Complex and subtle structural changes in prefrontal cortex induced by inhibitory control training from childhood to adolescence

The relationship between structural properties of frontal cortical regions and response inhibition in 6-14-year-old children

Development of attentional skills and inhibitory control rely on maturational changes in the brain across childhood and youth. However, both brain anatomy and different components of attention and inhibition show notable individual variation. Research on ADHD and inhibitory training and control have shown that variations in the thickness and surface area of particularly inferior cortical structures are associated with attentional control. However, the intricacies of how the development of inhibitory control is associated with the anatomical variations beyond the general age- and gender-dependent differences have not been resolved. Here, we sought to address these questions by quantifying the cortical thickness and surface area in frontal cortical regions and inhibitory control using the stop signal task performance in 6-14-year-old children. Our results showed that the thickness of the left medial orbitofrontal cortex and the surface area of the left caudal anterior cingulate were associated with the inhibitory performance, beyond the variance that could be explained by the subjects' age and gender. The results highlight the importance of factoring in anatomical variations when following attentional development and the importance of evaluating multiple anatomical measures when aiming to link the properties of cortical structures with variations in cognitive performance.

Effects of general anaesthesia in early childhood on local and global visual processing: a post hoc analysis of the APEX cohort study

BACKGROUND

Preclinical studies suggest that early exposure to anaesthesia alters the visual system in mice and non-human primates. We investigated whether exposure to general anaesthesia leads to visual attention processing changes in children, which could potentially impact essential life skills, including learning.

METHODS

This was a post hoc analysis of data from the APprentissages EXécutifs et cerveau chez les enfants d'âge scolaire (APEX) cohort study. A total of 24 healthy 9-10-yr-old children who were or were not exposed to general anaesthesia (for surgery) by a mean age of 3.8 (2.6) yr performed a visual attention task to evaluate ability to process either local details or general global visual information. Whether children were distracted by visual interference during global and local information processing was also assessed.

RESULTS

Participants included in the analyses (n=12 participants exposed to general anaesthesia and n=12 controls) successfully completed (>90% of correct answers) the trial tasks. Children from both groups were equally distracted by visual interference. However, children who had been exposed to general anaesthesia were more attracted to global visual information than were control children (P=0.03).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest lasting effects of early-life exposure to general anaesthesia on visuospatial abilities. Further investigations of the mechanisms by which general anaesthesia could have delayed effects on how children perceive their visual environment are needed.

Cognitive control training with domain-general response inhibition does not change children's brains or behavior

Cognitive control is required to organize thoughts and actions and is critical for the pursuit of long-term goals. Childhood cognitive control relates to other domains of cognitive functioning and predicts later-life success and well-being. In this study, we used a randomized controlled trial to test whether cognitive control can be improved through a pre-registered 8-week intervention in 235 children aged 6-13 years targeting response inhibition and whether this leads to changes in multiple behavioral and neural outcomes compared to a response speed training. We show long-lasting improvements of closely related measures of cognitive control at the 1-year follow-up; however, training had no impact on any behavioral outcomes (decision-making, academic achievement, mental health, fluid reasoning and creativity) or neural outcomes (task-dependent and intrinsic brain function and gray and white matter structure). Bayesian analyses provide strong evidence of absent training effects. We conclude that targeted training of response inhibition does little to change children's brains or their behavior.

Positive or negative environmental modulations on human brain development: the morpho-functional outcomes of music training or stress

In the last couple of decades, the study of human living brain has benefitted of neuroimaging and non-invasive electrophysiological techniques, which are particularly valuable during development. A number of studies allowed to trace the usual stages leading from pregnancy to adult age, and relate them to functional and behavioral measurements. It was also possible to explore the effects of some interventions, behavioral or not, showing that the commonly followed pathway to adulthood may be steered by external interventions. These events may result in behavioral modifications but also in structural changes, in some cases limiting plasticity or extending/modifying critical periods. In this review, we outline the healthy human brain development in the absence of major issues or diseases. Then, the effects of negative (different stressors) and positive (music training) environmental stimuli on brain and behavioral development is depicted. Hence, it may be concluded that the typical development follows a course strictly dependent from environmental inputs, and that external intervention can be designed to positively counteract negative influences, particularly at young ages. We also focus on the social aspect of development, which starts in utero and continues after birth by building social relationships. This poses a great responsibility in handling children education and healthcare politics, pointing to social accountability for the responsible development of each child.

Effectiveness of executive functioning training among heterogeneous adolescent samples: A systematic review

The aim of the present systematic review was to discuss the reported efficacy of executive functioning training techniques among adolescents. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to retrieve and consolidate findings from articles evaluating executive functioning training techniques among adolescents. A total of 26 articles were located that examined the role of executive functioning training techniques among adolescents (age 10-19 years). Articles retrieved enabled comparison across psychiatric and medical diagnoses including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as well as adolescents with physical health concerns. Results revealed that among typically developing adolescents, executive functioning training was non-significant or yielded small effect size improvements in executive functioning as measured by behavioral and neuroimaging tasks among 62.5% of studies reviewed. In contrast, in those with medical conditions, ASD, ADHD, and conduct disorder, all but two studies reviewed yielded a medium to large effect size, supporting the effectiveness of EF training. Future research is needed to identify the long-term efficacy of these treatments, as well as their generalizability to real-world conditions.

Lateralization of the cerebral network of inhibition in children before and after cognitive training

Inhibitory control (IC) plays a critical role in cognitive and socio-emotional development. IC relies on a lateralized cortico-subcortical brain network including the inferior frontal cortex, anterior parts of insula, anterior cingulate cortex, caudate nucleus and putamen. Brain asymmetries play a critical role for IC efficiency. In parallel to age-related changes, IC can be improved following training. The aim of this study was to (1) assess the lateralization of IC network in children (N = 60, 9-10 y.o.) and (2) examine possible changes in neural asymmetry of this network from anatomical (structural MRI) and functional (resting-state fMRI) levels after 5-week computerized IC vs. active control (AC) training. We observed that IC training, but not AC training, led to a leftward lateralization of the putamen anatomy, similarly to what is observed in adults, supporting that training could accelerate the maturation of this structure.

Are facet-specific task trainings efficient in improving children's executive functions and why (they might not be)? A multi-facet latent change score approach

It currently remains unclear how facet-specific trainings of three core modules of executive function (EF; updating, switching, and inhibition) directly compare regarding efficacy, whether improvements on trained tasks transfer to nontrained EF tasks, and which factors predict children's improvements. The current study systematically investigated three separate EF trainings in 6- to 11-year-old children (N = 229) using EF-specific trainings that were similar in structure, design, and intensity. Children participated in pre- and posttest assessments of the three EFs and were randomly allocated to one of three EF trainings or to an active or passive control group. Multivariate latent change score models revealed that only the updating group showed training-specific improvements in task performance that were larger compared with active controls as well as passive controls. In contrast, there were no training-specific benefits of training switching or inhibition. Latent changes in the three EF tasks were largely independent, and there was no evidence of transfer effects to nontrained EF tasks. Lower baseline performance and older age predicted larger changes in EF performance. These seemingly opposing effects support compensation accounts as well as developmental theories of EF, and they highlight the importance of simultaneously accounting for multiple predictors within one model. In line with recent theoretical proposals of EF development, we provide new systematic evidence that questions whether modular task trainings represent an efficient approach to improve performance in narrow or in broader indicators of EF. Thereby, this evidence ultimately highlights the need for more comprehensive assessments of EF and, subsequently, the development of new training approaches.

Training and asymmetrical transfer effects of working memory and inhibitory control in primary school children

Working memory (WM) and inhibitory control (IC) are two fundamental and supportive components of executive function (EF) that are critical for school-age children. However, the direct comparison of the training and transfer effects of WM and IC training in school-age children still needs to be improved. This study adopted a "pre-, post-, and delayed posttest" design to compare the training, near-transfer, and far-transfer effects of WM and IC in school-age children. A total of 60 children aged 8 to 10 years were randomly assigned to the WM training group, IC training group, or control group. Children in the WM and IC training groups completed 12 sessions of multiple adaptive training tasks tapping different subcomponents of WM (visual-spatial and verbal WM) and IC (interference control and response inhibition) separately. In the pretraining, posttraining, and 6-month follow-up stages, we used WM and IC tasks to evaluate training and near-transfer effects and used analogical reasoning tasks to evaluate far-transfer effects. Results showed significant training effects on visual-spatial and verbal WM, near-transfer effects on response inhibition, and far-transfer effects on analogical reasoning for WM training in the posttraining stage. The improvements in verbal WM and analogical reasoning were maintained for 6 months, whereas for IC training only the training effects on response inhibition and the far-transfer effects on analogical reasoning were observed in the posttraining stage and only the training effects on response inhibition were maintained for 6 months. Results suggested positive training and asymmetrical transfer effects of WM and IC training, which provide new evidence for the effectiveness of WM and IC training in school-age children.

Consequences of General Anesthesia in Infancy on Behavior and Brain Structure

BACKGROUND

One in 7 children will need general anesthesia (GA) before the age of 3. Brain toxicity of anesthetics is controversial. Our objective was to clarify whether exposure of GA to the developing brain could lead to lasting behavioral and structural brain changes.

METHODS

A first study was performed in mice. The behaviors (fear conditioning, Y-maze, and actimetry) and brain anatomy (high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging) of 6- to 8-week-old Swiss mice exposed or not exposed to GA from 4 to 10 days old were evaluated. A second study was a complementary analysis from the preexisting APprentissages EXécutifs et cerveau chez les enfants d'âge scolaire (APEX) cohort to assess the replicability of our data in humans. The behaviors (behavior rating inventory of executive function, emotional control, and working memory score, Backward Digit Span, and Raven 36) and brain anatomy (high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging) were compared in 102 children 9 to 10 years of age exposed or not exposed to a single GA (surgery) during infancy.

RESULTS

The animal study revealed chronic exacerbated fear behavior in the adult mice (95% confidence interval [CI], 4-80; P = .03) exposed to postnatal GA; this was associated with an 11% (95% CI, 7.5-14.5) reduction of the periaqueductal gray matter (P = .046). The study in humans suggested lower emotional control (95% CI, 0.33-9.10; P = .06) and a 6.1% (95% CI, 4.3-7.8) reduction in the posterior part of the right inferior frontal gyrus (P = .019) in the children who had been exposed to a single GA procedure.

CONCLUSIONS

The preclinical and clinical findings of these independent studies suggest lasting effects of early life exposure to anesthetics on later emotional control behaviors and brain structures.

Intra-individual variability in task performance after cognitive training is associated with long-term outcomes in children

The potential benefits and mechanistic effects of working memory training (WMT) in children are the subject of much research and debate. We show that after five weeks of school-based, adaptive WMT 6-9 year-old primary school children had greater activity in prefrontal and striatal brain regions, higher task accuracy, and reduced intra-individual variability in response times compared to controls. Using a sequential sampling decision model, we demonstrate that this reduction in intra-individual variability can be explained by changes to the evidence accumulation rates and thresholds. Critically, intra-individual variability is useful in quantifying the immediate impact of cognitive training interventions, being a better predictor of academic skills and well-being 6-12 months after the end of training than task accuracy. Taken together, our results suggest that attention control is the initial mechanism that leads to the long-run benefits from adaptive WMT. Selective and sustained attention abilities may serve as a scaffold for subsequent changes in higher cognitive processes, academic skills, and general well-being. Furthermore, these results highlight that the selection of outcome measures and the timing of the assessments play a crucial role in detecting training efficacy. Thus, evaluating intra-individual variability, during or directly after training could allow for the early tailoring of training interventions in terms of duration or content to maximise their impact.

Chronic neuropathic pain is more than a perception: Systems and methods for an integral characterization

The management of chronic neuropathic pain remains a challenge, because pain is subjective, and measuring it objectively is usually out of question. However, neuropathic pain is also a signal provided by maladaptive neuronal activity. Thus, the integral management of chronic neuropathic pain should not only rely on the subjective perception of the patient, but also on objective data that measures the evolution of neuronal activity. We will discuss different objective and subjective methods for the characterization of neuropathic pain. Additionally, the gaps and proposals for an integral management of chronic neuropathic pain will also be discussed. The current management that relies mostly on subjective measures has not been sufficient, therefore, this has hindered advances in pain management and clinical trials. If an integral characterization is achieved, clinical management and stratification for clinical trials could be based on both questionnaires and neuronal activity. Appropriate characterization may lead to an increased effectiveness for new therapies, and a better quality of life for neuropathic pain sufferers.

A Machine Learning Approach to Personalize Computerized Cognitive Training Interventions

Executive functions are a class of cognitive processes critical for purposeful goal-directed behavior. Cognitive training is the adequate stimulation of executive functions and has been extensively studied and applied for more than 20 years. However, there is still a lack of solid consensus in the scientific community about its potential to elicit consistent improvements in untrained domains. Individual differences are considered one of the most important factors of inconsistent reports on cognitive training benefits, as differences in cognitive functioning are both genetic and context-dependent, and might be affected by age and socioeconomic status. We here present a proof of concept based on the hypothesis that baseline individual differences among subjects would provide valuable information to predict the individual effectiveness of a cognitive training intervention. With a dataset from an investigation in which 73 6-year-olds trained their executive functions using an online software with a fixed protocol, freely available at www.matemarote.org.ar, we trained a support vector classifier that successfully predicted (average accuracy = 0.67, AUC = 0.707) whether a child would improve, or not, after the cognitive stimulation, using baseline individual differences as features. We also performed a permutation feature importance analysis that suggested that all features contribute equally to the model's performance. In the long term, this results might allow us to design better training strategies for those players who are less likely to benefit from the current training protocols in order to maximize the stimulation for each child.

Diversity in Psychological Research Activities: Quantitative Approach With Topic Modeling

Recent cultural studies have discussed universality and diversity in human behavior using numerous samples investigated worldwide. We aimed to quantitatively extend this discussion to various research activities in psychology in terms of geographic regions and time trends. Most psychology departments have specialists in various fields of psychology. Further, research institutions in all regions typically aim to provide systematic and balanced research education. Nevertheless, most researchers recognize universal features and patterns of diversity in research activities in psychology in terms of regional differences and time trends. However, these arguments remain intuitive and vague, and no studies have conducted quantitative analyses. To this end, we conducted topic modeling for the abstracts of psychological articles with the regions of author affiliations and publication periods as covariates. The results showed that the topic proportions related to basic research were high in North-Central America, whereas those related to clinical research were high in Europe. Interestingly, the regional differences shown by topic modeling were not observed in the frequency analysis of keywords, indicating that topic modeling revealed implicit characteristics. Moreover, we observed an increasing trend of neuroscience topics across publication periods. However, this trend was not valid for the psychology journal Psychological Science. Taken together, our results suggest diversity of geographic regions and periods in research activities in psychology. More importantly, our findings indicate that universality holds neither for human behavior nor research activities on human mental processes.

Neuroplasticity associated with changes in conversational turn-taking following a family-based intervention

Children's early language environments are associated with linguistic, cognitive, and academic development, as well as concurrent brain structure and function. This study investigated neurodevelopmental mechanisms linking language input to development by measuring neuroplasticity associated with an intervention designed to enhance language environments of families primarily from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Families of 52 4-to-6 year-old children were randomly assigned to a 9-week, interactive, family-based intervention or no-contact control group. Children completed pre- and post-assessments of verbal and nonverbal cognition (n = 52), structural magnetic resonance imaging (n = 45), and home auditory recordings of language exposure (n = 39). Families who completed the intervention exhibited greater increases in adult-child conversational turns, and changes in turn-taking mediated intervention effects on language and executive functioning measures. Collapsing across groups, turn-taking changes were also positively correlated with cortical thickening in left inferior frontal and supramarginal gyri, the latter of which mediated relationships between changes in turn-taking and children's language development. This is the first study of longitudinal neuroplasticity in response to changes in children's language environments, and findings suggest that conversational turns support language development through cortical growth in language and social processing regions. This has implications for early interventions to enhance children's language environments to support neurocognitive development.

Gray matter abnormalities in Tourette Syndrome: a meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurobehavioral disorder for which the neurological mechanism has not been elucidated. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies have revealed abnormalities in gray matter volume (GMV) in patients with TS; however, consistent results have not been obtained. The current study attempted to provide a voxel wise meta-analysis of gray matter changes using seed-based d mapping (SDM). We identified ten relevant studies that investigated gray matter alterations in TS patients and performed a meta-analysis using the SDM method to quantitatively estimate regional gray matter abnormalities. Next, we examined the relationships between GMV abnormalities and demographic and clinical characteristics. Our results demonstrated that TS patients had smaller GMV in the bilateral inferior frontal gyri and greater GMV in the cerebellum, right striatum (putamen), and bilateral thalami (pulvinar nucleus) than healthy controls. A meta-regression analysis did not identify correlations between GMV changes and demographic or clinical variables. This meta-analysis confirmed significant and consistent GMV changes in several brain regions of TS patients, primarily in the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical network.

Training-Induced Neural Plasticity in Youth: A Systematic Review of Structural and Functional MRI Studies

Experience-dependent neural plasticity is high in the developing brain, presenting a unique window of opportunity for training. To optimize existing training programs and develop new interventions, it is important to understand what processes take place in the developing brain during training. Here, we systematically review MRI-based evidence of training-induced neural plasticity in children and adolescents. A total of 71 articles were included in the review. Significant changes in brain activation, structure, microstructure, and structural and functional connectivity were reported with different types of trainings in the majority (87%) of the studies. Significant correlation of performance improvement with neural changes was reported in 51% of the studies. Yet, only 48% of the studies had a control condition. Overall, the review supports the hypothesized neural changes with training while at the same time charting empirical and methodological desiderata for future research.

Gaming Disorder: How to Translate Behavioral Neuroscience Into Public Health Advances

Purpose of Review

Gaming disorder (GD), meanwhile classified as a mental disorder in both DSM-5 and ICD-11, is a current public health issue. Theoretical models assume core psychological processes, such as cue reactivity, craving, reward processing, decision-making, cognitive biases, inhibitory control, and stress relief, to be crucially involved in the development and maintenance of GD. This review summarizes neuroscientific findings on these processes in the context of GD as well as treatments and intervention programs addressing these processes.

Recent Findings

We identified overlaps regarding the involvement of neural structures and networks related to psychological processes which may be targeted by public health programs. Complex interactions between executive control, salience, reward, and habit networks are crucially linked to processes involved in GD and public health programs respectively.

Summary

We point at the difficulties of making one to one assignments of neural networks to psychological processes or interventions. Furthermore, new treatment and prevention programs of GD are discussed pointing at possible future directions for neuroscientific research and treatment programs for GD.