theory and contribute to practical countermeasures for decrement in human factors contexts. METHOD: In Study 1, 80 participants performed the standard ANT for an extended duration of about 55 to 60 min. Study 2 (160 participants) introduced manipulations of trial blocking and stimulus degradation intended to increase resource depletion. Reaction time and accuracy measures were analyzed. Subjective stress and workload were assessed in both studies. RESULTS: In both studies, the ANT induced levels of subjective workload and task disengagement consistent with previous sustained attention studies. No systematic decrement in any performance measure was observed. CONCLUSION: Executive control assessed by the ANT is not highly vulnerable to temporal decrement, even when task demands are elevated. Future work should differentiate executive control processes; proactive control may be more implicated in sustained attention decrement than in reactive control. APPLICATION: Designing systems and interfaces to reduce executive control demands may be generally beneficial but will not directly mitigate temporal performance decrement. Enhancing design guidelines and neuroergonomic methods for monitoring operator attention requires further work to identify key neurocognitive processes for decrement.

Altered attention networks in patients with thyroid dysfunction: A neuropsychological study.

Patients with thyroid dysfunction (31 hypothyroid, 32 subclinical hypothyroidism, 34 hyperthyroid, and 30 subclinical hyperthyroidism) and 37 euthyroid control subjects were recruited and performed the attention network test (ANT), which can simultaneously examine the alertness, orientation and execution control of the participants. Patients with hypothyroidism had abnormalities in the alerting network, and those with hyperthyroidism had impairments of the alerting and executive control networks. No attention networks deficit existed in patients with subclinical hyperthyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism. The anxiety and depression scores of patients with thyroid dysfunction were significantly higher than those of the healthy control group. Covariance analysis demonstrated that interactions between group and Hamilton Anxiety Scale scores, group and HAMD score were not significant, but there was a significant main effect for group when analyzing the difference in values of the alerting network between groups. Further, the efficiency of the executive control network was negatively correlated with the T4 level in the hypothyroidism group, and positively correlated with the T4 level in the hyperthyroidism group. T4 or T3 level and efficiencies of the executive control network had a significant quadratic U-shaped relationship in all participants. In summary, the patients with four kinds of thyroid dysfunction exhibited different characteristics of ANT performance. Patients with thyroid dysfunction had various degrees of anxiety and depression disorders, but anxiety and depression disorders had no effect on the differences in the executive control network between the groups.

A new paradigm to study the influence of attentional load on cortical activity for motor preparation of step initiation.

Motor programme for gait initiation can vary as a function of attentional resources. The objective of the present study was to determine whether alertness, orientation and executive control can modulate cortical activation during step initiation. The attention network test (ANT) was used to control the influence of different attentional components on kinetic characteristics of step initiation and the associated cortical activity. Thirty healthy adults performed ANT combined with step initiation. The step execution time (SET) and anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) were recorded. Movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) and event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs) after response emission were analysed according to the presence or absence of cueing or conflict resolution. Step reaction time and thus SET were significantly shorter with cueing, whereas APA duration and SET were longer during conflict resolution. Moreover, alertness was related to a higher rate of anticipated responses, and conflicting situations were associated with a greater amount of multiple APAs. Attentional load did not affect MRCPs but ERSPs: trials with a cue showed earlier posterior alpha and beta desynchronisations before APA onset. Furthermore, we found earlier, more pronounced and longer alpha- and beta-band desynchronisations over the sensorimotor cortex for trials with incongruent flankers. Our results showed that attention has an impact on step initiation. A specific pattern of response-locked ERSPs seems to mirror behavioural effects of attentional load on step initiation. This new paradigm combining ANT and step initiation is, therefore, promising to investigate the interaction between attention and gait initiation in pathological populations.

Aberrant executive control networks and default mode network in patients with right-sided temporal lobe epilepsy: a functional and effective connectivity study.

Objective: We aimed to explore functional connectivity (FC) and effective connectivity (EC) of the executive control networks (ECNs) and the default mode network (DMN) in patients with right-sided TLE (rTLE) by applying independent component analysis (ICA) and Granger causal analysis (GCA).Methods: Twenty-seven patients with rTLE and 20 healthy controls (HCs) matched for age, gender underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and Attention Network Test (ANT).Results: The FC analysis showed compared to HCs, patients with rTLE demonstrated reduced FC strength in the right inferior parietal gyrus (IPG) and the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG). The left superior temporal gyrus (STG) displayed reduced FC values whereas the left thalamus revealed increased FC values in rTLE. ROI-wise GCA revealed that patients with rTLE displayed increased EC from the left thalamus to the left STG, and as well as enhanced EC from the right IPG to the right MTG compared to HCs. Voxel-wise GCA showed positive EC from the left thalamus to the left insula while the right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) exhibited increased EC to the right MTG in patients. The ANT results demonstrated executive dysfunction in patients compared to HCs. The increased FC in the left thalamus showed a negative association with ECF in patients.Conclusion: We speculated that recurrent seizures take effect on disruption among the brain networks, and self-modulation occurs simultaneously to compensate for cognitive decline. Our findings revealed new insights on the neuropathophysiological mechanisms of rTLE.

Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation over right posterior parietal cortex on attention function in healthy young adults.

Attention involves three distinct networks for alerting, orienting, and executive control. Interventions targeting the specific attentional networks remain lacking. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to modulate cortical excitability, which potentially serves as an interventional tool to treat individuals with attention impairment. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of applying tDCS over the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) on the performance of the three attentional networks. Twenty-six healthy young adults performed the Attention Network Test before and after anodal or sham tDCS stimulation over the right PPC. The alerting, orienting, and executive effects were assessed before and after the stimulation. The results demonstrated that the orienting effect was significantly improved after real tDCS relative to sham, whereas the alerting and executive control effects remained unaffected. Consistent with previous clinical and functional imaging studies, this suggests that the right PPC is actively engaged with the spatial orienting of attention.

The Cerebellum Modulates Attention Network Functioning: Evidence from a Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Attention Network Test Study.

The functional domain of the cerebellum extends beyond its traditional role in motor control. In recent years, this structure has increasingly been considered to play a crucial role even in cognitive performance and attentional processes. Attention is defined as the ability to appropriately allocate processing resources to relevant stimuli. According to the Posnerian model, three interacting networks modulate attentive processes: the alerting, orienting, and executive networks. The aim of this study was to investigate the role played by the cerebellum in the functioning of the attentive networks using the Attention Network Test (ANT). We studied the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), delivered over the cerebellum in cathodal, anodal, and sham sessions, on ANT parameters in healthy subjects. After anodal and sham tDCS, the efficiency of the three attention networks remained stable, and a significant reduction in reaction time (RT) following the task repetition was observed for both congruent and incongruent targets, indicating a learning effect. After cathodal stimulation, instead, while the efficiency of the alerting and orienting networks remained stable, the efficiency of the executive network was significantly reduced. Moreover, a significant reduction in RT was observed for the congruent target alone, with no difference being detected for the incongruent target, indicating that cerebellar inhibition caused an attentive executive dysfunction specifically related to the ability to process complex stimuli in which conflict signals or errors are present. These results point to a role of the cerebellum, a subcortical structure that is thought to affect error processing both directly, by making predictions of errors or behaviors related to errors, and indirectly, by managing the functioning of brain cortical areas involved in the perception of conflicting signals, in the functioning of the attentional networks, particularly the executive network.