Using an epidemiological sample (N = 1,117) and a prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the direct and indirect effects of preverbal and verbal communication (15 months to 3 years) on ...executive function (EF) at age 4 years. Results indicated that whereas gestures (15 months), as well as language (2 and 3 years), were correlated with later EF (φ s ≥ .44), the effect was entirely mediated through later language. In contrast, language had significant direct and indirect effects on later EF. Exploratory analyses indicated that the pattern of results was comparable for low- and not-low-income families. The results were consistent with theoretical accounts of language as a precursor of EF ability, and highlighted gesture as an early indicator of EF.
Objective: Multivariate base rates allow for the simultaneous statistical interpretation of multiple test scores, quantifying the normal frequency of low scores on a test battery. This study provides ...multivariate base rates for the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS). Method: The D-KEFS consists of 9 tests with 16 Total Achievement scores (i.e. primary indicators of executive function ability). Stratified by education and intelligence, multivariate base rates were derived for the full D-KEFS and an abbreviated four-test battery (i.e. Trail Making, Color-Word Interference, Verbal Fluency, and Tower Test) using the adult portion of the normative sample (ages 16-89). Results: Multivariate base rates are provided for the full and four-test D-KEFS batteries, calculated using five low score cutoffs (i.e. ≤25th, 16th, 9th, 5th, and 2nd percentiles). Low scores occurred commonly among the D-KEFS normative sample, with 82.6 and 71.8% of participants obtaining at least one score ≤16th percentile for the full and four-test batteries, respectively. Intelligence and education were inversely related to low score frequency. Conclusions: The base rates provided herein allow clinicians to interpret multiple D-KEFS scores simultaneously for the full D-KEFS and an abbreviated battery of commonly administered tests. The use of these base rates will support clinicians when differentiating between normal variations in cognitive performance and true executive function deficits.
The vast majority of studies on theory of mind (ToM) have focused on the preschool years. Extending the developmental scope of ToM research presents opportunities to both reassess theoretical ...accounts of ToM and test its predictive utility. The twin aims of this longitudinal study were to examine developmental relations between ToM, executive function (EF), and teacher-rated social competence in middle childhood. One hundred thirty-seven children (69 males) were followed across a 4-year period spanning middle childhood (M ages at Waves 1 and 2 = 6.05, SD = .35, and 10.81, SD = .35, respectively). Individual differences in ToM were moderately stable across middle childhood. Although there were concurrent associations between ToM and EF at both time points, there were no longitudinal links between these constructs. In contrast, there were concurrent and longitudinal links between ToM and teacher-rated social competence, such that individual differences in ToM predicted later social competence at school. These results are discussed in light of competing theories about the links between ToM and EF and the importance of individual differences in ToM for children's social lives.
•Meta-analysis indicates caffeine has large effects on performance after sleep loss.•Meta-regression suggests dose explains some of the variability of caffeine’s effect.•Doses <80 mg up to 600 mg ...provide a likely positive effect, however is task dependent.•Caffeine is an effective countermeasure to impairments associated with sleep loss.
Caffeine is widely used to counteract the effects of sleep loss. This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the impact of acute caffeine consumption on cognitive, physical, occupational and driving performance in sleep deprived/restricted individuals. 45 publications providing 327 effect estimates (EEs) were included in the review. Caffeine improved response time (44 EEs; g = 0.86; 95 % CI: 0.53–0.83) and accuracy (27 EEs; g = 0.68; 95 % CI: 0.48–0.88) on attention tests, improved executive function (38 EEs; g = 0.35; 95 % CI: 0.15–0.55), improved reaction time (12 EEs; g = 1.11; 95 % CI: 0.75–1.47), improved response time (20 EEs; g = 1.95; 95 % CI: 1.39–2.52) and accuracy (34 EEs; g = 0.43; 95 % CI: 0.30–0.55) on information processing tasks, and enhanced lateral (29 EEs; g = 1.67; 95 % CI: 1.32–2.02) and longitudinal (12 EEs; g = 1.60; 95 % CI: 1.16–2.03) measures of vehicular control on driving tests. Studies also typically indicated benefit of caffeine on memory (25 EEs), crystallized intelligence (11 EEs), physical (39 EEs) and occupational (36 EEs) performance. Ingestion of caffeine is an effective counter-measure to the cognitive and physical impairments associated with sleep loss.
Executive functions' (EF) role in adolescents' advanced theory of mind (aToM) was examined. In Study 1, adolescents (N = 189 in 2017, Mage = 13.1 years, 55.6% female from racially/ethnically diverse ...schools) completed the Flexibility and Automaticity of Social Cognition task (FASC), and shifting and inhibition measures. Study 2 (N = 289 in 2018 and 2019, Mage = 15.7 years, 59.9% female, 56.4% Hispanic/Latino) replicated Study 1 in older adolescents using automated scoring of FASC flexibility. Flexibility of social cognition varied based on ambiguity and language use; automaticity of social cognition varied by ambiguity. The role of EF was less conclusive; shifting and inhibition predicted some flexibility and automaticity measures. Ambiguity, language, and EF, particularly shifting, influence aToM into adolescence.
Mindfulness meditation training has been previously shown to enhance behavioral measures of executive control (e.g., attention, working memory, cognitive control), but the neural mechanisms ...underlying these improvements are largely unknown. Here, we test whether mindfulness training interventions foster executive control by strengthening functional connections between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)-a hub of the executive control network-and frontoparietal regions that coordinate executive function.
Thirty-five adults with elevated levels of psychological distress participated in a 3-day randomized controlled trial of intensive mindfulness meditation or relaxation training. Participants completed a resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scan before and after the intervention. We tested whether mindfulness meditation training increased resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) between dlPFC and frontoparietal control network regions.
Left dlPFC showed increased connectivity to the right inferior frontal gyrus (T = 3.74), right middle frontal gyrus (MFG) (T = 3.98), right supplementary eye field (T = 4.29), right parietal cortex (T = 4.44), and left middle temporal gyrus (T = 3.97, all p < .05) after mindfulness training relative to the relaxation control. Right dlPFC showed increased connectivity to right MFG (T = 4.97, p < .05).
We report that mindfulness training increases rsFC between dlPFC and dorsal network (superior parietal lobule, supplementary eye field, MFG) and ventral network (right IFG, middle temporal/angular gyrus) regions. These findings extend previous work showing increased functional connectivity among brain regions associated with executive function during active meditation by identifying specific neural circuits in which rsFC is enhanced by a mindfulness intervention in individuals with high levels of psychological distress.
Clinicaltrials.gov,NCT01628809.
Despite the ubiquity of multitasking, prior research has ignored potential carryover effects of concurrent task performance on the way individuals interpret subsequent consumption behaviors and ...decisions. This study evinces that extensive use of updating, an executive function central to multitasking and necessary for construing actions ly, reduces the likelihood that it will be used on subsequent tasks. Accordingly, the results of three studies show that extensive employment of updating (via multitasking) reduces an individual's propensity to construe behaviors (consumption or otherwise) in (vs. concrete) terms, influencing consumer choices. Specifically, we show that individuals are less likely to choose healthy food items (i.e., those consistent with long‐term health goals) and favor feasibility over desirability following episodes of multitasking. Further, we rule out general cognitive depletion and mood as alternative explanations for such carryover effects.
Objective
To investigate whether a 20‐week aerobic and resistance exercise program induces changes in brain current density underlying working memory and inhibitory control in children with ...overweight/obesity.
Methods
A total of 67 children (10.00 ± 1.10 years) were randomized into an exercise or control group. Electroencephalography (EEG)‐based current density (μA/mm2) was estimated using standardized low‐resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) during a working memory task (Delayed non‐matched‐to‐sample task, DNMS) and inhibitory control task (Modified flanker task, MFT). In DNMS, participants had to memorize four stimuli (Pokemons) and then select between two of them, one of which had not been previously shown. In MFT, participants had to indicate whether the centered cow (i.e., target) of five faced the right or left.
Results
The exercise group had significantly greater increases in brain activation in comparison with the control group during the encoding phase of DNMS, particularly during retention of second stimuli in temporal and frontal areas (peak t = from 3.4 to 3.8, cluster size k = from 11 to 39), during the retention of the third stimuli in frontal areas (peak t = from 3.7 to 3.9, k = from 15 to 26), and during the retention of the fourth stimuli in temporal and occipital areas (peak t = from 2.7 to 4.3, k = from 13 to 101). In MFT, the exercise group presented a lower current density change in the middle frontal gyrus (peak t = −4.1, k = 5). No significant change was observed between groups for behavioral performance (p ≥ 0.05).
Conclusion
A 20‐week exercise program modulates brain activity which might provide a positive influence on working memory and inhibitory control in children with overweight/obesity.
Objective: The apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene is an established risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's disease, with elevated risk for ε4-carriers and reduced risk for ε2-carriers. However, it is unclear ...whether APOE modifies risk for cognitive decline in normal aging. The objective of this study was to determine whether ε2 and ε4 are associated with rates of normal cognitive aging, and whether associations of ε4 with cognitive decline are modified by sex, education or health behaviors (exercise, alcohol consumption, smoking). Method: A community-based sample of 1,393 older adults were genotyped for APOE and underwent cognitive assessment up to seven times over a maximum of period of 27 years. Results: ε2-carriers showed slower executive function decline with age relative to ε3 homozygotes or ε4-carriers, whereas ε4-carriers demonstrated more rapid executive function and verbal fluency decline. Accelerated executive function decline was particularly pronounced in ε4-carriers with lower education. After excluding individuals with cognitive impairment, faster executive function decline was still apparent in ε4-carriers, and the effect of ε4 on episodic memory interacted with alcohol consumption, such that only ε4-carriers who did not drink showed more rapid memory decline than ε4 noncarriers. The influence of ε4 on cognitive aging did not differ by sex, nor was it modified by smoking or exercise. Conclusions: These findings indicate that the ε2 and ε4 alleles have differential effects on cognitive aging, and that negative effects of ε4 may be partly mitigated by behavioral choices.
General Scientific Summary
As the global elderly population continues to grow, identifying risk factors for aging-related cognitive decline is of mounting concern. Though the APOE gene is known to modify risk for Alzheimer's disease, its role in normal cognitive aging is undetermined. This study reports that APOE is associated with rates of cognitive decline, even in the absence of dementia, but that lifestyle factors, including education and moderate alcohol consumption, may mitigate genetic risk of cognitive decline associated with APOE.
Working memory
is usually defined in cognitive psychology as a system devoted to the simultaneous processing and maintenance of information. However, although many models of working memory have been ...put forward during the last decades, they often leave underspecified the dynamic interplay between processing and storage. Moreover, the account of their interaction proposed by the most popular
A. D. Baddeley and G. Hitch's (1974)
multiple-component model is contradicted by facts, leaving unresolved one of the main issues of cognitive functioning. In this article, the author derive from the time-based resource-sharing model of working memory a mathematical function relating the cognitive load involved by concurrent processing to the amount of information that can be simultaneously maintained active in working memory. A meta-analysis from several experiments testing the effects of processing on storage corroborates the parameters of the predicted function, suggesting that it properly reflects the law relating the 2 functions of working memory.
PDF
