Executive Control Components Research Articles

Inhibitory control of gait initiation in humans: An electroencephalography study.

Response inhibition is a crucial component of executive control. Although mainly studied in upper limb tasks, it is fully implicated in gait initiation. Here, we assessed the influence of proactive and reactive inhibitory control during gait initiation in healthy adult participants. For this purpose, we measured kinematics and electroencephalography (EEG) activity (event-related potential [ERP] and time-frequency data) during a modified Go/NoGo gait initiation task in 23 healthy adults. The task comprised Go-certain, Go-uncertain, and NoGo conditions. Each trial included preparatory and imperative stimuli. Our results showed that go-uncertainty resulted in delayed reaction time, without any difference for the other parameters of gait initiation. Proactive inhibition, that is, Go uncertain versus Go certain conditions, influenced EEG activity as soon as the preparatory stimulus. Moreover, both proactive and reactive inhibition influenced the amplitude of the ERPs (central P1, occipito-parietal N1, and N2/P3) and theta and alpha/low beta band activities in response to the imperative-Go-uncertain versus Go-certain and NoGo versus Go-uncertain-stimuli. These findings demonstrate that the uncertainty context; induced proactive inhibition, as reflected in delayed gait initiation. Proactive and reactive inhibition elicited extended and overlapping modulations of ERP and time-frequency activities. This study shows the protracted influence of inhibitory control in gait initiation.

Trait anxiety slows speed of processing but does not affect specific components of executive control

The present work aimed to establish the influence of self-reported trait anxiety on computerized and self-reported measures of executive control, and speed of processing in young adults using latent variable modeling. One hundred and six participants completed the State-trait anxiety questionnaire (STAI-t), the Attentional Control Scale (ACS), and a set of computerized tasks of executive control, tapping into the updating, inhibition, and shifting components. Higher scores in the latent variable of trait anxiety were negatively associated with the self-reported latent variable of attentional control. Notably, self-reported and performance-based indicators of executive control showed no associations at the latent level. Contrary to our hypotheses, higher trait anxiety did not affect any performance-based executive component but was associated with an increase in response times. We show that self-reported trait anxiety is related to a lower self-perceived sense of attentional control and does not affect executive functioning in non-clinical samples. In turn, trait anxiety is mainly associated with a slowed speed of processing. In conclusion, the tendency to experience a negative mood is related with cognitive processing by reducing its speed even in the absence of threatening stimuli.

342-OR: The Impact of Insulin Secretion and Insulin Sensitivity on Cognition in Adults with Prediabetes—The Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS)

Dysglycemia is a significant risk factor for cognitive impairment. However, which pathophysiologic determinant of dysglycemia, impaired insulin sensitivity (ISens) or insulin secretion (ISecr), or both, contributes to poorer cognitive function is not established. Among 1,054 adults with prediabetes (PreD) from the DPPOS, who did not develop diabetes, we investigated the relationship between ISecr, ISens and cognitive function, hypothesizing that lower ISens and/or lower ISecr is associated with worse cognition. Early ISecr was estimated by the mean insulinogenic index (IGI; pmol/mmol) from repeated annual oral glucose tolerance tests and ISens was estimated by the mean 1/fasting insulin from repeated fasting blood draws. ISecr and ISens were calculated over approximately 12 years of follow-up. Verbal learning (Spanish-English Verbal Learning Test [SEVLT]) and processing speed (Digital Symbol Substitution Test [DSST]) were assessed at the end of the follow-up period. Separate linear regression models were run for each cognitive outcome. Models included both mean ISecr and mean ISens as the main predictor variables and were adjusted for demographic, lifestyle, cardiovascular factors, and medications. Contrary to our hypothesis and to prior studies, higher mean ISecr was associated with poorer performance on the DSST (-0.74 points per SD increase in IGI, 95% CI: -1.43, -0.05; p=0.03). Mean ISens was not associated with DSST, nor were mean ISecr or mean ISens associated with SEVLT. These results suggest that higher insulin secretion in people with longstanding PreD may negatively impact processing speed, a critical component of executive control. This relationship could reflect a compensatory response of insulin in people with worsening metabolic dysregulation, who may also have poorer cognition. Further study is needed to replicate these findings and to understand the role of insulin in cognitive function. Disclosure A. Shapiro: None. A.H. Tjaden: None. S. Edelstein: None. S.E. Kahn: Advisory Panel; Anji Pharmaceuticals, Bayer Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Merck & Co., Inc. Other Relationship; Novo Nordisk. P. Srikanthan: None. W.C. Knowler: None. E.M. Venditti: None. S. Golden: Advisory Panel; Abbott Diabetes, Medtronic. O. Carmichael: Research Support; Eli Lilly and Company. Advisory Panel; Novo Nordisk. Research Support; Nestlé Health Science. K.M. Gadde: Research Support; BioKier, Inc., National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. J.A. Luchsinger: Consultant; Merck KGaA. Other Relationship; Wolters Kluwer Health. D. Research Group: None. Funding National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (UDK048489, UDK048339, UDK048377, UDK048349, UDK048381, UDK048468, UDK048434, UDK048485, UDK048375, UDK048514, UDK048437, UDK048413, UDK048411, UDK048406, UDK048380, UDK048397, UDK048412, UDK048404, UDK048387, UDK048407, UDK048443, UDK048400)

Transcranial magnetic stimulation over posterior parietal cortex modulates alerting and executive control processes in attention.

Attention includes three different functional components: generating and maintaining an alert state (alerting), orienting to sensory events (orienting), and resolving conflicts between alternative actions (executive control). Neuroimaging and patient studies suggest that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is involved in all three attention components. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has repeatedly been applied over the PPC to study its functional role for shifts and maintenance of visuospatial attention. Most TMS-PPC studies used only detection tasks or orienting paradigms to investigate TMS-PPC effects on attention processes, neglecting the alerting and executive control components of attention. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of PPC in all three functional components of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. To this end, we disrupted PPC with TMS (continuous theta-burst stimulation), to modulate subsequent performance on the Lateralized-Attention Network Test, used to assess the three attention components separately. Our results revealed hemifield-specific effects on alerting and executive control functions, but we did not find stimulation effects on orienting performance. While this field of research and associated clinical development have been predominantly focused on orienting performance, our results suggest that parietal cortex and its modulation may affect other aspects of attention as well.

Irrelevant angry faces impair response inhibition, and the go and stop processes share attentional resources

Response inhibition is a crucial component of executive control, which refers to our ability to suppress responses that are no longer needed or inappropriate. The stop-signal task is a standard tool to assess inhibitory control over actions. Here, we use irrelevant facial expressions (happy, angry, or neutral) as both go and stop-signal to examine competition for shared attentional resources between (a) emotion and inhibition process and (b) go and stop processes. Participants were required to respond to go signals (gender discrimination task: male or female). Occasionally, a stop-signal (face with irrelevant angry, happy, or neutral facial expression) was presented, and participants were required to withhold their motor response. We found that emotion processing (especially angry faces) captures attention away from the task, and the emotionality of the stop signal matters only when the go signal is non-emotional. When the go signal was non-emotional, we found that stop-signal with irrelevant angry facial expressions impaired inhibitory control compared to stop-signal with irrelevant happy and neutral facial expressions. These results indicate that the processing of emotion and inhibition process exploit a shared pool of attentional resources. These results favor an interactive capacity-sharing account of the go and stop processes in models of response inhibition.

Structure of working memory in children from 3 to 8 years old.

Several models of working memory (WM) have been proposed in the literature. Most of the research on the architecture of WM is based on adults or older children, but less is known about younger children. In this study, we tested various models of WM on a sample of 739 Italian children, ranging in age from 3 to 8 years, primarily of European heritage and from medium to medium-high socioeconomic background. Participants were assessed with 12 WM tasks, systematically varying the modality and level of executive control required (based on the number of activities to be performed at once: retention alone, ignoring distractors, and dealing with dual tasks). We examined younger children (n = 501, Mage = 56.8 months, SD = 6.4, 48% boys) and older children (n = 238, Mage = 80.0 months, SD = 9.0, 58% boys) separately using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses. A Bayesian analytical approach was adopted. Our results suggested that a four-factor model distinguishing between verbal, visual, spatial-simultaneous, and spatial-sequential components of WM achieved the best fit. Overall, the WM structure was very similar in the two groups. We further explored this result with an additional model with a central executive factor loaded on high-control tasks only and found evidence for the presence of an executive control component. The contribution of this factor in terms of explained variance was only modest, however. Our findings demonstrate that it is important to distinguish between WM components in young children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of Physical Activity Level on Attentional Networks in Young Adults.

Although physical activity is associated with better attentional functioning in elderly populations or in specific clinical populations, the association between physical activity level and attention has been less studied in young adult populations. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether the positive effects of physical activity on attentional networks extend to young adults. In total, 57 college students were recruited and assigned to one of three groups of physical activity levels (high, moderate, and low) based on their self-reported exercise. Each participant completed the Attention Network Test to evaluate the efficiency of three components of attention: alerting, orienting, and executive control. Compared with the low physical activity group, both the high and moderate physical activity groups exhibited better executive control. In addition, the efficiency of the executive control network was positively correlated with physical activity. By contrast, no statistically significant differences were detected among these three groups for the functioning of the alerting or orienting networks. These findings suggested that physical activity had a positive effect on attention in young adults, with the benefit primarily observed for the executive control component rather than for the alerting and orienting components of attention.

Executive control throughout elementary school: Factor structure and associations with early childhood executive control.

This study examined the factor structure of executive control throughout elementary school, as well as associations between executive control abilities in preschool and elementary school. Data were drawn from a longitudinal study of executive control development in a community sample of children (N = 294; 53% female, 47% male) oversampled for low family income (25.4% below poverty line; Mincome = $46,638; SD = $33,256). The sample was representative of the Midwestern city in which the study was conducted in terms of race (71.4% White, 24.5% multiracial, 3.7% Black, and .3% Asian American) and ethnicity (14% Hispanic). Children completed a battery of ten performance-based tasks assessing executive control abilities in grades 1 (Mage = 7.08 years), 2 (Mage = 8.04 years), 3 (Mage = 9.02 years), and 4 (Mage = 9.98 years). Confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure at each grade with factors representing working memory and inhibitory control/flexible shifting. Measurement invariance testing revealed partial scalar (indicator intercepts) invariance for working memory and partial metric (indicator loadings) and partial scalar invariance for inhibitory control/flexible shifting. Preschool executive control (age 4.5 years), represented by a unitary latent factor, significantly predicted working memory (βs = .79, .72, .81, .66) and inhibitory control/flexible shifting (βs = .69, .64, .63, .62) factors in grades 1 through 4. Follow-up analyses indicated that the findings were not attributable to general cognitive ability. Findings support greater separability of executive control components in elementary school versus preschool, and considerable continuity of executive control from preschool through elementary school. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Verbal fluency difficulties in aphasia: A combination of lexical and executive control deficits.

BackgroundVerbal fluency tasks are routinely used in clinical assessment and research studies of aphasia. People with aphasia produce fewer items in verbal fluency tasks. It remains unclear if their output is limited solely by their lexical difficulties and/or has a basis in their executive control abilities. Recent research has illustrated that detailed characterization of verbal fluency performance using temporal characteristics of words retrieved, clustering and switching, and pause durations, along with separate measures of executive control stands to inform our understanding of the lexical and cognitive underpinnings of verbal fluency in aphasia.AimsTo determine the locus of the verbal fluency difficulties in aphasia, we compared semantic and letter fluency trials between people with aphasia and healthy control participants using a wide range of variables to capture the performance between the two groups. The groups were also tested on separate measures of executive control to determine the relationship amongst these tasks and fluency performance.Methods & ProceduresSemantic (animal) and letter (F, A, S) fluency data for 60s trials were collected from 14 people with aphasia (PWA) and 24 healthy adult controls (HC). Variables, such as number of correct responses, clustering and switching analyses, were performed along with temporal measures of the retrieved words (response latencies) and pause durations. Participants performed executive control tasks to measure inhibitory control, mental‐set shifting and memory span.Outcomes & ResultsCompared with HC, PWA produced fewer correct responses, showed greater difficulty with the letter fluency condition, were slower in getting started with the trials, showed slower retrieval times as noted in within‐ and between‐cluster pause durations, and switched less often. Despite these retrieval difficulties, PWA showed a similar decline in the rate of recall to HC, and had similar cluster size. Executive control measures correlated primarily with the letter fluency variables: mostly for PWA and in one instance for HC.Conclusions & ImplicationsPoorer performance for PWA is a combination of difficulties in both the lexical and executive components of the verbal fluency task. Our findings highlight the importance of detailed characterization of fluency performance in deciphering the underlying mechanism of retrieval difficulties in aphasia, and illustrate the importance of using letter fluency trials to tap into executive control processes.WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSWhat is already known on the subject PWA typically show impaired performance in verbal fluency tasks. It is debated whether this impaired performance is a result of their lexical difficulties or executive control difficulties, or a combination of both. This debate continues because previous studies have mostly used semantic fluency condition without including letter fluency condition; used a limited range of variables (e.g., number of correct responses); and not included separate executive control measures to explain the performance pattern in aphasia. This research addresses these outstanding issues to determine the specific contribution of lexical and executive control processes in verbal fluency in aphasia by including: both semantic and letter fluency conditions; a wide range of variables to identify the relative contribution of lexical and executive control mechanisms; and independent measures of executive control. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Using the multidimensional analysis approach for verbal fluency performance from both semantic and letter fluency conditions, this is the first study to systematically demonstrate that PWA had difficulties in both lexical and executive control components of the task. At the individual level, PWA had greater difficulty on the letter fluency condition compared with semantic fluency. We observed significant correlations between the executive control measures and verbal fluency measures primarily for the letter fluency condition. This research makes a significant contribution to our understanding of lexical and executive control aspects in word production in aphasia. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? From a clinical perspective, this research highlights the importance of using a full range of verbal fluency and executive control measures to tap into the lexical as well as executive control abilities of PWA, and also the utility of using letter fluency to tap into the executive control processes in PWA.

Gut-brain mechanisms underlying changes in disordered eating behaviour after bariatric surgery: a review.

Bariatric surgery results in long-term weight loss and an improved metabolic phenotype due to changes in the gut-brain axis regulating appetite and glycaemia. Neuroendocrine alterations associated with bariatric surgery may also influence hedonic aspects of eating by inducing changes in taste preferences and central reward reactivity towards palatable food. However, the impact of bariatric surgery on disordered eating behaviours (e.g.: binge eating, loss-of-control eating, emotional eating and 'addictive eating'), which are commonly present in people with obesity are not well understood. Increasing evidence suggests gut-derived signals, such as appetitive hormones, bile acid profiles, microbiota concentrations and associated neuromodulatory metabolites, can influence pathways in the brain implicated in food intake, including brain areas involved in sensorimotor, reward-motivational, emotional-arousal and executive control components of food intake. As disordered eating prevalence is a key mediator of weight-loss success and patient well-being after bariatric surgery, understanding how changes in the gut-brain axis contribute to disordered eating incidence and severity after bariatric surgery is crucial to better improve treatment outcomes in people with obesity.

Comparing saccadic and manual responses in the attention network test

Attention is proposed to be a system of multiple functional networks, including alertness, orienting and executive control. A popular experimental paradigm for testing these networks and their interactions within a single design is the Attentional Networks Test (ANT) (Fan et al., 2002). The role of the oculomotor system in these various networks, however, has not been tested despite the strong link between attention and eye movements. We modified the executive control component of the manual response ANT version (ANTm) that allows testing the networks’ involvement with oculomotor responses. Specifically, we used a central target to signal pro or anti-saccades that allows us to match the saccadic response compatibility of the original ANTm. We conducted three experiments to compare interactions of the networks between the traditional ANTm that used a flanker task response, our new ANTs with saccadic responses signalled with a fixation arrow, and a manual response version with the response arrow at fixation (ANTf). Results for all three experiments showed typical main effects of all three attention networks, but we observed differences in their interactions. The ANTm showed only an interaction of alerting enhancing the orienting; ANTs showed a congruency by orienting interaction with the orienting effect only observed for pro-saccades. The ANTf showed both alerting by orienting, and orienting by congruency. Although the saccadic response did differ from the original ANTm, key differences were also highlighted by the switch from peripheral to central target. Overall the proposed ANTf is a valid tool to test main effects of attentional networks. Further investigation of interaction differences between manual and oculomotor systems is required.

Neural differences in the temporal cascade of reactive and proactive control for bilinguals and monolinguals.

This study explored differences in sustained top-down attentional control (i.e., proactive control) and spontaneous types of control (i.e., reactive control) in bilingual and monolingual speakers. We modified a Color-Word Stroop task to varying levels of conflict and included switching trials in addition to more "traditional" inhibition Stroop conditions. The task was administered during scalp electroencephalography (EEG) to evaluate the temporal course of cognitive control during trials. The behavioral Stroop effect was observed across the whole sample; however, there were no differences in accuracy or response time between the bilingual and monolingual groups. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were calculated for the N200, N450, and conflict Sustained Potential (SP). On the pure-blocked incongruent trials, the bilingual group displayed reduced signal during interference suppression (N450) and increased later signal, as indexed by the conflict SP. On the mixed-block incongruent trials, both the bilinguals and monolinguals displayed increased later signal at the conflict SP. This suggests that proactive control may be a default mode for bilinguals on tasks requiring inhibition. In the switching trials, that place high demands on the executive control component of shifting, the language groups did not differ. Overall, these results suggest processing differences between bilinguals and monolinguals extend beyond early response inhibition processes. Greater integration of proactive and reactive control may be needed to sort conflicting language environments for bilinguals, which may be transferring to domain-general mechanisms.

The effects of short-term L2 training on components of executive control in Indian bilinguals.

This study investigated whether a short training (8weeks) in the second-language (English) has any facilitative effect on components of executive functions in young adults. A pre-post design was used with two groups of participants: one group (experimental group) of students received English language training for eight weeks, and another group (control group) matched on age and background did not. Executive function tasks (Flanker, Stroop, and color-shape switching task) along with the object naming and working memory tasks were administered before and after the training. We observed that the experimental group demonstrated significant improvement in task switching, working memory capacity, and language skills. Findings from the study provide evidence that short training in second-language can enhance some components of executive functions besides improving language skills in young adult students. This finding contributes to a better understanding of language training and executive function among young adult bilinguals.

Gray Matter Morphometry Correlates with Attentional Efficiency in Young-Adult Multiple Sclerosis

Slowed processing on the alerting, orienting and executive control components of attention measured using the Attention Network Test-Interactions (ANT-I) have been widely reported in multiple sclerosis (MS). Despite the assumption that these components correspond to specific neuroanatomical networks in the brain, little is known about gray matter changes that occur in MS and their association with ANT-I performance. We investigated vertex-wise cortical thickness changes and deep gray matter volumetric changes in young MS participants (N = 21, age range: 18–35) with pediatric or young-adult onset and mild disease severity. ANT-I scores and cortical thickness were not significantly different between MS participants and healthy volunteers (N = 19, age range: 18–35), but thalamic volumes were significantly lower in MS. Slowed reaction times on the alerting component in MS correlated significantly with reduced volume of the right pallidum in MS. Slowed reaction times on executive control component correlated significantly with reduced thickness in the frontal, parietal and visual cortical areas and with reduced volume of the left putamen in MS. These findings demonstrate associations between gray matter changes and attentional performance even in the absence of widespread atrophy or slowed attentional processes.

Components of Executive Control in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Examination of Dual-Mechanism Accounts

BackgroundIt remains unclear whether executive control (EC) deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represent a failure in proactive EC (engaged and maintained before a cognitively demanding event) or in reactive EC (engaged transiently as the event occurs). We addressed this question by administering a paradigm investigating components of EC in a sample of individuals with ASD and typically developing individuals during functional magnetic resonance imaging. MethodsDuring functional magnetic resonance imaging, 141 participants (64 ASD, 77 typically developing) completed a rapid preparing to overcome prepotency task that required participants to respond to an arrow probe based on the color of an initially presented cue. We examined functional recruitment and connectivity in the frontoparietal task control, cingulo-opercular task control, salience, and default mode networks during cue and probe phases of the task. ResultsASD participants showed evidence of behavioral EC impairment. Analyses of functional recruitment and connectivity revealed that ASD participants showed significantly greater activity during the cue in networks associated with proactive control processes, but on the less cognitively demanding trials. On the more cognitively demanding trials, cue activity was similar across groups. During the probe, connectivity between regions associated with reactive control processes was uniquely enhanced on more-demanding (relative to less-demanding) trials in individuals with ASD but not in typically developing individuals. ConclusionsThe current data suggest that rather than arising from a specific failure to engage proactive or reactive forms of EC, the deficits in EC commonly observed in ASD may be due to reduced proactive EC and a consequent overreliance on reactive EC on more cognitively demanding tasks.

Associations between specific components of executive control and eating behaviors in adolescence: A study using objective and subjective measures

A growing literature suggests that executive control (EC; also known as “executive functioning” or “EF”) in adolescence may play an important role in the development of key health behaviors, including eating behaviors. However, existing literature has significant limitations in the conceptualization and measurement of EC. The current study aims to address these limitations by employing a multidimensional approach to conceptualizing and measuring adolescent EC, including both objective and subjective measures covering multiple components of EC, and examining links with specific eating behaviors. A community sample of adolescents (N = 208; mean age = 14.5 years) completed a battery of performance-based neuropsychological tasks assessing specific components of EC (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, flexible shifting), a norm-referenced questionnaire covering problems with specific components of EC in daily life, and a measure assessing key eating behaviors (i.e., uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, cognitive restraint). Objectively-measured adolescent working memory was significantly and uniquely associated with cognitive restraint, with stronger working memory associated with less cognitive restraint. No other associations between performance-based EC tasks and eating behaviors were found. In contrast, using subjective reports of EC, problems with inhibitory control were associated with greater uncontrolled eating, and problems with flexible shifting were associated with greater emotional eating. The results suggest links between specific aspects of EC and specific eating behaviors in adolescence, as well as the potential importance of context for understanding the role of EC in eating behavior. Given evidence that EC is modifiable, the findings have potential implications for novel interventions addressing eating behaviors by targeting EC.

Enhancing Executive Control: Attention to Balance, Breath, and the Speed Versus Accuracy Tradeoff.

Malleability of executive control and its enhancement through yoga training is unclear. In Study 1, participants (yoga group; n = 27, mean = 23.27 years) were tested on executive control tasks pre- and post-8 weeks of yoga training. The training focused on attention to postural control during yoga asanas and respiratory control during pranayama-breathing (30 min each of postural and breath control training, biweekly). Yoga training was assessed via performance ratings as to how well a posture was executed and by examining errors that reflected inattention/failures in postural and breath control. We also explored whether attentional demands on motor and respiratory control were associated with three components of executive control (working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition) during nine executive control tasks. Partial correlation results revealed that the three components of executive control might be differentially impacted by postural and breath control and selectively associated with either speed or accuracy (except for cognitive flexibility). Attentional demands influenced the link between postural, breath, and cognitive control. In Study 2, comparisons between a yoga group and a gender-matched control group (control group; n = 27, mean = 23.33 years) pointed toward higher working memory accuracy and a better speed–accuracy tradeoff in inhibitory control in the yoga group. A ceiling-practice effect was addressed by examining yoga practice learning (i.e., practice-induced change in postural and breath control reflected in ratings and errors) on executive control performance across two sets of tasks: repeatedly tested (pre- and post-8 weeks) and non-repeatedly tested (post-8 weeks). Attention to motor and respiratory control during yoga might be considered as a potential mechanism through which specific components of executive control in young adults might be enhanced potentially via altering of speed–accuracy tradeoff.

Dissociated deficits in attentional networks in social anxiety and depression.

A critical cognitive symptom that is commonly involved in social anxiety and depression is attentional deficit. However, the functional relationship between attentional deficit and these two disorders remains poorly understood. Here, we behaviorally disentangled the three key attentional components (alerting, orienting, and executive control) using the established attentional network task (ANT) to investigate how social anxiety and depression are related to deficits in these attention components. We identified a double dissociation between the symptoms of social anxiety and depression and the attentional component deficits when processing non-emotional stimuli. While individuals vulnerable to social anxiety exhibited deficits in the orienting component, individuals vulnerable to depression were impaired in the executive control component. Our findings showed that social anxiety and depression were associated with deficits in different attentional components, which are not specific to emotional information.

More similitudes than differences between bilinguals and monolinguals on speeded and demand-varying executive tasks

ABSTRACT We tested the presence and nature of bilingual advantage in early bilinguals, as compared to a sample of monolinguals with a similar social and cultural background. Participants performed three non-linguistic flanker tasks with increasing demands (simple < no-go < n-back), each designed to tap into specific executive control components. Results showed that Catalan–Spanish bilinguals were more accurate overall, independent of task demands. However, we did not find evidence of better general performance regarding reaction times in bilinguals (BEPA hypothesis) nor a better interference suppression (BICA hypothesis), response inhibition or updating of information regardless of task demands. Besides, the current data revealed that task demands modulated the magnitude of the interference effect in both reaction times and accuracy. Moreover, Spanish monolinguals showed a reduced interference effect in terms of response times in the no-go task. Results are discussed in relation to distinct group response strategies and differential allocation of executive resources.

Executive control training does not generalize, even when associated with plastic changes in domain-general prefrontal areas

How executive function training paradigms can be effectively designed to promote a transfer of the effects of interventions to untrained tasks remains unclear. Here, we tested the hypothesis that training with a complex task involving motor, perceptual and task-set control components would result in more transfer than training with a simple motor control task, because the Complex training would lead to more involvement—and in turn modification—of domain-general executive control networks.We compared performance and electrophysiological activity before and after 10 days of executive control training with the complex (n = 18) versus the simple task (n = 17). We further assessed the effect of the two training regimens on untrained executive tasks involving or not one of the trained control components. A passive control group (n = 19) was used to assess retest effects.Both training groups improved at the trained task but exhibited different plastic changes within left-lateralized and medial frontal areas at 200–250 ms post-stimulus onset. However, contrary to our hypotheses, they showed equivalent improvement to the passive group to the transfer tasks.Our collective results reveal that the effect of training with a task involving multiple executive control components is highly specific to the trained task, even when the training modifies the functional networks underlying the trained executive components. Our findings corroborate current evidence that general cognitive enhancement cannot be achieved with training, even when the interventions modify domain-general brain areas.