Human Attention Restoration, Flow, and Creativity: A Conceptual Integration

In today's fast paced, attention-demanding society, executive functions and attentional resources are often taxed. Individuals need ways to sustain and restore these resources. We first review the concepts of attention and restoration, as instantiated in Attention Restoration Theory (ART). ART emphasizes the role of nature in restoring attention. We then discuss the essentials of experiments on the causal influences of nature. Next, we expand the concept of ART to include modern, designed environments. We outline a wider perspective termed attentional ecology, in which attention behavior is viewed within a larger system involving the human and their interactions with environmental demands over time. When the ecology is optimal, mental functioning can be a positive "flow" that is productive, sustainable for the individual, and sometimes creative.

Effects of skin and mild core cooling on cognitive function in cold air in men

This study tested the effects of skin and core cooling on cognitive function in 0°C cold air. Ten males completed a randomized, repeated measures study consisting of four environmental conditions: (i) 30 min of exposure to 22°C thermoneutral air (TN), (ii) 15 min to 0°C cold air which cooled skin temperature to ~27°C (CS), (iii) 0°C cold air exposure causing mild core cooling of ∆-0.3°C from baseline (C-0.3°C) and (iv) 0°C cold air exposure causing mild core cooling of ∆-0.8°C from baseline (C-0.8°C). Cognitive function (reaction time [ms] and errors made [#]) were tested using a simple reaction test, a two-six item working memory capacity task, and vertical flanker task to assess executive function. There were no condition effects (all p > 0.05) for number of errors made on any task. There were no significant differences in reaction time relative to TN for the vertical flanker and item working memory capacity task. However, simple reaction time was slower in C-0.3°C (297 ± 33 ms) and C-0.8°C (296 ± 41 ms) compared to CS (267 ± 26 ms) but not TN (274 ± 38). Despite small changes in simple reaction time (~30 ms), executive function and working memory was maintained in 0°C cold air with up to ∆-0.8°C reduction in core temperature.

Fifty Years Integrating Neurobiology and Psychology to Study Attention

At the time of the start of Biological Psychology cognitive studies had developed approaches to measuring cognitive processes. However, linking these to the underlying biology in the typical human brain had hardly begun. A critical step came in 1988 when methods for imaging the human brain in cognitive tasks began. By 1990 it was possible to describe three brain networks that carried out the hypothesized cognitive functions outlined 20 years before. Their development was traced in infancy, first using age-appropriate tasks and later through resting state imaging. Imaging was applied to both voluntary and involuntary cued shifts of visual orienting in humans and primates, and a summary was presented in 2002. By 2008 these new imaging findings were used to test hypotheses about the genes involved in each network. Recently, studies of mice using optogenetics to control populations of neurons have brought us closer to a synthesis of how attention and memory networks operate together in human learning. Perhaps the coming years will bring us to an integrated theory of aspects of attention using data from all the levels that can illuminate these issues, thus fulfilling a key goal of the Journal.

Foreign language learning can improve response inhibition in individuals with lower baseline cognition: Results from a randomized controlled superiority trial

Introduction

The world's population is aging, increasing the prevalence of dementia. Recently, foreign language learning in later life has been suggested to improve cognition and thus support healthy cognitive aging. To date, however, there are only a few studies with conflicting findings. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether learning a foreign language can improve executive attention and executive functions in healthy older adults. Additionally, we sought to identify factors affecting cognitive change in foreign language learners, such as cognitive reserve, previous foreign knowledge and usage, and global cognition at baseline.

Methods

In a randomized-controlled trial, we assigned 34 monolinguals between the ages of 65 and 80 to a language learning or a waiting list control group. The participants enrolled in a Spanish course for beginners that met five days a week for 1.5 h for a total of 3 weeks. The waiting list control group received no intervention but had the opportunity to join the language training at the end of the study. All participants underwent an assessment of executive attention (primary outcome), executive functions, verbal fluency, and attention (secondary outcomes) before, immediately after the course, or after a waiting period of 3 weeks for the control group and 3 months after the course or the waiting period.

Results

Foreign language learning did not significantly improve primary or secondary outcomes, neither immediately nor 3 months after the course. However, moderation analyses revealed that participants with lower global baseline cognition tended to improve more on response inhibition than individuals with higher baseline cognition. This relationship was not evident in the waiting list control group.

Discussion

Our results suggest that studying a foreign language does not generally improve executive attention or executive functioning. Nevertheless, individuals with poorer baseline cognition may benefit cognitively from foreign language learning in response inhibition, a domain particularly affected by cognitive aging. Our findings highlight the need of focusing dementia prevention efforts on groups that are more vulnerable to cognitive decline. Additionally, more individualized approaches, including utilizing technology-assisted learning, might enable participants to practice at their performance level, increasing the likelihood of discernible cognitive gains.

Clinical trial registration

https://drks.de/search/en, identifier DRKS00016552.

Attention: The grounds of self-regulated cognition

Everyone knows what paying attention is, yet not everybody knows what this means in cognitive and brain function terms. The attentive state can be defined as a state of optimal activation that allows selecting the sources of information and courses of action in order to optimize our interaction with the environment in accordance with either the saliency of the stimulation or internal goals and intentions. In this article we argue that paying attention consists in tuning the mind with the environment in a conscious and controlled mode in order to enable the strategic and flexible adaptation of responses in accordance with internal motivations and goals. We discuss the anatomy and neural mechanisms involved in attention functions and present a brief overview of the neurocognitive development of this seminal cognitive function on the grounds of self-regulated behavior. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Attention (BEAB) Brain Function and Dysfunction (BEAC) Cognitive Development (BAAD).

Predicting behavioral and brain markers of inhibitory control at preschool age from early measures of executive attention

Background

Inhibitory control (IC) is the ability to prevent prepotent responses when inappropriate. Longitudinal research on IC development has mainly focused on early childhood and adolescence, while research on IC development in the first years of life is still scarce. To address this gap in the literature, we explored the association between executive attention (EA) and elementary forms of IC in infancy and toddlerhood, with individual differences in IC later at 5 years of age.

Method

We conducted a five-wave longitudinal study in which children's EA and IC (n = 96) were tested at the age of 9 and 16 months and 2, 3, and 5 years. Children performed various age-appropriate EA and IC tasks in each wave, measuring inhibition of attention, endogenous control of attention, inhibition of the response, and conflict inhibition. At 5 years of age, IC was measured with a Go/No-go task while recording event-related potentials. After correlation analyses, structural equation model analyses were performed to predict IC at 5 years of age from EA and early IC measures.

Results

The results revealed that EA at 9 months predicted IC measures at 2 years of age. Likewise, measures of IC at 2 years predicted performance on the Go/No-go task at behavioral and neural levels. No direct association was found between EA at 9 months and IC at 5 years of age. We further observed that some EA and IC measures were not associated across time.

Conclusion

As we expected, EA skills in infancy and toddlerhood were related to better performance of children on IC tasks, toghether with a more mature inhibition-related brain functioning. Altogether, the results indicate that IC in early childhood could be predicted from EA and IC at 9 months and 2 years of age and suggest that the early emergence of IC relies on the development of particular EA and basic IC skills. However, some discontinuities in the longitudinal development of IC are observed in the first 5 years of life. These findings provide further support for the hierarchical model of IC development.

Tactile sensory processing as a precursor of executive attention: Toward early detection of attention impairments and neurodevelopmental disorders

Recent studies in developmental neuroscience tend to show the existence of neural attention networks from birth. Their construction is based on the first sensory experiences that allow us to learn the patterns of the world surrounding us and preserve our limited attentional resources. Touch is the first sensory modality to develop, although it is still little studied in developmental psychology in contrast to distal modalities such as audition or vision. Atypical tactile sensory processing at an early age could predict later attention dysfunction, both of them being part of the symptomatology of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). We review the state of knowledge on tactile sensory processing and its links with attention, executive attention (EA) in particular, and propose that abnormal tactile sensory processing at an early age could provide markers of EA dysfunctions, contributing to the early detection of NDD. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Attention.

Development of visual attention control in early childhood: Associations with temperament and home environment

Endogenous visual attention orienting is early available from infancy. It shows a steady development during the preschool period towards monitoring and managing executive attention to optimize the interplay between environmental contingencies and internal goals. The current study aims at understanding this transition from basic forms of endogenous control of visual orienting towards the engagement of executive attention, as well as their association with individual differences in temperament and home environment. A total of 150 children between 2 and 4 years of age were evaluated in a Visual Sequence Learning task, measuring visual anticipations in easy (context-free) and complex (context-dependent) stimuli transitions. Results showed age to be a predictor of a reduction in exogenous attention, as well as increased abilities to attempt to anticipate and to correctly anticipate in complex transitions. Home chaos predicted more complex correct anticipations, suggesting that the exposure to more unpredictable environments could benefit learning in context-dependent settings. Finally, temperamental surgency was found to be positively related to sustained attention in the task. Results are informative of age differences in visual attention control during toddlerhood and early childhood, and their association with temperament and home environment.

The Essential Role of Executive Attention in Unconscious Visuomotor Priming

Many reports have emphasized that unconscious processing demands attention. However, some studies were unable to observe a modulation of attentional load in subliminal visual processing. We proposed that the paradoxical phenomena could be explained based on whether the mental workload task was involved in central executive processes. In two experiments, by combining a masked shape discrimination task with an N-back task, executive attention availability for masked visuomotor processing decreased as the N-back task demand increased. We observed that unconscious visuomotor priming diminished with increasing executive attention load in Experiment 2; however, this pattern did not occur in Experiment 1. Further analysis verified that in Experiment 1, the role of the central executive in unconscious visuomotor priming was eliminated by the accuracy-speed trade-off since the higher load spatial N-back tasks with larger memory set sizes, compared with higher load verbal N-bask tasks, were quite difficult for the subjects to manage. Therefore, our results demonstrated that central executive load modulates unconscious visuomotor priming and that this modulation can be weakened by task difficulty. Collectively, by emphasizing the essential role of executive attention in subliminal visuomotor priming, the present work provides a powerful interpretation of prior debates and develops extant attention capacity limitations from the realm of consciousness to that of unconsciousness.

Context and attention control determine whether attending to competing information helps or hinders learning in school-aged children

Attention control regulates efficient processing of goal-relevant information by suppressing interference from irrelevant competing inputs while also flexibly allocating attention across relevant inputs according to task demands. Research has established that developing attention control skills promote effective learning by minimizing distractions from task-irrelevant competing information. Additional research also suggests that competing contextual information can provide meaningful input for learning and should not always be ignored. Instead, attending to competing information that is relevant to task goals can facilitate and broaden the scope of children's learning. We review this past research examining effects of attending to task-relevant and task-irrelevant competing information on learning outcomes, focusing on relations between visual attention and learning in childhood. We then present a synthesis argument that complex interactions across learning goals, the contexts of learning environments and tasks, and developing attention control mechanisms will determine whether attending to competing information helps or hinders learning. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Attention Psychology > Learning Psychology > Development and Aging.

Do Executive Attentional Processes Uniquely or Commonly Explain Psychometric g and Correlations in the Positive Manifold? A Structural Equation Modeling and Network-Analysis Approach to Investigate the Process Overlap Theory

One of the best-established findings in intelligence research is the pattern of positive correlations among various intelligence tests. Although this so-called positive manifold became the conceptual foundation of many theoretical accounts of intelligence, the very nature of it has remained unclear. Only recently, Process Overlap Theory (POT) proposed that the positive manifold originated from overlapping domain-general, executive processes. To test this assumption, the functional relationship between different aspects of executive attention and the positive manifold was investigated by re-analyzing an existing dataset (N = 228). Psychometric reasoning, speed, and memory performance were assessed by a short form of the Berlin Intelligence Structure test. Two aspects of executive attention (sustained and selective attention) and speed of decision making were measured by a continuous performance test, a flanker task, and a Hick task, respectively. Traditional structural equation modeling, representing the positive manifold by a g factor, as well as network analyses, investigating the differential effects of the two aspects of executive attention and speed of decision making on the specific correlations of the positive manifold, suggested that selective attention, sustained attention, and speed of decision making explained the common but not the unique portions of the positive manifold. Thus, we failed to provide evidence for POT's assumption that the positive manifold is the result of overlapping domain-general processes. This does not mean that domain-general processes other than those investigated here will not be able to show the pattern of results predicted by POT.

Stroop interference in children with developmental dyslexia: An event-related potentials study

Previous studies have identified inhibitory deficits in dyslexic children, but we have little understanding of their neural mechanisms, especially for Chinese children with developmental dyslexia.We used a double-blind controlled trial to study the electroencephalogram responses of dyslexic and non-dyslexic children when performing the Stroop color-word test.Behavioral data showed differences in response time and accuracy between the 2 groups. In the event-related potentials (ERP) results, dyslexic children displayed larger P2 and P3b on congruent trials, while non-dyslexic children displayed larger P2 and P3b on incongruent trials, the 2 groups showed opposite brain activation patterns on the Stroop test.Dyslexic children have poor inhibitory function, and this poor inhibition may be related to their abnormal brain activation patterns.

Principles of Integrated Cognitive Training for Executive Attention: Application to an Instrumental Skill

One effective cognitive treatment is the rehabilitation of working memory (WM) using an integrated approach that targets the “executive attention” system. Recent neuroscientific literature has revealed that treatment efficacy depends on the presence of various features, such as adaptivity, empathy, customization, avoidance of automatism and stereotypies, and alertness activation. Over the last two decades, an Integrated Cognitive Training (ICT) protocol has been proposed and developed; ICT takes the above-mentioned features and existing literature into account, and has been used to promote the development of reading skills. ICT has been employed in several clinical settings and involves stimulation of a specific deteriorated system (e.g., reading) and the improvement of executive attention components, thus also increasing working memory capacity. In this context, we present two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants diagnosed with dyslexia (aged between 8 and 14 years) underwent two ICT sessions a week, with home supplements, for a duration of 7 months. The participants showed a significant improvement in the reading speed of text, words, and non-words, and in the reading accuracy of text and non-words. In Experiment 2, we replicated Experiment 1, but included a comparison between two groups (experimental group vs. control group) of young participants with diagnosis of dyslexia. The experimental group was subjected to 18 ICT sessions twice a week and with home supplements, using the same protocol as in Experiment 1. The control group was entrusted to the protocol of compensatory tools and dispense/helping procedures provided by the scholastic Personalized Educational Plan. After training, the experimental group gained about 0.5 syllables per second in text reading, and a marked decrease in error rate. The control group showed no significant improvement in reading skills after the same period. Moreover, the improvement observed in the experimental group remained stable 4 months after ICT had ended. The results of these two experiments support the efficacy of the integrated ICT protocol in improving reading skills in children with dyslexia and its sustained effect.

Frontal Beta Activity in the Meta-Intention of Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have high theta and low beta activity in the frontal lobe. The higher the theta/beta ratio, the lower the level of central nervous system (CNS) cortical arousal. However, there is seldom evidence between electroencephalograms (EEGs) and the patient's intentionality to regulate the cortical activity of executive attention tasks. We investigated whether children with ADHD intended to improve their performance in executive attention tasks and whether that increased their brain activity. Fifty-one children with ADHD (ADHD) and 51 typical developing (TD) children were investigated using focused attention (FA) and search attention (SA) tasks and a simultaneous EEG. The children were then regrouped as faster (ADHD-F, TD-F) and slower (ADHD-S, TD-S) depending on reaction time (RT). Quantitative EEGs of frontal lobe theta and beta activity at frontal F3, F4, and Fz were used. Twenty-eight (54.9%) ADHD children were regrouped as ADHD-S and 14 (27.5%) as TD-S. The ADHD-S group, however, had poorer FA and SA performance than the other 3 groups did: fewer correct answers, more frequent impulsive and missing errors, and higher RT variations. There were no significant differences in theta activity, but the TD-S group had higher beta activity than the ADHD-S group did. We conclude that the ADHD-F and ADHD-S groups had different attention processes. beta activity did not increase in the ADHD-S group, and their executive attention performance in the FA and SA tests was poor. It seems ADHD-S had poor meta-intention function. The frontal beta activity might be a feasible training target of neurofeedback in ADHD-S patients.

Effortful control is associated with executive attention: A computational study

INTRODUCTION

Effortful control (EC) is the self-regulatory aspect of temperament that is thought to reflect the efficiency of executive attention (EA). Findings on relationship between EC and performance on EA tasks among adults are still contradictory. This study used a computational approach to clarify whether greater self-reported EC reflects better EA.

METHODS

Four hundred twenty-seven healthy subjects completed the Adult Temperament Questionnaires and the Attention Network Task-revised, a conflict resolution task that gauges EA as the flanker effect (FE), that is, the difference in performances between incongruent and congruent trials. Here we also employed a drift-diffusion model in which parameters reflecting the actual decisional process (drift rate) and the extra-decisional time are extracted for congruent and incongruent trials.

RESULTS

EC was not correlated with the FE computed with the classic approach, but correlated positively with drift rate for the incongruent trials, even when controlling for the drift rate in the congruent condition and the extra-decisional time in the incongruent condition.

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates an association between self-reported EC and EA among adults. Specifically, EC is not associated with overall response facilitation but specifically with a greater ability to make goal-oriented decisions when facing conflicting information.

The Complex Role of Mental Time Travel in Depressive and Anxiety Disorders: An Ensemble Perspective

The ensemble hypothesis proposes that uniquely human cognitive abilities depend on more than just language. Besides overt language, inner speech, and causal interpretations, executive attention, mental time travel, and theory of mind abilities are essential parts that combine additively and even multiplicatively. In this review, we consider the implications of the ensemble hypothesis for the psychopathologies of anxiety and depression. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are two of the most common mental disorders worldwide. The mechanisms that differentiate them are difficult to identify, however. Mental time travel has been implicated in models of depressive and anxiety disorders, but here we argue that at least two other ensemble components, namely, interpreter biases and executive attention, must also be considered. Depressive and anxiety disorders have both been found to show impairments in all three of these components, but the precise relationships seem to distinguish the two kinds of disorders. In reviewing the literature, we develop models for depression and anxiety that take into account an ensemble of mental components that are unique for each disorder. We specify how the relations among mental time travel, interpreter biases, and executive attentional control differ in depression and anxiety. We conclude by considering the implications of these models for treating and conceptualizing anxiety and depression.

Common mechanisms of executive attention underlie executive function and effortful control in children

Executive Function (EF) and Effortful Control (EC) have traditionally been viewed as distinct constructs related to cognition and temperament during development. More recently, EF and EC have been implicated in top-down self-regulation - the goal-directed control of cognition, emotion, and behavior. We propose that executive attention, a limited-capacity attentional resource subserving goal-directed cognition and behavior, is the common cognitive mechanism underlying the self-regulatory capacities captured by EF and EC. We addressed three related questions: (a) Do behavioral ratings of EF and EC represent the same self-regulation construct? (b) Is this self-regulation construct explained by a common executive attention factor as measured by performance on cognitive tasks? and (c) Does the executive attention factor explain additional variance in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) problems to behavioral ratings of self-regulation? Measures of performance on complex span, general intelligence, and response inhibition tasks were obtained from 136 preadolescent children (M = 11 years, 10 months, SD = 8 months), along with self- and parent-reported EC, and parent-reported EF, and ADHD problems. Results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that behavioral ratings of EF and EC measured the same self-regulation construct. Cognitive tasks measured a common executive attention factor that significantly explained 30% of the variance in behavioral ratings of self-regulation. Executive attention failed to significantly explain additional variance in ADHD problems beyond that explained by behavioral ratings of self-regulation. These findings raise questions about the utility of task-based cognitive measures in research and clinical assessment of self-regulation and psychopathology in developmental samples.

On the ambiguity regarding the relationship between sequential congruency effects, bilingual advantages in cognitive control, and the disengagement of attention

Grundy, Bialystok, and colleagues have reported that at short response-stimulus intervals bilinguals have smaller sequential congruency effects in flanker tasks compared to monolinguals. They interpret these differences to mean that bilinguals are more efficient at disengaging attentional control. Ten empirical studies are presented that show no differences between bilinguals and monolinguals under conditions that produced robust sequential congruency effects. These null results are discussed with respect to the rate at which sequential congruency effects dissipate and the fact these effects are not adaptive in the sense of improving overall performance. Arguments made by Goldsmith and Morton [1] that smaller sequential congruency effects should not be interpreted as "advantages" are extended. Evidence is also presented that neither simple congruency effects, nor sequential congruency effects, correlate across tasks. This lack of convergent validity is inconsistent with the hypothesis that either provides a measure of domain-general control that could underlie an advantage accrued through experience in switching languages. Results from other tasks purporting to show bilingual advantages in the disengagement of attention are also reviewed. We conclude that sequential congruency effects in nonverbal interference tasks and differences in the rate of disengaging attention are unlikely to contribute to our understanding of bilingual language control and that future research might productively examine differences in proactive rather than reactive control.

The Childhood Maltreatment Modulates the Impact of Negative Emotional Stimuli on Conflict Resolution

It has been reported that negative emotional stimuli could facilitate conflict resolution. However, it remains unclear about whether and how the impact of negative emotional stimuli on conflict resolution varies depending on childhood maltreatment. To clarify this issue, seventy-nine subjects were required to perform an arrow Eriksen Flanker Task which was presented in the center of emotional pictures. The present study found a significant interaction effect of childhood maltreatment and emotion on executive attention scores in reaction times (RTs) that reflect conflict resolution speed. For subjects in high childhood maltreatment, negative pictures elicited smaller executive attention scores in RTs than neutral and positive pictures, while neutral and positive pictures elicited similar executive attention scores in RTs. By contrast, for subjects in low childhood maltreatment, executive attention scores in RTs were similar across three conditions. These results suggest that the speed of conflict resolution is enhanced in high, instead of low, childhood maltreatment in situations of negative stimuli. This finding extends our understanding of the interaction among emotion, childhood maltreatment and conflict resolution.

Clarifying the relationship between mindfulness and executive attention: a combined behavioral and neurophysiological study

Mindfulness is frequently associated with improved attention. However, the nature of the relationship between mindfulness and executive attention, a core function of the attentional system, is surprisingly unclear. Studies employing behavioral measures of executive attention have been equivocal. Although neuroscientific studies have yielded more consistent findings, reporting functional and structural changes in executive attention brain regions, the observed changes in brain activity have not been linked to behavioral performance. The current study aimed to fill these gaps in the literature by examining the extent to which trait mindfulness related to behavioral and neurophysiological (indexed by the stimulus-locked P3) measures of executive attention. Results revealed that higher trait mindfulness was related to less flanker interference on accuracy and reaction time, consistent with enhanced executive attention. Critically, mediational analyses showed that the P3 accounted for the relationship between trait mindfulness and executive attention performance, elucidating a neural mechanism through which mindfulness enhances executive attention.

Cognitive Restoration in Children Following Exposure to Nature: Evidence From the Attention Network Task and Mobile Eye Tracking

Exposure to nature improves cognitive performance through a process of cognitive restoration. However, few studies have explored the effect in children, and no studies have explored how eye movements “in the wild” with mobile eye tracking technology contribute to the restoration process. Our results demonstrated that just a 30-min walk in a natural environment was sufficient to produce a faster and more stable pattern of responding on the Attention Network Task, compared with an urban environment. Exposure to the natural environment did not improve executive (directed) attention performance. This pattern of results supports suggestions that children and adults experience unique cognitive benefits from nature. Further, we provide the first evidence of a link between cognitive restoration and the allocation of eye gaze. Participants wearing a mobile eye-tracker exhibited higher fixation rates while walking in the natural environment compared to the urban environment. The data go some way in uncovering the mechanisms sub-serving the restoration effect in children and elaborate how nature may counteract the effects of mental fatigue.

Latent Factors in Attention Emerge from 9 Years of Age among Elementary School Children

We explored the development of attention among elementary school children. Three hundred and sixty-five primary school children aged 7-12 years completed seven attention tests (alertness, focused attention, divided attention, attentional switching, sustained attention, spatial attention, and supervisory attention). A factor analysis indicated that there was no stable construct of attention among 7- to 8-year-old children. However, from 9 years on, children's attention could be separated into perceptual and executive attention. Notably, however, the attention types included in these two factors differed from those among adults.

Naps Enhance Executive Attention in Preschool-Aged Children

Objective

Executive attention is impaired following sleep loss in school-aged children, adolescents, and adults. Whether naps improve attention relative to nap deprivation in preschool-aged children is unknown. The aim of this study was to compare executive attention in preschool children following a nap and an interval of wake.

Method

Sixty-nine children, 35-70 months of age, completed a Flanker task to assess executive attention following a nap and an equivalent interval of wake.

Results

Overall, accuracy was greater after the nap compared with the wake interval. Reaction time(s) did not differ between the nap and wake intervals. Results did not differ between children who napped consistently and those who napped inconsistently, suggesting that naps benefit executive attention of preschoolers regardless of nap habituality.

Conclusions

These results indicate that naps enhance attention in preschool children. As executive attention supports executive functioning and learning, nap promotion may improve early education outcomes.

Individual differences in the executive control of attention, memory, and thought, and their associations with schizotypy

A large correlational study took a latent-variable approach to the generality of executive control by testing the individual-differences structure of executive-attention capabilities and assessing their prediction of schizotypy, a multidimensional construct (with negative, positive, disorganized, and paranoid factors) conveying risk for schizophrenia. Although schizophrenia is convincingly linked to executive deficits, the schizotypy literature is equivocal. Subjects completed tasks of working memory capacity (WMC), attention restraint (inhibiting prepotent responses), and attention constraint (focusing visual attention amid distractors), the latter 2 in an effort to fractionate the "inhibition" construct. We also assessed mind-wandering propensity (via in-task thought probes) and coefficient of variation in response times (RT CoV) from several tasks as more novel indices of executive attention. WMC, attention restraint, attention constraint, mind wandering, and RT CoV were correlated but separable constructs, indicating some distinctions among "attention control" abilities; WMC correlated more strongly with attentional restraint than constraint, and mind wandering correlated more strongly with attentional restraint, attentional constraint, and RT CoV than with WMC. Across structural models, no executive construct predicted negative schizotypy and only mind wandering and RT CoV consistently (but modestly) predicted positive, disorganized, and paranoid schizotypy; stalwart executive constructs in the schizophrenia literature-WMC and attention restraint-showed little to no predictive power, beyond restraint's prediction of paranoia. Either executive deficits are consequences rather than risk factors for schizophrenia, or executive failures barely precede or precipitate diagnosable schizophrenia symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record

Can Rhesus Monkey Learn Executive Attention?

A growing body of data indicates that, compared to humans, rhesus monkeys perform poorly on tasks that assess executive attention, or voluntary control over selection for processing, particularly under circumstances in which attention is attracted elsewhere by competing stimulus control. In the human-cognition literature, there are hotly active debates about whether various competencies such as executive attention, working memory capacity, and fluid intelligence can be improved through training. In the current study, rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) completed an attention-training intervention including several inhibitory-control tasks (a Simon task, numerical Stroop task, global/local interference task, and a continuous performance task) to determine whether generalized improvements would be observed on a version of the Attention Network Test (ANT) of controlled attention, which was administered before and after the training intervention. Although the animals demonstrated inhibition of prepotent responses and improved in executive attention with practice, this improvement did not generalize to the ANT at levels consistently better than were observed for control animals. Although these findings fail to encourage the possibility that species differences in cognitive competencies can be ameliorated through training, they do advance our understanding of the competition between stimulus-control and cognitive-control in performance by nonhuman and human primates.

Introduction of the Utrecht Tasks for Attention in Toddlers Using Eye Tracking (UTATE): A Pilot Study

Attention capacities underlie everyday functioning from an early age onwards. Little is known about attentional processes at toddler age. A feasible assessment of attention capacities at toddler age is needed to allow further study of attention development. In this study, a test battery is piloted that consists of four tasks which intend to measure the attention systems orienting, alerting, and executive attention: the Utrecht Tasks of Attention in Toddlers using Eye tracking [UTATE]. The UTATE assesses looking behavior that may reflect visual attention capacities, by using eye-tracking methods. This UTATE was studied in 16 Dutch 18-month-old toddlers. Results showed that the instrument is feasible and generates good quality data. A first indication of sufficient reliability was found for most of the variables. It is concluded that the UTATE can be used in further studies. Further evaluation of the reliability and validity of the instrument in larger samples is worthwhile.

Aspects of Attention in Rett Syndrome

BACKGROUND

We sought to examine fundamental aspects of attention in children with Rett syndrome, a severely disabling neurodevelopmental disorder caused by spontaneous mutations in the X-linked MECP2 gene. To gauge their attention, we used eye tracking, which bypasses the profound impairments in expressive language and hand use in Rett syndrome. We report two aspects of attention-shifting and sustaining-basic abilities known to drive cognitive growth.

METHODS

Two groups were compared: those with Rett syndrome (N = 20; 3-15 years) and a typically developing comparison group (N = 14; 3-16 years), using a task in which an attractive central stimulus was followed, after a short gap, by a dynamic target presented to one side. Time to shift to the target location (reactive and anticipatory saccades) and time fixating the target were assessed.

RESULTS

Children with Rett syndrome were consistently slower to shift (largely because of fewer anticipations); their reactive saccades were also slower than those of typically developing children, but not significantly so. The Rett syndrome group spent considerable time looking at the target (over 75% of available time), although significantly less so than the typically developing group.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicate that children with Rett syndrome could maintain attention on a stimulus and orient relatively quickly to the appearance of a target in the visual field. However, they had difficulty in anticipating predictable events, a difficulty in endogenous attention that is likely to have deleterious implications for executive functioning.

Factor Structure of Attention Capacities Measured With Eye-Tracking Tasks in 18-Month-Old Toddlers

OBJECTIVE

Attention capacities are critical for adaptive functioning and development. Reliable assessment measures are needed for the study of attention capacities in early childhood. In the current study, we investigated the factor structure of the Utrecht Tasks of Attention in Toddlers Using Eye-tracking (UTATE) test battery that assesses attention capacities in 18-month-old toddlers with eye-tracking techniques.

METHOD

The factor structure of 13 measures of attention capacities, based on four eye-tracking tasks, was investigated in a sample of 95 healthy toddlers (18 months of age) using confirmatory factor analysis.

RESULTS

Results showed that a three-factor model best fitted the data. The latent constructs reflected an orienting, alerting, and executive attention system.

CONCLUSION

This study showed support for a three-factor model of attention capacities in 18-month-old toddlers. Further study is needed to investigate whether the model can also be used with children at risk of attention problems.

Modulation of executive attention by threat stimulus in test-anxious students

The study examined whether test anxiety (TA) is related to impaired attentional networks under emotional distraction. High and low test-anxious students completed a modified version of the attention network test (ANT) in which emotional distracters, specifically threat-related or neutral words, were embedded in centrally presented hollow arrows in Experiment 1. Results showed a significant reduction in efficiency of the executive attention in test-anxious students compared to controls when the fillers were threat/test-related words. To evaluate the effect of the test adaptation, the original ANT, which utilized no emotional distracter, was employed as a control task in Experiment 2. We then consolidated the data on efficiency of attentional networks, which were derived from both tasks. Contrasting the two tasks showed that TA reduced executive attention in the revised task only, suggesting an enhanced sensitivity provided by the adaptation from the original task. Taken together, these findings indicate that the attentional deficit in test-anxious individuals represents a situation-related defect of a single component of attention rather than an underlying structural and universal attentional deficit. The results support the hypothesis of attentional control theory and contribute to the understanding of attentional mechanisms in individuals with TA.

Attention network functioning in children with anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and non-clinical anxiety

BACKGROUND

Research with adults suggests that anxiety is associated with poor control of executive attention. However, in children, it is unclear (a) whether anxiety disorders and non-clinical anxiety are associated with deficits in executive attention, (b) whether such deficits are specific to anxiety versus other psychiatric disorders, and (c) whether there is heterogeneity among anxiety disorders (in particular, specific phobia versus other anxiety disorders).

METHOD

We examined executive attention in 860 children classified into three groups: anxiety disorders (n = 67), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 67) and no psychiatric disorder (n = 726). Anxiety disorders were subdivided into: anxiety disorders excluding specific phobia (n = 43) and specific phobia (n = 21). The Attention Network Task was used to assess executive attention, alerting and orienting.

RESULTS

Findings indicated heterogeneity among anxiety disorders, as children with anxiety disorders (excluding specific phobia) showed impaired executive attention, compared with disorder-free children, whereas children with specific phobia showed no executive attention deficit. Among disorder-free children, executive attention was less efficient in those with high, relative to low, levels of anxiety. There were no anxiety-related deficits in orienting or alerting. Children with ADHD not only had poorer executive attention than disorder-free children, but also higher orienting scores, less accurate responses and more variable response times.

CONCLUSIONS

Impaired executive attention in children (reflected by difficulty inhibiting processing of task-irrelevant information) was not fully explained by general psychopathology, but instead showed specific associations with anxiety disorders (other than specific phobia) and ADHD, as well as with high levels of anxiety symptoms in disorder-free children.

Stroop interference in adults with dyslexia

Prior research on developmental dyslexia using Stroop tasks with young participants has found increased interference in participants with dyslexia relative to controls. Here we extend these findings to adult participants, and introduce a novel test of Stroop incongruity, whereby the color names appeared on an object colored in the incongruent color. The results imply that impaired inhibitory and executive attentional mechanisms are still deficient in adults with dyslexia and that other forms of attentional mechanisms, such as object-based attention, might also be impaired in dyslexia. Dyslexia arises not only from deficits in phonological processing, but from attentional mechanisms as well.

Development and evaluation of a self-administered on-line test of memory and attention for middle-aged and older adults

There is a need for rapid and reliable Internet-based screening tools for cognitive assessment in middle-aged and older adults. We report the psychometric properties of an on-line tool designed to screen for cognitive deficits that require further investigation. The tool is composed of measures of memory and executive attention processes known to be sensitive to brain changes associated with aging and with cognitive disorders that become more prevalent with age. Measures included a Spatial Working Memory task, Stroop Interference task, Face-Name Association task, and Number-Letter Alternation task. Normative data were collected from 361 healthy adults age 50–79 who scored in the normal range on a standardized measure of general cognitive ability. Participants took the 20-minute on-line test on their home computers, and a subset of 288 participants repeated the test 1 week later. Analyses of the individual tasks indicated adequate internal consistency, construct validity, test-retest reliability, and alternate version reliability. As expected, scores were correlated with age. The four tasks loaded on the same principle component. Demographically-corrected z-scores from the individual tasks were combined to create an overall score, which showed good reliability and classification consistency. These results indicate the tool may be useful for identifying middle-aged and older adults with lower than expected scores who may benefit from clinical evaluation of their cognition by a health care professional.

Symbiosis of executive and selective attention in working memory

The notion of working memory (WM) was introduced to account for the usage of short-term memory resources by other cognitive tasks such as reasoning, mental arithmetic, language comprehension, and many others. This collaboration between memory and other cognitive tasks can only be achieved by a dedicated WM system that controls task coordination. To that end, WM models include executive control. Nevertheless, other attention control systems may be involved in coordination of memory and cognitive tasks calling on memory resources. The present paper briefly reviews the evidence concerning the role of selective attention in WM activities. A model is proposed in which selective attention control is directly linked to the executive control part of the WM system. The model assumes that apart from storage of declarative information, the system also includes an executive WM module that represents the current task set. Control processes are automatically triggered when particular conditions in these modules are met. As each task set represents the parameter settings and the actions needed to achieve the task goal, it will depend on the specific settings and actions whether selective attention control will have to be shared among the active tasks. Only when such sharing is required, task performance will be affected by the capacity limits of the control system involved.

Development of neural mechanisms of conflict and error processing during childhood: implications for self-regulation

Regulation of thoughts and behavior requires attention, particularly when there is conflict between alternative responses or when errors are to be prevented or corrected. Conflict monitoring and error processing are functions of the executive attention network, a neurocognitive system that greatly matures during childhood. In this study, we examined the development of brain mechanisms underlying conflict and error processing with event-related potentials (ERPs), and explored the relationship between brain function and individual differences in the ability to self-regulate behavior. Three groups of children aged 4-6, 7-9, and 10-13 years, and a group of adults performed a child-friendly version of the flanker task while ERPs were registered. Marked developmental changes were observed in both conflict processing and brain reactions to errors. After controlling by age, higher self-regulation skills are associated with smaller amplitude of the conflict effect but greater amplitude of the error-related negativity. Additionally, we found that electrophysiological measures of conflict and error monitoring predict individual differences in impulsivity and the capacity to delay gratification. These findings inform of brain mechanisms underlying the development of cognitive control and self-regulation.

A week-long meditation retreat decouples behavioral measures of the alerting and executive attention networks

Previous studies have examined the influence of meditation on three functionally different components of attention: executive control, alerting, and orienting. These studies have consistently found that meditation training improves both executive attention and alerting, but there has not been a consistent and clear effect of meditation training on orienting. In addition, while previous studies have shown that the functional coupling of the alerting and executive networks increases the processing of task irrelevant stimuli, it is unknown if participating in a meditation retreat can decouple these components of attention and lead to improved performance. The current study investigated the influence of a week-long intensive meditation retreat on three components of attention by randomly assigning participants to either pre- or postretreat testing groups. A modified attention network test (ANT) was used. Executive attention was measured as the difference in response time (RT) between congruent and incongruent task irrelevant flankers (conflict effect). Reflexive and volitional orienting were measured by manipulating cue validity and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). The coupling of executive attention and alerting was measured by examining flanker interference as a function of the SOA of an alerting cue. The meditation retreat improved task based indices of executive attention, but not reflexive or volitional orienting. There was clear behavioral evidence of coupling between executive attention and alerting in the preretreat group, as the conflict effect peaked when an alerting cue was presented 300 ms before the target. Importantly, there was no increase in the conflict effect for the postretreat group. This is consistent with the notion that the retreat decoupled the executive and alerting networks. These results suggest that previously reported improvements in the executive and alerting networks after meditation training might be mediated by the same underlying mechanism.

Individual differences in response conflict adaptations

Conflict-monitoring theory argues for a general cognitive mechanism that monitors for conflicts in information-processing. If that mechanism detects conflict, it engages cognitive control to resolve it. A slow-down in response to incongruent trials (conflict effect), and a modulation of the conflict effect by the congruence of the preceding trial (Gratton or context effect) have been taken as indicators of such a monitoring system. The present study (N = 157) investigated individual differences in the conflict and the context effect in a horizontal and a vertical Simon task, and their correlation with working memory capacity (WMC). Strength of conflict was varied by proportion of congruent trials. Coherent factors could be formed representing individual differences in speeded performance, conflict adaptation, and context adaptation. Conflict and context factors were not associated with each other. Contrary to theories assuming a close relation between working memory and cognitive control, WMC showed no relation with any factors representing adaptation to conflict.

Aberrant executive attention in unaffected youth at familial risk for mood disorders

BACKGROUND

Aberrant attentional processes in individuals with mood disorders - bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) - have been well documented. This study examined whether unaffected youth at familial risk for mood disorders would exhibit poor alerting, orienting, and executive attention relative to age-matched controls.

METHODS

A sample of youth (8-17 years old) having one parent with either BD or MDD (Mood-Risk, n=29) and youth having healthy parents (HC, n=27) completed the Attention Network Test-Short version (ANT-S), which assesses alerting, orienting, and executive attention.

RESULTS

Relative to HCs, the Mood-Risk group had significantly slower reaction times on an index of executive attention, but no differences on indices of alerting or orienting. There were no differences between the two at-risk groups (i.e., youth with BD parent vs. youth with MDD parent) on any ANT-S measure.

LIMITATIONS

The current study is limited by its cross-sectional design, small sample size, and failure to control for familial environmental factors.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings extend previous results indicating that altered executive attention may represent an endophenotype for mood disorders in at-risk youth.

Interactions between perceived emotions and executive attention in an interpersonal game

The emotions displayed by others can be cues to predict their behavior. Happy expressions are usually linked to positive consequences, whereas angry faces are associated with probable negative outcomes. However, there are situations in which the expectations we generate do not hold. Here, control mechanisms must be put in place. We designed an interpersonal game in which participants received good or bad economic offers from several partners. A cue indicated whether the emotion of their partner could be trusted or not. Trustworthy partners with happy facial expressions were cooperative, and angry partners did not cooperate. Untrustworthy partners cooperated when their expression was angry and did not cooperate when they displayed a happy emotion. Event-Related Potential (ERP) results showed that executive attention already influenced the frontal N1. The brain initially processed emotional expressions regardless of their contextual meaning but by the N300, associated to affective evaluation, emotion was modulated by control mechanisms. Our results suggest a cascade of processing that starts with the instantiation of executive attention, continues by a default processing of emotional features and is then followed by an interaction between executive attention and emotional factors before decision-making and motor stages.

Developmental trajectories in toddlers' self-restraint predict individual differences in executive functions 14 years later: a behavioral genetic analysis

We examined whether self-restraint in early childhood predicted individual differences in 3 executive functions (EFs; inhibiting prepotent responses, updating working memory, and shifting task sets) in late adolescence in a sample of approximately 950 twins. At ages 14, 20, 24, and 36 months, the children were shown an attractive toy and told not to touch it for 30 s. Latency to touch the toy increased with age, and latent class growth modeling distinguished 2 groups of children that differed in their latencies to touch the toy at all 4 time points. Using confirmatory factor analysis, we decomposed the 3 EFs (measured with latent variables at age 17 years) into a Common EF factor (isomorphic to response inhibition ability) and 2 factors specific to updating and shifting. Less-restrained children had significantly lower scores on the Common EF factor, equivalent scores on the Updating-Specific factor, and higher scores on the Shifting-Specific factor than did the more-restrained children. The less-restrained group also had lower IQ scores, but this effect was entirely mediated by the EF components. Twin models indicated that the associations were primarily genetic in origin for the Common EF variable but split between genetics and nonshared environment for the Shifting-Specific variable. These results suggest a biological relation between individual differences in self-restraint and EFs, one that begins early in life and persists into late adolescence.