High-level Executive Functions Research Articles

The role of cognitive flexibility on higher level executive functions in mild cognitive impairment and healthy older adults

BackgroundMild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a preclinical condition between healthy and pathological aging, which is characterized by impairments in executive functions (EFs), including cognitive flexibility. According to Diamond’s model, cognitive flexibility is a core executive function, along with working memory and inhibition, but it requires the development of these last EFs to reach its full potential. In this model, planning and fluid intelligence are considered higher-level EFs. Given their central role in enabling individuals to adapt their daily life behavior efficiently, the goal is to gain valuable insight into the functionality of cognitive flexibility in a preclinical form of cognitive decline. This study aims to investigate the role of cognitive flexibility and its components, set-shifting and switching, in MCI. The hypotheses are as follows: (I) healthy participants are expected to perform better than those with MCI on cognitive flexibility and higher-level EFs tasks, taking into account the mediating role of global cognitive functioning; (II) cognitive flexibility can predict performance on higher-level EFs (i.e., planning and fluid intelligence) tasks differently in healthy individuals and those diagnosed with MCI.MethodsNinety participants were selected and divided into a healthy control group (N = 45; mean age 64.1 ± 6.80; 66.6% female) and an MCI group (N = 45; mean age 65.2 ± 8.14; 40% female). Cognitive flexibility, fluid intelligence, planning, and global cognitive functioning of all participants were assessed using standardized tasks.ResultsResults indicated that individuals with MCI showed greater impairment in global cognitive functioning and EFs performance. Furthermore, the study confirms the predictive role of cognitive flexibility for higher EFs in individuals with MCI and only partially in healthy older adults.

Cognition in soccer and futsal: evidence of validity of a 4-instrument protocol to assess executive functioning among women athletes

Evidence suggests that success in sports, especially soccer and futsal are linked to higher levels of executive functioning. Still, the literature does not present a homogeneous set of instruments to measure executive functions, which leads to large variability in results. In this paper, we assembled four already recognised measures to propose a valid 4-instrument protocol to assess executive functions among soccer and futsal athletes. We conducted two studies to validate the proposed protocol. We addressed known-groups validity and latent structure in Study 1 for data collected on 105 female soccer and futsal athletes from elite and lower-division clubs. Findings pointed to partial validity of the protocol - with working memory and inhibition showing the best results. For Study 2, we used performance data from 51 elite female soccer players collected throughout a season of the first division league to assess predictive validity. Our protocol was able to partially replicate previous findings and added new insights on how working memory, processing speed and higher-level executive functions might play different roles for goalscoring and assist-making skills. Specifically, study 1 did not find a significant difference between elite and lower-division athletes in higher-order executive functions as in previous studies, but it did find on visual working memory and inhibitory control which weights towards higher demands of core executive functions. On the other hand, study 2 yielded significant results for processing speed and visual working memory to predict assists among elite soccer players, but not inhibitory control as previous findings suggested. Regardless, the proposed 4-instrument protocol showed adequate criterion and structural validity in both studies.

Mental abacus training affects high-level executive functions: Comparison of activation of the frontal pole

The role of executive function training in supporting child development has been increasingly studied. Executive function is largely related to the prefrontal cortex. The anterior portion of the prefrontal cortex, which is area 10 on the Brodmann map, is essential for the emergence of higher-order executive functions. Accumulating evidence indicates that mental abacus training, which is closely related to mathematics education, activates the prefrontal cortex. Based on these findings, it can be hypothesized that the mental abacus is valuable for training more advanced functions. Therefore, this study analyzed the activation of children’s brains with a focus on the frontal pole (Brodmann area 10). The results illustrated that mental abacus task more strongly activated the brain than piano task, the marshmallow test, or letter–number sequencing tasks. Thus, it was suggested that the mental abacus is valuable for training higher-level executive functions (i.e., frontal pole).

Physically active undergraduates perform better on executive-related oculomotor control: Evidence from the antisaccade task and pupillometry.

Previous studies have shown that exercise can improve executive function in young and older adults. However, it remains controversial whether a sufficient amount of physical activity leads to higher-level executive function. To examine the effect of physical activity on executive function, we used eye-tracking technology and the antisaccade task in 41 young undergraduates with various levels of physical activity. Moreover, we also investigated their differences in cognitive ability by examining their pupil size during the antisaccade task. Eye-tracking results showed that physically active individuals showed shorter saccade latency and higher accuracy in the antisaccade task than their physically inactive counterparts. Furthermore, the former showed larger pupil size during the preparatory period of antisaccade. These findings suggest that individuals with higher-level physical activity have higher-level executive function. The larger pupil sizes of physically active individuals may imply that their locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system and executive-related prefrontal cortex are more active, which contributes to their higher-level cognitive ability.

Higher-Level Executive Functions in Healthy Elderly and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review.

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a clinical syndrome characterized by a moderate decline in one or more cognitive functions with a preserved autonomy in daily life activities. MCI exhibits cognitive, behavioral, psychological symptoms. The executive functions (EFs) are key functions for everyday life and physical and mental health and allow for the behavior to adapt to external changes. Higher-level executive functions develop from basic EFs (inhibition, working memory, attentional control, and cognitive flexibility). They are planning, reasoning, problem solving, and fluid intelligence (Gf). This systematic review investigates the relationship between higher-level executive functions and healthy and pathological aging, assuming the role of executive functions deficits as a predictor of cognitive decline. The systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA Statement. A total of 73 studies were identified. The results indicate that 65.8% of the studies confirm significant EFs alterations in MCI (56.8% planning, 50% reasoning, 100% problem solving, 71.4% fluid intelligence). These results seem to highlight a strong prevalence of higher-level executive functions deficits in MCI elderly than in healthy elderly.

High-Level Executive Functions: A Possible Role of Sex and Weight Condition in Planning and Decision-Making Performances.

Evidence indicates an association between executive functioning and increased weight, with different patterns ascribed to individual differences (sex, age, lifestyles). This study reports on the relationship between high-level executive functions and body weight. Sixty-five young adults participated in the study: 29 participants (14 males, 15 females) in the normal weight range; 36 participants (18 males, 18 females) in the overweight range. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Tower of London Task were administered to assess decision making and planning. Planning did not differ in individuals in the normal-weight and overweight groups, and no difference emerged between females and males. However, normal and overweight males and females had different patterns in decision making. On the long-term consequences index of the IGT, females reported lower scores than males. Males in the overweight range had a lower long-term consequences index on the IGT than normal-weight males, while this pattern did not emerge in females. These findings suggest that decision-making responses may differ in the overweight relative to healthy weight condition, with a different expression in males and females. This pattern should be considered in weight loss prevention strategies, possibly adopting different approaches in males and females.

Prenatal Exposure to Chemical Mixtures and Cognitive Flexibility among Adolescents.

Cognitive flexibility, the ability to smoothly adapt to changing circumstances, is a skill that is vital to higher-level executive functions such as problem-solving, planning, and reasoning. As it undergoes substantial development during adolescence, decrements in cognitive flexibility may not become apparent until this time. There is evidence that prenatal exposure to individual chemicals may adversely impact executive functions in children, but few studies have explored the association of co-exposure to multiple chemicals with cognitive flexibility specifically among adolescents. We investigated this association among a diverse group of adolescents living near a Superfund site in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Specifically, using Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and multivariable regression analyses, we investigated the association of biomarkers of prenatal exposure to organochlorines (DDE, HCB, PCBs) and metals (lead, manganese) with cognitive flexibility, measured with four subtests of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. In BKMR models, we observed adverse joint associations of the chemical mixture with two of the four cognitive flexibility subtests. In covariate-adjusted linear regression models, a two-fold increase in cord blood Mn was associated with poorer performance on two of the subtests: Trail-Making (scaled score difference = −0.60; 95% CI: −1.16, −0.05 points) and Color-Word Interference (scaled score difference = −0.53; 95% CI: −1.08, 0.01 points). These adverse Mn-cognitive flexibility associations were supported by the results of the BKMR. There was little evidence of effect modification by sex and some evidence of effect modification by a measure of social disadvantage, particularly for the associations between HCB and cognitive flexibility. This study is among the first to provide evidence of an adverse association of prenatal exposure to a chemical mixture with cognitive flexibility in adolescence.

Self-regulation in the pre-adolescent brain

Self-regulation refers to the ability to monitor and modulate emotions, behavior, and cognition, which in turn allows us to achieve goals and adapt to ever changing circumstances. This trait develops from early infancy well into adulthood, and features both low-level executive functions such as reactive inhibition, as well as higher level executive functions such as proactive inhibition. Development of self-regulation is linked to brain maturation in adolescence and adulthood. However, how self-regulation in daily life relates to brain functioning in pre-adolescent children is not known. To this aim, we have analyzed data from 640 children aged 8–11, who performed a stop-signal anticipation task combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging, in addition to questionnaire data on self-regulation. We find that pre-adolescent boys and girls who display higher levels of self-regulation, are better able to employ proactive inhibitory control strategies, exhibit stronger frontal activation and more functional coupling between cortical and subcortical areas of the brain. Furthermore, we demonstrate that pre-adolescent children show significant activation in areas of the brain that were previously only associated with reactive and proactive inhibition in adults and adolescents. Thus, already in pre-adolescent children, frontal-striatal brain areas are active during self-regulatory behavior.

Dual-Task Interference in a Simulated Driving Environment: Serial or Parallel Processing?

When humans are required to perform two or more tasks concurrently, their performance declines as the tasks get closer together in time. Here, we investigated the mechanisms of this cognitive performance decline using a dual-task paradigm in a simulated driving environment, and using drift-diffusion modeling, examined if the two tasks are processed in a serial or a parallel manner. Participants performed a lane change task, along with an image discrimination task. We systematically varied the time difference between the onset of the two tasks (Stimulus Onset Asynchrony, SOA) and measured its effect on the amount of dual-task interference. Results showed that the reaction times (RTs) of the two tasks in the dual-task condition were higher than those in the single-task condition. SOA influenced the RTs of both tasks when they were presented second and the RTs of the image discrimination task when it was presented first. Results of drift-diffusion modeling indicated that dual-task performance affects both the rate of evidence accumulation and the delays outside the evidence accumulation period. These results suggest that a hybrid model containing features of both parallel and serial processing best accounts for the results. Next, manipulating the predictability of the order of the two tasks, we showed that in unpredictable conditions, the order of the response to the two tasks changes, causing attenuation in the effect of SOA. Together, our findings suggest higher-level executive functions are involved in managing the resources and controlling the processing of the tasks during dual-task performance in naturalistic settings.

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test reveals a monitoring advantage but not a switching advantage in multilingual children

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is used to test higher-level executive functions or switching, depending on the measures chosen in a study and its goal. Many measures can be extracted from the WCST, but how to assign them to specific cognitive skills remains unclear. Thus, the current study first aimed at identifying which measures test the same cognitive abilities. Second, we compared the performance of mono- and multilingual children in the identified abilities because there is some evidence that bilingualism can improve executive functions. We tested 66 monolingual and 56 multilingual (i.e., bi- and trilingual) primary school children (Mage = 109 months) in an online version of the classic WCST. A principal component analysis revealed four factors: problem-solving, monitoring, efficient errors, and perseverations. Because the assignment of measures to factors is only partially coherent across the literature, we identified this as one of the sources of task impurity. In the second part, we calculated regression analyses to test for group differences while controlling for intelligence as a predictor for executive functions and for confounding variables such as age, German lexicon size, and socioeconomic status. Intelligence predicted problem-solving and perseverations. In the monitoring component (measured by the reaction times preceding a rule switch), multilinguals outperformed monolinguals, thereby supporting the view that bi- or multilingualism can improve processing speed related to monitoring.

Brain magnetic resonance imaging is a predictor of bimanual performance and executive function in children with unilateral cerebral palsy.

To examine the association between brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics and executive function and bimanual performance in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP). Clinical MRI brain scans were classified as: (1) predominant pathological pattern (normal, white matter injury [WMI]; grey matter injury; focal vascular insults [FVI]; malformations; or miscellaneous); and (2) focal lesions (frontal, basal ganglia, and/or thalamus). Assessments included: (1) bimanual performance; (2) unimanual dexterity; and (3) executive function tasks (information processing, attention control, cognitive flexibility, and goal setting) and behavioural ratings (parent). From 131 recruited children, 60 were ineligible for analysis, leaving 71 children (47 males, 24 females) in the final sample (mean age 9y [SD 2y], 6y-12y 8mo). Brain MRIs were WMI (69%) and FVI (31%); and frontal (59%), thalamic (45%), basal ganglia (37%), and basal ganglia plus thalamic (21%). Bimanual performance was lower in FVI versus WMI (p<0.003), and with frontal (p=0.36), basal ganglia (p=0.032), and thalamic/basal ganglia lesions (p=0.013). Other than information processing, executive function tasks were not associated with predominant pattern. Frontal lesions predicted attention control (p=0.049) and cognitive flexibility (p=0.009) but not goal setting, information processing, or behavioural ratings. Clinical brain MRI predicts cognitive and motor outcomes when focal lesions and predominate lesion patterns are considered. What this paper adds Early brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) predicts bimanual performance and cognitive outcomes. Brain MRI may identify children requiring targeted interventions. Basal ganglia with/without thalamic lesions predicted bimanual performance. Frontal lesions were associated with attention control and cognitive flexibility. Brain MRI predominant patterns predicted motor, not cognitive outcomes, other than information processing.

The Importance of Cognitive Executive Functions in Gait Recovery After Total Hip Arthroplasty

ObjectiveTo determine the influence of cognitive functioning on gait recovery after total hip arthroplasty. DesignProspective cohort study. SettingRehabilitation hospital. ParticipantsPatients (N=40) who underwent a total hip arthroplasty, with normal cognitive functioning and without any other relevant medical condition, were recruited and studied before surgery and at the beginning and the end of the rehabilitation program. Main Outcome MeasuresGait speed (10-Meter Walk Test [10MWT]) and gait functional mobility (Timed Up and Go [TUG] test), measured at the time of discharge from the rehabilitation unit, were the primary outcomes. The candidate predictors were the cognitive and psychological variables collected in the presurgery phase, together with other potentially informative measures such as age, education, perceived pain, body mass index, presurgical gait speed and functional mobility. ResultsOur results suggest the existence of a direct relationship between cognitive functioning, with specific reference to high-level frontal executive functions, and the postoperative gait progress: the better the cognitive functioning in the preoperative phase, the better the course of recovery in terms of gait speed and functional mobility.In particular, the performance of the Frontal Assessment Battery test, together with age, perceived pain. Presurgical gait speed and functional mobility, was the best predictor of recovery of walking measured by 10MWT and TUG. ConclusionsThe present study highlights the importance of cognitive functioning, together with clinical and demographic features, in the postsurgical recovery of walking, even in the absence of cognitive decline.In particular, these data show the crucial role of higher-order cognitive processes, such as executive functions, involved in the formulation of motor plans and their integration with proprioceptive and visual cues.

Measurement of Projections Between Dentate Nucleus and Contralateral Frontal Cortex in Human Brain Via Diffusion Tensor Tractography.

We propose a probabilistic fiber-tracking scheme to reconstruct the fiber tracts between the dentate nucleus (DN) in the cerebellum and the entire contralateral cerebral frontal cortex in the human brain. We assessed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from 39 healthy controls. The connection fibers between the DN and contralateral frontal cortex of all subjects were successfully reconstructed and studied. We demonstrated that multi-fiber probabilistic models must be used to resolve the challenge of crossing fibers. We also demonstrated that the entire pathway can be reconstructed without using any synaptic regions of interest along the path and that the reconstructed tracts connected the ipsilateral superior cerebellar peduncle, contralateral red nucleus, and ventral lateral and ventral anterior nuclei of thalamus in the path traveling to the contralateral frontal cortex. The fibers in the pathway projected into all areas of the contralateral frontal cortex but were predominantly located in the primary motor and premotor areas. A large portion of fibers terminated in the prefrontal cortex, which included dorsolateral prefrontal areas, anterior prefrontal areas, and the Broca language area. Our findings provide robust, reproducible, and direct DTI-based evidence that the DN through the efferent cerebellar pathway has considerable contribution to high-level executive functions of the human brain.

The influence of voice quality and multi-talker babble noise on sentence processing and recall performance in school children using cochlear implant and/or hearing aids

Purpose: This study examines the influence of voice quality and multi-talker babble noise on processing and storage performance in a working memory task performed by children using cochlear implants (CI) and/or hearing aids (HA). Methods: Twenty-three children with a hearing impairment using CI and/or HA participated. Age range was between 6 and 13 years. The Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT) was assessed in three listening conditions; a typical voice presented in quiet, a dysphonic voice in quiet, and a typical voice in multi-talker babble noise (signal-to-noise ratio +10 dB). Being a dual task, the CLPT consists of a sentence processing component and a recall component. The recall component constitutes the measure of working memory capacity (WMC). Higher-level executive function was assessed using Elithorn's mazes. Results: The results showed that the dysphonic voice did not affect performance in the processing component or performance in the recall component. Multi-talker babble noise decreased performance in the recall component but not in the processing component. Higher-level executive function was not significantly related to performance in any component. Conclusions: The findings indicate that multi-talker babble noise, but not a dysphonic voice quality, seems to put strain on WMC in children using CI and/or HA.

Pragmatic competence and its relationship with the linguistic and cognitive profile of young adults with dyslexia.

The study assessed the pragmatic skills of 19 well-compensated Italian-speaking young adults with dyslexia compared with controls. A comprehensive pragmatic assessment tool was employed, targeting production and comprehension (Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates [APACS]). Participants were also administered a series of standardized tests to assess verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities, including executive functions and social cognition tests. Data were analysed with the aim of understanding whether pragmatic abilities are compromised in dyslexia and of exploring associations between pragmatic performance and other cognitive domains. The performance of the dyslexia group was poorer than that of the control group in both expressive and receptive modalities. Data showed diffuse problems across several domains, with the greatest challenge posed by inferring nonliteral meanings, which indicates that pragmatic inefficiency is an important aspect of the linguistic and communicative profile of dyslexia in adulthood. Explorative correlations highlighted a relation between pragmatic performance and reading and vocabulary abilities, as well as between pragmatics and working memory. This suggests that pragmatic difficulties are strongly tied to the most distinctive aspects of dyslexia, namely, phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, pseudo-word repetition, whereas the link with high-level executive functions and Theory of Mind is negligible.

Profiles of Cognitive-Motor Interference During Walking in Children: Does the Motor or the Cognitive Task Matter?

The evidence supporting the effects of age on the ability to coordinate a motor and a cognitive task show inconsistent results in children and adolescents, where the Dual-Task Effects (DTE) – if computed at all – range from either being lower or comparable or higher in younger children than in older children, adolescents and adults. A feasible reason for the variability in such findings is the wide range of cognitive tasks (and to some extend of motor tasks) used to study Cognitive-Motor Interference (CMI). Our study aims at determining the differences in CMI when performing cognitive tasks targeting different cognitive functions at varying walking pathways. 69 children and adolescents (boys, n = 45; girls, n = 24; mean age, 11.5 ± 1.50 years) completed higher-level executive function tasks (2-Back, Serial Subtraction, Auditory Stroop, Clock Task, TMT-B) in comparison to non-executive distracter tasks [Motor Response Task (MRT), TMT-A] to assess relative effects on gait during straight vs. repeated Change of Direction (COD) walking. DT during COD walking was assessed using the Trail-Walking-Test (TWT). The motor and cognitive DTE were calculated for each task. There were significant differences between 5th and 8th graders on single gait speed on the straight (p = 0.016) and the COD pathway (p = 0.023), but not on any of the DT conditions. The calculation of DTEs revealed that motor DTEs were lowest for the MRT and highest for the TWT in the numbers/letters condition (p < 0.05 for all comparisons). In contrast, there were cognitive benefits for the higher-order cognitive tasks on the straight pathways, but cognitive costs for both DT conditions on the COD pathway (p < 0.01 for all comparisons). Our findings demonstrate that DT changes in walking when completing a secondary task that involve higher-level cognition are attributable to more than low-level divided attention or motor response processes. These results specifically show the direct competition for higher-level executive function resources important for walking, and are in agreement with previous studies supporting the cognitive-motor link in relation to gait in children. This might be in line with the idea that younger children may not have adequate cognitive resources.

F70. COMPUTERIZED SOCIAL COGNITIVE TRAINING (SCT) IMPROVES COGNITION AND RESTORES FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN RECENT ONSET PSYCHOSIS: AN INTERIM REPORT

BackgroundNeurocognitive impairments are a core and enduring feature of psychosis that continue to persist despite pharmacological interventions. Neurocognitive interventions have emerged as a supplementary treatment option to improve cognition in early psychosis patients. Recently, focus has shifted to using social cognitive training (SCT) as evidence suggests that targeting social cognition may lead to improvements not only in cognition but also in real-world functioning (Horan et al., 2011). This improvement is thought to be mediated by restoration of functional brain activity in patients undergoing neurocognitive interventions, especially associated with medial prefrontal cortex (Hooker et al., 2014). In this study, we report our interim findings of the effects of a 10-hour SCT on cognition and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC). Our hypothesis was that training would improve cognition and normalize functional connectivity.MethodsIn this randomized-controlled study, one recent onset psychosis (ROP) patient arm (n=18) underwent a 6-week (10-hour) computerized SCT (Brain HQ, Posit Science, https://www.brainhq.com/), while another naturalistic arm (n=18) received treatment as usual (TAU). Both treatment arms were assessed on a battery of neurocognitive tests and underwent a multimodal imaging protocol, including a 10 min resting-state fMRI, at two timepoints (baseline, T0; follow-up, FU). Seed-based voxel-wise rsFC was performed and individual-level rsFC correlation maps were calculated between the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the whole brain.ResultsThe SCT group showed significant improvements in the domain of spatial working memory (p<0.05), processing speed (p<0.05) and resilience to both immediate and delayed memory decline over 6 weeks (p<0.05), as compared to TAU. Comparison of FC between the two measurement time points, suggested increased FC between mPFC and left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG), as well as increased FC between mPFC and left somatosensory area in ROP patients that underwent SCT relative to TAU.DiscussionWe have shown improvements in processing speed, verbal memory, and spatial working memory that agree with previous studies using computerized cognitive interventions. Moreover, the improvement in the spatial working memory domain was significant in the most demanding test condition with 10 elements - indicative of benefits from the fine-tuning of higher-level executive functions. The neuroimaging results also suggested that the improvements may have been mediated by the improvement of FC in regions typically associated with social cognition and facial recognition (Adolphs et al., 2009). These results are in line with recent studies investigating not only the feasibility of SCT as an intervention, but also the effects on cognition and underlying neural alterations resulting from intensive computerized neurocognitive interventions (Hooker et al., 2012; Nahum et al., 2014; Subramaniam et al., 2014). Future studies using machine learning methods will be necessary to determine functional biomarkers in order to personalize SCT at the individual-level.

P.2.011 - Adolescent stress and hypofrontality: towards a rodent model of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Introduction Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurological disorder of the adolescent age characterized by hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention. However, etiopathogenesis of this disorder remains controversial, partly due to the lack of relevant animal model. Nevertheless, given its role in the regulation of high-level executive functions, consensus interpretation considers a dysregulated Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) is critical in the emergence of ADHD. With profound maturation processes during developmental period from childhood to early puberty, including synaptic pruning and myelination during adolescence, the PFC is a brain structure vulnerable to environmental insults. Considering the dearth in studies evaluating the deleterious impact of stress during adolescence, in particular its consequences on hypofrontality, we endeavor to develop a preclinical model of ADHD by subjecting adolescent rats to chronic mild stress. Methods Adolescent male rats were subjected to chronic unpredictable mild stress [1] for 3 consecutive weeks starting from the post-weaning phase (21 days). The stress procedure was a combination of a series of unpleasant situations, repeated over the week, composed of inclined cage (30 degrees), isolation followed by overnight pairing with a non-cage mate, wet bedding, food restriction and elevated platform (for 30 min only). The stress procedure was administered pseudo randomly with exposure to different stressors twice a day; for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. The control rats were handled daily but were not subjected to any stress. Then the rats were exposed to a series of behavioral experiments. A set of rats were sacrificed immediately after the stress procedure and the prelimbic pyramidal neurons were tested electrophysiologically. Results In line with the procedure they were exposed to, rats exhibited an attenuated corticosterone response to acute stress (p=0.0109) compared to control mates. They spent a significantly higher time exploring the open arms of the elevated plus maze (p Conclusion We have successfully developed a preclinical model of ADHD after subjecting adolescent rats to chronic mild stress. This model shows the phenotypic hallmarks of ADHD, namely, disinhibition, hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention that correlates with decreased excitability of pyramidal neurons of the prelimbic cortex. Future studies will evaluate pharmacological effects of drugs on the stress rats.

ONE Function for the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and General AI: Consistency Curation

Control is essential in all complex systems serving any purpose, and cognitive control is claimed to fill a pivotal role for the cognition of agents. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) is a neural structure, widely believed to be involved in cognitive control. In the human brain, the ACC undoubtedly takes a center position and features several peculiarities. It has been implicated in a wide range of tasks ranging from sensing pain and autonomic regulation to high-level executive functions like error monitoring and abstract control. A sketch how this seemingly irreconcilable plurality can be understood as manifestations of only one general process working in diverse contexts on different content is presented and also how this constitutes evidence for a specific cognitive architecture. Going beyond extant proposals for ACC function, the here presented one recommends an embedding into a very general overarching model of cognition. Discrepancy monitoring highlights deviations between predictions derived from memory content and current activations. A process doing this has recently been proposed as central to the 'Ouroboros Model' under the title of 'consumption analysis'. It is claimed that ONE functional account centered on consistency checking and, based thereupon, the overall minimization of discrepancies (consistency curation and cultivation”) can parsimoniously explain the plentitude of reported observations for the ACC, thus shedding new light on the neural computations, which form the foundations of cognition and, finally, consciousness. A specific natural reconciliation of various current conceptualizations and theoretical models is offered, which points out promising directions for future modelling efforts and attempts to harness the findings generally for artificial intelligence.

Magnetoencephalogram recording during simulated driving: Towards an ecologically-valid paradigm

Magnetoencephalogram recording during simulated driving: Towards an ecologically-valid paradigm