Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks: A computer-aided assessment program

Amsterdam Neuropsychological Tasks (ANT) allows the user to perform standardized assessments of speed and accuracy of visual and auditory information processing, executive function, visuo-motor coordination, mental arithmetic, face recognition, and the processing of human facial emotions. More specifically, ANT offers the possibility to assess sustained, focused and divided attention, attentional flexibility, inhibition, and impulsiveness. A variety of task paradigms subserve the purpose to pinpoint lack of attentional control to limitations in peripheral (encoding and response organization) and in central information processing stages (memory and decision). Thirty elaborately designed tasks offer ample choice to conduct age-appropriate evaluations of performance in infants of three years and older, children, adults, and the elderly. ANT may be used effectively in the field of developmental psychology, neuropsychology, behavioral neurology, psychiatry, gerontology, pharmacology, and toxicology. ANT offers the flexibility to implement assessment models in which number and type of tasks, timing between signals, stimulus duration, and other task aspects may be customized. This feature can be used effectively in scientific research as task parameters may be adjusted to suit experimental paradigms, and for clinical evaluation as well, because task parameters may be modified to test hypotheses regarding the subject's limitations and capabilities which may come up during the assessment.