Patent ID: 8430672

Claim:
A method of determining the attentional state of a subject, said method comprising using a system comprising a computer equipped with a speaker and a monitor to perform the steps of: a) defining target auditory stimuli consisting of number words, non-number words, or a combination thereof; b) forming an array of pairs of auditory stimuli, wherein said array comprises target stimuli and non-target stimuli, wherein said non-target stimuli comprise a plurality of phonetically similar words, each of which is phonetically similar to one of said target stimuli, and a plurality of phonetically dissimilar words, wherein each of said dissimilar words is phonetically dissimilar to each of said target stimuli; c) presenting said array as an uncued audio stream from said speaker to said subject, wherein both words of each of said pairs are presented simultaneously, while simultaneously presenting to said subject a visual representation on said monitor corresponding to said target stimuli; d) recording in said computer the response by said subject to said visual presentation, scoring the target stimuli responded to by said subject, scoring the non-target stimuli responded to by said subject, scoring said similar words responded to by said subject, and scoring said dissimilar words responded to by said subject, wherein said scoring is performed by a computer program; and e) on the basis of the scoring in step (d), determining the attentional state of said subject.