Cognitive Control Processes Research Articles

Performance of antisaccades in patients with cerebral small vessel disease accompanied by white matter hyperintensities

ABSTRACT Objectives The antisaccades (AS) task is considered a reliable indicator of inhibitory control of eye movements in humans. Achieving good AS performance requires efficient cognitive processes that are sensitive to changes in brain structure. White matter hyperintensities (WMH) can cause subcortical-cortical dysconnectivity, affecting diverse cognitive domains. Thus, the AS task was investigated in patients with WMH in cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). Methods In this retrospective study, 75 participants with WMH, determined by neuroimaging standards for CSVD research, were admitted to the Department of Neurology of Beijing Luhe Hospital, Capital Medical University from January 2021 to December 2022. All subjects underwent the AS task, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and 3.0T brain MRI. Additionally, 61 healthy subjects were recruited to characterize WMH profiles. Results Compared to the control group, patients with WMH had a significantly increased AS error rate (49.81%, p = 0.001) and lower gain (76.00%, p = 0.042). The AS error rate was significantly higher in patients with WMH in the frontal lobe than in those without WMH (p = 0.004). After adjusting for confounders (age), a positive correlation was found between the AS error rate and MoCA scores for patients with WMH (coefficient = 0.262, p = 0.024). Conclusions Patients with WMH due to CSVD exhibited abnormal AS performances, particularly in the frontal lobe. The eye movement paradigms, the new diagnostic forms in neurology, can be utilized to investigate the distributed cortical and subcortical systems involved in cognitive control processes, offering simple, well-tolerated and highly sensitive advantages over traditional measures.

An Expanded Conceptual Framework for Understanding Irritability in Childhood: The Role of Cognitive Control Processes

Children prone to irritability experience significant functional impairments and internalising and externalising problems. Contemporary models have sought to elucidate the underlying mechanisms in irritability, such as aberrant threat and reward biases to improve interventions. However, the cognitive control processes that underlie threat (e.g., attention towards threats) and reward (e.g., attention towards reward-related cues) biases and the factors which influence the differential activation of positive and negative valence systems and thus leading to maladaptive activation of cognitive control processes (i.e., proactive and reactive control) are unclear. Thus, we aim to integrate extant theoretical and empirical research to elucidate the cognitive control processes underlying threat and reward processing that contribute to irritability in middle childhood and provide a guiding framework for future research and treatment. We propose an expanded conceptual framework of irritability that includes broad intraindividual and environmental vulnerability factors and propose proximal ‘setting’ factors that activate the negative valence and positive valence systems and proactive and reactive cognitive control processes which underpin the expression and progression of irritability. We consider the implications of this expanded conceptualisation of irritability and provide suggestions for future research.

Acute psychosocial stress modulates neural and behavioral substrates of cognitive control.

Acute psychosocial stress affects learning, memory, and attention, but the evidence for the influence of stress on the neural processes supporting cognitive control remains mixed. We investigated how acute psychosocial stress influences performance and neural processing during the Go/NoGo task-an established cognitive control task. The experimental group underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) acute stress induction, whereas the control group completed personality questionnaires. Then, participants completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Go/NoGo task, with self-report, blood pressure and salivary cortisol measurements of induced stress taken intermittently throughout the experimental session. The TSST was successful in eliciting a stress response, as indicated by significant Stress > Control between-group differences in subjective stress ratings and systolic blood pressure. We did not identify significant differences in cortisol levels, however. The stress induction also impacted subsequent Go/NoGo task performance, with participants who underwent the TSST making fewer commission errors on trials requiring the most inhibitory control (NoGo Green) relative to the control group, suggesting increased vigilance. Univariate analysis of fMRI task-evoked brain activity revealed no differences between stress and control groups for any region. However, using multivariate pattern analysis, stress and control groups were reliably differentiated by activation patterns contrasting the most demanding NoGo trials (i.e., NoGo Green trials) versus baseline in the medial intraparietal area (mIPA, affiliated with the dorsal attention network) and subregions of the cerebellum (affiliated with the default mode network). These results align with prior reports linking the mIPA and the cerebellum to visuomotor coordination, a function central to cognitive control processes underlying goal-directed behavior. This suggests that stressor-induced hypervigilance may produce a facilitative effect on response inhibition which is represented neurally by the activation patterns of cognitive control regions.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying cognitive control in psychosis.

Cognitive control (CC) involves a top-down mechanism to flexibly respond to complex stimuli and is impaired in schizophrenia. This study investigated the impact of increasing complexity of CC processing in 140 subjects with psychosis and 39 healthy adults, with assessments of behavioral performance, neural regions of interest and symptom severity. The lowest level of CC (Stroop task) was impaired in all patients; the intermediate level of CC (Faces task) with explicit emotional information was most impaired in patients with first episode psychosis. Patients showed activation of distinct neural CC and reward networks, but iterative learning based on the higher-order of CC during the trust game, was most impaired in chronic schizophrenia. Subjects with first episode psychosis, and patients with lower symptom load, demonstrate flexibility of the CC network to facilitate learning, which appeared compromised in the more chronic stages of schizophrenia. These data suggest optimal windows for opportunities to introduce therapeutic interventions to improve CC.

Multitasking across the lifespan in different task contexts

We assessed lifespan development of multitasking in a sample of 187 individuals aged 8–82 years. Participants performed a visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM) task together with either postural control or reaction time (RT) tasks. Using criterion-referenced testing we individually adjusted difficulty levels for the VSWM task to control for single-task differences. Age-differences in single-task performances followed U-shaped patterns with young adults outperforming children and older adults. Multitasking manipulations yielded robust performance decrements in VSWM, postural control and RT tasks. Presumably due to our adjustment of VSWM challenges, costs in this task were small and similar across age groups suggesting that age-differential costs found in earlier studies largely reflected differences already present during single-task performance. Age-differences in multitasking costs for concurrent tasks depended on specific combinations. For VSWM and RT task combinations increases in RT were the smallest for children but pronounced in adults highlighting the role of cognitive control processes. Stabilogram diffusion analysis of postural control demonstrated that long-term control mechanisms were affected by concurrent VSWM demands. This interference was pronounced in older adults supporting concepts of compensation or increased cognitive involvement in sensorimotor processes at older age. Our study demonstrates how a lifespan approach can delineate the explanatory scope of models of human multitasking.

Use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for studying cognitive control in depressed patients: A systematic review.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a debilitating mental disorder and the leading cause of disease burden. Major depressive disorder is associated with emotional impairment and cognitive deficit. Cognitive control, which is the ability to use perceptions, knowledge, and information about goals and motivations to shape the selection of goal-directed actions or thoughts, is a primary function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Psychotropic medications are one of the main treatments for MDD, but they are not effective for all patients. An alternative treatment is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Previous studies have provided mixed results on the cognitive-enhancing effects of TMS treatment in patients with MDD. Some studies have found significant improvement, while others have not. There is a lack of understanding of the specific effects of different TMS protocols and stimulation parameters on cognitive control in MDD. Thus, this review aims to synthesize the effectiveness of the TMS methods and a qualitative assessment of their potential benefits in improving cognitive functioning in patients with MDD. We reviewed 21 studies in which participants underwent a treatment of any transcranial magnetic stimulation protocol, such as repetitive TMS or theta-burst stimulation. One of the primary outcome measures was any change in the cognitive control process. Overall, the findings indicate that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) may enhance cognitive function in patients with MDD. Most of the reviewed studies supported the notion of cognitive improvement following TMS treatment. Notably, improvements were predominantly observed in inhibition, attention, set shifting/flexibility, and memory domains. However, fewer significant improvements were detected in evaluations of visuospatial function and recognition, executive function, phonemic fluency, and speed of information processing. This review found evidence supporting the use of TMS as a treatment for cognitive deficits in patients with MDD. The results are promising, but further research is needed to clarify the specific TMS protocol and stimulation locations that are most effective.

Association of auditory processing abilities and employment in young women

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the relationship between employment status and auditory processing abilities in women, considering the cognitive impact of work-related demands. The objective was to study the influence of employment on forward -, backward -, operation span, 2n back, and speech perception in noise (SPIN) scores.MethodsFifty-eight women aged 20 to 64 years were categorized into working and non-working groups. Auditory cognitive assessments included forward and backward digit span, auditory 2n-back, operational span, and speech perception in noise. Mental workload, listening effort, and fatigue levels were evaluated for each test using standardized scales. Handedness was assessed using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Statistical analysis involved Mann–Whitney tests and effect size calculations.ResultsWorking women scored significantly higher in 2n-back task compared to non-working counterparts, emphasizing the positive impact of employment on working memory and cognitive control processes. The working women group perceptually rated greater mental load on the operational span task than non-working group, indicating the task-specific manifestation of group differences. When the tasks are easier (2n back) or difficult (operation span), employed women exhibited an advantage in auditory processing over their counterparts. ConclusionThis study reveals nuanced cognitive differences influenced by employment status in women. Working women demonstrated superior auditory processing abilities, specifically in working memory tasks, suggesting potential cognitive benefits associated with engagement in the workforce. The elevated mental workload for dual task working memory paradigms underscores the complexity of simultaneous processing and storage, highlighting cognitive challenges in specific occupational contexts.

A thin line between conflict and reaction time effects on EEG and fMRI brain signals

Abstract The last two decades of electrophysiological and neuroimaging research converged that the activity in the medial frontal cortex plays a pivotal role in cognitive control processes. Notably, the midfrontal theta (MFT) oscillatory EEG power as well as activity in the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) or pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) were consistently proclaimed as markers of conflict processing. However, these brain signals are strongly correlated with response time (RT) variability in various non-conflict tasks, which overshadows the true nature of their involvement. Our previous study (Beldzik et al., 2022) successfully identified these brain signals during a simultaneous EEG-fMRI experiment implementing Stroop and Simon tasks. Based on the assumption that overcoming the habitual prepotent response during high interference trials requires additional neural resources beyond simple decision variable represented in RTs, here we aim to verify if these markers exhibit a congruency effect beyond RT variations. Furthermore, we explored if these brain signals represent either proactive or reactive cognitive control mechanisms by investigating two widely known behavioral phenomena observed in conflict tasks: proportion congruency and congruency sequence effects. The results revealed partially null findings for MFT activity, yet a distinct cognitive control specialization between aMCC and preSMA. Our study provides novel evidence that the former is involved in proactive control mechanisms, possibly contingency learning, whereas the latter reflects reactive control mechanisms by exhibiting a strong congruency effect regardless of RT variation and responding to adaptive behavior.

Structural and functional neural patterns among sub-threshold bulimia nervosa: Abnormalities in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex

BackgroundDisordered eating behaviors are prevalent among youngsters and highly associated with dysfunction in neurocognitive systems. We aimed to identify the potential changes in individuals with bulimia symptoms (sub-BN) to generate insights to understand developmental pathophysiology of bulimia nervosa. MethodsWe investigated group differences in terms of degree centrality (DC) and gray matter volume (GMV) among 145 undergraduates with bulimia symptoms and 140 matched control undergraduates, with the secondary analysis of the whole brain connectivity in these regions of interest showing differences in static functional connectivity (FC). ResultsThe sub-BN group exhibited abnormalities of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right orbitofrontal cortex in both GMV and DC, and displayed decreased FC between these regions and the precuneus. We also observed that sub-BN presented with reduced FC between the calcarine and superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus and inferior parietal gyrus. Additionally, brain-behavioral associations suggest a distinct relationship between these FCs and psychopathological symptoms in sub-BN group. ConclusionsOur study demonstrated that individuals with bulimia symptoms present with aberrant neural patterns that mainly involved in cognitive control and reward processing, as well as attentional and self-referential processing, which could provide important insights into the pathology of BN.

Slips of the tongue in patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome

BackgroundMotor and vocal tics are the main symptom of Gilles de la Tourette-syndrome (GTS). A particular complex vocal tic comprises the utterance of swear words, termed coprolalia. Since taboo words are socially inappropriate, they are normally suppressed by people, which implies cognitive control processes.MethodTo investigate the control of the unintentional pronunciation of taboo words and the associated processes of conflict monitoring, we used the “Spoonerisms of Laboratory Induced Predisposition” (SLIP) paradigm. Participants read multiple inductor word pairs with the same phonemes, followed by pronouncing a target pair with inverse phonemes. This led to a conflict between two competing speech plans: the correct word pair and the word pair with inverted phonemes. Latter speech error, a spoonerism, could result in a neutral or taboo word. We investigated 19 patients with GTS and 23 typically developed controls (TDC) and measured participants’ electroencephalography (EEG) during the SLIP task.ResultsAt the behavioral level less taboo than neutral word spoonerisms occurred in both groups without significant differences. Event-related brain potentials (ERP) revealed a difference between taboo and neutral word conditions in the GTS group at the midline electrodes in a time range of 250–400 ms after the speech prompt, which was not found in the TDC group. The extent of this effect depended on the number of inductor word pairs, suggesting an increasing level of cognitive control in the GTS group.ConclusionThe differences between taboo and neutral word conditions in patients with GTS compared to TDC suggest an altered recruitment of cognitive control processes in GTS, likely enlisted to suppress taboo words.

356. Neural Processing of Cognitive Control in PTSD: Interplay of Emotional and Cognitive Demands

356. Neural Processing of Cognitive Control in PTSD: Interplay of Emotional and Cognitive Demands

One-shot stimulus-control associations generalize over different stimulus viewpoints and exemplars.

Cognitive control processes are central to adaptive behavior, but how control is applied in a context-appropriate manner is not fully understood. One way to produce context-sensitive control is by mnemonically linking particular control settings to specific stimuli that demanded those settings in a prior encounter. In support of this episodic reinstatement of control hypothesis, recent studies have produced evidence for the formation of stimulus-control associations in one-shot, prime-probe learning paradigms. However, since those studies employed perceptually identical stimuli across prime and probe presentations, it is not yet known how generalizable one-shot stimulus-control associations are. In the current study, we therefore probed whether associations formed between a prime object and the control process of task-switching would generalize to probe objects seen from a different viewpoint (Experiment 1), to different exemplars of the same object type (Experiment 2), and to different members of the object category (Experiment 3). We replicated prior findings of one-shot control associations for identical prime/probe stimuli. Importantly, we additionally found that these episodic control effects are expressed regardless of changes in viewpoint and exemplar, but do not seem to generalize to other category members. These findings elucidate the scope of generalization of the episodic reinstatement of cognitive control.

EXPLORING COGNITIVE CONTROL PROCESSES OF YOUNG ADULTS IN MULTITASKING ACTIVITIES: A SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

Doing multiple activities at the same time is something that most people are familiar with. Therefore, the cognitive control process is an important cognitive mechanism in regulating and controlling human mental activity. This process involves the ability to process information, allocate cognitive resources, control attention, and make decisions. This research is a cognitive science study conducted through a simulation involving three young adults at a university in Bandung as participants. Each participant followed a structured simulation with the same rules. In an effort to collect data, the researcher collected data using a journaling method with self-report technique. This study aims to analyze the picture that occurs from the cognitive process in response to young adults multitasking activities. The cognitive control process has benefits to help individuals in doing several tasks at the same time so that it will save time and make activities run more effectively. Based on the results of this study, it was found that almost all young adults described complicated cognitive processes in multitasking activities and had difficulty completing the activity objectives to the fullest. However, through cognitive control, it was found that two subjects were finally able to complete the task by choosing one of the activities that should be done quickly and accurately in their thought process.

Educators as agents of breadth-biased learning: using social reconstructionism as rationale for embracing media multitasking and enhancing teaching practices in higher education.

This perspective article contends that media multitasking has significant implications on cognitive control processes, particularly in how information is processed and utilized. Contrary to viewing media multitasking as inherently negative, the article argues that it contributes to the evolving nature of cognitive processing, without necessarily improving or degrading it. The discussion draws on theoretical frameworks from contemporary cognitive neuroscience to contextualize these arguments. The article provides a nuanced perspective on media multitasking, acknowledging its enduring presence and exploring its influence on cognitive processes, while also proposing strategies for educators to navigate its implications in educational settings.

Progressive grey matter atrophy in adolescents with major depressive disorder revealed by causal structural covariance network

IntroductionAdolescence is a period marked by highest vulnerability to the onset of depression, with profound implications for adult health. Neuroimaging studies have revealed considerable atrophy in brain structure in these patients with depression. Of particular importance are regions responsible for cognitive control, reward, and self-referential processing. However, the causal structural networks underpinning brain region atrophies in adolescents with depression remain unclear.ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the temporal course and causal relationships of gray matter atrophy within the brains of adolescents with depression.MethodsWe analyzed T1-weighted structural images using voxel-based morphometry in first-episode adolescent patients with depression (n=80, 22 males; age = 15.57±1.78) and age, gender matched healthy controls (n=82, 25 males; age = 16.11±2.76) to identify the disease stage-specific gray matter abnormalities. Then, with granger causality analysis, we arranged the patients’ illness duration chronologically to construct the causal structural covariance networks that investigated the causal relationships of those atypical structures.ResultsCompared to controls, smaller volumes in ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), middle cingulate cortex (MCC) and insula areas were identified in patients with less than 1 year illness duration, and further progressed to the subgenual ACC, regions of default, frontoparietal networks in longer duration. Causal network results revealed that dACC, vmPFC, MCC and insula were prominent nodes projecting exerted positive causal effects to regions of the default mode and frontoparietal networks. The dACC, vmPFC and insula also had positive projections to the reward network, which included mainly the thalamus, caudate and putamen, while MCC also exerted a positive causal effect on the insula and thalamus.ConclusionsThese findings revealed the progression of structural atrophy in adolescent patients with depression and demonstrated the causal relationships between regions involving cognitive control, reward and self-referential processes.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Computerized cognitive control training to reduce rumination in major depression: A randomized controlled trial

ObjectiveRumination is a major risk factor for the onset and recurrence of depressive episodes and has been associated with deficits in updating working memory content. This randomized controlled trial examines whether training updating-specific cognitive control processes reduces daily ruminative thoughts in clinically depressed individuals. MethodsSixty-five individuals with a current major depressive episode were randomized to 10 sessions of either cognitive control training (N = 31) or placebo training (N = 34). The frequency and negativity of individuals’ daily ruminative thoughts were assessed for seven days before training, after training, and at a 3-month follow-up using experience sampling methodology. Secondary outcomes were depressive symptoms, depressed mood, and level of disability. ResultsCognitive control training led to stronger improvements in the trained task than placebo training. However, cognitive control training did not lead to greater reductions in the frequency or negativity of daily ruminative thoughts than placebo training. There were no training-specific effects on participants' depressive symptoms or level of disability. ConclusionsThe robustness of the present null-findings, combined with the methodological strengths of the study, suggest that training currently depressed individuals to update emotional content in working memory does not affect the frequency or negativity of their daily ruminative thoughts.

Anxiety Symptoms in Young Children Are Associated With a Maladaptive Neurobehavioral Profile of Error Responding

BackgroundChildhood anxiety symptoms have been linked to alterations in cognitive control and error processing, but the diverse findings on neural markers of anxiety in young children, which vary by severity and developmental stage, suggest the need for a wider perspective. Integrating new neural markers with established ones, such as the error-related negativity, the error positivity, and frontal theta, could clarify this association. Error-related alpha suppression (ERAS) is a recently proposed index of post-error attentional engagement that has not yet been explored in children with anxiety. MethodsTo identify neurobehavioral profiles of anxiety in young children by integrating ERAS with the error-related negativity, error positivity, frontal theta, and post-error performance indicators, we employed K-means clustering as an unsupervised multimetric approach. For this, we first aimed to confirm the presence and scalp distribution of ERAS in young children. We performed event-related potentials and spectral analysis of electroencephalogram data collected during a Go/NoGo task (Zoo Task) completed by 181 children (ages 4–7 years; 103 female) who were sampled from across the clinical-to-nonclinical range of anxiety severity using the Child Behavior Checklist. ResultsResults confirmed ERAS, showing lower post-error alpha power, maximal suppression at occipital sites, and less ERAS in younger children. K-means clustering revealed that high anxiety and younger age were associated with reduction in ERAS and frontal theta, less negative error-related negativity, enlarged error positivity, more post-error slowing, and reduced post-error accuracy. ConclusionsOur findings indicate a link between ERAS, maladaptive neural mechanisms of attention elicited by errors, and anxiety in young children, suggesting that anxiety may arise from or interfere with attention and error processing.

Multilevel analysis of positive emotional induction: Which is the role of gender and valence on cognitive control processes?

How emotions are processed affects people's cognition and behavior. One of the most used measures to study the physiological component of emotions is heart rate (HR), where greater HR variation (range) implies greater emotional processing. Several investigations established the importance of gender modulation of these processes due to the different cultural treatment given to emotions among genders. However, very heterogeneous results are reported today, and few studies incorporated these parameters when investigating emotion modulation of cognitive processes according to individual factors. The present work consists of two studies. In a pilot study, 97 young adults, through the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM), ranged the valence and arousal to select two positive and neutral videos. The second study analyses the role of gender and valence in the variation of subjective (SAM) and physiological (HR) indicators of emotional processing associated with performance in two cognitive tasks (Stroop and Tower of London) under two different emotional conditions. Participants were 60 adults, who were randomly assigned to positive or neutral video visualization, and their HR was registered. There was a tendency for women to have higher HR during positive videos than in neutral. While the subjective reports indicated variances in the appraisal of the videos, the heart rate did not exhibit differences across the experimental conditions. Few studies integrate emotional and cognitive components, and include physiological and subjective measures of emotional processing. These findings illustrate the importance of including various measures of emotional and cognitive processing.

Dorsolateral prefrontal activity supports a cognitive space organization of cognitive control.

Cognitive control resolves conflicts between task-relevant and -irrelevant information to enable goal-directed behavior. As conflicts can arise from different sources (e.g., sensory input, internal representations), how a limited set of cognitive control processes can effectively address diverse conflicts remains a major challenge. Based on the cognitive space theory, different conflicts can be parameterized and represented as distinct points in a (low-dimensional) cognitive space, which can then be resolved by a limited set of cognitive control processes working along the dimensions. It leads to a hypothesis that conflicts similar in their sources are also represented similarly in the cognitive space. We designed a task with five types of conflicts that could be conceptually parameterized. Both human performance and fMRI activity patterns in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex support that different types of conflicts are organized based on their similarity, thus suggesting cognitive space as a principle for representing conflicts.

Dorsolateral prefrontal activity supports a cognitive space organization of cognitive control

Cognitive control resolves conflicts between task-relevant and -irrelevant information to enable goal-directed behavior. As conflicts can arise from different sources (e.g., sensory input, internal representations), how a limited set of cognitive control processes can effectively address diverse conflicts remains a major challenge. Based on the cognitive space theory, different conflicts can be parameterized and represented as distinct points in a (low-dimensional) cognitive space, which can then be resolved by a limited set of cognitive control processes working along the dimensions. It leads to a hypothesis that conflicts similar in their sources are also represented similarly in the cognitive space. We designed a task with five types of conflicts that could be conceptually parameterized. Both human performance and fMRI activity patterns in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex support that different types of conflicts are organized based on their similarity, thus suggesting cognitive space as a principle for representing conflicts.