Cognitive control: easy to identify but hard to define

Emotional Working Memory Training Treatment for Young Adult Problem Online Sports Bettors: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial

One of the key features of gambling disorder (GD) is impairment in cognitive-emotional control. Considering the negative consequences of GD, the present study investigated the effectiveness of emotional working memory training (eWMT) in improving cognitive control, attention, working memory capacity, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERS) among young adults with GD compared to a placebo group. Following the initial assessment in the pre-test phase, eligible participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: experimental (n = 34) and placebo (n = 30). These groups completed eWMT and a feature matching task for 20 sessions respectively. The post-test and follow-up measures indicated that eWMT significantly improved cognitive control, attention, working memory capacity, and the use of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, but it had no significant effect on adaptive CERS. The promising results of the present study suggest the use of eWMT as a new intervention to improve cognitive-emotional control among individuals with online gambling problems.

Decoding Cognitive Control and Cognitive Flexibility as Concomitants for Experiential Avoidance in Social Anxiety

Background and objectives: Avoidance is regarded as a central hallmark of social anxiety. Experiential avoidance is perilous for social anxiety, specifically among university students (young adults). Additionally, cognitive control and cognitive flexibility are crucial components of executive functions for a fulfilling and healthy lifestyle. The current research is a modest attempt to understand how cognitive flexibility and cognitive control affect the emergence of experiential avoidance in social anxiety in young adults. Methods: Using an ex-post facto design, the Social Phobia Inventory was employed to screen university students with social anxiety based on which one hundred and ninety-five were identified. Thereafter, participants completed the standardized measures on experiential avoidance, cognitive control and cognitive flexibility. Results: A stepwise multiple regression analysis was computed wherein the cognitive control predicts an amount of 5% of variance towards experiential avoidance, whereas a 10% of additional variance has been contributed by cognitive flexibility. Interpretation and Conclusions: The statistical outcome indicated that cognitive control is positively associated with experiential avoidance which is a negative correlate to cognitive flexibility among university students. Both also emerged as significant predictors of experiential avoidance and add a cumulative variance of 15% towards the same. This conclusion supports the need for improved and efficient management techniques in counseling and clinical settings.

Ovarian hormones reduce the negative association between worry and cognitive control: A combined neural and behavioral investigation

BACKGROUND

Increased reactivity to response conflict and errors, processes governed by the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), have both been implicated in anxiety. Anxiety is also more common in females than males. Importantly, natural changes in ovarian hormones levels are related to fluctuations in anxiety symptoms in healthy and clinical populations, and ovarian hormones likely modulate prefrontal cortex structure and function. No studies, however, have examined the role of fluctuating ovarian hormones in the association between anxiety and cognitive control across the menstrual cycle.

METHODS

In this multimodal proof-of-concept study, naturally cycling females (N = 30 twins from 14 complete twin pairs and 2 participants whose co-twin was not in the final sample; age 18-29) provided saliva samples to assay for estradiol and progesterone and completed the Penn State Worry Questionnaire for 35 consecutive days. At two time points, during projected pre-ovulatory and post-ovulatory phases, they also completed the Flanker task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging to probe cognitive control-related dACC activity. Multilevel modeling was used to examine within- and between-person effects of hormones and worry on cognitive-control indices.

RESULTS

On days when estradiol and progesterone were low relative to a female's own average (i.e., within-subjects effect), worry was associated with greater flanker interference. In females with higher estradiol and progesterone levels compared to other females (i.e., between-subject effects), worry was associated with less error-related dACC activity, irrespective of the day that dACC activity was assessed.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest a protective effect of ovarian hormones on the link between worry and cognitive control. Associations between worry and conflict-monitoring were sensitive to daily hormonal fluctuations (within-person states), whereas associations between worry and error-monitoring were sensitive to mean hormone levels (between-person traits), suggesting that ovarian hormones are critical to consider in studies examining associations between anxiety and cognitive control in females.

The Influence of Focused Attention and Open Monitoring Mindfulness Meditation States on True and False Memory

Previous investigations into the effect of mindfulness meditation on false memory have reported mixed findings. One potential issue is that mindfulness meditation involves different styles that establish distinct cognitive control states. The present work aimed to address this issue by comparing the effects of single-session focused attention (FAM) and open monitoring (OMM) mindfulness meditation styles on true and false memory recall. Strengthened cognitive control states associated with FAM were predicted to increase true memory recall and decrease false memory recall. Conversely, weakened cognitive control established by OMM was predicted to increase false memory recall. Thirty-four meditation-naïve participants (23 females, mean age = 23.4 years, range = 18-33) first completed pre-meditation learning and recall phases of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task. Participants then completed a single session of FAM or OMM prior to a second, post-meditation, round of DRM task learning and recall phases with a novel word list. Finally, participants completed a recognition test with true and false memory, and distractor words. Both FAM and OMM groups demonstrated significant increase in false memory recall between pre- and post-meditation recall tests but these groups did not differ with respect to true and false memory recall and recognition. The present findings are consistent with previous reports of increased false memory arising from mindfulness meditation. Distinct cognitive control states associated with FAM and OMM states do not result in distinct true and false memory formation, at least in meditation-naïve adults.

Psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Parkinson's disease patients

COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. It causes respiratory tract infection that ranges from mild to lethal. The present study aimed to investigate the psychological impact of COVID-19 on Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. A questionnaire about the emotional, physiological, and cognitive stress symptoms was designed in the present study. A total of 94 cases and 188 controls participants filled out the questionnaire. The participants include 70.2% male and 29.8% female in both cases and controls. 27.6% of the participants were aged 18–40 years old, 33.0% were aged 41–60 years old, and 39.4% were above 61 years old. In the present study, we found that the emotional symptoms of stress were common in PD patients. Fear about own and family health was significantly higher in PD patients. A significant number of PD patients were feeling depressed; the major reason was the COVID-19 and being a PD patient, While job difficulties and COVID-19 pandemic was the main reason for feeling depressed in the control group. Constant worrying due to COVID-19 was also more common in PD patients than in the control group. Among the physiological symptoms of stress, low energy, Restlessness, clenched jaw and avoiding others were significantly higher in PD patients. Among the cognitive symptoms of stress, racing thoughts, forgetfulness, and more nervous behaviours were common in PD patients. This study concludes that PD patients face a psychological burden due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which needs proper attention.

Exploring Neural Signal Complexity as a Potential Link between Creative Thinking, Intelligence, and Cognitive Control

Functional connectivity studies have demonstrated that creative thinking builds upon an interplay of multiple neural networks involving the cognitive control system. Theoretically, cognitive control has generally been discussed as the common basis underlying the positive relationship between creative thinking and intelligence. However, the literature still lacks a detailed investigation of the association patterns between cognitive control, the factors of creative thinking as measured by divergent thinking (DT) tasks, i.e., fluency and originality, and intelligence, both fluid and crystallized. In the present study, we explored these relationships at the behavioral and the neural level, based on N = 77 young adults. We focused on brain-signal complexity (BSC), parameterized by multi-scale entropy (MSE), as measured during a verbal DT and a cognitive control task. We demonstrated that MSE is a sensitive neural indicator of originality as well as inhibition. Then, we explore the relationships between MSE and factor scores indicating DT and intelligence. In a series of across-scalp analyses, we show that the overall MSE measured during a DT task, as well as MSE measured in cognitive control states, are associated with fluency and originality at specific scalp locations, but not with fluid and crystallized intelligence. The present explorative study broadens our understanding of the relationship between creative thinking, intelligence, and cognitive control from the perspective of BSC and has the potential to inspire future BSC-related theories of creative thinking.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Psychiatric Symptoms: The Impact on Parkinson's Disease in the Elderly

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represents a condition of increased vulnerability and frailty for elderly patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Social isolation may worsen the burden of the disease and specifically exacerbate psychiatric symptoms, often comorbid with PD. This study aimed at identifying risk/protective factors associated with subjective worsening of psychiatric symptomatology during the COVID-19 outbreak in a sample of individuals with PD aged 65 years or older. Methods: Patients with PD routinely followed at the outpatient clinic of Gemelli University Hospital, Rome, were assessed for subjective worsening of psychiatric symptoms through a dedicated telephone survey, after Italy COVID-19 lockdown. Patients' medical records were reviewed to collect sociodemographic and clinical data, including lifetime psychiatric symptoms and pharmacological treatment. Results: Overall, 134 individuals were assessed and 101 (75.4%) reported lifetime psychiatric symptoms. Among those, 23 (22.8%) presented with subjective worsening of psychiatric symptomatology during the COVID-19 outbreak. In this group, the most frequent symptom was depression (82.6%), followed by insomnia (52.2%). Subjective worsening of neurological symptoms (Wald = 24.03, df = 1, p = 0.001) and lifetime irritability (Wald = 6.35, df = 1, p = 0.020), together with younger age (Wald = 5.06, df = 1, p = 0.038) and female sex (Wald = 9.07 df = 1, p = 0.007), resulted as specific risk factors for ingravescence of psychiatric presentation. Lifetime pre-existing delusions, having received antipsychotics, and not having received mood stabilizer were also associated with subjective worsening of psychiatric symptomatology due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: Individuals with PD and lifetime history of psychiatric symptoms may be exposed to increased vulnerability to the stressful effect of COVID-19 outbreak. Interventions aimed at reducing irritability and mood instability might have an indirect effect on the health of patients with PD during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emotional conflict adaptation predicts intrusive memories

Why do some individuals experience intrusive emotional memories following stressful or traumatic events whereas others do not? Attentional control may contribute to the development of such memories by shielding attention to ongoing tasks from affective reactions to task-irrelevant emotional stimuli. The present study investigated whether individual differences in theability to exert cognitive control are associated with experiencing intrusive emotional memories after laboratory trauma. Sixty-one healthy women provided self-reported and experimentally derived measures of attentional control. They then viewed a trauma film in the laboratory and recorded intrusive memories for one week using a diary. Gaze avoidance during trauma film exposure was associated with more intrusive memories. Greater attentional control over emotion prior to film viewing, as assessed with the experimental task, predicted fewer intrusive memories while self-reported attentional control was unrelated to intrusive memories. Preexisting capacity to shield information processing from distraction may protect individuals from developing intrusive emotional memories following exposure to stress or trauma. These findings provide important clues for prevention and intervention science.

Effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on decision making and cognitive flexibility in gambling disorder

Decision making and cognitive flexibility are two components of cognitive control that play a critical role in the emergence, persistence, and relapse of gambling disorder. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been reported to enhance decision making and cognitive flexibility in healthy volunteers and individuals with addictive disorders. In this triple-blind randomized sham-controlled parallel study, we aimed to determine whether tDCS over DLPFC would modulate decision making and cognitive flexibility in individuals with gambling disorder. Twenty participants with gambling disorder were administered Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Subsequently, participants were administered three every other day sessions of active right anodal /left cathodal tDCS (20 min, 2 mA) or sham stimulation over bilateral DLPFC. WCST and IGT were readministered following the last session. Baseline clinical severity, depression, impulsivity levels, and cognitive performance were similar between groups. TDCS over the DLPFC resulted in more advantageous decision making (F_1,16 = 8.128, p = 0.01, ɳp² =0.33) and better cognitive flexibility (F_1,16 =8.782, p = 0.009, ɳp² = 0.35), representing large effect sizes. The results suggest for the first time that tDCS enhanced decision making and cognitive flexibility in gambling disorder. Therefore, tDCS may be a promising neuromodulation-based therapeutic approach in gambling disorder.Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03477799.

Nonverbal Working Memory for Novel Images in Rhesus Monkeys

Human working memory is greatly facilitated by linguistic representations-for example, by verbal rehearsal and by verbal recoding of novel stimuli. The absence of language in nonhumans raises questions about the extent to which nonhuman working memory includes similar mechanisms. There is strong evidence for rehearsal-like active maintenance in working memory when monkeys are tested with highly familiar stimuli, but not when tested with novel stimuli, suggesting that working memory depends on the existence of previously encoded representations. This difference in working memory for familiar and novel images may exist because, lacking language, monkeys cannot recode novel stimuli in a way that permits active maintenance in working memory. Alternatively, working memory for novel images may have been present, but behaviorally silent, in earlier studies. In tests with novel images, the high familiarity of to-be-remembered stimuli compared to never-before-seen distractors may be such a strong determinant of recognition performance that evidence of working memory is obscured. In the current study, we developed a technique for attenuating the utility of relative familiarity as a mnemonic signal in recognition tests with novel stimuli. In tests with novel images, we observed impairments of memory by concurrent cognitive load and delay interval that indicate actively maintained working memory. This flexibility in monkey working memory suggests that monkeys may recode unfamiliar stimuli to facilitate working memory and establishes new parallels between verbal human working memory and nonverbal nonhuman primate working memory.

Cognitive Control and Flexibility in the Context of Stress and Depressive Symptoms: The Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire

Cognitive control and (cognitive) flexibility play an important role in an individual's ability to adapt to continuously changing environments. In addition to facilitating goal-directed behaviors, cognitive control and flexibility have been implicated in emotion regulation, and disturbances of these abilities are present in mood and anxiety disorders. In the context of stressful experiences, the reported studies examined processes related to cognitive control and flexibility, emotional regulation and depressive symptoms. To this end, a brief (18-item) self-report measure - the Cognitive Control and Flexibility Questionnaire (CCFQ) - was developed. This questionnaire measures an individual's perceived ability to exert control over intrusive, unwanted (negative) thoughts and emotions, and their ability to flexibly cope with a stressful situation. In Study 1, the CCFQ was assessed among both university students (N = 300) and a community sample (N = 302). Preliminary analyses suggested a stable and reliable two-factor structure, that of cognitive control over emotion, and appraisal and coping flexibility. Scores on the CCFQ were strongly associated with greater depressive symptoms, even after controlling for other measures that had been taken to reflect cognitive control and (in)flexibility (e.g., the Ruminative Response Scale; Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire). In Study 2 (N = 368), lower scores on the CCFQ were related to more negative stressor appraisals (i.e., greater perceived threat and uncontrollability) of a personally meaningful stressful event. Perceptions of threat and uncontrollability, in turn, partially accounted for the association between CCFQ subscale scores and depressive symptoms. The relation between lower CCFQ scores and heightened depressive symptoms was also partially accounted for by less frequent engagement in problem-focused coping and more use of emotion-focused methods. In Study 3 (N = 47 females), lower scores on the cognitive control over emotion component of the CCFQ predicted elevated negative affect and an exacerbated cortisol response following an acute psychosocial stressor (Trier Social Stress Test). The present research points to the CCFQ as a useful self-report tool to identify ways through which cognitive control and flexibility might be manifested in stressful situations, and how reductions in flexibility might be accompanied by elevated symptoms of depression.

Intra-Individual Variability Across Fluid Cognition Can Reveal Qualitatively Different Cognitive Styles of the Aging Brain

Dispersion is a measure of intra-individual variability reflecting how much performance across distinct cognitive functions varies within an individual. In cognitive aging studies, results are inconsistent: some studies report an increase in dispersion with increasing age and decline in performance, while others report an increasingly homogenous cognitive profile in older adults. We propose that inconsistencies may reflect qualitative differences in the cognitive functioning of the aging brain: age-groups may differ in how efficiently they engage resources, depending on both executive processing and resources available. This in turn would result in either greater or less dispersion. 21 young (mean 25.14 years, SD ± 2.85), 21 middle-old (65.05 ± 4.19), and 20 old-old (80.65 ± 4.38) healthy adults completed a series of neuropsychological tasks engaging executive processing, including switching, planning, updating, working memory and short-term memory. Individual dispersion profiles were obtained using a regression method which computes individual standard deviation across tasks from standardized test scores. Results revealed associations between performance, dispersion and cognitive reserve (measured as education level). Although differences across groups did not approach significance, there was a general pattern consistent with existing literature showing greater dispersion in the old-old group, and this was negatively associated with performance. In contrast, the middle-old group showed young-equivalent dispersion index, while performance was similar to the young group on some tasks and to the old-old group on others, possibly reflecting differences in cognitive demand. Educational level positively correlated with performance in the middle-old group only. Overall, a distinct pattern emerged for the middle-old adults: they showed young-equivalent performance on a number of measures and similar dispersion index, while uniquely benefitting from cognitive reserve. This may possibly reflect engagement in compensatory mechanisms. This study contributes to clarifying inconsistencies in previous studies and calls for more thoughtful selection of sample cohorts in aging research. The study of dispersion may provide a behavioral index of age-related changes in how cognition functions and recruits resources. Future work could examine whether this also reflects age-related changes in neural recruitment and aim at identifying factors contributing to cognitive reserve, in order to prolong good performance and improve cognition in aging.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cognitive Control following Traumatic Brain Injury

Novel and non-routine tasks often require information processing and behavior to adapt from moment to moment depending on task requirements and current performance. This ability to adapt is an executive function that is referred to as cognitive control. Patients with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been reported to exhibit impairments in cognitive control and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has provided evidence for TBI-related alterations in brain activation using various fMRI cognitive control paradigms. There is some support for greater and more extensive cognitive control-related brain activation in patients with moderate-to-severe TBI, relative to comparison subjects without TBI. In addition, some studies have reported a correlation between these activation increases and measures of injury severity. Explanations that have been proposed for increased activation within structures that are thought to be directly involved in cognitive control, as well as the extension of this over-activation into other brain structures, have included compensatory mechanisms, increased demand upon normal processes required to maintain adequate performance, less efficient utilization of neural resources, and greater vulnerability to cognitive fatigue. Recent findings are also consistent with the possibility that activation increases within some structures, such as the posterior cingulate gyrus, may reflect a failure to deactivate components of the default mode network (DMN) and that some cognitive control impairment may result from ineffective coordination between the DMN and components of the salience network. Functional neuroimaging studies examining cognitive control-related activation following mild TBI (mTBI) have yielded more variable results, with reports of increases, decreases, and no significant change. These discrepancies may reflect differences among the various mTBI samples under study, recovery of function in some patients, different task characteristics, and the presence of comorbid conditions such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder that also alter brain activation. There may be mTBI populations with activation changes that overlap with those found following more severe injuries, including symptomatic mTBI patients and those with acute injuries, but future research to address such dysfunction will require well-defined samples with adequate controls for injury characteristics, comorbid disorders, and severity of post-concussive symptoms.

Executive functioning and visual working memory

The matter of modality is controversially discussed in the context of working memory (WM). There is evidence that modality-specific processes are accompanied by amodal processes to some extent. We investigated the relationship between executive-functioning tasks and visual WM (VWM) and were especially interested in the issue of amodal processes. Our correlational analyses suggest modality-independent relations of the tasks. We also aimed to quantify to what extent executive functioning is meaningful for VWM performances. We therefore estimated the relationship between executive tasks and VWM performances in a healthy (n = 710) and a clinical traumatic brain injury sample (n = 151) as well as in the combined total sample. The results indicate a substantial relevance of the verbal task for VWM performances in the total and the clinical sample but a low relevance in the healthy sample. These results could support assumptions of resource-depending differences in the relations of executive functioning and VWM but need further validation due to limitations of our study.

Cognitive control and attentional functions

Cognitive control is essential to flexible, goal-directed behavior under uncertainty, yet its underlying mechanisms are not clearly understood. Because attentional functions are known to allocate mental resources and prioritize the information to be processed, we propose that the attentional functions of alerting, orienting, and executive control and the interactions among them contribute to cognitive control in the service of uncertainty reduction. To test this hypothesis, we examined the relationship between cognitive control and attentional functions. We used the Majority Function Task (MFT) to manipulate uncertainty in order to evoke cognitive control along with the Revised Attention Network Test (ANT-R) to measure the efficiency and the interactions of attentional functions. A backwards, stepwise regression model revealed that performance on the MFT could be significantly predicted by attentional functions and their interactions as measured by the ANT-R. These results provide preliminary support for our theory that the attentional functions are involved in the implementation of cognitive control as required to reduce uncertainty, though further investigation is needed.