Components Of Cognitive Control Research Articles

Reduced temporal and spatial stability of neural activity patterns predict cognitive control deficits in children with ADHD.

This study explores the neural underpinnings of cognitive control deficits in ADHD, focusing on overlooked aspects of trial-level variability of neural coding. We employed a novel computational approach to neural decoding on a single-trial basis alongside a cued stop-signal task which allowed us to distinctly probe both proactive and reactive cognitive control. Typically developing (TD) children exhibited stable neural response patterns for efficient proactive and reactive dual control mechanisms. However, neural coding was compromised in children with ADHD. Children with ADHD showed increased temporal variability and diminished spatial stability in neural responses in salience and frontal-parietal network regions, indicating disrupted neural coding during both proactive and reactive control. Moreover, this variability correlated with fluctuating task performance and with more severe symptoms of ADHD. These findings underscore the significance of modeling single-trial variability and representational similarity in understanding distinct components of cognitive control in ADHD, highlighting new perspectives on neurocognitive dysfunction in psychiatric disorders.

Linking a latent variable trait-state-occasion model of emotion regulation to cognitive control

ABSTRACT Emotion dysregulation (ED) is a vulnerability factor for affective disorders that may originate from deficits in cognitive control (CC). Although measures of ED are often designed to assess trait-like tendencies, the extent to which such measures capture a time-varying (TV) or state-like construct versus a time-invariant (TI) or trait-like personality characteristic is unclear. The link between the TV and TI components of ED and CC is also unclear. In a 6-wave, 5-month longitudinal study, community participants (n = 1281) completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-16), a commonly used measure of ED and measures of CC. A latent variable (trait-state-occasion) model showed that the proportion of TI factor variance (.80) was greater than the TV factor variance (.19). Although TV factor stability was significant, the coefficients were small in magnitude. Furthermore, regression weights for the ED TI factor (average β = −.62) were significant and larger than those for the TV factor (average β = −.10) in predicting latent CC at each of the six-time points. These findings suggest that ED, as assessed by the DERS-16, is largely TI and this TI component is more strongly linked to CC than the TV component.

The Impact of Sex on Cognitive Control in ADHD: Girls Slow to Inhibit, Boys Inhibit Less, and Both Show Higher Response Variability

Objective: To determine whether girls and boys with ADHD show distinct impairments in components of cognitive control across multiple tasks (go/no-go, stop signal, and flanker) and performance metrics (response speed, variability, and errors). Method: A total of 300 children, ages 8 to 12 years with ADHD (n = 210, 58 girls) or typically developing (TD; n = 99, 37 girls), completed all tasks. Traditional response measures (e.g., mean and standard deviation of reaction time, inhibition errors, and stop signal reaction time) and ex-Gaussian modeling of reaction times (mu, sigma, and tau) were analyzed. Results: Girls showed intact response inhibition in the context of slower response speed, while boys made more inhibition errors and did not slow their response speed. Both girls and boys with ADHD showed higher response variability and poorer interference control than TD children. Conclusion: Girls and boys with ADHD show distinct impairments in cognitive control that may be important for understanding the pathophysiology of ADHD.

Effects of dopaminergic treatment on inhibitory control differ across Hoehn and Yahr stages of Parkinson's disease.

Motor inhibitory control, a core component of cognitive control, is impaired in Parkinson's disease, dramatically impacting patients' abilities to implement goal-oriented adaptive strategies. A progressive loss of the midbrain's dopamine neurons characterizes Parkinson's disease and causes motor features responsive to dopaminergic treatments. Although such treatments restore motor symptoms, their impact on response inhibition is controversial. Most studies failed to show any effect of dopaminergic medicaments, although three studies found that these drugs selectively improved inhibitory control in early-stage patients. Importantly, all previous studies assessed only one domain of motor inhibition, i.e. reactive inhibition (the ability to react to a stop signal). The other domain, i.e. proactive inhibition (the ability to modulate reactive inhibition pre-emptively according to the current context), was utterly neglected. To re-examine this issue, we recruited cognitively unimpaired Parkinson's patients under dopaminergic treatment in the early (Hoehn and Yahr, 1-1.5, n = 20), intermediate (Hoehn and Yahr 2, n = 20), and moderate/advanced (Hoehn and Yahr, 2.5-3, n = 20) stages of the disease. Using a cross-sectional study design, we compared their performance on a simple reaction-time task and a stop-signal task randomly performed twice on dopaminergic medication (ON) and after medication withdrawal (OFF). Normative data were collected on 30 healthy controls. Results suggest that medication effects are stage-dependent. In Hoehn and Yahr 1-1.5 patients, drugs selectively impair reactive inhibition, leaving proactive inhibition unaffected. In the ON state, Hoehn and Yahr two patients experienced impaired proactive inhibition, whereas reactive inhibition is no longer affected, as it deteriorates even during the OFF state. By contrast, Hoehn and Yahr 2.5-3 patients exhibited less efficient reactive and proactive inhibition in the OFF state, and medication slightly improved proactive inhibition. This evidence aligns with the dopamine overdose hypothesis, indicating that drug administration may overdose intact dopamine circuitry in the earliest stages, impairing associated cognitive functions. In later stages, the progressive degeneration of dopaminergic neurons prevents the overdose and can exert some beneficial effects. Thus, our findings suggest that inhibitory control assessment might help tailor pharmacological therapy across the disease stage to enhance Parkinson's disease patients' quality of life by minimizing the hampering of inhibitory control and maximizing the reduction of motor symptoms.

Dual-site beta tACS over rIFG and M1 enhances response inhibition: A parallel multiple control and replication study

Response inhibition is a core component of cognitive control. Past electrophysiology and neuroimaging studies have identified beta oscillations and inhibitory control cortical regions correlated with response inhibition, including the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) and primary motor cortex (M1). Hence, increasing beta activity in multiple brain regions is a potential way to enhance response inhibition. Here, a novel dual-site transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) method was used to modulate beta activity over the rIFG-M1 network in a sample of 115 (excluding 2 participants) with multiple control groups and a replicated experimental design. In Experiment 1, 70 healthy participants were randomly assigned to three dual-site beta-tACS groups, including in-phase, anti-phase or sham stimulation. During and after stimulation, participants were required to complete the stop-signal task, and electroencephalography (EEG) was collected before and after stimulation. The Barratt Impulsiveness Scale was completed before the experiment to evaluate participants' impulsiveness. In addition, we conducted an active control experiment with a sample size of 20 to exclude the potential effects of the dual-site tACS “return” electrode. To validate the behavioural findings of Experiment 1, 25 healthy participants took part in Experiment 2 and were randomized into two groups, including in-phase and sham stimulation groups. We found that compared to the sham group, in-phase but not anti-phase beta-tACS significantly improved both response inhibition performance and beta synchronization of the inhibitory control network in Experiment 1. Furthermore, the increased beta synchronization was correlated with enhanced response inhibition. In an independent sample of Experiment 2, the enhanced response inhibition performance observed in the in-phase group was replicated. After combining the data from the above two experiments, the time dynamics analysis revealed that the in-phase beta-tACS effect occurred in the post-stimulation period but not the stimulation period. The state-dependence analysis showed that individuals with poorer baseline response inhibition or higher attentional impulsiveness had greater improvement in response inhibition for the in-phase group. These findings strongly support that response inhibition in healthy adults can be improved by in-phase dual-site beta-tACS of the rIFG-M1 network, and provide a new potential treatment targets of synchronized cortical network activity for patients with clinically deficient response inhibition.

Exploring synchrony effects in performance on tasks involving cognitive inhibition: An online study of young adults

ABSTRACT Inhibition is one of the core components of cognitive control. In experimental tasks which measure cognitive inhibition, performance may vary according to an interplay of individuals’ chronotype and the time of day of testing (“synchrony effect”, or the beneficial impact on cognitive performance of aligning testing with the time of day preferred by an individual’s chronotype). Some prior studies have reported a synchrony effect specifically emerging in activities which require cognitive inhibition, but not in general processing speed, but existing findings are inconsistent. If genuine, synchrony effects should be taken into account when comparing groups of participants. Here we explored whether synchrony effects emerge in a sample of young adults. In a multi-part online study, we captured various components of inhibition (response suppression; inhibitory control; switching) plus a general measure of processing speed across various times of the day. Individuals’ chronotype was included as a predictor of performance. Critically, we found no evidence of a synchrony effect (an association between chronotype and component of interest where the directionality is dependent on time of testing) in our study.

Time discrimination and change detection could share a common brain network: findings of a task-based fMRI study.

Over the past few years, several studies have described the brain activation pattern related to both time discrimination (TD) and change detection processes. We hypothesize that both processes share a common brain network which may play a significant role in more complex cognitive processes. The main goal of this proof-of-concept study is to describe the pattern of brain activity involved in TD and oddball detection (OD) paradigms, and in processes requiring higher cognitive effort. We designed an experimental task, including an auditory test tool to assess TD and OD paradigms, which was conducted under functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 14 healthy participants. We added a cognitive control component into both paradigms in our test tool. We used the general linear model (GLM) to analyze the individual fMRI data images and the random effects model for group inference. We defined the areas of brain activation related to TD and OD paradigms. We performed a conjunction analysis of contrast TD (task > control) and OD (task > control) patterns, finding both similarities and significant differences between them. We conclude that change detection and other cognitive processes requiring an increase in cognitive effort require participation of overlapping functional and neuroanatomical components, suggesting the presence of a common time and change detection network. This is of particular relevance for future research on normal cognitive functioning in the healthy population, as well as for the study of cognitive impairment and clinical manifestations associated with various neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia.

Oscillatory dynamics serving visual selective attention during a Simon task.

Selective attention is an important component of cognitive control and is essential for day-to-day functioning. The Simon task is a common test of visual selective attention that has been widely used to probe response selection, inhibition and cognitive control. However, to date, there is a dearth of literature that has focused on the oscillatory dynamics serving task performance in the selective attention component of this task. In this study, 32 healthy adults (mean age: 33.09 years, SD: 7.27 years) successfully completed a modified version of the Simon task during magnetoencephalography. All magnetoencephalographic data were pre-processed and transformed into the time-frequency domain. Significant oscillatory brain responses were imaged using a beamforming approach, and peak task-related neural activity was extracted to examine the temporal dynamics. Across both congruent and Simon conditions, our results indicated robust decreases in alpha (8-12 Hz) activity in the bilateral occipital regions and cuneus during task performance, while increases in theta (3-6 Hz) oscillatory activity were detected in regions of the dorsal frontoparietal attention network, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, frontal eye fields and insula. Lastly, whole-brain condition-wise analyses showed Simon interference effects in the theta range in the superior parietal region and the alpha range in the posterior cingulate and inferior frontal cortices. These findings provide network-specific insights into the oscillatory dynamics serving visual selective attention.

Fluoxetine degrades luminance perceptual thresholds while enhancing motivation and reward sensitivity.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase serotonin activity in the brain. While they are mostly known for their antidepressant properties, they have been shown to improve visual functions in amblyopia and impact cognitive functions ranging from attention to motivation and sensitivity to reward. Yet, a clear understanding of the specific action of serotonin to each of bottom-up sensory and top-down cognitive control components and their interaction is still missing. To address this question, we characterize, in two adult male macaques, the behavioral effects of fluoxetine, a specific SSRI, on visual perception under varying bottom-up (luminosity, distractors) and top-down (uncertainty, reward biases) constraints while they are performing three different visual tasks. We first manipulate target luminosity in a visual detection task, and we show that fluoxetine degrades luminance perceptual thresholds. We then use a target detection task in the presence of spatial distractors, and we show that under fluoxetine, monkeys display both more liberal responses as well as a degraded perceptual spatial resolution. In a last target selection task, involving free choice in the presence of reward biases, we show that monkeys display an increased sensitivity to reward outcome under fluoxetine. In addition, we report that monkeys produce, under fluoxetine, more trials and less aborts, increased pupil size, shorter blink durations, as well as task-dependent changes in reaction times. Overall, while low level vision appears to be degraded by fluoxetine, performances in the visual tasks are maintained under fluoxetine due to enhanced top-down control based on task outcome and reward maximization.

Time discrimination in psychosis: findings from a neuroimaging study

IntroductionPrevious functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated a brain network responsible of time discrimination (TD) processes, which may play a significant mediating role in other cognitive processes, such as change detection and cognitive control. The study of TD and its dysfunction in psychosis has become a matter of growing interest. We hypothesize that the impairment of the TD network is involved both in the mechanisms of psychosis and in the cognitive deficit presented by patients.Objectives1.To delimit the brain regions involved in TD.2.To examine the dysfunction in TD brain network in patients diagnosed with psychosis.3.To sudy the integrity of brain white matter pathways in psychosis.4.To verify whether the neuroimaging findings and TD test performance predict the neurocognitive profile of the patients.MethodsParticipants included 20 patients with psychosis (PSY group) and 13 healthy controls (HC group). PSY group participants met remission criteria for 6 months prior to the study. Participants were interviewed for sociodemographic information and clinical assessments. They underwent a detailed cognitive assesment using the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB). Neuroimaging study was performed on a 3 Tesla MRI scanner. We designed an experimental task including a test tool to assess TD and Oddbal detection (OD) paradigms with a cognitive control component. The task was conducted under functional magentic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used the general linear model analysis of the individual data of the fMRI images and the random effects model for group inference. Group differences in DTI were tested using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS).ResultsWe find statistically significant differences (fMRI) in the activity related to TD (in HC), with greater activity in frontal cortical regions, the insular cortex and the cerebellum. In the PSY group, differences in the functionality and activation pattern of brain networks responsible for TD are observed, although voxel clustering does not reach the cluster significance limit when compared to HC. Compared to the HC, the PSY group has a significant deficit of fractional anisotropy (DTI) in the whole brain and in 21 specific brain regions. The PSY group has significantly lower scores in six of the seven cognitive domains than the control group, as well as in the overall composite. We correlated FA values in the groups of interest with MCCB scores.Image:Image 2:Image 3:ConclusionsWe have defined the TD network, its relationship with other brain networks and cognitive processes of more complexity. The inclusion of participants with stable psychosis allowed us to analyze de TD disfunction in the PSY group. We compared the integrity of TD related brain pathways and correlated the findings with various clinical characteristics and the cognitive impairment present in psychotic patients.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Failure of deactivation in bipolar disorder during performance of an fMRI adapted version of the Stroop task

IntroductionFew studies have examined the functional brain correlates of the performance of the Stroop task in bipolar disorder (BD). It is also not known whether it is associated with failure of de-activation in the default mode network, as has been found in studies using other tasks. MethodsTwenty-four BD patients and 48 age, sex and educationally estimated intellectual quotient (IQ) matched healthy subjects (HS) underwent a functional MRI during performance of the counting Stroop task. Task-related activations (incongruent versus congruent condition) and de-activations (incongruent versus fixation) were examined using whole-brain, voxel-based methodology. ResultsBoth the BD patients and the HS showed activation in a cluster encompassing the left dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and supplementary motor area, with no differences between them. The BD patients, however, showed significant failure of de-activation in the medial frontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus. ConclusionsThe failure to find activation differences between BD patients and controls suggests that the ‘regulative’ component of cognitive control remains intact in the disorder, at least outside episodes of illness. The failure of de-activation found adds to evidence documenting trait-like default mode network dysfunction in the disorder.

Everyday Cognitive Control and Emotion Dysregulation in Young Adults With and Without ADHD: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Objective: This study examined the contribution of the temporal dynamics of two cognitive control mechanisms—inhibitory control (IC) and working memory (WM)—to emotion dysregulation (ED) in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in ecological settings. Method: One hundred twenty-two participants (age 18–33 years; 60 with ADHD) reported their ED at baseline, followed by a 5-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study, with short behavioral IC and WM tasks performed five times/day. Results: For IC, mean and lability of performance over EMA significantly accounted for differences in ED but not baseline performance. For WM, both baseline and mean of EMA, but not EMA lability, accounted for ED variance. ADHD status further contributed to the explained variance of ED. Conclusions: Our results support the contribution of dynamic IC processes to ED in ADHD, in addition to WM performance level, and highlight the importance of dynamic and ecological investigation of different cognitive control components.

Associations between physical activity and proactive control and the modulating role of working memory

Accumulating evidence indicates positive associations between physical activity (PA) and cognitive control. Proactive control, the ability to maintain goal-relevant information in preparation of upcoming task demands, is a critical component of cognitive control. However, little research has examined the association between PA and proactive control. To address this issue, a total of 132 university students were recruited and divided into two groups based on reported regular PA during past week. All participants completed two common cognitive control tasks: the AX Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) and the Cued Task-Switching Paradigm (CTS). In comparison with the low PA group, the high PA group showed greater proactive control efficiency on both tasks. Moreover, proactive control indices significantly correlated between the two tasks for the high but not for the low PA group. Further, working memory significantly modulated the association between PA and proactive control efficiency of CTS. Although the present cross-section design does not allow us to test the causal relationship between PA and proactive control, these findings may have important implications for developing effective intervention strategies which aim to promote proactive control through increasing PA or to promote PA through increasing proactive control. Moreover, individual differences in working memory are important to consider when we aim to design such interventions.

The influence of cognitive control on the processing of L2 garden path sentence among Chinese-English bilinguals.

Few studies have examined the role of cognitive control in processing ambiguity, let alone the roles of different components of cognitive control. In the current study, the English (L2) Sentence Processing Task and a series of cognitive control tasks were administered among 111 young adult Chinese–English bilinguals to investigate the influence of different components of cognitive control on garden path sentence comprehension, with other factors such as age, socio-economic status, and language proficiency strictly matched. Data analysis results showed a significant garden path effect on response times (RTs) and accuracy among all the participants. The results of independent t-test analyses revealed that the high working memory (WM) group was faster in ambiguity resolution, and so was the high monitoring group. However, there were no differences between the high and low inhibition and shifting groups in ambiguity resolution. These findings reveal that only certain aspects of cognitive control influence garden path sentence comprehension.

Which Cognitive Factors Predict L2 Grammar Learning: Cognitive Control, Statistical Learning, Working Memory, or Attention?

Individual variability of cognitive factors in second language (L2) grammar learning has long been the focus in the field of L2 acquisition. Most explored the issue by focusing on one factor like cognitive control, working memory, statistical learning (SL), or attention. Few investigated the topic by taking all these factors into consideration. However, different factors might interact and collaboratively contribute to the learning process. Examining the issue by considering all the factors might yield different results and facilitate our understanding of the mechanism subserving L2 grammar learning. Therefore, this study explored whether and how these factors predicted L2 grammar learning. A total of 34 college students completed a set of cognitive measurements on these cognitive factors, after which they were trained with artificial grammar over 5 consecutive days. Using multiple regression analysis and machine learning algorithms, we found that in the initial phase, SL was the more significant predictor, whereas in the intermediate and the last phases, cognitive control served as the more significant predictor. In other words, in the initial phase of L2 grammar learning, SL might play an important role, whereas in the intermediate and proficient phase, the updating component of cognitive control might play a more significant role. The findings provided empirical evidence to the neurocognitive account of grammar learning, shedding light on the mechanism of L2 grammar learning.

Distinguishing semantic control and phonological control and their role in aphasic deficits: A task switching investigation

People use cognitive control across many contexts in daily life, yet it remains unclear how cognitive control is used in contexts involving language. Distinguishing language-specific cognitive control components may be critical to understanding aphasia, which can co-occur with cognitive control deficits. For example, deficits in control of semantic representations (i.e., semantic control), are thought to contribute to semantic deficits in aphasia. Conversely, little is known about control of phonological representations (i.e., phonological control) in aphasia. We developed a switching task to investigate semantic and phonological control in 32 left hemisphere stroke survivors with aphasia and 37 matched controls. We found that phonological and semantic control were related, but dissociate in the presence of switching demands. People with aphasia exhibited group-wise impairment at phonological control, although individual impairments were subtle except in one case. Several individuals with aphasia exhibited frank semantic control impairments, and these individuals had relative deficits on other semantic tasks. The present findings distinguish semantic control from phonological control, and confirm that semantic control impairments contribute to semantic deficits in aphasia.

The role of sex in the association between cannabis use and working memory-related brain activity.

Although cannabis use patterns differ between men and women, studies on sex differences on the effects of cannabis on the brain and cognitive control are largely lacking. Working memory (WM) is a component of cognitive control believed to be involved in the development and maintenance of addiction. In this study, we evaluated the association between cannabis use and WM (load) related brain activity in a large sample, enabling us to assess sex effects in this association. The brain activity of 104 frequent cannabis users (63% men) and 85 controls (53% men) was recorded during an N‐back WM task. Behavioral results showed a significant interaction between WM load and group for both accuracy and reaction time, with cannabis users showing a relatively larger decrease in performance with increasing WM load. Cannabis users compared to controls showed a relatively smaller reduction in WM (load) related activity in the precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex at higher WM load. This WM (load) related activity was not associated with performance nor cannabis use and related problems. An exploratory analysis showed higher WM‐related activity in the superior frontal gyrus in men compared to women. While cannabis users showed higher WM (load) related activity in central nodes of the default mode network, this was not directly attributable to group specific worsening of performance under higher cognitive load. Further research is necessary to assess whether observed group differences increase with higher cognitive load, how group differences relate to measures of cannabis use, and how sex affects these group differences.

Examining cognitive sex differences in elite math intensive education: Preliminary evidence from a gender inequitable country.

It is unclear how cognitive control accounts for academic performance in math-intensive higher education and how it links to male over-representation in math-intensive education in gender-inequitable countries. To examine the link between cognitive control and math-intensive education with a focus on male overrepresentation by using cognitive performance (task and construct level) to account for academic grades, and examining sex-specificity in cognitive performance (task and construct level), and using sex-differences in cognitive performance to account for academic grades. Four hierarchical regressions were used (two using task scores and two summed scores) with predictors entered in 3 blocks (working memory, flexibility, inhibition) to explain academic performance (bootstrapped sampling at 2000 samples; N=39; males =69%). Task-level analysis (Corsi span & mental rotation) and construct-level analysis indicate working memory as a significant predictor of grades, model-fit improved for all-male sample. Results of analysis of variance using the performance of 183 students on four cognitive tasks (N=183; males=81%) showed high scores of working memory task and decision-making task among male participants; female scores were higher in a task assessing planning/cognitive flexibility and in the inhibition task. Differences in the two hierarchical regressions indicated that planning/cognitive flexibility accounts for the academic performance of the male-female mixed sample; however, working memory, most importantly decision-making related to risk and uncertainty, accounts for the academic performance of the all-male sample. Similar to developing countries, working memory and decision making might contribute to academic performance, potentially explaining male over-representation in math-intensive higher education. Academic grades might disproportionately rely on working memory and risky decision-making; equal emphasis and inclusive development of all components of cognitive control via academic curriculum and assessment might improve diversity in math-intensive higher education.

Cognitive Control Challenge Task Across the Lifespan.

Meeting everyday challenges and responding in a goal-directed manner requires both the ability to maintain the current task set in face of distractors—stable cognitive control, and the ability to flexibly generate or switch to a new task set when environmental requirements change—flexible cognitive control. While studies show that the development varies across individual component processes supporting cognitive control, little is known about changes in complex stable and flexible cognitive control across the lifespan. In the present study, we used the newly developed Cognitive Control Challenge Task (C3T) to examine the development of complex stable and flexible cognitive control across the lifespan and to gain insight into their interdependence. A total of 340 participants (229 women, age range 8–84 years) from two samples participated in the study, in which they were asked to complete the C3T along with a series of standard tests of individual components of cognitive control. The results showed that the development of both stable and flexible complex cognitive control follows the expected inverted U-curve. In contrast, the indeces of task set formation and task set switching cost increase linearly across the lifespan, suggesting that stable and flexible complex cognitive control are subserved by separable cognitive systems with different developmental trajectories. Correlations with standard cognitive tests indicate that complex cognitive control captured by the C3T engages a broad range of cognitive abilities, such as working memory and planning, and reflects global processing speed, jointly suggesting that the C3T is an effective test of complex cognitive control that has both research and diagnostic potential.

Physical Fitness on Academic Performance in Youth

Physical fitness, as an important physical health issue, may play a key role also in brain health by affecting the academic performance of youth helping the cognitive control components to improve. Memory and cognitive skill are some of the cognitive control components that are fundamental even for academic ability. Aim: In this context, the aim of our study was to investigate and analyze the facts regarding the potential of the exercises on academic achievement improvement. Methods: In order to realize a detailed review study we used the Jab Ref as a research sector, focusing more on navigating the Medline, Google Scholar, and Inspire options that this program contains. While as the selection criteria of the collected scientific articles, we used the keywords that provided us the exact articles that stated facts about the aim of our study. Results: Authors emphasized that the development of motor skills by practicing the coordinative exercises may have a beneficial influence on the learning process improving academic performance. This comes out because of the coordinative exercise’s impact on increasing the number of neuron transmitters and the new neural connections that enable youth to have a better perception regarding motor and academic situations. In addition, the authors underline the fact that the most active youth tend to perform better academically.