Social facilitation and bilingual cognitive advantage: Bridging social psychology and psycholinguistics

This study examined the role of social context in the expression of the bilingual cognitive advantage in 145 bilingual university students. All participants mastered Arabic as their native language (L1), but half were highly proficient in French (high L2 group), whereas half were less proficient (low L2 group). A color-word Stroop test with incongruent, congruent and neutral stimuli was administered in single language blocks (Arabic or French words) or in a mixed block (Arabic and French words), either under social presence, or alone. Stroop interference was analyzed to assess the cost of resolving conflict in incongruent trials and was compared across groups and experimental conditions. If bilingualism comes with a cognitive advantage, a reduction of interference in high (vs. low) L2 proficient subjects is to be expected. Analysis revealed that interference was significantly reduced in high L2 group, but only under the single language condition. Furthermore, whereas social context and sex had no main effects, analysis revealed a significant 4-factor interaction between L2 proficiency, linguistic context, social context, and sex. Social presence further reduced interference (social facilitation) in high L2 proficient females, but not in males. Overall, the results suggest that mastering a second language comes with cognitive advantages which adapt dynamically to social and linguistic contexts in a sex-dependent manner. We argue that advancing bilingualism research requires more attention to the social environment.

Slow tempo music preserves attentional efficiency in young children

Past research has shown that listening to slow- or fast-tempo music can affect adults' executive attention (EA) performance. This study examined the immediate impact of brief exposure to slow- or fast-tempo music on EA performance in 4- to 6-year-old children. A within-subject design was used, where each child completed three blocks of the EA task after listening to fast-tempo music (fast-tempo block), slow-tempo music (slow-tempo block), and ocean waves (control block), with block-order counterbalanced. In each block, children were also asked to report their pre-task subjective emotional status (experienced arousal and valence) before listening to music and their post-task emotional status after the EA task. Three major results emerged. First, reaction time (RT) was significantly faster in the slow-tempo block than in the fast-tempo, suggesting that listening to slow-tempo music preserves processing efficiency, relative to fast-tempo music. Second, children's accuracy rate in the EA task did not differ across blocks. Third, children's subjective emotional status did not differ across blocks and did not change across the pre- and post-task phases in any block, suggesting the faster RT observed in the slow-tempo block cannot be explained by changes in arousal or mood.

Evidence in Support of Analogical Reasoning Improvements with Executive Attention Intervention in Healthy Young Adults

Analogical reasoning improvement is important in educational outcome improvement. Inspired by recent ideas and evidence, we applied anti-saccade task training as an executive attention intervention and tested whether it could improve analogical reasoning performance. A serial-task paradigm was applied where participants performed an anti-saccade followed by an analogical reasoning task including a perception condition. The experimental group finished the anti-saccade task in which the ratio of anti-saccade trials to pro-saccade trials was 5:1 while the counterpart was 1:1 in the active control group. Also, a blank control group was established where participants merely finished the analogical reasoning task. Event-related electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded when participants were performing the executive attention and analogical reasoning tasks. In addition, their resting state EEG was collected before and after the executive attention intervention. Behaviorally, the experimental group reacted significantly faster than the other two groups in analogical reasoning but not in perception. At the neural level, in the experimental group alone, the anti-saccade trials elicited a smaller N2 than pro-saccade trials and the resting alpha power was improved after executive attention intervention. No significant difference in P2 was found between the two groups in analogical reasoning or perception but the experimental group showed a larger late positive component than the active control group in analogical reasoning. We also found that the late positive component mediated the relationship between the N2 of anti-saccade trials and analogical reasoning reaction times in the experimental group. We further discussed the role of executive attention in the analogical reasoning process, which may pave the way for the future reliable improvement of fluid intelligence.

Majority language skill, not measures of bilingualism, predicts executive attention in bilingual children

Evidence is mixed regarding whether and why bilingual children might be advantaged in the development of executive functions. Five preregistered hypotheses regarding sources of a bilingual advantage were tested with data from 102 Spanish-English bilingual children and 25 English monolingual children who were administered a test of executive attention, the flanker task, at 7, 8, and 9 years of age. Measures of the children's early and concurrent bilingual exposure and their concurrent English and Spanish skill were available from a larger longitudinal study in which these children participated. Tests of the preregistered hypotheses yielded null findings: The bilingual children's executive attention abilities were unrelated to their amount of early exposure to mixed input, to balance in their early dual language exposure, to balance in their concurrent exposure, to their degree of bilingualism, or to their combined Spanish + English vocabulary score. English vocabulary score was a positive significant correlate of executive attention among the bilingual children, but those bilingual children above the group median in English vocabulary did not outperform the monolingual children when the comparison was adjusted for nonverbal IQ. These findings suggest that a language learning ability may explain the association between bilingualism and executive function. Because the best statistical approach to testing for effects on differences is a matter of dispute, all analyses were conducted with both a difference score and a residual gain score as the outcome variable. The central findings, but not all findings, were the same with both approaches.

Oxygen Metabolism-induced Stress Response Underlies Heart-brain Interaction Governing Human Consciousness-breaking and Attention

Neuroscientists have emphasized visceral influences on consciousness and attention, but the potential neurophysiological pathways remain under exploration. Here, we found two neurophysiological pathways of heart-brain interaction based on the relationship between oxygen-transport by red blood cells (RBCs) and consciousness/attention. To this end, we collected a dataset based on the routine physical examination, the breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) paradigm, and an attention network test (ANT) in 140 immigrants under the hypoxic Tibetan environment. We combined electroencephalography and multilevel mediation analysis to investigate the relationship between RBC properties and consciousness/attention. The results showed that RBC function, via two independent neurophysiological pathways, not only triggered interoceptive re-representations in the insula and awareness connected to orienting attention but also induced an immune response corresponding to consciousness and executive control. Importantly, consciousness played a fundamental role in executive function which might be associated with the level of perceived stress. These results indicated the important role of oxygen-transport in heart-brain interactions, in which the related stress response affected consciousness and executive control. The findings provide new insights into the neurophysiological schema of heart-brain interactions.

On the impairment of executive control of attention in chronic tinnitus: Evidence from the attention network test

Subjective, chronic tinnitus is a condition that is common in most populations. Whereas many individuals tend to habituate to tinnitus over time, for some their attention seems pathologically drawn towards the sensation. For this subgroup of individuals with severe tinnitus, dysfunctional executive attention has been suggested to be implicated in the failure to habituate. However, since most previous studies have used attention tests with low validity and specificity in this assessment, there is a need for further corroborating studies. In the present study, the Attention Network Test was used to compare mainly the efficiency of executive attention between a group of individuals with chronic tinnitus (TG; n = 33) and a healthy control group (CG; n = 37). The results showed that individuals with chronic tinnitus, compared to the CG, did not present with a specific impairment in executive control of attention, nor in any of the other two attention domains. These findings are discussed in relation to the sampling characteristics in this study, which might have led to the sample being more homogenous and high functioning than samples in tinnitus studies generally. Overall, this study suggests that tinnitus and executive control of attention impairment might not be directly related, and that the latter might not necessarily be associated with the maintenance of the condition.

Explaining the high working memory capacity of gifted children: Contributions of processing skills and executive control

Intellectually gifted children tend to demonstrate especially high working memory capacity, an ability that holds a critical role in intellectual functioning. What could explain the differences in working memory performance between intellectually gifted and nongifted children? We investigated this issue by measuring working memory capacity with complex spans in a sample of 55 gifted and 55 nongifted children. Based on prior studies, we expected the higher working memory capacity of intellectually gifted children to be driven by more effective executive control, as measured using the Attention Network Test. The findings confirmed that intellectually gifted children had higher working memory capacity than typical children, as well as more effective executive attention. Surprisingly, however, working memory differences between groups were not mediated by differences in executive attention. Instead, it appears that gifted children resolve problems faster in the processing phase of the working memory task, which leaves them more time to refresh to-be-remembered items. This faster problem solving speed mediated their advantage in working memory capacity. Importantly, this effect was specific to speed on complex problems: low-level processing speed, as measured with the Attention Network Test, did not contribute to the higher working memory capacity of gifted children.

Relationships between cognitive function, seizure control, and self-reported leisure-time exercise in epilepsy

Exercise may be a strategy for improvement of cognitive deficits commonly present in people with idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGE). We investigated the relationship between cognition and level of physical exercise in leisure (PEL) in people with IGE who have been seizurefree for at least 6 months (IGE-) as compared to those who have not been seizurefree (IGE+) and healthy controls (HCs). We hypothesized that higher level of physical exercise is associated with better cognitive functioning in patients with IGE and HCs, and that seizure control affects both PEL levels and cognitive functioning in patients with IGE. We recruited 75 participants aged 18-65: 31 people with IGE (17 IGE-, 14 IGE+) and 44 HCs. Participants completed assessments of quality of life (SF-36), physical activity levels (Baecke questionnaire and International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)) and cognition (Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Hopkins Verbal Learning Test - Revised (HVLT), and flanker task). Group differences (HCs vs. IGE; HCs vs. IGE+ vs. IGE-) were assessed. Pearson correlations examined linear relationships between PEL and cognitive performance. Groups were similar in age and sex. Compared to HCs, patients with IGE had higher body mass index, fewer years of education, and consistently scored worse on all measures except flanker task accuracy on incongruent trials. When examining IGE- and IGE+ subgroups, compared to HCs, both had higher body mass index, and fewer years of education. Healthy controls scored significantly better than one or both of the IGE groups on SF-36 scores, PEL levels, IPAQ activity level, MoCA scores, HVLT learning and long-delay free-recall scores, and flanker task accuracy on congruent trials. Among patients with IGE, there were no significant differences between age of epilepsy onset, duration of epilepsy, number of anti-seizure drugs (ASDs) currently being used, or the group distribution of type of IGE. In the combined sample (IGE+, IGE- and HCs), PEL positively correlated with MoCA scores (Pearson's r = 0.238; p = 0.0397) and with flanker task accuracy on congruent trials (Pearson's r = 0.295; p = 0.0132). Overall, patients with IGE performed worse than HCs on cognitive and physical activity measures, but the cognitive impairments were more pronounced for IGE+, while physical exercise levels were less for patients with IGE regardless of seizure control. While positive relationships between leisure-time PEL and cognitive performance are promising, further investigations into how exercise levels interact with cognitive functioning in epilepsy are needed.

Left-prefrontal alpha-dynamics predict executive working-memory functioning in elderly people

Recent findings suggest that electroencephalography (EEG) oscillations in the theta and alpha frequency-bands reflect synchronized interregional neuronal activity and are considered to reflect cognitive-control, and executive working memory mechanisms in humans. Above the age of 50 years, hypothesized pronounced alterations in alpha and theta-band power at resting or across different WM-functioning brain states may well be due to pre-dementia cognitive impairments, or increasing severity of age-related neurological disorders. Executive working memory (EWM) functioning was assessed in older-adult participants (54 to 83 years old) by obtaining their WM-related EEG oscillations and WM performance scores. WM performance and WM brain-state EEG were recorded during online-WM periods as well as during specific online WM events within EWM periods, and during resting offline-WM periods that preceded online-WM periods. Left-prefrontal alpha-power was enhanced during offline-WM periods versus online-WM periods and was significantly related to WM accuracy. Left-prefrontal alpha power and left prefrontal-parietal theta power anterior-posterior difference-gradient during online WM activity were related to reaction times (RT's). Importantly, during active-storage events, WM-offset offline-periods, and preparatory pre-retrieval events, excessive left-prefrontal alpha activity was related to poor EWM performance. The potential for developing targeted noninvasive cognition-enhancing interventions and developing clinical-monitoring EEG-based biomarkers of pathological cognitive-decline in elderly people is discussed.

Left prefrontal transcranial direct-current stimulation reduces symptom-severity and acutely enhances working memory in schizophrenia

Recent studies indicated that left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may improve clinical status and cognitive functioning in schizophrenia patients. The current study examined the effects of left prefrontal anodal tDCS on symptom-severity and on working memory performance in schizophrenia (SZ) patients. We conducted a double-blind, randomized sham-controlled parallel-group trial. Following baseline clinical and WM assessments, 19 chronic SZ patients were randomly assigned to receive 10 sessions of either active left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) tDCS or sham DLPFC-tDCS across five consecutive days, followed by post-tDCS assessments every four weeks across 12 weeks. Active tDCS significantly alleviated symptom-severity versus baseline and versus sham tDCS. WM-performance improved versus baseline in the active tDCS group. Patients' symptom alleviation was maintained for four weeks after tDCS intervention. Patients' Post-tDCS WM scores were comparable to healthy controls' WM scores. The present findings highlight the benefits of left-prefrontal tDCS interventions and support the association between DLPFC dysfunction and symptom-severity in schizophrenia.

Phonetic perception but not perception of speaker gender is impaired in chronic tinnitus

While tinnitus is known to compromise the perception of speech, it is unclear if the same holds for extralinguistic speaker information. Furthermore, research with simple tone stimuli showed that unilateral tinnitus binds spatial attention, thereby impeding the detection of auditory changes in the non-affected ear. Using dichotic listening tasks, we tested left-ear tinnitus patients and control patients for their ability to ignore speech and speaker information in the task-irrelevant ear. To this end they heard vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) syllables simultaneously spoken by gender-ambiguous voices in one ear and male or female voices in the contralateral ear. They selectively attended to speech (Exp. 1) or speaker (Exp. 2) information in a designated target ear, by classifying either the consonant (/b/ or /g/) in VCV syllables or voice gender (male or female) while ignoring distractor voices in the other ear. While performance was comparable across groups in the gender task, tinnitus patients responded slower than controls in the consonant task, with no effect of target ear. This suggests that tinnitus hampers phonetic perception in speech, while preserving the processing of extralinguistic speaker information. These findings support the growing evidence for speech perception impairments in tinnitus.

Executive attention moderates the effect of trait anxiety on hyperarousal symptoms

The majority of individuals exposed to trauma do not go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); thus, researchers have sought to identify individual difference variables that make one particularly susceptible to posttraumatic stress symptoms. Trait anxiety is one individual difference variable implicated in the pathogenesis of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Following from cognitive theories of anxiety and extant data, the purpose of the present study was to examine executive attention as a moderator of the relation between trait anxiety and posttraumatic stress symptoms, particularly hyperarousal symptoms, among undergraduate women reporting trauma exposure (N = 88). As predicted, executive attention moderated the association between trait anxiety and hyperarousal symptoms, such that there was a significantly weaker relation as executive attention increased. Study results further support the potential buffering effect of executive attention in relation to posttraumatic stress symptoms, as well as the possible importance of targeting executive attention following trauma exposure.

Executive Attention at Eight Years: Concurrent and Longitudinal Predictors and Individual Differences

Executive attention, the attention necessary to reconcile conflict among simultaneous attentional demands, is vital to children's daily lives. This attention develops rapidly as the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal areas mature during early and middle childhood. However, the developmental course of executive attention is not uniform amongst children. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation was to examine the role of individual differences in the development of executive attention by exploring the concurrent and longitudinal contributions to its development at 8 years of age. Executive attention was predicted by concurrent measures of frontal electroencephalography, lab-based performance on a conflict task, and parent report of attention. Longitudinally, 8-year-old executive attention, was significantly predicted by a combination of 4-year old frontal activity, conflict task performance, and parent report of attention focusing, but not with an analogous equation replacing attention focusing with attention shifting. Together, data demonstrate individual differences in executive attention.

Developmental change in look durations predicts later effortful control in toddlers at familial risk for ASD

BACKGROUND

Difficulties with executive functioning (EF) are common in individuals with a range of developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Interventions that target underlying mechanisms of EF early in development could be broadly beneficial, but require infant markers of such mechanisms in order to be feasible. Prospective studies of infants at high familial risk (HR) for ASD have revealed a surprising tendency for HR toddlers to show longer epochs of attention to faces than low-risk (LR) controls. In typical development, decreases in look durations towards the end of the first year of life are driven by the development of executive attention-a foundational component of EF. Here, we test the hypothesis that prolonged attention to visual stimuli (including faces) in HR toddlers reflects early differences in the development of executive attention.

METHODS

In a longitudinal prospective study, we used eye-tracking to record HR and LR infants' looking behaviour to social and non-social visual stimuli at ages 9 and 15 months. At age 3 years, we assessed children with a battery of clinical research measures and collected parental report of effortful control (EC)-a temperament trait closely associated with EF and similarly contingent on executive attention.

RESULTS

Consistent with previous studies, we found an attenuated reduction in peak look durations to faces between 9 and 15 months for the HR group compared with the LR group, and lower EC amongst the HR-ASD group. In line with our hypothesis, change in peak look duration to faces between 9 and 15 months was negatively associated with EC at age 3.

CONCLUSIONS

We suggest that for HR toddlers, disruption to the early development of executive attention results in an attenuated reduction in looking time to faces. Effects may be more apparent for faces due to early biases to orient towards them; further, attention difficulties may interact with earlier emerging differences in social information processing. Our finding that prolonged attention to faces may be an early indicator of disruption to the executive attention system is of potential value in screening for infants at risk for later EF difficulties and for evaluation of intervention outcomes.

Simians in the Shape School: A comparative study of executive attention

Executive functions (EF) have been studied extensively in children and adults. However, EF tasks for young children can be difficult to administer and interpret. Espy (1997, Developmental Neuropsychology, 13, 495-499) designed the Shape School task to measure inhibition and switching in preschool-aged children. Shape School presents cartoon-like characters that children must flexibly name by their color, their shape, or both, depending on cues that indicate the appropriate rule. Shape School has been found to be age sensitive as well as predictive of performance on other EF tasks. We presented a computerized analogue of Shape School to seven rhesus macaques. Monkeys were trained to categorize characters by color or shape, or to inhibit this response, depending on whether the characters had eyes open, eyes closed, or wore hats. Monkeys performed above chance on the inhibition and switching components of the task. Long runs of a single classification rule and long runs of noninhibition trials had no significant impact on performance when the rule changed or inhibition was required. This nonverbal adaptation of Shape School can measure EF in nonhuman animals and could be used in conjunction with other EF tasks to provide a clearer picture of both human and nonhuman executive functions.

Executive Attention and Empathy-Related Responses in Boys with Oppositional Defiant Disorder or Conduct Disorder, With and Without Comorbid Anxiety Disorder

This is a first study that investigated the relationships between executive attention-as an important aspect of emotion regulation-and state empathy and sympathy in ODD/CD boys with (N = 31) and without (N = 18) comorbid anxiety disorder (7-12 years). Empathic reactions were evoked using three sadness-inducing film clips. One clip was highly evocative involving a bear cub losing his mother, whilst two other clips were mildly evocative involving children in common childhood situations. Self-reports of empathy and sympathy were collected and executive attention was assessed with a performance task. Poor executive attention skills were associated with less empathy and sympathy, particularly in ODD/CD boys with anxiety and under conditions of a highly evocative stimulus. Our findings support the view that different mechanisms may be involved in empathy problems of ODD/CD children.

The influence of CHRNA4, COMT, and maternal sensitivity on orienting and executive attention in 6-month-old infants

Despite claims concerning biological mechanisms sub-serving infant attention, little experimental work examines its underpinnings. This study examines how candidate polymorphisms from the cholinergic (CHRNA4 rs1044396) and dopaminergic (COMT rs4680) systems, respectively indicative of parietal and prefrontal/anterior cingulate involvement, are related to 6-month-olds' (n=217) performance during a visual expectation eye-tracking paradigm. As previous studies suggest that both cholinergic and dopaminergic genes may influence susceptibility to the influence of other genetic and environmental factors, we further examined whether these candidate genes interact with one another and/or with early caregiving experience in predicting infants' visual attention. We detected an interaction between CHRNA4 genotype and observed maternal sensitivity upon infants' orienting to random stimuli and a CHRNA4-COMT interaction effect upon infants' orienting to patterned stimuli. Consistent with adult research, we observed a direct effect of COMT genotype on anticipatory looking to patterned stimuli. Findings suggest that CHRNA4 genotype may influence susceptibility to other attention-related factors in infancy. These interactions may account for the inability to establish a link between CHRNA4 and orienting in infant research to date, despite developmental theorizing suggesting otherwise. Moreover, findings suggest that by 6months, dopamine, and relatedly, the prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulate, may be important to infant attention.

Differential effects of phasic and tonic alerting on the efficiency of executive attention

The study examined how alerting and executive attention interact in a task involving conflict resolution. We proposed a tentative scenario in which an initial exogenous phasic alerting phase is followed by an endogenous tonic alerting phase, and hypothesized that these two processes may have distinct effects on conflict resolution. Phasic alerting was expected to increase the conflict, whereas tonic alerting was expected to decrease the conflict. Three experiments were conducted using different variants of the flanker task with visual alerting cues and varied cue-target intervals (SOA), to differentiate between effects of phasic alerting (short SOA) and tonic alerting (long SOA). The results showed that phasic alerting consistently decreased the efficiency of conflict resolution indexed by response time and accuracy, whereas tonic alerting increased the accuracy of conflict resolution, but at a cost in the speed of processing the conflict. The third experiment additionally showed that the effects of phasic alerting may be modulated by the psychophysical strength of alerting cues. Discussed are possible mechanisms that could account for the observed interactions between alerting and conflict resolution, as well as some discrepancies between the current and previous studies.

Testing the Benefits of Neurofeedback on Selective Attention Measured Through Dichotic Listening

The electrophysiological changes after a single session of neurofeedback training (↑SMR/↓Theta) and its effects on executive attention during a dichotic listening test with forced attentional procedures were measured in a sample of 20 healthy women. A pre-post moment test double blind design, with the inclusion of a group receiving sham neurofeedback, allowed for minimization of alien influences. The interaction of Moment × Group was significant, indicating an enhancement of SMR band after the real neurofeedback. The dichotic listening scores were correlated with the amplitude of Beta band in baseline conditions. The performance on the forced left attentional condition in dichotic listening was significantly improved and correlated positively with the post-training enhancement of the SMR band. The sham neurofeedback group also improved DL scores, so a clear affirmation about the benefits of neurofeedback training over cognitive performance could not be unambiguously established. It is concluded that the protocol showed a good independence and acceptable trainability in modifying the EEG results, but there was limited interpretability regarding cognitive outcomes.

Executive attention deficits after traumatic brain injury reflect impaired recruitment of resources

Deficits in attention are a common and devastating consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI), leading to functional impairments, rehabilitation barriers, and long-term disability. While such deficits are well documented, little is known about their underlying pathophysiology hindering development of effective and targeted interventions. Here we evaluate the integrity of brain systems specific to attentional functions using quantitative assessments of electroencephalography recorded during performance of the Attention Network Test (ANT), a behavioral paradigm that separates alerting, orienting, and executive components of attention. We studied 13 patients, at least 6 months post-TBI with cognitive impairments, and 24 control subjects. Based on performance on the ANT, TBI subjects showed selective impairment in executive attention. In TBI subjects, principal component analysis combined with spectral analysis of the EEG after target appearance extracted a pattern of increased frontal midline theta power (2.5–7.5 Hz) and suppression of frontal beta power (12.5–22.5 Hz). Individual expression of this pattern correlated (r = − 0.67, p < 0.001) with executive attention impairment. The grading of this pattern of spatiotemporal dynamics with executive attention deficits reflects impaired recruitment of anterior forebrain resources following TBI; specifically, deafferentation and variable disfacilitation of medial frontal neuronal populations is proposed as the basis of our findings.

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Electrophysiological correlate of impaired executive attention after Traumatic Brain Injury is derived.

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Theta increases in medial frontal and beta suppression in frontal regions is linked to behavioral performance.

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Individual-specific pathophysiology allows for tracking of recovery/interventions and studies of function-structure.

Executive attention networks show altered relationship with default mode network in PD

Attention dysfunction is a common but often undiagnosed cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease that significantly reduces quality of life. We sought to increase understanding of the mechanisms underlying attention dysfunction using functional neuroimaging. Functional MRI was acquired at two repeated sessions in the resting state and during the Attention Network Test, for 25 non-demented subjects with Parkinson's disease and 21 healthy controls. Behavioral and MRI contrasts were calculated for alerting, orienting, and executive control components of attention. Brain regions showing group differences in attention processing were used as seeds in a functional connectivity analysis of a separate resting state run. Parkinson's disease subjects showed more activation during increased executive challenge in four regions of the dorsal attention and frontoparietal networks, namely right frontal eye field, left and right intraparietal sulcus, and precuneus. In three regions we saw reduced resting state connectivity to the default mode network. Further, whereas higher task activation in the right intraparietal sulcus correlated with reduced resting state connectivity between right intraparietal sulcus and the precuneus in healthy controls, this relationship was absent in Parkinson's disease subjects. Our results suggest that a weakened interaction between the default mode and task positive networks might alter the way in which the executive response is processed in PD.

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PD shows elevated task positive network (TPN) activation in an executive response.

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These regions show lower functional connectivity (FC) with the default network (DN).

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TPN activation and TPN-DN FC are associated in controls, but dissociated in PD.

Sex differences in neurophysiological responses are modulated by attentional aspects of impulse control

The amplitudes of the N2 and P3 components of event-related potentials (ERPs) may be influenced by personality traits such as impulsivity, and male/female differences may also have an effect. However, few studies have assessed the interaction between personality traits and the sex of the subject in these components. Therefore, in this study we evaluated sex differences in the amplitudes of the N2 and P3 ERP components during a continuous performance task, and their relation to impulse control. Twenty-seven healthy participants were asked to perform an AX-type continuous performance task, also known as a Go/Nogo task, during electroencephalographic recording. Participants then completed the Barratt impulsiveness scale (version 11; BIS-11), and the effortful control (EC) scale to self-report personality measures related to impulse control. We found that in the Nogo condition, males showed significantly larger N2 amplitudes than females in the frontal area. Interestingly, Nogo-N2 amplitudes were positively correlated with BIS-attentional subscale scores, but were negatively correlated with EC-attentional subscale scores, and both correlations were observed only in males. These results suggest that attentional aspects of impulse control modulate Nogo-N2 amplitude only in males. This modulatory effect may be related to a sex-specific inhibitory control mechanism acting during early stimulus evaluation.

Attention capacities of preterm and term born toddlers: A multi-method approach

OBJECTIVE

Many preterm children show difficulties in attention at (pre)school age. The development of attention capacities of preterm and term toddlers was compared using a longitudinal and multi-method approach at 12, 18 and 24months.

METHOD

Attention was measured for 123 preterm (32-36weeks gestation) and 101 term born children, using eye tracking (18months), observations during mother-child interaction (18months), and mother-reports (12, 18, and 24months).

RESULTS

Preterm toddlers had lower scores than term children on the eye-tracking measures of orienting and alerting. No group differences were found with observations, mother-reports, and the eye-tracking measure of executive attention. More preterm than term children had suboptimal scores on measures of the alerting system at 18months, possibly indicating difficulties in attention development.

CONCLUSION

Preterm children showed an increased risk for suboptimal functioning in alerting attention capacities, as early as at a toddler age.

Semantic conflicts are resolved differently by adults with and without ADHD

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurobehavioral disorder characterized by various behavioral and cognitive difficulties. Previous studies indicated that children with ADHD have language difficulties, including difficulties in metaphor understanding but the relation between metaphor processing and specific cognitive functions needs further investigation. In the current study we examined how adults with and without ADHD resolve semantic conflicts between a metaphorical prime and a metaphorical or literal target sentence. Twenty-six adults with ADHD and 24 age-matched control participants underwent a thorough evaluation of neuropsychological skills, as well as assessment of various aspects of attention. Results suggested that people with ADHD were less efficient than controls in resolving conflicts between metaphorical and literal meanings of sentence pairs. In addition they showed deficient sustained attention and executive attention. Moreover, the ability to resolve semantic conflicts was related to semantic fluency in the ADHD group, but to executive attention in the control group. These findings emphasize the various specific difficulties of adults with ADHD and shed light on the different role of attention in the resolution of semantic conflicts among ADHD individuals as compared to controls.

Executive attention control and emotional responding in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder--A functional MRI study

Background

There are suggestions that patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show impairment in executive attention control and emotion regulation. This study investigated emotion regulation as a function of the recruitment of executive attention in patients with ADHD.

Methods

Thirty-five healthy children/adolescents (mean age = 13.91) and twenty-six children/adolescents with ADHD (mean age = 14.53) participated in this fMRI study. They completed the affective Stroop paradigm viewing positive, neutral and negative images under varying cognitive loads. A 3-way ANOVA (diagnosis-by-condition-by-emotion) was conducted on the BOLD response data. Following this, 2 3-way ANOVAs (diagnosis-by-condition-by-emotion) were applied to context-dependent psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) analyses generated from a dorsomedial frontal cortex and an amygdala seed (identified from the BOLD response ANOVA main effects of condition and emotion respectively).

Results

A diagnosis-by-condition interaction within dorsomedial frontal cortex revealed reduced recruitment of dorsomedial frontal cortex as a function of increased task demands in the children/adolescents with ADHD relative to healthy children/adolescents. The level of reduction in recruitment of dorsomedial frontal cortex was significantly correlated with symptom severity (total and hyperactivity) measured by Conner's Parent Report Scale in the children/adolescents with ADHD. In addition, analysis of gPPI data from a dorsomedial frontal cortex seed revealed significant diagnosis-by-condition interactions within lateral frontal cortex; connectivity between dorsomedial frontal cortex and lateral frontal cortex was reduced in the patients with ADHD relative to comparison youth during congruent and incongruent task trials relative to view trials. There were no interactions of group, or main effect of group, within the amygdala in the BOLD response ANOVA (though children/adolescents with ADHD showed increased responses to positive images within temporal cortical regions during task trials; identified by the diagnosis-by-condition-by-emotion interaction). However, analysis of gPPI data from an amygdala seed revealed decreased connectivity between amygdala and lentiform nucleus in the presence of emotional stimuli in children/adolescents with ADHD (diagnosis-by-emotion interaction).

Conclusion

The current study demonstrated disrupted recruitment of regions implicated in executive function and impaired connectivity within those regions in children/adolescents with ADHD. There were also indications of heightened representation of emotional stimuli in patients with ADHD. However, as the findings were specific for positive stimuli, the suggestion of a general failure in emotion regulation in ADHD was not supported.

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ADHD showed decreased dorsomedial frontal cortex activity with increased cognitive demand.

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Decreased dorsomedial frontal cortex activity was correlated with symptom severity of ADHD.

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Connectivity of dorsomedial frontal cortex–lateral frontal cortex was compromised in ADHD.

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ADHD showed increased activities in emotional responding areas to positive emotional stimuli.

Neural correlates of executive attention in adults born very preterm

Very preterm birth is associated with an increased prevalence of attention problems and may especially impair executive attention, i.e., top-down control of attentional selection in situations where distracting information interferes with the processing of task-relevant stimuli. While there are initial findings linking structural brain alterations in preterm-born individuals with attention problems, the functional basis of these problems are not well understood. The present study used an fMRI adaptation of the Attentional Network Test to examine the neural correlates of executive attention in a large sample of N = 86 adults born very preterm and/or with very low birth weight (VP/VLBW), and N = 100 term-born controls. Executive attention was measured by comparing task behavior and brain activations associated with the processing of incongruent vs. congruent arrow flanker stimuli. Consistent with subtle impairments of executive attention, the VP/VLBW group showed lower accuracy and a tendency for increased response times during the processing of incongruent stimuli. Both groups showed similar activation patters, especially within expected fronto-cingulo-parietal areas, but no significant between-group differences. Our results argue for a maintained attention-relevant network organization in high-functioning preterm born adults in spite of subtle deficits in executive attention. Gestational age and neonatal treatment variables showed associations with task behavior, and brain activation in the dorsal ACC and lateral occipital areas, suggesting that the degree of prematurity (and related neonatal complications) has subtle modulatory influences on executive attention processing.

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fMRI study examines neural correlates of executive attention in preterm-born adults.

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Preterm-born adults show subtle behavioral deficits.

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Preterm-born adults show maintained organization of attention-related networks.

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Modulatory effects of gestational age and neonatal treatment variables are observed.

Does cortisol influence core executive functions? A meta-analysis of acute cortisol administration effects on working memory, inhibition, and set-shifting

The hormone cortisol is often believed to play a pivotal role in the effects of stress on human cognition. This meta-analysis is an attempt to determine the effects of acute cortisol administration on core executive functions. Drawing on both rodent and stress literatures, we hypothesized that acute cortisol administration would impair working memory and set-shifting but enhance inhibition. Additionally, because cortisol is thought to exert different nongenomic (rapid) and genomic (slow) effects, we further hypothesized that the effects of cortisol would differ as a function of the delay between cortisol administration and cognitive testing. Although the overall analyses were nonsignificant, after separating the rapid, nongenomic effects of cortisol from the slower, genomic effects of cortisol, the rapid effects of cortisol enhanced response inhibition, g+ = 0.113, p=.016, but impaired working memory, g+ = -0.315, p=.008, although these effects reversed over time. Contrary to our hypotheses, there was no effect of cortisol administration on set-shifting. Thus, although we did not find support for the idea that increases in cortisol influence set-shifting, we found that acute increases in cortisol exert differential effects on working memory and inhibition over time.

Comparing the executive attention of adult females with ADHD to that of females with sensory modulation disorder (SMD) under aversive and non-aversive auditory conditions

Certain behavioral expressions of sensory modulation disorder (SMD) such as distractibility, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are often similar to those of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in pediatric and adult populations. There is also a high comorbidity rate between these two diagnoses and absence of research regarding the objective neuropsychological differentiation between them. In the present study we employed a factorial design which enabled us to: (a) systematically examine the effects of SMD and ADHD on executive attention in a sample of adult females using a Stroop-like task, and (b) measure the effect of aversive conditions (sounds) on executive attention. The experimental measures used were the Stroop-like Location-Direction Task (SLDT) to assess executive attention and the battery of aversiveness to sounds (BAS), a standardized measure of aversive sounds that was developed for this study and enabled individual customization of aversive auditory sounds. Results revealed, as expected, a specific core deficit in executive attention for the ADHD factor. In addition to that, the present study provides an important, pioneering finding of SMD impairment in a unique combination of a cognitively demanding task with aversive sounds, providing preliminary objective evidence differentiating SMD from ADHD.

The impact of attentional training on the salivary cortisol and alpha amylase response to psychosocial stress: importance of attentional control

INTRODUCTION

This study examined the effects of three consecutive days of attentional training on the salivary alpha amylase (sAA), cortisol, and mood response to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The training was designed to elicit faster disengagement of attention away from threatening facial expressions and faster shifts of attention toward positive ones.

METHOD

Fifty-six healthy participants between the ages of 18 and 30 participated in a double-blind, within-subject experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three attentional training conditions - supraliminal training: pictures shown with full conscious awareness, masked training: stimuli presented with limited conscious awareness, or control training: both supraliminal and masked pictures shown but no shifting of attention required. Following training, participants underwent the TSST. Self-reported mood and saliva samples were collected for the determination of emotional reactivity, cortisol, and sAA in response to stress post-training.

RESULTS

Unexpectedly, participants in both attentional training groups exhibited a higher salivary cortisol response to the TSST relative to participants who underwent the control training, F (4, 86)=4.07, p=.005, ηp(2)=.16. Supraliminal training was also associated with enhanced sAA reactivity, F (2, 44)=13.90, p=.000, ηp(2)=.38, and a more hostile mood response (p=.021), to the TSST. Interestingly, the effect of attention training on the cortisol response to stress was more robust in those with high attentional control than those with low attentional control (β=-0.134; t=-2.24, p=.03).

CONCLUSION

This is among the first experimental manipulations to demonstrate that attentional training can elicit a paradoxical increase in three different markers of stress reactivity. These findings suggest that attentional training, in certain individuals, can have iatrogenic effects.

A combined effect of two Alzheimer's risk genes on medial temporal activity during executive attention in young adults

A recent history of failed clinical trials suggests that waiting until even the early stages of onset of Alzheimer's disease may be too late for effective treatment, pointing to the importance of early intervention in young people. Early intervention will require markers of Alzheimer's risk that track with genotype but are capable of responding to treatment. Here, we sought to identify a functional MRI signature of combined Alzheimer's risk imparted by two genetic risk factors. We used a task of executive attention during fMRI in participants genotyped for two Alzheimer's risk alleles: APOE-ε4 and CLU-C. Executive attention is a sensitive indicator of the progression of Alzheimer's even in the early stages of mild cognitive impairment, but has not yet been investigated as a marker of Alzheimer's risk in young adults. Functional MRI revealed that APOE-ε4 and CLU-C had an additive effect on brain activity such that increased combined genetic risk was associated with decreased brain activity during executive attention, including in the medial temporal lobe, a brain area affected early in Alzheimer's pathogenesis.