Aspects Of Inhibitory Control Research Articles

The relation between executive functions, error-related brain activity, and ADHD symptoms in clinically evaluated school-aged children

ABSTRACT Two event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited following errors, the error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe), have been proposed to reflect cognitive control, though the specific processes remain debated. Few studies have examined the ERN and Pe’s relations with individual differences in cognitive control/executive functioning using well-validated tests administered separately from the inhibition tasks used to elicit the ERN/Pe. Additionally, neurocognitive tests of executive functions tend to strongly predict ADHD symptoms, but the extent to which task-based and EEG-based estimates of executive functioning/cognitive control account for the same variance in ADHD symptoms remains unclear. The current study addressed these limitations by examining relations between the ERN/Pe and three core executive functions (working memory, inhibitory control, set shifting) in a clinically-evaluated sample of 53 children ages 8–12 (Mage = 10.36, SD = 1.42; 77.4% White/Non-Hispanic; 16 girls) with and without ADHD. Results demonstrated that neither the ERN nor Pe were related to overall cognitive control/executive functioning, or to working memory or set shifting specifically (all 95%CIs include 0.0). In contrast, a larger Pe was associated with better-developed inhibitory control (β=-.35, 95%CI excludes 0.0), but did not capture aspects of inhibitory control that are important for predicting ADHD symptoms. Neither the ERN nor Pe predicted ADHD symptoms (95%CIs include 0.0). Results were generally robust to control for age, sex, SES, ADHD symptom cluster, and anxiety, and emphasize the need for caution when interpreting the ERN/Pe as indices of broad-based cognitive control/executive functioning, as well as using the ERN/Pe to examine cognitive processes contributing to ADHD symptomatology.

Effect of different sport environments on proactive and reactive motor inhibition: A study on open- and closed-skilled athletes via mouse-tracking procedure.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of different sport environments (open-and closed-skill sports) on proactive and reactive inhibitory processes as two distinct components of motor inhibition. A mouse-tracking procedure was employed to compare behavioral performance among three groups of participants (tennis players, swimmers and non-athletes) in non-sport-specific cued Go/No-Go (GNG) and Stop Signal Task (SST), which mainly engage proactive and reactive inhibitory control, respectively. Reaction times (RTs), inhibitory failures, and Stop Signal Reaction Times (SSRTs) were measured. To investigate dynamic aspects of inhibitory control, movement trajectories classified as one-shot (absence of trajectory alteration reflected in a steep slope) or non-one-shot (non-linear/multipeaked trajectory, with one or multiple corrections) were analyzed and compared among groups. Results showed no group differences in RTs in Go/No-Go and Stop conditions. SSRTs were significant shorter for the athletes than non-athletes in SST, but no differences emerged for inhibitory failures in cued GNG. During inhibitory failures athletes showed higher proportion of non-one-shot movements than non-athletes. Higher proportion of non-one-shot profiles was observed in cued GNG compared to SST. Finally, no differences between open-and closed-skilled athletes were found in both tasks. Our findings suggest that both proactive and reactive inhibitory controls do benefit from sport practice, but open-and closed-skill sports do not differ in influencing inhibitory processes. Movement profile analysis could be a promising, complementary behavioral analysis to integrate for more fine-grained evaluation and differentiation of inhibitory motor control in athletes, specifically when using GNG tasks.

Cortical encoding and cognition in reverberant speech perception in older adults

Older listeners are more susceptible than younger listeners to noise and reverberation when communicating in everyday environments. This study investigated the effects of hearing loss and cognitive processing ability on older individuals’ ability to perceive reverberant speech. The effects of reverberation were examined using three types of measures (1) electrophysiology: cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs), (2) cognition: working memory and inhibitory control aspect of executive function, and (3) speech perception: syllable discrimination and sentence intelligibility. These assessments were carried out in two age- and sex-matched groups of ten olderadults (>50 years) with either normal hearing (thresholds ≤ 25 dB HL ≤ 4 kHz) or with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. First, the effect of reverberation on the cortical encoding in each group was determined; then, the effects of hearing loss and cognitive function on syllable and sentence perception were examined. Preliminary analyses showed that increasing reverberation negatively impacts speech perception and alters the amplitude and timing of peaks in evoked responses. Differential effects of reverberation across group will also be discussed. The outcomes of this study will help design clinically applicable models to assess individual susceptibility to environmental interference. [Work supported by an Early Clinical Investigator Grant from Medical Research Foundation of Oregon to R.K.M.]

Dogs Exhibiting High Levels of Aggressive Reactivity Show Impaired Self-Control Abilities.

Inhibitory control describes a multitude of cognitive processes that prevents an impulsive response and enables a more appropriate behavior in a given situation. The ability to inhibit undesirable behaviors, such as aggression, is particularly important in dogs for safe and successful interspecific interaction and cooperation. The present study investigated the associations between two aspects of inhibitory control in dogs, self-control and cognitive inhibition, and the tendency to respond aggressively when provoked. Sixteen police and fourteen privately owned dogs of the same sex, breed group and similar age participated. Self-control, often described as impulsivity, was measured with an exchange paradigm themed the delay of gratification test, and cognitive inhibition with an object discrimination paradigm called the reversal learning test. Aggressive reactivity was assessed with a standardized aggression-eliciting behavior test. When comparing police and privately owned dogs, police dogs showed higher aggression levels and poorer self-control, while the two groups did not differ in cognitive inhibition. Regardless of the dog group, the main results indicated impairments in self-control in dogs with high levels of aggressive reactivity. Dogs showing biting behavior had worse self-control abilities compared to dogs with no signs of aggression. No association between cognitive inhibition and aggression was found. We conclude that self-control, measured as the ability to tolerate delayed rewards, appears to be an important aspect of inhibitory control involved in the tendency to respond aggressively, particularly in police dogs.

The sound of self-regulation: Music program relates to an advantage for children at risk

Promoting self-regulatory development represents a critical concern for all early childhood educational programs, and particularly those serving children at risk via poverty. Stressors related to poverty tax children's physiological stress-response systems and self-regulatory capacities, challenging healthy development. The present study examined an early childhood music intervention designed to promote children's self-regulatory skill development. The participants were 191 children ages 3-5 years old who faced economic hardship. A quasi-experimental, stepped-wedge design that included four preschools and 3 study years facilitated comparing across the school year children who received preschool programming as usual (n = 43) with those who additionally received the music intervention (n =148). Well validated child assessments measured the inhibitory control aspect of self-regulation, as well as receptive vocabulary, and a parent interview measured demographic covariates. Core analyses with hierarchical linear modeling revealed that, compared with peers who received programming as usual, children who received the music intervention showed greater growth in inhibitory control across the preschool year. Implications concern the potential for early childhood music programming to promote self-regulation and support positive development for children facing economic hardship.

Effects of third-language learning on inhibitory control with consideration of task complexity and language proficiency

Aims and Objectives: The present study explores the question of whether learning a third language (L3) in an English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom setting induces improved inhibitory control compared with that found in bilinguals, considering task complexity and language proficiency. Methodology: Thirty-six Chinese–English second language (L2) young adult learners and 121 Chinese–English–Japanese/French/Russian/German L3 young adult learners with three levels of L3 proficiency participated in the study. Simon arrow tasks were employed to measure two types of inhibitory control: response inhibition (the less complex task with univalent stimuli) and interference suppression (the more complex task with bivalent stimuli). Data and Analysis: Statistics using ANOVAs and multiple comparisons were employed to analyze the effects of L3 learning on the reaction time and accuracy for response inhibition and interference suppression, respectively. Findings: The results demonstrated that L3 learners did not outperform L2 learners in the two types of inhibitory control: response inhibition (less complex) and interference suppression (more complex). Moreover, L3 learners with a higher proficiency did not display better inhibitory control than those with a lower proficiency in response inhibition and interference suppression. However, as the L3 proficiency increased, some specific aspects of inhibitory control did improve and exhibited a nonlinear pattern. Originality: The present study extends bilingual advantage in inhibitory control to formal L3 learning, exploring whether bilingual advantage in inhibitory control also appears in L3 learners, considering task complexity and language proficiency. Significance/implications: The present study contributes to the theory of the relationship between multilingualism and inhibitory control by showing that this relationship may be more complex than it is understood currently. Learning an additional language to L2, particularly short-term learning, may not lead to an incremental advantage in overall inhibitory control. However, as learning time increases, changes may appear in specific aspects of inhibitory control, and may be a nonlinear one.

Disentangling age and schooling effects on inhibitory control development: An fNIRS investigation.

Children show marked improvements in executive functioning (EF) between 4 and 7years of age. In many societies, this time period coincides with the start of formal school education, in which children are required to follow rules in a structured environment, drawing heavily on EF processes such as inhibitory control. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal development of two aspects of inhibitory control, namely response inhibition and response monitoring and their neural correlates. Specifically, we examined how their longitudinal development may differ by schooling experience, and their potential significance in predicting academic outcomes. Longitudinal data were collected in two groups of children at their homes. At T1, all children were roughly 4.5 years of age and neither group had attended formal schooling. One year later at T2, one group (P1, n=40) had completed one full year of schooling while the other group (KG, n=40) had stayed in kindergarten. Behavioural and brain activation data (measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy, fNIRS) in response to a Go/No-Go task and measures of academic achievement were collected. We found that P1 children, compared to KG children, showed a greater change over time in activation related to response monitoring in the bilateral frontal cortex. The change in left frontal activation difference showed a small positive association with math performance. Overall, the school environment is important in shaping the development of the brain functions underlying the monitoring of one own's performance.

Associations between touchscreen exposure and hot and cool inhibitory control in 10-month-old infants

Touchscreen use amongst young children has proliferated in recent years, yet little is known about the association between daily touchscreen exposure and inhibitory control in the first year of life. Previous research has found a negative association between the amount of television viewing and inhibitory control in early childhood, but it is unclear whether negative associations with screen use extend to touchscreens. The current study presents an exploratory analysis of the cross-sectional associations between inhibitory control and the amount of touchscreen use amongst 10-month-olds (n = 128–156). Touchscreen exposure was assessed via parent-report. In order to include a range of “hot” and “cool” aspects of inhibitory control, these skills were assessed using lab-based response inhibition and prohibition tasks as well as parent-reported observations of infants’ inhibitory control abilities and broader regulatory behaviors. A “Cognitive Executive Function (EEFQ-CEF)” score (encompassing Inhibitory Control, Flexibility, and Working Memory items) was included as a secondary broader executive function construct to examine whether effects showed specificity to inhibitory control rather than executive functions more generally. Correlation analyses indicated no association between touchscreen exposure and the four indices of IC. However, a positive association was found for the amount of touchscreen exposure and EEFQ-CEF once accounting for sociodemographic variables. The implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.

Do Breastfeeding History and Diet Quality Predict Inhibitory Control at Preschool Age?

Inhibitory control is the ability to control impulsive behavior. It is associated with a range of mental and physical health outcomes, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance dependence. Breastfeeding and healthy dietary patterns have been associated with better executive functions, of which inhibitory control is part. Additionally, breastfeeding has been associated with healthy dietary patterns. Following our preregistration in the Open Science Framework, we investigated the associations between breastfeeding history and inhibitory control at preschool age, with habitual diet quality as a potential mediating factor. A total of 72 families from a longitudinal study participated at child age 3. Breastfeeding questionnaires were administered at 2, 6, and 12 weeks, and at 12 and 36 months. Six inhibitory control tasks were performed during a home visit, and questionnaires were filled in by both parents. Diet quality at age 3 was assessed via three unannounced 24-h recalls. Structural equation modelling was performed in R. This study did not provide evidence that breastfeeding history is associated with inhibitory control in 3-year-old children. Furthermore, diet quality at age 3 did not mediate the link between breastfeeding history and inhibitory control. Previous studies have investigated broader aspects of inhibitory control, such as executive functions, and used different methods to assess nutritional intake, which might explain our differential findings. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on associations between nutrition and behavior. Future replications with larger and more diverse preschool samples are recommended.

Selective Inhibitory Control in Middle Childhood.

The main aim of this study was to investigate the development of selective inhibitory control in middle childhood, a critical period for the maturation of inhibition-related processes. To this end, 64 children aged 6–7 and 56 children aged 10–11 performed a stimulus-selective stop-signal task, which allowed us to estimate not only the efficiency of response inhibition (the stop-signal reaction time or SSRT), but also the strategy adopted by participants to achieve task demands. We found that the adoption of a non-selective (global) strategy characterized by stopping indiscriminately to all stimuli decreased in older children, so that most of them were able to interrupt their ongoing responses selectively at the end of middle childhood. Moreover, compared to younger children, older children were more efficient in their ability to cancel an initiated response (indexed by a shorter SSRT), regardless of which strategy they used. Additionally, we found improvements in other forms of impulsivity, such as the control of premature responding (waiting impulsivity), and attentional-related processes, such as intra-individual variability and distractibility. The present results suggest that middle childhood represents a milestone in the development of crucial aspects of inhibitory control, including selective stopping.

Attachment security, verbal ability, and inhibitory control in middle childhood

BackgroundThe relationship between parent–child attachment and executive function (EF) in middle childhood remains relatively poorly studied. Very little is known about the role that the child’s verbal ability might play in these relationships. Therefore, in the present study, we explored the concurrent links between perceived attachment security with parents and hot and cool inhibitory control (IC)—a core component of EF—as well as the potential mediating role of verbal ability in those links.MethodsThe participants were 160 children aged 8 to 12 (51% girls). They completed the Attachment Security Scale, the computerised version of the go/no-go task, the delay discounting task, and the vocabulary subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Pearson’s correlations were conducted to test relationships between the study variables. A hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was performed to examine whether attachment security uniquely contributed to the outcomes after accounting for covariates. The indirect effects were tested using a non-parametric resampling bootstrap approach.ResultsThe results showed that, after accounting for the child’s age and sex, there was a direct relationship between attachment security with the father and cool, but not hot, IC. However, there were no significant links between attachment security with the mother and both aspects of IC. We also found that children’s verbal ability played a mediating role in the associations between both child–father and child–mother attachment security and hot, but not cool, IC above and beyond the child’s age.ConclusionsThe current study extends previous work on executive functions in middle childhood. The results highlight the role of attachment in explaining individual differences in IC in middle childhood as well as the different mechanisms through which attachment with parents might explain cool vs. hot IC. The findings have potential implications for therapeutic interventions using the family context as a target to improve IC in middle childhood.

Behavioral and Neurophysiological Aspects of Inhibition-The Effects of Acute Cardiovascular Exercise.

This review summarizes behavioral and neurophysiological aspects of inhibitory control affected by a single bout of cardiovascular exercise. The review also examines the effect of a single bout of cardiovascular exercise on these processes in young adults with a focus on the functioning of prefrontal pathways (including the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and elements of the prefrontal-basal ganglia pathways). Finally, the review offers an overview on the potential effects of cardiovascular exercise on GABA-ergic and glutamatergic neurotransmission in the adult brain and propose mechanisms or processes that may mediate these effects. The main findings show that a single bout of cardiovascular exercise can enhance inhibitory control. In addition, acute exercise appears to facilitate activation of prefrontal brain regions that regulate excitatory and inhibitory pathways (specifically but not exclusively the prefrontal-basal-ganglia pathways) which appear to be impaired in older age. Based on the reviewed studies, we suggest that future work examine the beneficial effects of exercise on the inhibitory networks in the aging brain.

Neurocognitive processes mediate the relation between children's motor skills, cardiorespiratory fitness and response inhibition: Evidence from source imaging.

Accumulating evidence suggests an association between outcomes of sports participation, such as motor skills and cardiorespiratory fitness, and aspects of inhibitory control in children. However, it remains unclear if motor skills and cardiorespiratory fitness are related to different source activity patterns and if neurophysiological indices of response inhibition mediate the relation of these constructs with behavioral performance. We examined the relative contributions of motor skills and cardiorespiratory fitness to response inhibition and a potential mediation by the neurocognitive processes indexed by the N200 and P300 components of event-related potentials. About 92 children aged 9-13years completed the Movement ABC-2, the PWC170 and a Go/NoGo task. We employed electroencephalography (EEG) to record the N200 and P300 components elicited by the task, which are considered to reflect conflict monitoring and the allocation of attentional resources toward task-relevant stimuli, respectively. Path-anlayses revealed a moderate association between motor skills and behavioral performance on the Go/NoGo task. This association was fully mediated by the P300 amplitude in the NoGo condition. In contrast, cardiorespiratory fitness was not related to behavioral performance, but accounted for variance in N200. Source analyses supported an association between cardiorespiratory fitness and N200 source activity in prefrontal and primary motor cortex, whereas motor skills were related to P300 source activity in the posterior cingulate cortex. Our findings provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the relation between motor skills and response inhibition. Moreover, we found that the neural generators of the P300 and N200 varied as a function of children's cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills.

Pretend play as a protective factor for developing executive functions among children living in poverty

Growing evidence highlights the importance of executive functions (EFs) for optimal development. Unfortunately, existing literature documents compounding deficits in EF due to the stressors associated with poverty. Recent research supports a positive relationship between pretense and EF, but few studies have examined the longitudinal association between these variables in a low-income sample. As such, the current study investigated whether pretend play behaviors among a sample of 191 Head Start preschoolers predicted EF outcomes in first grade, and whether pretend play mitigated the adverse consequences of cumulative risk on children’s EF development. Results revealed a positive, prospective relationship between pretense in preschool and EF in first grade. In addition, pretend play moderated a negative association between cumulative risk in preschool and EF outcomes in first grade, with the association being weaker for children who engaged in more pretend play relative to those who engaged in less pretend play. Follow-up analyses suggest that pretend play may be particularly important for the inhibitory control aspect of EF in this sample.

The Specificity of Inhibitory Control Deficits in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Dissociation Between the Speed and Reliability of Stopping

Inhibitory control over thoughts, emotions, and actions is challenging for people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Whether specific aspects of inhibitory control are differentially affected in PTSD remains an open question. Here we examined performance on two popular response inhibition tasks in 28 combat Veterans with PTSD and 27 control Veterans. We used a Hybrid variant that intermixed 75% Go trials, 12.5% NoGo trials, and 12.5% Stop trials. Parameters from an ex-Gaussian race model (Matzke et al., 2017) provided estimates of stopping speed (μ Stop) and stopping variability (τ Stop). Participants with PTSD had higher error rates on NoGo trials, replicating previous results. The estimated probability of “trigger failures” (failures to launch inhibitory control) on Stop trials was also higher in PTSD patients, suggesting that sustained attention was a common deficit in the two tasks. Stopping variability was also increased in participants with PTSD, which supports a difficulty with maintaining task goals. Conversely, stopping speed did not differ between patients and controls, suggesting that core inhibitory processes were intact. These results demonstrate a dissociation between the speed and reliability of motor response inhibition in PTSD, and suggest that top-down inhibitory control was deployed less consistently in participants with PTSD.

Mouse Tracking to Explore Motor Inhibition Processes in Go/No-Go and Stop Signal Tasks.

Response inhibition relies on both proactive and reactive mechanisms that exert a synergic control on goal-directed actions. It is typically evaluated by the go/no-go (GNG) and the stop signal task (SST) with response recording based on the key-press method. However, the analysis of discrete variables (i.e., present or absent responses) registered by key-press could be insufficient to capture dynamic aspects of inhibitory control. Trying to overcome this limitation, in the present study we used a mouse tracking procedure to characterize movement profiles related to proactive and reactive inhibition. A total of fifty-three participants performed a cued GNG and an SST. The cued GNG mainly involves proactive control whereas the reactive component is mainly engaged in the SST. We evaluated the velocity profile from mouse trajectories both for responses obtained in the Go conditions and for inhibitory failures. Movements were classified as one-shot when no corrections were observed. Multi-peaked velocity profiles were classified as non-one-shot. A higher proportion of one-shot movements was found in the SST compared to the cued GNG when subjects failed to inhibit responses. This result suggests that proactive control may be responsible for unsmooth profiles in inhibition failures, supporting a differentiation between these tasks.

Transient Effects Of Acute Aerobic Physical Activity On The Pupillary Response And Inhibitory Control

PURPOSE: Acute bouts of aerobic exercise have been found to transiently improve executive function and its neural underpinnings. Moderate activation of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system increases attention toward goal-directed behaviors, yet non-optimal activation may promote distractibility. Pupillary responses are believed to be a marker of the LC-NE system, and tasks requiring greater amounts of inhibitory control modulate baseline (tonic) and task-evoked (phasic) pupil dilation. The purpose of this study was to examine the pupillary response as a LC-NE biomarker to understand the mechanisms underlying the effect of acute exercise on inhibitory control. METHODS: Twenty-six participants (19.7 ± 1.8 yr, 17 female) performed 20 min interventions (seated rest/moderate intensity exercise) followed by Simon and modified flanker tasks. Participants’ eyes were tracked during the tasks using a tabletop eye imaging camera at a 500hz sampling rate. RESULTS: RM-ANOVAs assessed intervention and inhibitory control (congruency/compatibility) effects on behavior and pupillary outcomes. Incongruent flanker trials resulted in longer reaction times and lower response accuracy, p’s ≤ 0.001. While incompatible Simon trials also resulted in longer reaction times, p = 0.01, there was no difference in response accuracy across compatibility conditions, p = 0.11. Peak phasic pupil dilation was also greater in incongruent flanker trials as well as incompatible Simon trials, p=0.003. While behavior and phasic pupil dilation in both tasks did not differ across the exercise vs. rest interventions, p’s ≥ 0.18, Tonic pupil diameter was larger for the exercise intervention in the flanker task, p = 0.04, and at trend level in the Simon task , p = 0.09. CONCLUSION: The tonic pupillary response may be a sensitive biomarker for examining transient changes in LC-NE activity as a function of acute exercise bouts. Moderate intensity exercise did not significantly affect phasic pupillary response. These findings indicate that the pupillary response can be manipulated by aspects of inhibitory control and physical activity, which suggests it may be a sensitive biomarker for examining changes in LC-NE activity.

Considering Motor Excitability During Action Preparation in Gambling Disorder: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study.

A lack of inhibitory control appears to contribute to the development and maintenance of addictive disorders. Among the mechanisms thought to assist inhibitory control, an increasing focus has been drawn on the so-called preparatory suppression, which refers to the drastic suppression observed in the motor system during action preparation. Interestingly, deficient preparatory suppression has been reported in alcohol use disorders. However, it is currently unknown whether this deficit also concerns behavioral, substance-free, addictions, and thus whether it might represent a vulnerability factor common to both substance and behavioral addictive disorders. To address this question, neural measures of preparatory suppression were obtained in gambling disorder patients (GDPs) and matched healthy control subjects. To do so, single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over the left and the right motor cortex to elicit motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in both hands when participants were performing a choice reaction time task. In addition, choice and rapid response impulsivity were evaluated in all participants, using self-report measures and neuropsychological tasks. Consistent with a large body of literature, the MEP data revealed that the activity of the motor system was drastically reduced during action preparation in healthy subjects. Surprisingly, though, a similar MEP suppression was observed in GDPs, indicating that those subjects do not globally suffer from a deficit in preparatory suppression. By contrast, choice impulsivity was higher in GDPs than healthy subjects, and a higher rapid response impulsivity was found in the more severe forms of GD. Altogether, those results demonstrated that although some aspects of inhibitory control are impaired in GDPs, these alterations do not seem to concern preparatory suppression. Yet, the profile of individuals suffering of a GD is very heterogeneous, with only part of them presenting an impulsive disposition, such as in patients with alcohol use disorders. Hence, a lack of preparatory suppression may be only shared by this sub-type of addicts, an interesting issue for future investigation.

Understanding Early Inhibitory Development: Distinguishing Two Ways That Children Use Inhibitory Control.

Inhibitory control is the capacity to suppress inappropriate responses. It is central to many aspects of development, most notably executive function and effortful control. Despite its importance, however, there are significant gaps in our understanding of inhibitory control's early development, and several findings that remain hard to explain. Here, a new account of inhibitory control is presented, explaining previous findings by distinguishing between two distinct ways that inhibitory control is used. According to this "Strength/Endurance" account, inappropriate responses which are highly prepotent tax inhibitory strength; whereas inappropriate responses which remain active for a longtime tax inhibitory endurance. The developmental trajectories of these two aspects of inhibitory control, and their separate impacts on broader development, are discussed.

The orexin-1 receptor antagonist SB-334867 reduces motivation, but not inhibitory control, in a rat stop signal task

There is considerable clinical interest in the neuropeptide orexin/hypocretin for its ability to regulate motivation and reward as well as arousal and wakefulness. For instance, antagonists for the orexin-1 receptor (OxR1) are thought to hold great promise for treating drug addiction and disorders associated with overeating, as these compounds repeatedly have been found to suppress seeking of various drugs of abuse as well as highly palatable foods in preclinical models. Given the hypothesized role of OxR1 signaling in cue-driven motivation, an outstanding question is whether pharmacologically blocking this receptor affects cognitive functioning. Response inhibition – the ability to cancel ongoing behavior – is one aspect of cognitive control that may be particularly relevant. Response inhibition deficits are commonly associated with a range of psychiatric disorders and neurological diseases, including substance use disorders and obesity. Moreover, OxR1 signaling recently has been implicated in waiting impulsivity, another aspect of inhibitory control. Here, we investigated the effects of the OxR1 antagonist SB-334867 on response inhibition in a rat version of the stop-signal reaction time task. Results show that acutely blocking OxR1 had minimal effects on response inhibition or attentional functioning. In contrast, this manipulation reduced motivation to perform the task and earn food rewards, consistent with other recent findings. These results add to the growing body of literature implicating OxR1 in the regulation of motivation and suggest that effects of pharmacological compounds such as SB-334867 on drug-seeking behavior are not related to effects on response inhibition.