Why won't you do what I want? The informative failures of children and models

Selective Attention and Inhibitory Control of Attention Are Correlated With Music Audiation

Executive functions (EFs) are cognitive functions needed for adaptive and targeted behavior. Music aptitude is the potential or capacity for musical achievement. A key element of music aptitude is audiation, defined as the process through which sound becomes music and meaning is attributed to that music. In this paper, we report on the association between audiation skills and executive skills. Not only is this important to consider the validity of the audiation tests, but also to better understand the concept of audiation and its link to cognitive skills. We conducted an empirical study, in which a sample of second grade school students from two elementary schools, one from Ghent, Belgium (N = 36) and the other from Santiago, Chile (N = 25), were administered both a musical aptitude and an attention and inhibitory control test. We hypothesized that a positive correlation exists between sustained attention, inhibitory control and music aptitude.

Executive function in systemic arterial hypertension: A systematic review

Systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) may be associated with worse cognitive performance, especially in tasks that evaluate the executive functions (EF).

OBJECTIVE

we aimed to review the evidence regarding which components of executive functions are most affected in adults with SAH.

METHODS

this systematic review used the PRISMA statement for searching Pubmed, Scielo and Lilacs databases with the keywords "executive function OR executive functioning AND hypertension".

RESULTS

EF tasks were divided into shifting, inhibitory control and updating. A total of 9 cross-sectional and 3 longitudinal studies were selected. Only 3 studies did not report worse performance among SAH patients on EF tasks when compared to normotensive controls. The measures of shifting and inhibitory control were the most frequently investigated and reported as altered among SAH individuals, assessed mainly by the Stroop Test and Trail-Making Test part B, respectively.

CONCLUSION

inhibitory control and shifting are the EF components most influenced by SAH. The results of this review may contribute to the devising of hypotheses about mechanisms underlying these cognitive impairments.

Dimensional attention as a mechanism of executive function: Integrating flexibility, selectivity, and stability

In this report, we present a neural process model that explains visual dimensional attention and changes in visual dimensional attention over development. The model is composed of an object representation system that binds visual features such as shape and color to spatial locations and a label learning system that associates labels such as "color" or "shape" with visual features. We have previously demonstrated that this model explains the development of flexible dimensional attention in a task that requires children to switch between shape and color rules for sorting cards. In the model, the development of flexible dimensional attention is a product of strengthening associations between labels and features. In this report, we generalize this model to also explain development of stable and selective dimensional attention. Specifically, we use the model to explain a previously reported developmental association between flexible dimensional attention and stable dimensional attention. Moreover, we generate predictions regarding developmental associations between flexible and selective dimensional attention. Results from an experiment with 3- and 4-year-olds supported model predictions: children who demonstrated flexibility also demonstrated higher levels of selectivity. Thus, the model provides a framework that integrates various functions of dimensional attention, including implicit and explicit functions, over development. This model also provides new avenues of research aimed at uncovering how cognitive functions such as dimensional attention emerge from the interaction between neural dynamics and task structure, as well as understanding how learning dimensional labels creates changes in dimensional attention, brain activation, and neural connectivity.

Affective modulation of executive control in early childhood: Evidence from ERPs and a Go/Nogo task

Modulation of adaptive executive control is particularly demanded in a pre- and early-school period. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated whether affective information can influence executive control in preschool children. We have recorded EEG during a Go/Nogo task where gender of a face served as a Go/Nogo cue and emotional expressions (positive, negative, neutral) were task irrelevant. Negative emotions modulated the magnitude of the conflict effect (Nogo vs. Go) in the N200 relative to neutral control, indicating enhanced cognitive control for negative emotions. Moreover, interpersonal characteristics (e.g., aggressive behavior) correlated with the emotion facilitated inhibitory control as indicated by N200. In addition, Go/Nogo conflict modulated neural responses in children already 100 ms after stimulus onset when paired with socially relevant emotional stimuli. These results show that emotions affect cognitive control in this age group in a valence specific manner.

A meta-analysis of the Dimensional Change Card Sort: Implications for developmental theories and the measurement of executive function in children

The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) is a widely used measure of executive function in children. In the standard version, children are shown cards depicting objects that vary on two dimensions (e.g., colored shapes such as red rabbits and blue boats), and are told to sort them first by one set of rules (e.g., shape) and then by another (e.g., color). Most 3-year-olds persist in sorting by the pre-switch rules, whereas 5-year-olds switch flexibly. We conducted a meta-analysis of standard and experimental versions of the task (N = 69 reports, 426 conditions) to examine the influence of diverse task variations on performance. Age, how the test stimuli were labeled for the child, emphasis on conflict in the verbal introduction of the post-switch rules, and the number of pre-switch trials each independently predicted switching on the standard DCCS, whereas pre-switch feedback, practice, and task modality did not. Increasing the relative salience of the post-switch dimension was associated with higher rates of switching, and, conversely, decreasing post-switch salience was associated with lower rates of switching, and under both kinds of manipulation performance continued to be associated with age. Spatially separating the dimensional values was associated with higher rates of switching, and it was confirmed that the degree of spatial separation matters, with children benefiting most when the dimensional values are fully spatially segregated. Switch rates tended to be higher in versions on which children were prompted to label the stimuli compared to when the experimenter provided labels, and lower when reversal instructions were used in conjunction with the standard task stimuli. Theoretical and practical implications for the study and measurement of executive function in early childhood are discussed.

Neural Correlates of Set-Shifting in Children With Autism

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often associated with high levels of inflexible thinking and rigid behavior. The neural correlates of these behaviors have been investigated in adults and older adolescents, but not children. Prior studies utilized set-shifting tasks that engaged multiple levels of shifting, and depended on learning abstract rules and establishing a strong prepotent bias. These additional demands complicate simple interpretations of the results. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of set-shifting in 20 children (ages 7-14) with ASD and 19 typically developing, matched, control children. Participants completed a set-shifting task that minimized nonshifting task demands through the use of concrete instructions that provide spatial mapping of stimuli-responses. The shift/stay sets were given an equal number of trials to limit the prepotent bias. Both groups showed an equivalent "switch cost," responding less accurately and slower to Switch stimuli than Stay stimuli, although the ASD group was less accurate overall. Both groups showed activation in prefrontal, striatal, parietal, and cerebellum regions known to govern effective set-shifts. Compared to controls, children with ASD demonstrated decreased activation of the right middle temporal gyrus across all trials, but increased activation in the mid-dorsal cingulate cortex/superior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal, and right inferior frontal gyri during the Switch vs. Stay contrast. The successful behavioral switching performance of children with ASD comes at the cost of requiring greater engagement of frontal regions, suggesting less efficiency at this lowest level of shifting.

Preschoolers learn to switch with causally related feedback

Training cognitive flexibility in preschoolers is of great interest but is not easy to achieve. In three experiments, we studied the effects of feedback on preschoolers' switch behavior with a computerized version of the Dimensional Change Card Sorting (DCCS) task. The task was designed such that feedback was connected to the stimulus and causally related to children's behavior. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that children receiving feedback on their post-switch behavior performed better than children administered a standard (no feedback) DCCS task. This effect transferred to a subsequent standard DCCS task after 5 min and after 1 week. Experiment 3 showed that children switched to the new post-switch sorting rules and not to rules that oppose the pre-switch sorting rules. These results highlight preschoolers' sensitivity to the design of feedback in learning an abstract rule.

Executive functions

Executive functions (EFs) make possible mentally playing with ideas; taking the time to think before acting; meeting novel, unanticipated challenges; resisting temptations; and staying focused. Core EFs are inhibition [response inhibition (self-control--resisting temptations and resisting acting impulsively) and interference control (selective attention and cognitive inhibition)], working memory, and cognitive flexibility (including creatively thinking "outside the box," seeing anything from different perspectives, and quickly and flexibly adapting to changed circumstances). The developmental progression and representative measures of each are discussed. Controversies are addressed (e.g., the relation between EFs and fluid intelligence, self-regulation, executive attention, and effortful control, and the relation between working memory and inhibition and attention). The importance of social, emotional, and physical health for cognitive health is discussed because stress, lack of sleep, loneliness, or lack of exercise each impair EFs. That EFs are trainable and can be improved with practice is addressed, including diverse methods tried thus far.

Developing Cognitive Control: Three Key Transitions

The ability to flexibly break out of routine behaviors develops gradually and is essential for success in life. We discuss three key developmental transitions toward more flexible behavior. First, children develop an increasing ability to overcome habits by engaging cognitive control in response to environmental signals. Second, children shift from recruiting cognitive control reactively, as needed in the moment, to recruiting cognitive control proactively, in preparation for needing it. Third, children shift from relying on environmental signals for engaging cognitive control to becoming more self-directed. All three transitions can be understood in terms of the development of increasingly active and abstract goal representations in prefrontal cortex.

Flexible rule use: common neural substrates in children and adults

Flexible rule-guided behavior develops gradually, and requires the ability to remember the rules, switch between them as needed, and implement them in the face of competing information. Our goals for this study were twofold: first, to assess whether these components of rule-guided behavior are separable at the neural level, and second, to identify age-related differences in one or more component that could support the emergence of increasingly accurate and flexible rule use over development. We collected event-related fMRI data while 36 children aged 8-13 and adults aged 20-27 performed a task that manipulated rule representation, rule switching, and stimulus incongruency. Several regions - left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), left posterior parietal cortex, and pre-supplementary motor area - were engaged by both the rule representation and the rule-switching manipulations. These regions were engaged similarly across age groups, though contrasting timecourses of activation in left DLPFC suggest that children updated task rules more slowly than did adults. These findings support the idea that common networks can contribute to a variety of executive functions, and that some developmental changes take the form of changes in temporal dynamics rather than qualitative changes in the network of brain regions engaged.