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10.1097/chi.0b013e318157cb3b

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Long-term effects of methylphenidate on neural networks associated with executive attention in children with ADHD: results from a longitudinal functional MRI study.

Little is known about the long-term effects of stimulants on the functional organization of the developing brain. Nonacute effects of stimulants on neural activity related to three aspects of attention (alerting, reorienting, and executive control) were examined in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using a longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging approach. Nine boys with ADHD were scanned while drug naïve (t1) and after 1 year of methylphenidate treatment (t2). Eleven matched controls were also investigated twice. ADHD children stopped medication 1 week before t2. Although all of the children showed stable alerting and reorienting performance from t1 to t2, normal controls significantly improved their executive control performance at t2, whereas children with ADHD did not. Neurally, controls showed a larger increase in neural activity from t1 to t2 in regions critical to task performance (i.e., in the temporoparietal junction during reorienting of attention and in the anterior cingulate cortex during executive control) compared to the patient group. However, only children with ADHD showed a decrease in neural activity in the insula and putamen during reorienting, indicating a reduction in compensatory brain activation over time. These data suggest that 1 year of MPH treatment may be beneficial, albeit insufficient, to show enduring normalization of neural correlates of attention.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1073/pnas.0708803104

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Selective changes of resting-state networks in individuals at risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that prominently affects cerebral connectivity. Assessing the functional connectivity at rest, recent functional MRI (fMRI) studies reported on the existence of resting-state networks (RSNs). RSNs are characterized by spatially coherent, spontaneous fluctuations in the blood oxygen level-dependent signal and are made up of regional patterns commonly involved in functions such as sensory, attention, or default mode processing. In AD, the default mode network (DMN) is affected by reduced functional connectivity and atrophy. In this work, we analyzed functional and structural MRI data from healthy elderly (n = 16) and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) (n = 24), a syndrome of high risk for developing AD. Two questions were addressed: (i) Are any RSNs altered in aMCI? (ii) Do changes in functional connectivity relate to possible structural changes? Independent component analysis of resting-state fMRI data identified eight spatially consistent RSNs. Only selected areas of the DMN and the executive attention network demonstrated reduced network-related activity in the patient group. Voxel-based morphometry revealed atrophy in both medial temporal lobes (MTL) of the patients. The functional connectivity between both hippocampi in the MTLs and the posterior cingulate of the DMN was present in healthy controls but absent in patients. We conclude that in individuals at risk for AD, a specific subset of RSNs is altered, likely representing effects of ongoing early neurodegeneration. We interpret our finding as a proof of principle, demonstrating that functional brain disorders can be characterized by functional-disconnectivity profiles of RSNs.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

Hospitals & health networks

Hosp Health Netw

Datapage. Supply chain IT getting executive attention.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.bandc.2007.08.003

Brain and cognition

Brain Cogn

Selective attention in early Dementia of Alzheimer Type.

This study explored possible deficits in selective attention brought about by Dementia of Alzheimer Type (DAT). In three experiments, we tested patients with early DAT, healthy elderly, and young adults under low memory demands to assess perceptual filtering, conflict resolution, and set switching abilities. We found no evidence of impaired perceptual filtering nor evidence of impaired conflict resolution in early DAT. In contrast, early DAT patients did exhibit a global cost in set switching consistent with an inability to maintain the goals of the task (mental set). We discuss these findings in relation to the DAT literature on executive attention, dual-tasking, and working memory.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.pnpbp.2007.08.021

Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry

Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry

Deficits in auditory P50 inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is considered to involve abnormalities in inhibitory processes including gating systems. Auditory P50 inhibition, which is assessed by using a paired auditory stimulus paradigm to record P50 mid-latency evoked potential, is assumed to reflect sensory gating. In the present study, we investigated auditory P50 inhibition in subjects with OCD, and examined the relationship between P50 and clinical variables or neuropsychological performance. Twenty-six subjects with OCD and 26 age- and sex-matched healthy controls received P50 recording and neuropsychological tests. In the OCD subjects, we also evaluated clinical features including OC symptoms and subtypes of the disorder. P50 T/C ratios were significantly higher in OCD subjects than in control subjects (t=2.9, df=50, p=0.006). Compared to the controls, the OCD subjects performed significantly worse on the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and the Trail Making Test (TMT). There were no correlations between P50 T/C ratios and clinical variables or the results of neuropsychological tests. Our findings suggest that sensory gating deficits may be involved in the pathophysiology of OCD in a different way from clinical symptoms and executive attention dysfunction.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1080/09602010600892824

Neuropsychological rehabilitation

Neuropsychol Rehabil

Elaborated spaced-retrieval and prospective memory in mild Alzheimer's disease.

Prospective memory, or the timely remembering of a planned action, is conceptualised as a cognitive process demanding episodic memory and executive attention. Impairments in these skills are characteristic of the cognitive decline in early Alzheimer's disease, providing an expectation of prominent prospective memory difficulties in this population, and yet surprisingly, memory performance in early Alzheimer's disease has rarely been evaluated within a prospective memory framework. In a preliminary study we demonstrated that older adults with early Alzheimer's disease (n=14), as compared to healthy older adults (n=14), were significantly impaired in a simple experimental paradigm of prospective remembering (a text-reading task). In a subsequent intervention study, we investigated the efficacy of spaced-retrieval for improving the prospective remembering performance of older adults with early Alzheimer's disease (n=16) compared to healthy older adults (n=16) under two learning conditions: a spaced-retrieval technique alone or spaced-retrieval combined with elaborated encoding of task. The majority of the Alzheimer's disease group (63%) demonstrated benefit in prospective remembering in the combined condition as compared to spaced-retrieval alone. Participants with Alzheimer's disease who demonstrated better executive attention (Trail Making- set-shifting) and/or better retrospective memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised- recognition) were more successful in the combined learning condition.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1080/13825580600977224

Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence

Child Neuropsychol

The vigilance, orienting, and executive attention networks in 4-year-old children.

The present study examined the development of lower and higher order forms of attention during the preschool years. Lower forms of attention were assessed with tasks that primarily engaged the attention functions of vigilance and orienting. Higher, executive forms of attention were assessed with tasks that involved inhibition and working memory. The findings revealed that performance improved significantly with age on measures of inhibition and orienting. Results are discussed in the context of the development of attentional networks.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1037/0894-4105.21.5.540

Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology

The relationship between specific cognitive functions and falls in aging.

The current study examined the relationship between cognitive function and falls in older people who did not meet criteria for dementia or mild cognitive impairment (N = 172). To address limitations of previous research, the authors controlled for the confounding effects of gait measures and other risk factors by means of associations between cognitive function and falls. A neuropsychological test battery was submitted to factor analysis, yielding 3 orthogonal factors (Verbal IQ, Speed/Executive Attention, Memory). Single and recurrent falls within the last 12 months were evaluated. The authors hypothesized that Speed/Executive Attention would be associated with falls. Additionally, the authors assessed whether associations between different cognitive functions and falls varied depending on whether single or recurrent falls were examined. Multivariate logistic regressions showed that lower scores on Speed/Executive Attention were associated with increased risk of single and recurrent falls. Lower scores on Verbal IQ were related only to increased risk of recurrent falls. Memory was not associated with either single or recurrent falls. These findings are relevant to risk assessment and prevention of falls and point to possible shared neural substrates of cognitive and motor function.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1089/acm.2007.7022

Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.)

J Altern Complement Med

Effects of level of meditation experience on attentional focus: is the efficiency of executive or orientation networks improved?

The present investigation examined the contributions of specific attentional networks to long-term trait effects of meditation. It was hypothesized that meditation could improve the efficiency of executive processing (inhibits prepotent/incorrect responses) or orientational processing (orients to specific objects in the attentional field). Participants (50 meditators and 10 controls) were given the Stroop (measures executive attention) and Global-Local Letters (measures orientational attention) tasks. Results showed that meditation experience was associated with reduced interference on the Stroop task (p < 0.03), in contrast with a lack of effect on interference in the Global-Local Letters task. This suggests that meditation produces long-term increases in the efficiency of the executive attentional network (anterior cingulate/prefrontal cortex) but no effect on the orientation network (parietal systems). The amount of time participants spent meditating each day, rather than the total number of hours of meditative practice over their lifetime, was negatively correlated with interference on the Stroop task (r = -0.31, p < 0.005).

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.3758/bf03194058

Psychonomic bulletin & review

Psychon Bull Rev

Improving the writing skills of college students.

Advanced writing skills are an important aspect of academic performance as well as of subsequent work-related performance. However, American students rarely attain advanced scores on assessments of writing skills (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2002). In order to achieve higher levels of writing performance, the working memory demands of writing processes should be reduced so that executive attention is free to coordinate interactions among them. This can in theory be achieved through deliberate practice that trains writers to develop executive control through repeated opportunities to write and through timely and relevant feedback. Automated essay scoring software may offer a way to alleviate the intensive grading demands placed on instructors and, thereby, substantially increase the amount of writing practice that students receive.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01948.x

Psychological science

Psychol Sci

For whom the mind wanders, and when: an experience-sampling study of working memory and executive control in daily life.

An experience-sampling study of 124 undergraduates, pretested on complex memory-span tasks, examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and the experience of mind wandering in daily life. Over 7 days, personal digital assistants signaled subjects eight times daily to report immediately whether their thoughts had wandered from their current activity, and to describe their psychological and physical context. WMC moderated the relation between mind wandering and activities' cognitive demand. During challenging activities requiring concentration and effort, higher-WMC subjects maintained on-task thoughts better, and mind-wandered less, than did lower-WMC subjects. The results were therefore consistent with theories of WMC emphasizing the role of executive attention and control processes in determining individual differences and their cognitive consequences.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2007.05.001

Biological psychology

Biol Psychol

Neurophysiological mechanisms in the emotional modulation of attention: the interplay between threat sensitivity and attentional control.

Processing task-irrelevant emotional information may compromise attention performance, particularly among those showing elevated threat sensitivity. If threat-sensitive individuals are able to recruit attentional control to inhibit emotional processing, however, they may show few decrements in attention performance. To examine this hypothesis, attention performance was measured in three domains--alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Task-irrelevant fearful, sad, and happy faces were presented for 50 ms before each trial of the attention task to create a mildly competitive emotional context. Electroencephalographic recordings were made from 64 scalp electrodes to generate event-related potentials (ERPs) to the faces. Participants reporting high threat sensitivity showed enhanced ERPs thought to reflect emotional processing (P200) and attentional control (P100 and N200). Enhanced N200 following fearful faces was linked to sustained and even slightly improved executive attention performance (reduced conflict interference) among high threat-sensitive individuals, but with decrements in executive attention among low threat-sensitive individuals. Results are discussed in terms of cognitive processing efficiency and the balance between threat sensitivity and attentional control in relation to executive attention performance. Results may have implications for understanding automatic and voluntary attentional biases related to anxiety.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1002/da.20308

Depression and anxiety

Depress Anxiety

Threat-related attentional biases: an analysis of three attention systems.

It is unclear how threat-related attentional biases affect multiple attention systems. This study used a new modification of a reaction time paradigm to examine whether inter-trial task-irrelevant fearful faces influenced the efficiency of alerting, orienting, and executive attention, and whether effects varied with level of state anxiety. Participants, 63 non-disordered adults (17 males and 46 females), reported on their subjective state anxiety and completed a modified version of the Attention Network Test in which fearful or neutral faces or control stimuli were presented briefly (50 ms) between trials of the task, but provided no task-relevant information. Across all participants, state anxiety was positively correlated with alerting, whereas fearful versus neutral faces were linked to decreased alerting efficiency. Contrasting high and low anxiety groups showed that fearful versus neutral faces reduced executive attention in the low state anxiety group only, suggesting decreased distraction by irrelevant stimuli in the high state anxiety group. Results document threat-related attentional biases that varied with attention system but failed to find enhanced bias effects among those with higher state anxiety in a typical range. This modification of the Attention Network Test, which added presentation of emotional distracters, provides a potentially useful new method for assessing the impact of task-irrelevant emotional stimuli on three aspects of attention performance.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1080/09297040600770787

Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence

Child Neuropsychol

Computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program: effective direct intervention for children with ADHD.

We tested the efficacy of a pioneering intervention program grounded in a contemporary theoretical framework of attention and designed to directly improve the various attentional functions of children with ADHD. The computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program is composed of four sets of structured tasks that uniquely activate sustained attention, selective attention, orienting of attention, and executive attention. Performance was driven by tight schedules of feedback and participants automatically advanced in ordered levels of difficulty contingent upon performance. Twenty 6- to 13-year-old children with ADHD were assigned to the experimental group and received the CPAT sessions twice a week over an 8-week period. Sixteen age-matched control children with ADHD were assigned to the control group and participated in sessions of the same frequency, length, and format except that instead of performing the training tasks they played various computer games during the session. The experimental participants showed a significant improvement in nontrained measures of reading comprehension, and passage copying as well as a significant reduction of parents' reports of inattentiveness. No significant improvements were observed in the control group. We thus concluded that the above academic and attentional improvements were primarily due to the CPAT.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.brainres.2007.03.007

Brain research

Brain Res

Activity of attention related structures in multiple sclerosis patients.

It was investigated whether the cortical activity during tasks requiring focused or divided attention is reduced in multiple sclerosis patients with prominent deficits (MS(+D)) and increased in patients without impairment (MS(-D)) in these specific attention functions. Six MS(+D) patients with attention deficits, six unimpaired MS(-D) patients, and age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy control subjects were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The experimental paradigm consisted of visual tasks requiring focused or divided attention. Performance accuracy and reaction times were impaired in MS(+D) patients. This subgroup showed reduced activation within superior and inferior frontal gyrus during focused attention. Under conditions of divided attention decreased activity was found within middle and inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal structures, and occipital areas. No compensatory activity was observed. MS(-D) patients did neither differ in behavioral data nor in cortical activity in attention related structures from control subjects. The study found evidence for the neural correlate of attentional deficits in MS patients. In patients with specific attention deficits, reduced cortical activity in prefrontal and parietal areas, which are associated with attention and executive control, reflects the patients' reduced performance on a behavioral level. Our findings also suggest impaired top-down attentional control on sensory structures in these patients. In patients without verifiable attention deficits a normal functioning of structures relevant for executive attention was observed. Compensatory activity in these structures as a marker of reorganization in less pronounced stages of the disease was not found.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2007.02.006

International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology

Int J Psychophysiol

Emotional face processing and attention performance in three domains: neurophysiological mechanisms and moderating effects of trait anxiety.

The rapid processing of emotional information adaptively regulates the allocation of attention, but may also divert resources away from attention performance, particularly for those showing elevated anxiety. The temporal organization of rapid emotional processing and its implications for attention performance, however, remain unclear. Participants were 18 healthy adults (12 females) who reported on trait anxiety. Tasks-irrelevant fearful, sad, and neutral faces were presented for 50 ms prior to each trial of a cued attention task measuring alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Electroencephalographic recordings were made from 64 scalp electrodes to generate event-related potentials (ERPs) to faces. Emotional face type and trait anxiety modulated ERP responses at three early stages around 200 ms, 250 ms, and 320 ms. Although behavioral findings showed enhanced orienting and executive attention following presentation of fearful and sad faces, the degree to which these faces modulated ERP responses, particularly around 250 ms, interfered with orienting and executive attention in the high trait anxiety group, and enhanced alerting in the low trait anxiety group. Results are discussed in terms of mechanisms in the emotional capture of attention and implications for understanding attentional processes in anxiety.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1176/ajp.2007.164.2.309

The American journal of psychiatry

Am J Psychiatry

Different psychophysiological and behavioral responses elicited by frustration in pediatric bipolar disorder and severe mood dysregulation.

Researchers disagree as to whether irritability is a diagnostic indicator for pediatric mania in bipolar disorder. The authors compared the behavioral and psychophysiological correlates of irritability among children with severe mood dysregulation (i.e., nonepisodic irritability and hyperarousal without episodes of euphoric mood) and narrow-phenotype bipolar disorder (i.e., a history of at least one manic or hypomanic episode with euphoric mood) as well as those with no diagnosis (i.e., healthy comparison children). Subjects with severe mood dysregulation (N=21) or narrow-phenotype bipolar disorder (N=35) and comparison subjects (N=26) completed the affective Posner task, an attentional task that manipulated emotional demands and induced frustration. Mood response, behavior (reaction time and accuracy), and brain activity (event-related potentials) were measured. The severe mood dysregulation and narrow-phenotype bipolar disorder groups both reported significantly more arousal than comparison subjects during frustration, but behavioral and psychophysiological performance differed between the patient groups. In the frustration condition, children with narrow-phenotype bipolar disorder had lower P3 amplitude than children with severe mood dysregulation or comparison subjects, reflecting impairments in executive attention. Regardless of emotional context, children with severe mood dysregulation had lower N1 event-related potential amplitude than comparison subjects or children with narrow-phenotype bipolar disorder, reflecting impairments in the initial stages of attention. Post hoc analyses demonstrated that the N1 deficit in children with severe mood dysregulation is associated with oppositional defiant disorder symptom severity. Results indicate that while irritability is an important feature of severe mood dysregulation and narrow-phenotype bipolar disorder, the pathophysiology of irritability may differ among the groups and is influenced by oppositional defiant disorder severity.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1300/J229v07n04_08

Journal of trauma & dissociation : the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD)

J Trauma Dissociation

The relationship between executive attention and dissociation in children.

Dissociation involves disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, and perception. Recent research with adults suggests that dissociation is associated with alterations in attention. Little work, however, has examined the attentional correlates of dissociation in childhood. This study is the first to investigate the specificity of cognitive functions related to dissociation in children. Twenty-four 5- to 8-year-old foster children completed several subtests of the NEPSY: A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (Korkman, Kirk, & Kemp, 1998) in the Executive Functioning/ Attention domain. Foster caregivers completed the Child Dissociative Checklist (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986). Consistent with the adult literature, higher levels of childhood dissociation were associated with deficits in tasks requiring inhibition, but not with tasks requiring primarily planning, strategy, or multiple rule sets.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.neunet.2006.08.004

Neural networks : the official journal of the International Neural Network Society

Neural Netw

Analyzing and shaping human attentional networks.

In this paper we outline a conception of attentional networks arising from imaging studies as connections between activated brain areas carrying out localized mental operations. We consider both the areas of functional activation (nodes) and the structural (DTI) and functional connections (DCM) between them in real time (EEG, frequency analysis) as important tools in analyzing the network. The efficiency of network function involves the time course of activation of nodes and their connectivity to other areas of the network. We outline landmarks in the development of brain networks underlying executive attention from infancy and childhood. We use individual differences in network efficiency to examine genetic alleles that are related to performance. We consider how animal studies might be used to determine the genes that influence network development. Finally we indicate how training may aid in enhancing attentional networks. Our goal is to show the wide range of methods that can be used to suggest and analyze models of network function in the study of attention.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1176/jnp.2006.18.3.333

The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences

J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci

Neuropsychological and neurobehavioral correlates of aggression following traumatic brain injury.

This study aimed to establish the neuropsychological and neurobehavioral profile of individuals who develop aggression following traumatic brain injury. In a prospective cohort study, 134 brain-injured individuals who exhibited aggression were compared to 153 individuals who had sustained comparable injuries but were not aggressive. In the aggressive group, specific deficits were identified in verbal memory and visuo-perceptual skills. Compared to normative data, this group had impaired executive-attention function. It is tentatively suggested that significant impairment in verbal memory and visuospatial abilities against a background of diminished executive-attention functioning is associated with the development of aggression after brain injury, especially when other risk factors such as low premorbid IQ, low socioeconomic status, and male gender are present.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.3758/cabn.6.1.71

Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

Evaluation of a structural polymorphism in the ankyrin repeat and kinase domain containing 1 (ANKK1) gene and the activation of executive attention networks.

The specificity of genetic effects on brain activation is a central issue in understanding how molecular actions at the synapse relate to anatomic patterns of brain activity. In an effort to understand the basis for the specificity of gene-associated brain activity, we explore a well-studied genetic polymorphism, TaqIA, which lies downstream of the DRD2 gene in the protein-encoding region of a neighboring gene, ANKK1, which is not expressed in the brain. We utilize the attention network test and find that carriers of the A1 allele show gene-associated functional activation in an anatomically specific, dopamine-rich region of the brain comprising the anterior cingulate gyrus, a finding partially consistent with prior data from functional imaging genetics. A review of the patterns of expression for ANKK1 and DRD2 and the extent of linkage disequilibrium between the two genes sheds light on additional criteria for the selection of candidate genes in imaging-genetic studies.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2006.05.021

Early human development

Early Hum Dev

Executive functions in school-age children born very prematurely.

School-age preterm children are at risk for cognitive difficulties including Executive Dysfunction and low average IQ. The aim of this study was to determine the performance of very preterm, school-age children on three components of Executive Function (EF), two components of Executive Attention and a measure of IQ. Cross-sectional, independent samples comparison. A UK sample of 40 very preterm (<32 weeks gestational age, Mean 28.43, SD 2.41) children and 41 term born control children aged between 6 and 12 years (mean ages 8 years 5 months in both groups) was assessed on IQ, EF (inhibition, working memory and set shifting) and attention (sustained and selective). Between group comparisons were made using multivariate analysis of variance and covariance. Multivariate analyses indicated that preterm children scored significantly lower than their term born peers across Executive Function and executive attention tasks. As expected, the preterm group achieved IQ scores at the low end of the average range. Univariate analyses indicated some difficulties with shifting and inhibition components of EF, although covariate analysis revealed that only shifting was independent of IQ. Preterm children showed mild executive function and executive attention difficulties in the context of average IQ scores. The findings highlight the benefit of using multivariate assessments of executive skills rather than general intellectual outcome alone, to obtain a better distinction of the specific cognitive weaknesses associated with preterm birth.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.jpsychires.2006.05.005

Journal of psychiatric research

J Psychiatr Res

The differential impact of executive attention dysfunction on episodic memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder patients with checking symptoms vs. those with washing symptoms.

Neuropsychological studies of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have pointed to memory and attention deficits among its sufferers, but these reports have largely ignored the possibility that cognitive disturbances may vary across OCD clinical subtypes, or that their interactions may differ between subtypes. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether "checkers" and "washers" demonstrate differences in their memory and executive attention function. Fifty-three outpatients with primary DSM-IV diagnosis of OCD with typical checking (n=27) or washing (n=26) rituals participated in the study. Patients were administered the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery to assess executive attention function. Various neuropsychological tests were then subjected to factor analysis. Neuropsychological test results and obtained factor scores were compared between "washers" and "checkers". Effects of these factor scores on memory by OCD subtypes were examined. No significant difference in terms of demographic and clinical variables was found between the two groups. Checkers displayed performance deficits on Stroop test, Trail Making Test, GO/NO GO test (commission errors) and category fluency. Three factors, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and multi-tasking, were obtained. Statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups on the inhibition and the cognitive flexibility scores, but not on the general memory or the multi-tasking score. There was a statistically significant interaction between groups and the inhibition score. Only among "checkers", a significant correlation was noted between the inhibition factor and the general memory, while no such correlation was observed among "washers". Among "checkers", poor general memory was related to inhibition deficits.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1037/0278-7393.32.4.749

Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition

J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn

Working memory capacity and the top-down control of visual search: Exploring the boundaries of "executive attention".

The executive attention theory of working memory capacity (WMC) proposes that measures of WMC broadly predict higher order cognitive abilities because they tap important and general attention capabilities (R. W. Engle & M. J. Kane, 2004). Previous research demonstrated WMC-related differences in attention tasks that required restraint of habitual responses or constraint of conscious focus. To further specify the executive attention construct, the present experiments sought boundary conditions of the WMC-attention relation. Three experiments correlated individual differences in WMC, as measured by complex span tasks, and executive control of visual search. In feature-absence search, conjunction search, and spatial configuration search, WMC was unrelated to search slopes, although they were large and reliably measured. Even in a search task designed to require the volitional movement of attention (J. M. Wolfe, G. A. Alvarez, & T. S. Horowitz, 2000), WMC was irrelevant to performance. Thus, WMC is not associated with all demanding or controlled attention processes, which poses problems for some general theories of WMC.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1037/0894-4105.20.2.215

Neuropsychology

Neuropsychology

Cognitive processes related to gait velocity: results from the Einstein Aging Study.

The authors examined the relationship between cognition and gait velocity, performed with and without interference, in elderly participants. Neuropsychological test scores from 186 cognitively normal elders were submitted to factor analysis that yielded 3 factors: Verbal IQ, Speed/Executive Attention, and Memory. Regression analyses revealed that these factors were significant predictors of variance in gait velocity, but the relationship varied as a function of task condition. All 3 factors predicted gait velocity without interference. However, the Speed/Executive Attention and Memory factors but not Verbal IQ predicted gait velocity in the interference condition. These findings suggest that gait velocity and cognitive function may have both shared and independent brain substrates. Future studies should explore gait velocity and cognitive function as predictors of dementia and falls.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1097/01.smj.0000198270.52240.93

Southern medical journal

South Med J

Soap operas and talk shows on television are associated with poorer cognition in older women.

No information exists regarding whether a favorite television category choice affects attention, memory, or cognition among older women. Cross-sectional data from a population-based community sample of 289 older cognitively and physically intact women who were surveyed about television use. The cognitive battery included measures of psychomotor speed, executive attention, immediate and delayed verbal memory, and global cognition. Talk shows (P < 0.05) or soap operas (P < 0.05) as a favorite television category were consistently associated with poorer scores on all cognitive outcomes in both unadjusted and adjusted analyses. Clinically significant cognitive impairment across domains were associated with watching talk shows (OR = 7.3; 95% CI = 1.9, 28.4) and soap operas (OR = 13.5; 95% CI = 3.7, 49.5). Clinical interviews can incorporate questions about television viewing habits. Endorsements of talk shows or soap operas as frequent and favored television programming may identify those at risk for cognitive impairment and targets for further cognitive screening.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1152/jn.00730.2005

Journal of neurophysiology

J Neurophysiol

Direct recording of theta oscillations in primate prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices.

Recent evidence has suggested that theta-frequency (4-7 Hz) oscillations around the human anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and frontal cortex--that is, frontal midline theta (Fm theta) oscillations--may be involved in attentional processes in the brain. However, little is known about the physiological basis of Fm theta oscillations because invasive study in the human is allowed in only limited cases. In the present study, we developed a monkey model for Fm theta oscillations and located the generators of theta waves using electrodes implanted in various cortical areas. Monkeys were engaged in a self-initiated hand-movement task with a waiting period. The theta power in area 9 (the medial prefrontal cortex) and area 32 (the rostral ACC) was gradually increased from a few seconds before the movement and reached a peak immediately after the movement. When the movement was rewarded, the theta power attained a second peak, whereas it swiftly decreased in the unrewarded trials. Theta oscillations in areas 9 and 32 were coherent and phase locked together. This theta activity may be associated with "executive attention" including self-control, internal timing, and assessment of reward. It is probably a homologue of human Fm theta oscillations, as judged from the similar localization, corresponding frequency, and dependency on attentional processes. The monkey model would be useful for studying executive functions in the frontal cortex.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1080/13803390490918101

Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology

J Clin Exp Neuropsychol

Attention network dysfunction and treatment response of geriatric depression.

The Attention Network Test was used to assess the efficiency of the executive, orienting and vigilance attention networks and their association to treatment response in older patients with major depression. There were no significant performance differences between depressives and controls. However, within the depressed group, executive-related performance, but not orienting- or vigilance-related performance was correlated with time to remission. The association of executive-attention network efficiency and antidepressant response provides the background for focused structural and functional neuroimaging studies aimed at identifying the functional neuroanatomy of antidepressant response.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1017/S1355617706060097

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

Neuropsychological and sensory gating deficits related to remote alcohol abuse history in schizophrenia.

Recent evidence suggests that changes in brain structure associated with alcohol abuse are compounded in individuals dually diagnosed with alcohol abuse and schizophrenia. To investigate the separate, and possibly interacting, effects of these diagnoses, an event-related brain potential (ERP) measure of auditory information processing (P50 sensory gating paradigm) and neuropsychological measures were administered to healthy control participants with either (1a) no history of alcohol abuse/dependence, or (1b) a remote history of alcohol abuse/dependence, and patients with schizophrenia with either (2a) no history of alcohol abuse/dependence, or (2b) a remote history of alcohol abuse/dependence. Schizophrenia was associated with impaired P50 sensory gating and poorer performance across neuropsychological scores compared to measurements in healthy control participants. Those with a positive alcohol history had impaired gating ratios in contrast to those with a negative alcohol history. There were additive effects of schizophrenia diagnosis and alcohol history for P50 sensory gating and for neuropsychological scores: attention, working memory, and behavioral inhibition. For executive attention and general memory there was an interaction, suggesting that the combination of schizophrenia and history of alcohol abuse results in greater impairment than that predicted by the presence of either diagnosis alone.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1002/cd.142

New directions for child and adolescent development

New Dir Child Adolesc Dev

Genes and experience in the development of executive attention and effortful control.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1073/pnas.0507522102

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Educating executive attention.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.08.013

Biological psychiatry

Biol Psychiatry

Dysfunctional attentional networks in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: evidence from an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Although there is evidence for attentional dysfunction in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the neural basis of these deficits remains poorly understood. We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain activations related to three particular aspects of attention: alerting, reorienting, and executive control. Sixteen medication-naive boys with ADHD and 16 healthy boys, aged 8 to 12 years, were studied. Behaviorally, children with ADHD showed a significant impairment only in their executive control system compared to healthy subjects. Neurally, children with ADHD (relative to controls) recruited deviant brain regions for all three attentional networks: less right-sided activation in the anterior cingulate gyrus during alerting, more fronto-striatal-insular activation during reorienting, and less fronto-striatal activation for executive control. ADHD symptom severity was associated with dysregulation of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal within the putamen during reorienting and executive control. Our results demonstrated altered brain mechanism in ADHD associated with all three attentional networks investigated. For alerting and executive attention, our data indicate a deviant mechanism of cortical control, while ADHD children may have adopted altered strategies for reorienting of attention. Our results also stress the etiological role of functional abnormalities in the putamen in medication-naive ADHD.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1073/pnas.0506897102

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Training, maturation, and genetic influences on the development of executive attention.

A neural network underlying attentional control involves the anterior cingulate in addition to lateral prefrontal areas. An important development of this network occurs between 3 and 7 years of age. We have examined the efficiency of attentional networks across age and after 5 days of attention training (experimental group) compared with different types of no training (control groups) in 4-year-old and 6-year-old children. Strong improvement in executive attention and intelligence was found from ages 4 to 6 years. Both 4- and 6-year-olds showed more mature performance after the training than did the control groups. This finding applies to behavioral scores of the executive attention network as measured by the attention network test, event-related potentials recorded from the scalp during attention network test performance, and intelligence test scores. We also documented the role of the temperamental factor of effortful control and the DAT1 gene in individual differences in attention. Overall, our data suggest that the executive attention network appears to develop under strong genetic control, but that it is subject to educational interventions during development.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.schres.2005.01.019

Schizophrenia research

Schizophr Res

Selective impairment of attentional networks of orienting and executive control in schizophrenia.

Difficulty attending is a common deficit of schizophrenic patients. However, it is not known whether this is a global attentional deficit or relates to a specific attentional network. This study used the attention network test to compare schizophrenic patients (N=77) with controls (N=53) on the efficiency of three anatomically defined attentional networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control. Schizophrenic patients showed a large and highly significant deficit in the executive network and a smaller but significant deficit in the orienting network as well as in overall RT and accuracy. There was no deficit in the alerting network. These results suggest some specificity in the attentional networks influenced by the disorder. The executive attention network has been shown in normal subjects to activate the anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal areas. Previous data using neuroimaging with schizophrenic patients has shown abnormal control by the anterior cingulate. Our findings support this previous research by indicating that the major attentional deficit in schizophrenic patients is in a network that includes the anterior cingulate.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1207/s15326942dn2802_2

Developmental neuropsychology

Dev Neuropsychol

The development of executive attention: contributions to the emergence of self-regulation.

Over the past decade, developmental studies have established connections between executive attention, as studied in neurocognitive models, and effortful control, a temperament system supporting the emergence of self-regulation. Functions associated with the executive attention network overlap with the more general domain of executive function in childhood, which also includes working memory, planning, switching, and inhibitory control (Welch, 2001). Cognitive tasks used with adults to study executive attention can be adapted to children and used with questionnaires to trace the role of attention and effortful control in the development of self-regulation. In this article we focus on the monitoring and control functions of attention and discuss its contributions to self-regulation from cognitive, temperamental, and biological perspectives.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1159/000087096

Neuropsychobiology

Neuropsychobiology

Catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism in schizophrenia: associations with cognitive and motor impairment.

Cognitive and motor deficits have been proposed as markers of abnormal neurodevelopment in schizophrenia and have been associated with genetic liability. In a multicenter study involving 106 subjects, 56 with deficit schizophrenia and 50 with nondeficit schizophrenia, we tested the hypothesis that the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val(158)Met polymorphism is associated with cognitive and motor deficits either in schizophrenia as a whole or in its deficit subtype. The COMT Val(158)Met polymorphism shared 6.6% of the executive/attention dysfunction variance in patients with schizophrenia and 15.6% of the motor impairment variance in patients with deficit schizophrenia. These results support the hypothesis that the COMT Val(158)Met polymorphism influences executive functions in schizophrenia and the neuromotor performance in the deficit subtype only.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1007/s00115-005-1951-4

Der Nervenarzt

Nervenarzt

[Attention and executive functions in patients with severe obesity. A controlled study using the Attention Network Test].

In this paper, attention and temperament are compared between 41 severely obese patients with psychiatric comorbidity and 45 control persons. Networks of attention were assessed by the Attention Network Test: alerting (ability to achieve and maintain an alert state), orienting (ability to orient to a stimulus), and executive attention (ability to resolve conflict). According to hypotheses, obese patients show reduced executive attention, more effortful control, and higher negative affectivity than controls. The concept of attention networks is related to cognitive mechanisms of self-regulation, opening new perspectives for understanding psychiatric disorders.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.03.001

Biological psychology

Biol Psychol

Motivated executive attention--incentives and the noise-compatibility effect.

The motivational context is an important variable in experimental research. The present study investigates the effects of reward and punishment on performance in a noise-compatibility-task [Eriksen, B.A., Eriksen, C.W., 1974. Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task. Perception and Psychophysics 16 (1), 143-149]. Flanking distractors indicated a response, which was identical, undefined, or opposite to the appropriate response indicated by the central target. At the beginning of each trial a cue specified positive, negative or no reinforcement in order to elicit three different motivational states: approach, avoidance and a non-reinforced neutral state. Fifty-three subjects (aged 20-27 years) participated. Incompatibility effects on reaction times and percentage errors were analysed as a function of motivational state, as were the effects on two ERPs, the lateralised readines potential (LRP) and the N2. Error and LRP data showed effects of reinforcement only when incompatible distractors were present, which indicates that controlled processing depends on the motivational context. In contrast to previous findings, the N2 was not found to depend on response conflict.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.11.054

NeuroImage

Neuroimage

Functional MRI BOLD response to Tower of London performance of first-episode schizophrenia patients using cortical pattern matching.

Due to its three-dimensional folding pattern, the human neocortex poses a challenge for accurate co-registration of grouped functional brain imaging data. The present study addressed this problem by employing three-dimensional continuum-mechanical image-warping techniques to derive average anatomical representations for co-registration of functional magnetic resonance brain imaging data obtained from 10 male first-episode schizophrenia patients and 10 age-matched male healthy volunteers while they performed a version of the Tower of London task. This novel technique produced an equivalent representation of blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response across hemispheres, cortical regions, and groups, respectively, when compared to intensity average co-registration, using a deformable Brodmann area atlas as anatomical reference. Somewhat closer association of Brodmann area boundaries with primary visual and auditory areas was evident using the gyral pattern average model. Statistically-thresholded BOLD cluster data confirmed predominantly bilateral prefrontal and parietal, right frontal and dorsolateral prefrontal, and left occipital activation in healthy subjects, while patients' hemispheric dominance pattern was diminished or reversed, particularly decreasing cortical BOLD response with increasing task difficulty in the right superior temporal gyrus. Reduced regional gray matter thickness correlated with reduced left-hemispheric prefrontal/frontal and bilateral parietal BOLD activation in patients. This is the first study demonstrating that reduction of regional gray matter in first-episode schizophrenia patients is associated with impaired brain function when performing the Tower of London task, and supports previous findings of impaired executive attention and working memory in schizophrenia.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.11.024

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Effortless control: executive attention and conscious feeling of mental effort are dissociable.

Recruitment of executive attention is normally associated to a subjective feeling of mental effort. Here we investigate the nature of this coupling in a patient with a left mesio-frontal cortex lesion including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and in a group of comparison subjects using a Stroop paradigm. We show that in normal subjects, subjective increases in effort associated with executive control correlate with higher skin-conductance responses (SCRs). However, our patient experienced no conscious feeling of mental effort and showed no SCR, in spite of exhibiting normal executive control, and residual right anterior cingulate activity measured with event-related potentials (ERPs). Finally, this patient demonstrated a pattern of impaired behavior and SCRs in the Iowa gambling task-elaborated by Damasio, Bechara and colleagues-replicating the findings reported by these authors for other patients with mesio-frontal lesions. Taken together, these results call for a theoretical refinement by revealing a decoupling between conscious cognitive control and consciously reportable feelings. Moreover, they reveal a fundamental distinction, observed here within the same patient, between the cognitive operations which are depending on normal somatic marker processing, and those which are withstanding to impairments of this system.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1097/01.chi.0000156661.38576.0f

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Prefrontal and executive attention network lesions and the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity symptomatology.

To investigate the association between focal stroke lesions of Posner's executive attention network and a specific region of interest in the frontal lobes (orbital frontal and mesial frontal) and either attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or traits of the disorder (ADHD symptomatology). Twenty-nine children with focal stroke lesions were studied with standardized psychiatric assessments and anatomical brain magnetic resonance imaging. The pattern of lesion overlap in subjects with ADHD symptomatology was determined. Fifteen of 28 subjects with no prestroke ADHD were diagnosed with ADHD symptomatology at the time of assessment. The extent of lesions within the executive attention network was marginally related to ADHD symptomatology (p = .088; effect size = 0.66), whereas the extent of lesions in the specific frontal region of interest was significantly related to ADHD symptomatology (p = .040; effect size = 0.82). Lesions within Posner's executive attention network and its orbital frontal connections may be linked to important mechanisms in the expression of ADHD symptomatology after childhood stroke. These findings are consistent with functional and structural imaging findings in studies of idiopathic ADHD.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1177/00222194050380020401

Journal of learning disabilities

J Learn Disabil

The diversity of attention deficits in ADHD: the prevalence of four cognitive factors in ADHD versus controls.

The performance of participants with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) relative to control participants was measured on four tasks uniquely assessing the functions of selective attention, executive attention, sustained attention, and orienting of attention. The results showed that deficits in sustained attention were the most pronounced, characterizing most participants with ADHD and deficits in each of the other three functions characterized more than half of these participants. Different participants with ADHD revealed different clusters of attentional deficits. These results call for a revision of leading theories of ADHD that identify the core of the pathology as a sole deficit in executive functions.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1017/s1355617704107066

Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS

J Int Neuropsychol Soc

Attention function after childhood stroke.

We investigated attentional outcome after childhood stroke and orthopedic diagnosis in medical controls. Twenty-nine children with focal stroke lesions and individually matched children with clubfoot or scoliosis were studied with standardized attention and neuroimaging assessments. Stroke lesions were quite varied in location and commonly involved regions implicated in Posner's model of attention networks. Children with stroke lesions performed significantly more poorly regarding attention function compared with controls. Performance on the Starry Night, a test demanding alerting and sensory-orienting but not executive attention function, was significantly associated with lesion size in the alerting and sensory-orienting networks but not the executive attention network. Furthermore, earlier age at lesion acquisition was significantly associated with poorer attention function even when lesion size was controlled. These findings support the theory of dissociable networks of attention and add to evidence from studies of children with diffuse and focal brain damage that early insults are associated with worse long-term outcomes in many domains of neuropsychological function. In addition, these results may provide clues towards the understanding of mechanisms underlying attention in children.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1055/s-2005-867080

Seminars in neurology

Semin Neurol

Neurocognitive consequences of sleep deprivation.

Deficits in daytime performance due to sleep loss are experienced universally and associated with a significant social, financial, and human cost. Microsleeps, sleep attacks, and lapses in cognition increase with sleep loss as a function of state instability. Sleep deprivation studies repeatedly show a variable (negative) impact on mood, cognitive performance, and motor function due to an increasing sleep propensity and destabilization of the wake state. Specific neurocognitive domains including executive attention, working memory, and divergent higher cognitive functions are particularly vulnerable to sleep loss. In humans, functional metabolic and neurophysiological studies demonstrate that neural systems involved in executive function (i.e., prefrontal cortex) are more susceptible to sleep deprivation in some individuals than others. Recent chronic partial sleep deprivation experiments, which more closely replicate sleep loss in society, demonstrate that profound neurocognitive deficits accumulate over time in the face of subjective adaptation to the sensation of sleepiness. Sleep deprivation associated with disease-related sleep fragmentation (i.e., sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome) also results in neurocognitive performance decrements similar to those seen in sleep restriction studies. Performance deficits associated with sleep disorders are often viewed as a simple function of disease severity; however, recent experiments suggest that individual vulnerability to sleep loss may play a more critical role than previously thought.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070217

Annual review of psychology

Annu Rev Psychol

Human category learning.

Much recent evidence suggests some dramatic differences in the way people learn perceptual categories, depending on exactly how the categories were constructed. Four different kinds of category-learning tasks are currently popular-rule-based tasks, information-integration tasks, prototype distortion tasks, and the weather prediction task. The cognitive, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging results obtained using these four tasks are qualitatively different. Success in rule-based (explicit reasoning) tasks depends on frontal-striatal circuits and requires working memory and executive attention. Success in information-integration tasks requires a form of procedural learning and is sensitive to the nature and timing of feedback. Prototype distortion tasks induce perceptual (visual cortical) learning. A variety of different strategies can lead to success in the weather prediction task. Collectively, results from these four tasks provide strong evidence that human category learning is mediated by multiple, qualitatively distinct systems.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.66

Psychological bulletin

Psychol Bull

Working memory capacity and fluid intelligence are strongly related constructs: comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005).

The authors agree with P. L. Ackerman, M. E. Beier, and M. O. Boyle (2005; see record 2004-22408-002) that working memory capacity (WMC) is not isomorphic with general fluid intelligence (Gf) or reasoning ability. However, the WMC and Gf/reasoning constructs are more strongly associated than Ackerman et al. (2005) indicate, particularly when considering the outcomes of latent-variable studies. The authors' reanalysis of 14 such data sets from 10 published studies, representing more than 3,100 young-adult subjects, suggests a strong correlation between WMC and Gf/reasoning factors (median r=.72), indicating that the WMC and Gf constructs share approximately 50% of their variance. This comment also clarifies the authors' "executive attention" view of WMC, it demonstrates that WMC has greater discriminant validity than Ackerman et al. (2005) implied, and it suggests some future directions and challenges for the scientific study of the convergence of WMC, attention control, and intelligence.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1177/1534582304270782

Behavioral and cognitive neuroscience reviews

Behav Cogn Neurosci Rev

The neurobiology of category learning.

Many recent studies have examined the neural basis of category learning. Behavioral neuroscience results suggest that both the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia play important category-learning roles; neurons that develop category-specific firing properties are found in both regions, and lesions to both areas cause category-learning deficits. Similar studies indicate that the inferotemporal cortex does not mediate the learning of new categories. The cognitive neuroscience literature on category learning appears contradictory until the results are partitioned according to the type of category-learning task that was used. Three major tasks can be identified: rule based, information-integration, and prototype-distortion. Recent results are consistent with the hypotheses that (a) learning in rule-based tasks requires working memory and executive attention and is mediated by frontal-striatal circuits, (b) learning in information-integration tasks requires procedural memory and is mediated primarily within the basal ganglia, and (c) learning in prototype-distortion tasks depends on multiple memory systems, including the perceptual representation system.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1038/sj.mp.4001609

Molecular psychiatry

Mol Psychiatry

Associations between prepulse inhibition and executive visual attention in children with the 22q11 deletion syndrome.

The 22q11 deletion syndrome (DS) results in the loss of approximately 30 gene copies and is associated with possible physical anomalies, varied learning disabilities, and a specific cluster of neurocognitive deficits, including primary impairment in working memory, executive visual attention, and sensorimotor processing. Retrospective studies have suggested that children with 22q11DS are at 25 times greater risk of developing schizophrenia, thus specification of early brain network vulnerabilities among children with 22q11DS is critical. Previously, we reported that children with 22q11DS as compared with sibling controls had selective deficits in visual executive attention, and subsequently found lowered prepulse inhibition (PPI) in these same children. Visual executive attention and PPI recruit the same brain pathways linking prefrontal cortex to basal ganglia structures. To test the specificity of brain pathway vulnerability among children with 22q11DS, we examined visual executive attention and PPI paradigm data collected during the same test session from 21 children with 22q11DS and 25 sibling controls. We predicted lower %PPI and less efficient executive attention scores, and a significant inverse correlation between measures. %PPI in children with 22q11DS as compared with sibling controls was 20% lower, and visual executive attention efficiency scores 40% worse. As predicted, %PPI was inversely correlated only with executive attention efficiency scores. The implications of these findings with regard to brain pathway vulnerability in children with 22q11DS are considered. These results suggest that children with 22q11DS have early functional abnormality in pathways linking the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1186/1471-2202-5-39

BMC neuroscience

BMC Neurosci

Development of the time course for processing conflict: an event-related potentials study with 4 year olds and adults.

Tasks involving conflict are widely used to study executive attention. In the flanker task, a target stimulus is surrounded by distracting information that can be congruent or incongruent with the correct response. Developmental differences in the time course of brain activations involved in conflict processing were examined for 22 four year old children and 18 adults. Subjects performed a child-friendly flanker task while their brain activity was registered using a high-density electroencephalography system. General differences were found in the amplitude and time course of event-related potentials (ERPs) between children and adults that are consistent with their differences in reaction time. In addition, the congruency of flankers affected both the amplitude and latency of some of the ERP components. These effects were delayed and sustained for longer periods of time in the children compared to the adults. These differences constitute neural correlates of children's greater difficulty in monitoring and resolving conflict in this and similar tasks.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1207/s15326942dn2602_5

Developmental neuropsychology

Dev Neuropsychol

Networks of attention in children with the 22q11 deletion syndrome.

The 22q11 chromosomal deletion syndrome (22q11 DS) is associated with learning disabilities and a complex neuropsychological profile. Previous findings have suggested that executive attention deficits might underlie other neurocognitive anomalies. We administered the child Attention Network Test (ANT) to 52 children ages 5.0 to 11.5, 32 22q11 DS children (19 girls) and 20 controls (13 girls) and assessed the efficiency of segregated executive, orienting, and alerting networks. We hypothesized that 22q11 DS children have impaired executive network efficiency as compared to control siblings. The internal validity of the child ANT was confirmed for this population. Analysis of variance results showed significant main effects for flanker and cue types and no interaction effect in either 22q11 DS children or control siblings. Compared to control siblings, 22q11 DS children had significantly larger (less efficient) executive network scores, significantly increased errors on only incongruent trials, and a significant correlation between executive network scores and accuracy. The implications of these findings for future neurocognitive studies of 22q11 DS children are considered.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00746.x

Child development

Child Dev

Alerting, orienting, and executive attention: developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates in an epidemiological sample of young, urban children.

A computerized test of preparedness for effortful processing (alerting attention), response to orienting cues (orienting attention), and response to the interference of competing demands (executive attention) was administered to a diverse sample of 249 children (47% female, 4.96 to 7.27 years) to assess developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates of task performance. Older children and socially advantaged children demonstrated greater proficiency in overall accuracy and speed of responding. Boys and socially advantaged children improved more in response to alerting cues. Older children improved more in response to orienting cues. Older children, socially advantaged children, African American, and Hispanic children resisted the interference of competing demands better. Findings are discussed in the context of developmental and sociodemographic factors relevant to attention and executive functions.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

Sleep

Sleep

Executive function in sleep apnea: controlling for attentional capacity in assessing executive attention.

As the effects of general slowness and decreased attentional capacity on higher executive attention have not been fully taken into account in the sleep apnea literature, we statistically controlled for basic attentional performance in evaluating executive attention per se in sleep apnea patients. A case-controlled design was used with comparison of basic and executive attentional tasks. Thirty-six polysomnographically diagnosed patients (mean apnea-hypopnea index = 60.5 +/- SD 31.6) participated, together with 32 healthy controls. Neuropsychological tests included Trail Making part A and B, Symbol Digit Modalities (SDMT), Digit Span forward and backward, Stroop Color-Word, Five-Point design fluency, and an Attentional Flexibility task. Patients' vigilance data indicated time-on-task decrements after 10 minutes. Moreover, their performance was significantly reduced on the SDMT (effect size d = 0.93), the Digit Span forward task (d = 0.44), the number of errors on the basic 2-choice reaction time subtest of the Attentional Flexibility task (d = 0.74) and the mean RT on the actual Attentional Flexibility subtest (d = 0.54). It has been argued that the latter poor performance was probably primarily related to the task's phonologic loop component of working memory rather than to an attentional switching deficit per se. No other performance differences were found between patients and healthy controls. In addition to vigilance decrements, attentional capacity deficits clearly emerge, ie, slowed information processing and decreased short-term memory span. However, no specific clinical indications for executive attentional deficits--such as disinhibition, distractibility, perseveration, attentional switching dysfunction, decreased design fluency, or an impaired central executive of working memory--are found in patients with severe sleep apnea. Their cognitive performance seems very similar to the cognitive decline found after sleep loss and qualitatively different from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, suggesting sleepiness as the primary factor in a parsimonious explanation for the attention deficits in sleep apnea, without the need to assume prefrontal brain damage.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1196/annals.1308.041

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Ann N Y Acad Sci

Individual differences in executive attention predict self-regulation and adolescent psychosocial behaviors.

This study examined temperament, executive attention, parental monitoring and relationships, and involvement in pro- and antisocial behaviors in an ethnically diverse sample of adolescents. We sought to relate parent- and self-reported effortful control to performance on measures of executive attention and to better understand the relative contributions of individual-difference variables and environmental variables in predicting behaviors in adolescence. The results indicated a relationship between poor executive attention and mother-reported effortful control. Inclusion of individual-difference variables significantly increased prediction of problem-behavior scores, suggesting the importance of including such variables in studies of adolescent deviance.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.smrv.2004.01.001

Sleep medicine reviews

Sleep Med Rev

Executive control of attention in sleep apnea patients: theoretical concepts and methodological considerations.

Sleep apnea patients' nocturnal breathing disturbances cause daytime sleepiness and cognitive impairments. Attentional capacity and vigilance deficits have often been observed. Moreover, some studies have suggested executive dysfunction, usually assumed to be related to (pre)frontal lobe dysfunction caused by intermittent hypoxemia. However, sleep disruption itself has a pervasive influence on cognitive function and affects not only underlying 'lower-level' processes such as arousal and alertness, but also 'higher-level' cognitive processes such as executive attention. This methodological caveat has not been fully taken into account in the sleep apnea literature. In order to be able to disentangle these cognitive processes on different levels, sound theoretical neurocognitive frameworks are needed to attain careful analyses and interpretations of neuropsychological data. Therefore, this paper firstly presents an overview of relevant theoretical concepts and models of arousal, attention, and executive function. Then, it is being argued that these theoretical considerations have important methodological implications. These methodological concerns are being addressed by specific experimental and statistical approaches, illustrated by some well-known neuropsychological tests. It can be concluded that the reported executive deficits in sleep apnea patients should be regarded as tentative, and that more case-controlled studies are needed using fine-grained analyses to parcel complex cognitive abilities into their subcomponents.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1037/0096-3445.133.2.189

Journal of experimental psychology. General

J Exp Psychol Gen

The generality of working memory capacity: a latent-variable approach to verbal and visuospatial memory span and reasoning.

A latent-variable study examined whether verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) capacity measures reflect a primarily domain-general construct by testing 236 participants in 3 span tests each of verbal WM. visuospatial WM, verbal short-term memory (STM), and visuospatial STM. as well as in tests of verbal and spatial reasoning and general fluid intelligence (Gf). Confirmatory' factor analyses and structural equation models indicated that the WM tasks largely reflected a domain-general factor, whereas STM tasks, based on the same stimuli as the WM tasks, were much more domain specific. The WM construct was a strong predictor of Gf and a weaker predictor of domain-specific reasoning, and the reverse was true for the STM construct. The findings support a domain-general view of WM capacity, in which executive-attention processes drive the broad predictive utility of WM span measures, and domain-specific storage and rehearsal processes relate more strongly to domain-specific aspects of complex cognition.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/j.bbr.2003.09.020

Behavioural brain research

Behav Brain Res

Dissociable aspects of performance on the 5-choice serial reaction time task following lesions of the dorsal anterior cingulate, infralimbic and orbitofrontal cortex in the rat: differential effects on selectivity, impulsivity and compulsivity.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that multiple functions of the frontal cortex such as inhibitory control and executive attention are likely sustained by its functionally distinct and interacting sub-regions but the precise localization of dissociable executive processes has proved difficult and controversial. In the present series of studies, we investigated the behavioural effects of bilateral excitotoxic lesions of different regions of the rat neocortex in the 5-choice serial reaction time task. Whereas lesions of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) impaired performance of the task as revealed by a reduction in discriminative accuracy, lesions made to distinct ventral regions of the frontal cortex showed selective deficits in inhibitory measures of control. Specifically, the infralimbic lesion produced increases in premature responding that was accompanied by fast response latencies. By comparison, the orbitofrontal lesion showed perseverative tendencies particularly when the inter-trial interval was made long and unpredictable, a challenge that would normally promote premature responding instead. These different behavioural effects following dorsal and ventral lesions of the rodent frontal cortex signifies the integrity of the frontal cortex in multiple executive mechanisms that work independently and complementarily by which performance is optimized. Furthermore, these data provide new insights into the functional organization of the rodent frontal cortex with a particular emphasis on localization of function.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1176/appi.ajp.160.10.1881

The American journal of psychiatry

Am J Psychiatry

Are impairments of action monitoring and executive control true dissociative dysfunctions in patients with schizophrenia?

Impaired self-monitoring is considered a critical deficit of schizophrenia. The authors asked whether this is a specific and isolable impairment or is part of a global disturbance of cognitive and attentional functions. Internal monitoring of erroneous actions, as well as three components of attentional control (conflict resolution, set switching, and preparatory attention) were assessed during performance of a single task by eight high-functioning patients with schizophrenia and eight comparison subjects. The patients exhibited no significant dysfunction of attentional control during task performance. In contrast, their ability to correct errors without external feedback and, by inference, to self-monitor their actions was markedly compromised. This finding suggests that dysfunction of self-monitoring in schizophrenia does not necessarily reflect a general decline in cognitive function but is evidence of disproportionately pronounced impairment of action monitoring, which may be mediated by a distinct subsystem within the brain's executive attention networks.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1002/mrdd.10078

Mental retardation and developmental disabilities research reviews

Ment Retard Dev Disabil Res Rev

Synaptogenesis and heritable aspects of executive attention.

In humans, changes in brain structure and function can be measured non-invasively during postnatal development. In animals, advanced optical imaging measures can track the formation of synapses during learning and behavior. With the recent progress in these technologies, it is appropriate to begin to assess how the physiological processes of synapse, circuit, and neural network formation relate to the process of cognitive development. Of particular interest is the development of executive function, which develops more gradually in humans. One approach that has shown promise is molecular genetics. The completion of the human genome project and the human genome diversity project make it straightforward to ask whether variation in a particular gene correlates with variation in behavior, brain structure, brain activity, or all of the above. Strategies that unify the wealth of biochemical knowledge pertaining to synapse formation with the functional measures of brain structure and activity may lead to new insights in developmental cognitive psychology.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1037/0021-843x.112.3.424

Journal of abnormal psychology

J Abnorm Psychol

Alcohol and cognitive control: implications for regulation of behavior during response conflict.

Alcohol intoxication often leads to dysregulated behavior in contexts characterized by conflict between prepotent response tendencies and incompatible alternative responses. Recent research has identified 2 components of an anterior executive attention system that are essential for adaptive behavior when response conflict exists. Event-related potential (ERP) measures of evaluative and regulative cognitive control were collected to determine if impaired executive attention was responsible for observed behavior deficits when intoxicated. Intoxicated participants displayed task performance deficits on incongruent color-naming trials relative to sober controls. Alcohol did not affect P3 magnitude/latency, indicating that timing and integrity of stimulus evaluation remained intact. In contrast, alcohol did reduce frontal components of ERP that index evaluative and regulative cognitive control processes.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1073/pnas.0732088100

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Mapping the genetic variation of executive attention onto brain activity.

Brain imaging data have repeatedly shown that the anterior cingulate cortex is an important node in the brain network mediating conflict. We previously reported that polymorphisms in dopamine receptor (DRD4) and monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) genes showed significant associations with efficiency of handling conflict as measured by reaction time differences in the Attention Network Test (ANT). To examine whether this genetic variation might contribute to differences in brain activation within the anterior cingulate cortex, we genotyped 16 subjects for the DRD4 and MAOA genes who had been scanned during the ANT. In each of the two genes previously associated with more efficient handling of conflict in reaction time experiments, we found a polymorphism in which persons with the allele associated with better behavioral performance showed significantly more activation in the anterior cingulate while performing the ANT than those with the allele associated with worse performance. The results demonstrate how genetic differences among individuals can be linked to individual differences in neuromodulators and in the efficiency of the operation of an appropriate attentional network.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/s1385-299x(03)00013-8

Brain research. Brain research protocols

Brain Res Brain Res Protoc

The Madrid card sorting test (MCST): a task switching paradigm to study executive attention with event-related potentials.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) provide valuable information about the fast brain dynamics subserving cognitive functions such as attention and working memory. Most ERP studies employ cognitive paradigms with a fixed task-set (i.e., press a button to coloured targets), but few have measured ERPs time-locked to shifts in set using a task-switching paradigm. The Madrid card sorting test (MCST) is a dual task protocol in which feedback cues signal unpredictable shifts in set (i.e., from 'sort cards by colour' to 'sort cards by shape'). This protocol allows for an integrated analysis of ERPs to both feedback cues and target card events, providing separate ERP features for the shifting, updating, and rehearsal of attention sets in working memory. Two of these ERP indices are the frontal and posterior aspects of the P300 response. Feedback cues that direct a shift in set also elicit a frontally distributed P3a potential (300-400 ms). Instead, target card events evoke increasingly larger posterior P3b (350-600 ms) activity as the new task set becomes gradually rehearsed. The observed modulations in the frontal and posterior aspects of the P300 response system are interpreted from current models of prefrontal cortex function in the executive control of attention.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

Sleep

Sleep

Attention deficits in patients with narcolepsy.

Although attention problems are presumably responsible for a wide variety of difficulties patients with narcolepsy experience in everyday life, empirical investigation of this issue is scarce. Therefore, we conducted a systematic investigation of different aspects of attention and verbal memory in patients with narcolepsy. Control-group design with comparison of performance in four attention tests--measuring phasic alertness, focused attention, divided attention, and flexible attention--and one verbal memory test. 19 patients with narcolepsy (NG) and 20 healthy controls (CG) MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The NG showed no deficits in phasic alertness, focused attention, and verbal memory. However, specific deficits occurred in divided and flexible attention. Furthermore, the NG had generally slower and more variable reaction times in all attention tasks. Our results contradict the hypothesis that attentional impairments in narcolepsy are merely a result of a temporal disturbance of information processing, i.e., deficits can be explained by slowness and variability of performance alone. Rather, deficits in attentional capacity and attentional control also seem to play an important role. Thus, in addition to impairment in the vigilance attention network, results indicate impairment in the executive attention network in patients with narcolepsy.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.3758/bf03196323

Psychonomic bulletin & review

Psychon Bull Rev

The role of prefrontal cortex in working-memory capacity, executive attention, and general fluid intelligence: an individual-differences perspective.

We provide an "executive-attention" framework for organizing the cognitive neuroscience research on the constructs of working-memory capacity (WMC), general fluid intelligence, and prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. Rather than provide a novel theory of PFC function, we synthesize a wealth of single-cell, brain-imaging, and neuropsychological research through the lens of our theory of normal individual differences in WMC and attention control (Engle, Kane, & Tuholski, 1999; Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999). Our critical review confirms the prevalent view that dorsolateral PFC circuitry is critical to executive-attention functions. Moreover, although the dorsolateral PFC is but one critical structure in a network of anterior and posterior "attention control" areas, it does have a unique executive-attention role in actively maintaining access to stimulus representations and goals in interference-rich contexts. Our review suggests the utility of an executive-attention framework for guiding future research on both PFC function and cognitive control.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1186/1471-2202-3-14

BMC neuroscience

BMC Neurosci

Assessing the molecular genetics of attention networks.

Current efforts to study the genetic underpinnings of higher brain functions have been lacking appropriate phenotypes to describe cognition. One of the problems is that many cognitive concepts for which there is a single word (e.g. attention) have been shown to be related to several anatomical networks. Recently, we have developed an Attention Network Test (ANT) that provides a separate measure for each of three anatomically defined attention networks. In this study we have measured the efficiency of neural networks related to aspects of attention using the ANT in a population of 200 adult subjects. We then examined genetic polymorphisms in four candidate genes (DRD4, DAT, COMT and MAOA) that have been shown to contribute to the risk of developing various psychiatric disorders where attention is disrupted. We find modest associations of several polymorphisms with the efficiency of executive attention but not with overall performance measures such as reaction time. These results suggest that genetic variation may underlie inter-subject variation in the efficiency of executive attention. This study also shows that genetic influences on executive attention may be specific to certain anatomical networks rather than affecting performance in a global or non-specific manner. Lastly, this study further validates the ANT as an endophenotypic assay suitable for assessing how genes influence certain anatomical networks that may be disrupted in various psychiatric disorders.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1162/089892902317361886

Journal of cognitive neuroscience

J Cogn Neurosci

Testing the efficiency and independence of attentional networks.

In recent years, three attentional networks have been defined in anatomical and functional terms. These functions involve alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Reaction time measures can be used to quantify the processing efficiency within each of these three networks. The Attention Network Test (ANT) is designed to evaluate alerting, orienting, and executive attention within a single 30-min testing session that can be easily performed by children, patients, and monkeys. A study with 40 normal adult subjects indicates that the ANT produces reliable single subject estimates of alerting, orienting, and executive function, and further suggests that the efficiencies of these three networks are uncorrelated. There are, however, some interactions in which alerting and orienting can modulate the degree of interference from flankers. This procedure may prove to be convenient and useful in evaluating attentional abnormalities associated with cases of brain injury, stroke, schizophrenia, and attention-deficit disorder. The ANT may also serve as an activation task for neuroimaging studies and as a phenotype for the study of the influence of genes on attentional networks.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1186/1471-2202-2-14

BMC neuroscience

BMC Neurosci

Assessing the heritability of attentional networks.

Current efforts to study the genetics of higher functions have been lacking appropriate phenotypes to describe cognition. One of the problems is that many cognitive concepts for which there is a single word (e.g. attention) have been shown to be related to several anatomical networks. Recently we have developed an Attention Network Test (ANT) that provides a separate measure for each of three anatomically defined attention networks. In this small scale study, we ran 26 pairs of MZ and DZ twins in an effort to determine if any of these networks show sufficient evidence of heritability to warrant further exploration of their genetic basis. The efficiency of the executive attention network, that mediates stimulus and response conflict, shows sufficient heritability to warrant further study. Alerting and overall reaction time show some evidence for heritability and in our study the orienting network shows no evidence of heritability. These results suggest that genetic variation contributes to normal individual differences in higher order executive attention involving dopamine rich frontal areas including the anterior cingulate. At least the executive portion of the ANT may serve as a valid endophenotype for larger twin studies and subsequent molecular genetic analysis in normal subject populations.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1111/j.1552-6569.2001.tb00043.x

Journal of neuroimaging : official journal of the American Society of Neuroimaging

J Neuroimaging

Single photon emission computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging hyperintensity, and cognitive impairments in patients with vascular dementia.

The relationship between subcortical hyperintensity (SH) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cortical perfusion on single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and cognitive function is not well understood. The authors examined these relationships in individuals with vascular dementia (VaD), paying particular attention to frontal lobe function to determine whether the presence of SH on MRI was associated with frontal hypoperfusion on SPECT, which in turn would be associated with impairments of executive-attention function. Patients with vascular dementia (n = 26) were assessed on neurocognitive tests and brain MRI and SPECT. SH volume was quantified from the axial T2-weighted fluid attenuated inversion recovery MRI. Total counts of activation across voxels for 12 cortical regions of interest were determined from SPECT. Perfusion ratios of both total cortical and frontal activation relative to cerebellum activation were derived, and regression analyses were performed to determine the relationships between cognitive, MRI, and SPECT indices. SH volume on MRI was significantly associated with frontal lobe perfusion, but not with global cortical perfusion as measured by SPECT. Frontal lobe perfusion did not consistently correlate with performance on measures of executive-attention function, although both total and frontal perfusion ratios were significantly associated with other cognitive functions. These results suggest that a functional "disconnection" between the frontal lobes and subcortical structures does not fully account for the magnitude of global cognitive impairment in VaD. Cortical perfusion as measured by SPECT appears to be associated with cognitive performance, but not specifically executive-attention dysfunction. Additional studies are needed to further examine the relationship between subcortical and cortical function in VaD.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

Revista de neurologia

Rev Neurol

[Selective attention deficit in schizophrenia].

To evaluate the cognitive deficits which have been linked with schizophrenia, particularly those related to selective attention from a neurocognitive point of view. We present a concept of attention consistent with a system of control of information processing composed of a group of neurone networks which carry out specific functions. Some functions are related to visual orientation, while others are involved in executive functions which are at the root of many cognitive skills. The convergence of data from behaviour studies and those made available by neuroimaging techniques have facilitated the identification of neuroanatomical areas responsible for these functions. Thus, the posterior parietal lobe, superior colliculus and pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus are responsible for directing visual attention to different spatial locations. The singular cortex, parts of the medial prefrontal area and supplementary motor area will be involved in executive functions. The question arises as to whether schizophrenia is related to a general attention deficit or to specific deficits linked to the different attention neurone networks. In the studies reviewed attention tasks for the evaluation of facilitatory and inhibitory functions related to the different attention networks were used. The studies showed that schizophrenic patients present deficits in inhibitory mechanisms which depend on the executive attention network. These results may contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive problems which occur in schizophrenia and also to design more effective strategies for the treatment of this disorder.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1007/s004220000219

Biological cybernetics

Biol Cybern

A thalamo-cortical model of the executive attention system.

In a previous paper [Kilmer (1996) Neural Netw 9: 567-573] we developed a differential equation model of how a stable focus of attention could be maintained in a higher mammalian brain. The so-called TRC model consisted of interconnected modules, with each module comprised of a simple representations of parts of the reticular thalamic nucleus, specific thalamic nuclei, nonspecific thalamic nuclei, and cortex, together with the known excitatory and inhibitory interconnections between them. TRC was analyzed only for steady states under zero inputs. Here we analyze the behavior of TRC_2, a substantially modified and reinterpreted TRC, for steady attention and attention-switching behavior under nonzero inputs. We show that TRC_2 always converges to a unique mode of primary attention, and that it allows concurrently one or more other modes of weak attention, which experience suggests occurs often. A crucial postulate for TRC_2 is that a mode alpha does not actively compete against other modes unless primary attention is paid to mode alpha. This postulate should be testable experimentally.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1076/1380-3395(200010)22:5;1-9;FT656

Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology

J Clin Exp Neuropsychol

Evaluation of attention process training and brain injury education in persons with acquired brain injury.

Fourteen patients with stable acquired brain injuries exhibiting attention and working memory deficits were given 10 weeks of attention process training (APT) and 10 weeks of brain injury education in a cross-over design. Structured interviews and neuropsychological tests were used prior to rehabilitation and after both treatments to determine the influence of the interventions on tasks of daily life and performance on attentional networks involving vigilance, orienting, and executive function. The overall results showed that most patients made improvements. Some of these gains were due to practice from repetitive administration of the tests. In addition, the type of intervention also influenced the results. The brain injury education seemed to be most effective in improving self-reports of psychosocial function. APT influenced self-reports of cognitive function and had a stronger influence on performance of executive attention tasks than was found with the brain injury education therapy. Vigilance and orienting networks showed little specific improvement due to therapy. However, vigilance level influenced the improvement with therapy on some tests of executive attention. We consider the implications of these results for future studies of the locus of attentional improvement and for the design of improved interventions.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1006/ccog.2000.0447

Consciousness and cognition

Conscious Cogn

Executive attention and metacognitive regulation.

Metacognition refers to any knowledge or cognitive process that monitors or controls cognition. We highlight similarities between metacognitive and executive control functions, and ask how these processes might be implemented in the human brain. A review of brain imaging studies reveals a circuitry of attentional networks involved in these control processes, with its source located in midfrontal areas. These areas are active during conflict resolution, error correction, and emotional regulation. A developmental approach to the organization of the anatomy involved in executive control provides an added perspective on how these mechanisms are influenced by maturation and learning, and how they relate to metacognitive activity.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1006/ccog.2000.0449

Consciousness and cognition

Conscious Cogn

Awareness and metacognition

Kentridge and Heywood (this issue) extend the concept of metacognition to include unconscious processes. We acknowledge the possible contribution of unconscious processes, but favor a central role of awareness in metacognition. We welcome Shimamura's (this issue) extension of the concept of metacognitive regulation to include aspects of working memory, and its relation to executive attention. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

Brain and cognition

Brain Cogn

Selective effects of prior motivational experience on current on-line control of attention.

This study examined the influence of prior motivational experience on the efficiency of executive attention control during performance of a task set reconfiguration task (Rogers & Monsell, 1995). Results revealed that motivation manipulations selectively affected attention switching mechanisms, but did not influence either inhibition of crosstalk from competing stimuli, or basic response execution time. This provides additional evidence for distinct attentional systems involved in resolution of response and perceptual competition. Speculations regarding the neural systems that mediate both motivation and attention switching are considered, pointing to a possible involvement of dopaminergic influences on the ventral striatum.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1093/geronb/54b.5.s262

The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences

J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci

Association between executive attention and physical functional performance in community-dwelling older women.

Executive functions supervise the contents of working memory, where information from long-term memory is integrated with information in the immediate present. This study examined whether executive attentional abilities were uniquely associated with the performance of complex, instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) in cognitively intact and physically high-functioning older women. Participants were 406 community-residing, older women aged 70-80 years in the Women's Health and Aging Study (WHAS) II, screened to be physically high functioning and cognitively intact using the Mini-Mental State Exam. Hierarchical regression models, adjusted for demographic and disease variables, were used to evaluate the association of cognitive domains, including executive attention, memory, psychomotor speed, and spatial ability with summary measures of IADL (e.g., looking up and dialing a telephone number) and mobility-based ADL (e.g., walking 4 meters) function. Tests of executive attention were associated with performance on IADLs (6.6%) and, to a lesser degree, mobility-based ADLs (1%), adjusting for demographic and disease variables. In particular, the mental flexibility component of the Trail Making Test accounted for the majority of attentional variance in IADL performance. Older age, lower education, and African American race were also associated with poorer physical test performances. Executive difficulties in flexibly planning and initiating a course of action were selectively associated with slower performance of higher-order IADL tests, relative to other domains of cognition, in a high-functioning, community-based older cohort. These results suggest that executive functions may be important in mediating the onset and progression of physical functional declines.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

Zhurnal vysshei nervnoi deiatelnosti imeni I P Pavlova

Zh Vyssh Nerv Deiat Im I P Pavlova

[The theta rhythm of the infant EEG and the development of the mechanisms of voluntary control of attention in the 2nd half of the first year of life].

The neurophysiological basis of attention control was studied in infants at the second half-year of life, i.e. in the period when the capability for voluntary control over behavior fundamentally improves. EEG was recorded in 60 infants aed 8-11 months in three experimental conditions: 1) attention to an object in the visual field (externally controlled attention, or the baseline state), 2) anticipation of a person in the peek-a-boo game (internally controlled attention), 3) attention to the reappeared person in the peek-a-boo game (control condition). The spectral analysis of the EEG data revealed a sharp increase in the EEG theta (3.6-6.0 Hz) during internally controlled attention as compared to the baseline and control conditions. The theta1 (3.6-4.8 Hz) increase was maximal in the frontal derivations. The reactivity of the frontal theta1 during internally controlled attention discriminated infants with different abilities to maintain this type of attention. The reactivity of the theta2 (5.2-6.0 Hz) was maximal in the right temporal derivation (T6) and did not depend on stability of the anticipatory attention. The findings point to different functional significance of the theta1 and theta2 rhythms in infants. It is suggested that synchronization of the frontal theta1 rhythm in infants reflects the activity of the anterior attention system which realizes the executive attention control. The ability to maintain anticipatory attention increased with age, whereas the frontal theta1 synchronization decreased and totally disappeared at the age of 11 months. At the age of 8 months there was a positive correlation between the frontal theta1 synchronization and behavioral index of stability of the internally controlled attention. On the contrary, this correlation was negative at the age of 9 and 10 months. It is suggested that the age-dependent dynamics of the relationship between the frontal theta1 reactivity and attention reflects a leap in maturation of the anterior attention system resulting in its more economic and efficient functioning.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1098/rstb.1998.0344

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci

Attention, self-regulation and consciousness.

Consciousness has many aspects. These include awareness of the world, feelings of control over one's behaviour and mental state (volition), and the notion of continuing self. Focal (executive) attention is used to control details of our awareness and is thus closely related to volition. Experiments suggest an integrated network of neural areas involved in executive attention. This network is associated with our voluntary ability to select among competing items, to correct error and to regulate our emotions. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that these various functions involve separate areas of the anterior cingulate. We have adopted a strategy of using marker tasks, shown to activate the brain area by imaging studies, as a means of tracing the development of attentional networks. Executive attention appears to develop first to regulate distress during the first year of life. During later childhood the ability to regulate conflict among competing stimuli builds upon the earlier cingulate anatomy to provide a means of cognitive control. During childhood the activation of cingulate structures relates both to the child's success on laboratory tasks involving conflict and to parental reports of self-regulation and emotional control. These studies indicate a start in understanding the anatomy, circuitry and development of executive attention networks that serve to regulate both cognition and emotion.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/s0926-6410(98)00036-6

Brain research. Cognitive brain research

Brain Res Cogn Brain Res

Selective tuning of the left and right auditory cortices during spatially directed attention.

Effects of spatially directed auditory attention on human brain activity, as indicated by changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), were measured with positron emission tomography (PET). Subjects attended to left-ear tones, right-ear tones, or foveal visual stimuli presented at rapid rates in three concurrent stimulus sequences. It was found that attending selectively to the right-ear input activated the auditory cortex predominantly in the left hemisphere and vice versa. This selective tuning of the left and right auditory cortices according to the direction of attention was presumably controlled by executive attention mechanisms of the frontal cortex, where enhanced activation during auditory attention was also observed.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1097/00004583-199603000-00006

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Catecholamines in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: current perspectives.

To provide an update on the "catecholamine hypothesis" of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recent work examining the measurement of the norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine systems in ADHD and normal subjects is reviewed and discussed in the context of recent neuroimaging and animal studies. While data clearly indicate a role for all three of the above neurotransmitters in ADHD, a hypothesis suggesting "too much" or "too little" of a single neurotransmitter will no longer suffice. The central norepinephrine system may be dysregulated in ADHD, such that this system does not efficiently "prime" the cortical posterior attention system to external stimuli. Effective mental processing of information involves an anterior "executive" attention system which may depend on dopaminergic input. The peripheral epinephrine system may be a critical factor in the response of individuals with ADHD to stimulant medication. A multistage hypothesis is presented which emphasizes the interaction of norepinephrine, epinephrine, and dopamine in modulation of attention and impulse control.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/0006-3223(94)90082-5

Biological psychiatry

Biol Psychiatry

The comparative efficacy and long-term effect of clozapine treatment on neuropsychological test performance.

Previous studies have suggested that clozapine may improve neuropsychological test performance. The current study was designed to examine the comparative efficacy and the long-term effect of clozapine (versus haloperidol), on neuropsychological test performance. Neuropsychological measures of executive/attention, visuospatial, and memory function were administered to schizophrenic patients at baseline, at the end of a 10-week double-blind study, and after 1 year of open clozapine treatment. Symptoms and function ratings were obtained at the same time points. The 10-week double-blind study revealed significant group-by-time interactions for two measures: Categorical Fluency and WAIS-R Block Design. At the end of 1 year of open treatment there were significant improvements in Verbal Fluency, Mooney Faces Closure, and WAIS-R Block Design performance, and trend improvements in Stroop Color-Word Interference, Category Fluency, and WMS-R Logical Memory performance. Improvements in neuropsychological performance were unrelated to symptom changes. Change in selected neuropsychological measures were significantly correlated with improvement in quality of life. The results suggest that long-term clozapine treatment may have beneficial effects on a broad range of cognitive functions.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1111/j.2044-8260.1994.tb01150.x

The British journal of clinical psychology

Br J Clin Psychol

Chronic pain and attention: a cognitive approach.

The present study draws upon resource-based models of attention in suggesting that the processing of chronic and persistent pain is a task that demands the application of central and executive attention. If a chronic and persistent pain stimulus is demanding of central, attentional resources, it follows that it will compete with a second attention-demanding task for those limited resources. Here it is hypothesized that performance of an attention-demanding interference task will be detrimentally affected by the demands of persistent pain. In Expt 1, patients in high pain, patients in low pain and control subjects without pain performed an attention-demanding numerical interference task. There were no significant differences between any of the groups on any measure of performance. Expt 2 repeated Expt 1 with a more difficult and more complex task. Only when the task was at its most difficult and its most complex (i.e. at the greatest demand of limited resources) did those patients in high levels of pain (i.e. at the greatest demand of limited resources) show performance decrements. The results of both experiments are discussed in relation to the debate concerning the use of cognitive methods for pain control and in relation to the application of cognitive psychology to the study of chronic pain.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1016/0006-3223(94)91254-8

Biological psychiatry

Biol Psychiatry

Relationship of prefrontal and temporal lobe MRI measures to neuropsychological performance in chronic schizophrenia.

This preliminary study focused on the relationship between prefrontal and temporal lobe MRI measures and neuropsychological performance in chronic schizophrenia. Seventeen schizophrenic inpatients received an MRI and a neuropsychological test battery after clinical stabilization, on average 2 months after admission. The central finding was a significant inverse correlation between neurocognitive measures of prefrontal function and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) area, strongest in the left hemisphere. Neurocognitive performance did not correlate significantly with orbital frontal area or total temporal lobe volume. The correlations of neuropsychological performance with total frontal volume and whole brain volume were generally not significant, although the pattern was similar to that associated with the DLPFC. Because a number of executive-attention and abstraction measures were significantly associated with the DLPFC, dysfunctions of this region may underlie a syndrome of cognitive dysfunctions. Long-term memory functions were also significantly correlated with the DLPFC, raising the possibility that recall memory defects in schizophrenia are, in part, associated with prefrontal contributions of attention, abstract reasoning, and executive function. This study needs replication with a larger sample of patients and more comprehensive volumetric morphometric analyses.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1001/archneur.1992.00530320052012

Archives of neurology

Arch Neurol

Neuropsychiatric correlates of cerebral white-matter radiolucencies in probable Alzheimer's disease.

We evaluated the neuropsychological functions, rate of disease progression, and psychiatric characteristics of 22 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease in whom periventricular white-matter radiolucencies (PWMRs) were seen on the computed tomographic scan of the brain and compared them with 22 matched patients with Alzheimer's disease without PWMRs. Executive/attention, lexical/semantic, memory/learning, and visuospatial functions did not differ between the two groups at baseline or at the 1-year follow-up examination. The frequency of major depression, delusions, and hallucinations did not differ between the groups. However, patients with PWMRs had significantly higher Hachinski Rating scores at both visits and were more likely to develop cerebrovascular disease during follow-up than were controls with Alzheimer's disease. These preliminary results suggest that the presence of PWMRs is not associated with specific cognitive and psychiatric features or with an altered rate of progression of Alzheimer's disease but does predict the development of clinically significant cerebrovascular disease.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

Academy of management review. Academy of Management

Acad Manage Rev

The seasons of a CEO's tenure.

This article proposes a model of the dynamics of the CEO's tenure in office. The central argument is that there are discernible phases, or seasons, within an executive's tenure in a position, and that these seasons give rise to distinct patterns of executive attention, behavior, and, ultimately, organizational performance. The five delineated seasons are (a) response to mandate, (b) experimentation, (c) selection of an enduring theme, (d) convergence, and (e) dysfunction. The theoretical and practical implications of the model are discussed.

CognitiveConstruct

ExecutiveAttention

10.1177/00315125211041341

Perceptual and motor skills

Percept Mot Skills

The Prefrontal-Hippocampal Comparator: Volition and Episodic Memory.

This review describes recent research that is relevant to the prefrontal-hippocampal comparator model with the following conclusions: 1. Hippocampal area CA1 serves, at least in part, as an associative match-mismatch comparator. 2. Voluntary movement strengthens episodic memories for goal-directed behavior. 3. Hippocampal theta power serves as a prediction error signal during hippocampal dependent tasks. 4. The self-referential component of episodic memory in humans is mediated by the corollary discharge (the efference copy of the action plan developed by prefrontal cortex and transmitted to hippocampus where it is stored as a working memory; CA1 uses this efference copy to compare the expected consequences of action to the actual consequences of action). 5. Impairments in the production or transmission of this corollary discharge may contribute to some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Unresolved issues and suggestions for future research are discussed.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1136/practneurol-2020-002839

Practical neurology

Pract Neurol

Hypnosis.

Clinical hypnosis is an important therapeutic tool with an increasingly understood cognitive and neurobiological basis, and evidence for efficacy. Hypnosis involves controlled modulation of components of cognition-such as awareness, volition, perception and belief-by an external agent (the hypnotist) or by oneself (self-hypnosis) employing suggestion. In this article, we describe what hypnosis is, how it can be used in clinical settings, and how it is done.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1093/nc/niab016

Neuroscience of consciousness

Neurosci Conscious

Spontaneous perception: a framework for task-free, self-paced perception.

Flipping through social media feeds, viewing exhibitions in a museum, or walking through the botanical gardens, people consistently choose to engage with and disengage from visual content. Yet, in most laboratory settings, the visual stimuli, their presentation duration, and the task at hand are all controlled by the researcher. Such settings largely overlook the spontaneous nature of human visual experience, in which perception takes place independently from specific task constraints and its time course is determined by the observer as a self-governing agent. Currently, much remains unknown about how spontaneous perceptual experiences unfold in the brain. Are all perceptual categories extracted during spontaneous perception? Does spontaneous perception inherently involve volition? Is spontaneous perception segmented into discrete episodes? How do different neural networks interact over time during spontaneous perception? These questions are imperative to understand our conscious visual experience in daily life. In this article we propose a framework for spontaneous perception. We first define spontaneous perception as a task-free and self-paced experience. We propose that spontaneous perception is guided by four organizing principles that grant it temporal and spatial structures. These principles include coarse-to-fine processing, continuity and segmentation, agency and volition, and associative processing. We provide key suggestions illustrating how these principles may interact with one another in guiding the multifaceted experience of spontaneous perception. We point to testable predictions derived from this framework, including (but not limited to) the roles of the default-mode network and slow cortical potentials in underlying spontaneous perception. We conclude by suggesting several outstanding questions for future research, extending the relevance of this framework to consciousness and spontaneous brain activity. In conclusion, the spontaneous perception framework proposed herein integrates components in human perception and cognition, which have been traditionally studied in isolation, and opens the door to understand how visual perception unfolds in its most natural context.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1007/s10072-021-05422-9

Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology

Neurol Sci

The factitious/malingering continuum and its burden on public health costs: a review and experience in an Italian neurology setting.

Factitious disorder is classified as one of the five aspects of somatic symptom disorders. The fundamental element of factitious disorder is deception, i.e., pretending to have a medical or psychiatric disorder, but the enactment of deception is considered unconscious. Indeed, volition, i.e., the perception of deliberate deception, is blurred in patients presenting with factitious disorder. In the USA and the UK, factitious disorder has received constant media attention because of its forensic implications and outrageous costs for the National Health Systems. Unfortunately, a comparable level of attention is not present in Italian National Health System or the Italian mass media. The review analyzes the classifications, disorder mechanisms, costs, and medico-legal implications in the hope of raising awareness on this disturbing issue. Moreover, the review depicts 13 exemplification cases, anonymized and fictionalized by expert writers. Finally, our paper also evaluates the National Health System's expenditures for each patient, outlandish costs in the range between 50,000 and 1 million euros.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1016/j.concog.2021.103175

Consciousness and cognition

Conscious Cogn

Volition in prospective Memory: Evidence against differences between free and fixed target events.

Volition is the extent to which actions are generated as a result of internal states in contrast to responses to external conditions or dictated by external events. Delayed intentions about future action are stored in prospective memory until the intended action has to be formed at a later point in time. It is unknown how voluntary choice affects prospective memory. We compared the difference between freely chosen and fixed targets on the reaction times and task performance in the ongoing task and for the target stimuli in a prospective memory task. The task performance and the reaction time was modelled using a Bayesian hierarchical drift-diffusion model. The analysis showed no differences between self-chosen and fixed prospective memory cues on task responses. The result suggests that volition in choosing the cue to act upon or given a fixed cue does not make a difference for prospective memory task performance.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1371/journal.pone.0254574

PloS one

PLoS One

How norm violators rise and fall in the eyes of others: The role of sanctions.

Norm violators demonstrate that they can behave as they wish, which makes them appear powerful. Potentially, this is the beginning of a self-reinforcing loop, in which greater perceived power invites further norm violations. Here we investigate the possibility that sanctions can break this loop by reducing the power that observers attribute to norm violators. Despite an abundance of research on the effects of sanctions as deterrents for norm-violating behavior, little is known about how sanctions may change perceptions of individuals who do (or do not) violate norms. Replicating previous research, we found in two studies (N1 = 203, N2 = 132) that norm violators are perceived as having greater volitional capacity compared to norm abiders. Qualifying previous research, however, we demonstrate that perceptions of volition only translate into attributions of greater power in the absence of sanctions. We discuss implications for social hierarchies and point out avenues for further research on the social dynamics of power.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.3389/fmed.2021.680602

Frontiers in medicine

Front Med (Lausanne)

Empty Sella Syndrome as a Window Into the Neuroprotective Effects of Prolactin.

The goal of this study was to relate diffusion MR measures of white matter integrity of the retinofugal visual pathway with prolactin levels in a patient with downward herniation of the optic chiasm secondary to medical treatment of a prolactinoma. A 36-year-old woman with a prolactinoma presented with progressive bilateral visual field defects 9 years after initial diagnosis and medical treatment. She was diagnosed with empty-sella syndrome and instructed to stop cabergoline. Hormone testing was conducted in tandem with routine clinical evaluations over 1 year and the patient was followed with diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI), optical coherence tomography (OCT), and automated perimetry at three time points. Five healthy controls underwent a complementary battery of clinical and neuroimaging tests at a single time point. Shortly after discontinuing cabergoline, diffusion metrics in the optic tracts were within the range of values observed in healthy controls. However, following a brief period where the patient resumed cabergoline (of her own volition), there was a decrease in serum prolactin with a corresponding decrease in visual ability and increase in radial diffusivity ( < 0.001). Those measures again returned to their baseline ranges after discontinuing cabergoline a second time. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of dMRI to detect rapid and functionally significant microstructural changes in white matter tracts secondary to alterations in serum prolactin levels. The inverse relations between prolactin and measures of white matter integrity and visual function are consistent with the hypothesis that prolactin can play a neuroprotective role in the injured nervous system.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1007/s12028-021-01246-9

Neurocritical care

Neurocrit Care

A Precision Medicine Framework for Classifying Patients with Disorders of Consciousness: Advanced Classification of Consciousness Endotypes (ACCESS).

Consciousness in patients with brain injury is traditionally assessed based on semiological evaluation at the bedside. This classification is limited because of low granularity, ill-defined and rigid nomenclatures incompatible with the highly fluctuating nature of consciousness, failure to identify specific brain states like cognitive motor dissociation, and neglect for underlying biological mechanisms. Here, the authors present a pragmatic framework based on consciousness endotypes that combines clinical phenomenology with all essential physiological and biological data, emphasizing recovery trajectories, therapeutic potentials and clinical feasibility. The Neurocritical Care Society's Curing Coma Campaign identified an international group of experts who convened in a series of online meetings between May and November 2020 to discuss and propose a novel framework for classifying consciousness. The expert group proposes Advanced Classification of Consciousness Endotypes (ACCESS), a tiered multidimensional framework reflecting increasing complexity and an aspiration to consider emerging and future approaches. Tier 1 is based on clinical phenotypes and structural imaging. Tier 2 adds functional measures including EEG, PET and functional MRI, that can be summarized using the Arousal, Volition, Cognition and Mechanisms (AVCM) score (where "Volition" signifies volitional motor responses). Finally, Tier 3 reflects dynamic changes over time with a (theoretically infinite) number of physiologically distinct states to outline consciousness recovery and identify opportunities for therapeutic interventions. Whereas Tiers 1 and 2 propose an approach for low-resource settings and state-of-the-art expertise at leading academic centers, respectively, Tier 3 is a visionary multidimensional consciousness paradigm driven by continuous incorporation of new knowledge while addressing the Curing Coma Campaign's aspirational goals.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1007/s00455-021-10324-1

Dysphagia

Dysphagia

Potential for Behavioural Pressure Modulation at the Upper Oesophageal Sphincter in Healthy Swallowing.

Supratentorial structures are known to be involved in the neural control of swallowing, thus the potential for volitional manipulation of pharyngeal swallowing is of rehabilitative interest. The extent of volitional control of the upper oesophageal sphincter (UOS) during swallowing remains unclear. Prior research has shown that the UOS opening duration can be volitionally prolonged during execution of the Mendelsohn manoeuvre, which does not change the UOS opening time in isolation but the swallowing response in its entirety. This study explored the capacity of healthy adults to increase the period of pressure drop in the region of the UOS (UOS-Pdrop) during swallowing, through volitional UOS pressure modulation in the absence of altered pharyngeal pressure. The period of UOS-Pdrop was used as a proxy of UOS opening duration that is associated with a pressure decrease at the region of the UOS. Six healthy adults were seen 45 min daily for 2 weeks and for one follow-up session. During training, high-resolution manometry contour plots were provided for visual biofeedback. Participants were asked to maximally prolong the blue period on the monitor (period of UOS-Pdrop) without altering swallowing biomechanics. Performance was assessed prior to training start and following training. There was evidence within the first session for task-specific volitional prolongation of the period of UOS-Pdrop during swallowing with biofeedback; however, performance was not enhanced with further training. This may suggest that the amount to which the period of UOS-Pdrop may be prolonged is restricted in healthy individuals. The findings of this study indicate a potential of healthy adults to volitionally prolong UOS opening duration as measured by the period of pressure drop at the region of the UOS. Further research is indicated to evaluate purposeful pressure modulation intra-swallow in patient populations with UOS dysfunction to clarify if the specificity of behavioural treatment may be increased.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.06.018

Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

A meta-analysis of Libet-style experiments.

In the seminal Libet experiment (Libet et al., 1983), unconscious brain activity preceded the self-reported, conscious intention to move. This was repeatedly interpreted as challenging the view that (conscious) mental states cause behavior and, prominently, as challenging the existence of free will. Extensive discussions in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and jurisprudence followed, but further empirical findings were heterogeneous. However, a quantitative review of the literature summarizing the evidence of Libet-style experiments is lacking. The present meta-analysis fills this gap. The results revealed a temporal pattern that is largely consistent with the one found by Libet and colleagues. Remarkably, there were only k = 6 studies for the time difference between unconscious brain activity and the conscious intention to move - the most crucial time difference regarding implications about conscious causation and free will. Additionally, there was a high degree of uncertainty associated with this meta-analytic effect. We conclude that some of Libet et al.'s findings appear more fragile than anticipated in light of the substantial scientific work that built on them.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.04.004

The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine

J Adolesc Health

The Utility of Self-Determination Theory in Predicting Transition Readiness in Adolescents With Special Healthcare Needs.

Adolescents and young adults with chronic health conditions must learn skills to successfully manage their health as they prepare to transition into adult-based care. Self-determination theory (SDT), an empirically based theory of human motivation, posits that competence (feeling effective), autonomy (volition to perform behaviors), and relatedness (support for autonomy from others) influence behavioral change. This study evaluates the utility of SDT constructs in predicting transition readiness among adolescents and young adults recruited into an intervention to promote successful healthcare transition. Baseline assessments were completed by 137 patients aged 17-23 years recruited from pediatric renal, gastroenterology, or rheumatology clinical services. Surveys measured transition readiness (Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire) as well as SDT constructs, including competence (Patient Activation Measure); provider relatedness and parent autonomy support (Health Care Climate Questionnaire); and health care-related autonomy (Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire). Relationships between SDT constructs and transition readiness were evaluated using linear regression. Between 44 and 48 participants were recruited from each service. Bivariate correlation coefficients between transition readiness and SDT constructs were competence (r = .44), autonomous autonomy (r = .34), controlled autonomy (r = .27), provider relatedness (r = .46), and parental autonomy support (r = .35) (p < .01). Age positively correlated with transition readiness (r = .47, p < .001). After controlling for age, gender, and clinical service, competence (p < .001) and provider relatedness (p = .008) successfully predicted transition readiness (R = .423; F change; p < .001). Findings from this cross-sectional study support the utility of SDT constructs in promoting transition readiness among adolescents and young adults with chronic conditions, underscoring the importance of building competence and provider support for autonomy during this critical period.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1007/s12064-021-00346-6

Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften

Theory Biosci

Consciousness, decision making, and volition: freedom beyond chance and necessity.

What is the role of consciousness in volition and decision-making? Are our actions fully determined by brain activity preceding our decisions to act, or can consciousness instead affect the brain activity leading to action? This has been much debated in philosophy, but also in science since the famous experiments by Libet in the 1980s, where the current most common interpretation is that conscious free will is an illusion. It seems that the brain knows, up to several seconds in advance what "you" decide to do. These studies have, however, been criticized, and alternative interpretations of the experiments can be given, some of which are discussed in this paper. In an attempt to elucidate the processes involved in decision-making (DM), as an essential part of volition, we have developed a computational model of relevant brain structures and their neurodynamics. While DM is a complex process, we have particularly focused on the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for its emotional, and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) for its cognitive aspects. In this paper, we present a stochastic population model representing the neural information processing of DM. Simulation results seem to confirm the notion that if decisions have to be made fast, emotional processes and aspects dominate, while rational processes are more time consuming and may result in a delayed decision. Finally, some limitations of current science and computational modeling will be discussed, hinting at a future development of science, where consciousness and free will may add to chance and necessity as explanation for what happens in the world.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.684433

Frontiers in psychology

Front Psychol

Corrigendum: Effortless Willpower? The Integrative Self and Self-Determined Goal Pursuit.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.653458.].

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106955

Addictive behaviors

Addict Behav

Effects of addiction science on conceived freewill and responsibility.

Although there is speculation that medicalization of addiction undermines conceived agency, only relatively modest effects have been reported. Research participants generally have ideas about addiction that are informed both by personal experience and by media, and their views may not be wholly updated in response to study-information. Here we examine the potential impact of addiction science theories on perceived volition and responsibility by considering the issues in the context of a hypothetical new drug, "Z." Participants (N = 662) were provided one of three functional accounts that each corresponded to a prominent theory within addiction science: incentive-sensitization, impaired self-control, and habit-system dominance. For half of participants, additional neuroscience mechanism information was included with the functional account. Across explanations, the inclusion of mechanism information was associated with significantly less perceived volition and marginal reduction in blame, For several measures, there was a significant or marginally significant interaction between which addiction explanation was used and whether mechanism information was included, with mechanism generally having the largest impact given the impaired self-control explanation of addiction and little evidence of impact given the incentive-sensitization explanation of addiction. Taken together, these results suggest robust effects of addiction science on judgments of agency when presented in the context of a novel addiction. It is unclear whether a sustained scientific consensus around an existing theory could produce a similar impact on how people understand real addictive behavior.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1016/j.tics.2021.04.001

Trends in cognitive sciences

Trends Cogn Sci

What Is the Readiness Potential?

The readiness potential (RP), a slow buildup of electrical potential recorded at the scalp using electroencephalography, has been associated with neural activity involved in movement preparation. It became famous thanks to Benjamin Libet (Brain 1983;106:623-642), who used the time difference between the RP and self-reported time of conscious intention to move to argue that we lack free will. The RP's informativeness about self-generated action and derivatively about free will has prompted continued research on this neural phenomenon. Here, we argue that recent advances in our understanding of the RP, including computational modeling of the phenomenon, call for a reassessment of its relevance for understanding volition and the philosophical problem of free will.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1017/S0140525X20000886

The Behavioral and brain sciences

Behav Brain Sci

The complex nature of willpower and conceptual mapping of its normative significance in research on stress, addiction, and dementia.

Willpower (as suppression, resolve, and habit) has ramifications for autonomy and mental time-travel. Autonomy presupposes mature powers of volition and the capacity to anticipate future events and consequences of one's actions. Ainslie's study is useful to clarify basic autonomy in addiction and dementia. Furthermore, we show how our study on coping with stress can be applied to suppression and resolve.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition

10.1007/s40279-021-01468-z

Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.)

Sports Med

Is Physical Activity Associated with Less Depression and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Rapid Systematic Review.

The Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the entire world population. During the first spread, most governments have implemented quarantine and strict social distancing procedures. Similar measures during recent pandemics resulted in an increase in post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression symptoms. The development of novel interventions to mitigate the mental health burden are of utmost importance. In this rapid review, we aimed to provide a systematic overview of the literature with regard to associations between physical activity (PA) and depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. We searched major databases (PubMed, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science) and preprint servers (MedRxiv, SportRxiv, ResearchGate, and Google Scholar), for relevant papers up to 25/07/2020. We included observational studies with cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. To qualify for inclusion in the review, studies must have tested the association of PA with depression or anxiety, using linear or logistic regressions. Depression and anxiety must have been assessed using validated rating scales. Effect sizes were represented by fully adjusted standardized betas and odds ratios (OR) alongside 95% confidence intervals (CI). In case standardized effects could not be obtained, unstandardized effects were presented and indicated. We identified a total of 21 observational studies (4 longitudinal, 1 cross-sectional with retrospective analysis, and 16 cross-sectional), including information of 42,293 (age 6-70 years, median female = 68%) participants from five continents. The early evidence suggests that people who performed PA on a regular basis with higher volume and frequency and kept the PA routines stable, showed less symptoms of depression and anxiety. For instance, those reporting a higher total time spent in moderate to vigorous PA had 12-32% lower chances of presenting depressive symptoms and 15-34% of presenting anxiety. Performing PA during Covid-19 is associated with less depression and anxiety. To maintain PA routines during Covid-19, specific volitional and motivational skills might be paramount to overcome Covid-19 specific barriers. Particularly, web-based technologies could be an accessible way to increase motivation and volition for PA and maintain daily PA routines.

CognitiveConstruct

Volition