High Levels Of Inhibitory Control Research Articles

42 Does dorsolateral prefrontal cortical functioning moderate the relation between conduct problems and aggression among youth exposed to community violence?

Objective:Youth with conduct problems (CP) may be more likely to exhibit aggression in the context of peer relations. Indices of dorsolateral prefrontal cortical functioning (DPCF), such as inhibitory control and planning, may be implicated in the behavioral presentation of CP. Further, youth living in violent communities may be more likely to use aggression as a means for problem-solving. However, little is known about how CP interact with DPCF indices to predict aggressive behaviors specifically in the context of environments with high levels of community violence. As such, the present study sought to use a multi-informant approach to examine relations between CP, DCPF, and different types of aggression among youth living in neighborhoods affected by community violence.Participants and Methods:Participants were 104 children (M=9.93±1.22 years; 50% male; 96% African American, 4% Latinx) who resided in neighborhoods with elevated rates of poverty and crime. DPCF was indexed by Stockings of Cambridge planning task and caregiver-reported inhibitory control from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Teachers completed the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory-4R to assess youth conduct disorder (CD) symptoms and the Teacher Checklist to assess proactive (bullying, planful aggression) and reactive (angry, emotionally labile aggression) aggression.Results:Multiple regression analyses were conducted with aggressive behaviors as the dependent variable, and child sex, age, CD symptoms, and the CD × DPCF (i.e., CD × inhibitory control; CD × planning) interaction terms as predictors. Inhibitory control moderated the relation between CD symptoms and reactive (CD × inhibitory control, B = -1.39, p = .004) but not proactive (CD × inhibitory control, B = -.64, p = .063) aggression. Post-hoc probing of the CD symptoms × inhibitory control interaction term predicting reactive aggression revealed a significant slope for youth with both high (B = 1.65, p < .001) and low (B = 4.48, p < .001) levels of inhibitory control. Planning does not significantly moderate the relation between CD symptoms and proactive or reactive aggression, though there is a positive main effect of teacher reported CD symptoms on both proactive (B = 2.44, p < .001) and reactive (B = 2.36, p < .001) aggression.Conclusions:This study is the first to consider the relations of CP, DPCF processes, and subtypes of aggression among youth living in environments with high rates of community violence. Among youth with CP, high levels of inhibitory control may be associated with lower rates of reactive aggression in the context of peer relations. As such, problem-solving interventions targeting processes related to DPCF, such as inhibitory control, may be useful among youth living in neighborhoods high in community violence who exhibit CP. Strengthening these cognitive processes may result in better behavioral outcomes and peer relations.

Shyness, inhibitory control, and social support seeking in preschoolers: Role of familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

The risk potentiation model of cognitive control posits that inhibitory control may heighten the risk for problematic outcomes among some temperamental styles characterized by high reactivity. Because shyness is a temperamental style defined as wariness and heightened reactivity to social novelty, we examined whether the interaction between shyness and inhibitory control predicted social support seeking differently depending on context using a between-subjects design. Typically developing preschoolers (N = 167, 52% female, Mage = 4.05 years, SDage = .77 years) were observed during a model building task that included a familiar (i.e., with their mother) or unfamiliar (i.e., with a novel adult female) social context. In the unfamiliar context, shyness was negatively associated with social support seeking at relatively high levels of inhibitory control, in line with the risk potentiation model of control. However, in the familiar context, we found that shyness was positively associated with social support seeking at relatively high levels of inhibitory control. These results suggest that high levels of inhibitory control may potentiate social fear for preschoolers who are also shy and that these relations may depend on contextual factors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Relations Between Executive Functioning and Internalizing Symptoms Vary as a Function of Frontoparietal-amygdala Resting State Connectivity.

The prefrontal cortex and the frontoparietal network are associated with a variety of regulatory behaviors. Functional connections between these brain regions and the amygdala are implicated in risk for anxiety disorders. The prefrontal cortex and frontoparietal network are also linked to executive functioning, or behaviors that help orient action towards higher order goals. Where much research has been focused on deleterious effects of under-controlled behavior, a body of work suggests that over-controlled behavior may also pose a risk for internalizing problems. Indeed, while work suggests that high levels of attention shifting may still be protective against internalizing problems, there is evidence that high levels of inhibitory control may be a risk factor for socioemotional difficulties. In the ABCD sample, which offers large sample sizes as well as sociodemographic diversity, we test the interaction between frontoparietal network-amygdala resting state functional connectivity and executive functioning behaviors on longitudinal changes in internalizing symptoms from approximately 10 to 12years of age. We found that higher proficiency in attention shifting indeed predicts fewer internalizing behaviors over time. In addition, higher proficiency in inhibitory control predicts fewer internalizing symptoms over time, but only for children showing resting state connectivity moderately above the sample average between the frontoparietal network and amygdala. This finding supports the idea that top-down control may not be adaptive for all children, and relations between executive functioning and anxiety risk may vary as a function of trait-level regulation.

Inhibitory control and visuospatial working memory contribute to 5-year-old children's use of quantitative inversion

This study examined the hypothesis that general cognitive resources moderated 5-year-old children's performance differences between the Concrete Identical and the Pure Quantity conditions on inversion problems (a + b – b) but not on standard problems (a + b – c). Study 1 (N = 104) showed that children who experienced higher visuospatial working memory burden performed significantly poorer in solving the inversion problems in the Pure Quantity condition than in the Concrete Identical condition, whereas those who experienced lower working memory burden showed no such difference. Study 2 (N = 194) demonstrated that children with lower levels of inhibitory control solved significantly fewer inversion problems in the Pure Quantity condition than in the Concrete Identical condition, whereas no such difference was found in children with higher levels of inhibitory control. These findings suggest that inhibitory control and visuospatial working memory may support children's use of quantitative inversion.

Goodness of fit in the Chinese context of socialization in the first three years.

Based on the goodness-of-fit theory, the current research examined how parental socialization expectations and socialization practices in infancy predicted child social adjustment in the preschool year dependent on child characteristics in toddlerhood with a longitudinal sample of Chinese families. Participants were 272 Chinese mother-child dyads. Maternal socialization goals of child autonomy and obedience were assessed when the child was 6 months old. Maternal respect for autonomy and negative control were observed in free-plays at 15 months. Mothers reported child compliance and inhibitory control at 25 months and rated child externalizing behaviors at 37 months. Results showed that for children with low levels of compliance or high levels of inhibitory control, obedience socialization goals predicted more externalizing behaviors, whereas for children with high levels of compliance or low levels of inhibitory control, obedience socialization goals predicted fewer externalizing behaviors. Moreover, for children with high levels of inhibitory control, higher levels of respect for autonomy or lower levels of negative control foretold fewer externalizing behaviors. Conversely, for children with low levels of inhibitory control, lower levels of respect for autonomy or higher levels of negative control forecasted fewer externalizing behaviors. Together, our findings demonstrate that socialization expectations, socialization practices, and child characteristics are jointly predictive of social adjustment across early childhood and all the significant interactions are characterized by the pattern of a contrastive effect, therefore congruently supporting the goodness-of-fit hypotheses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Heterogeneity in PFC-amygdala connectivity in middle childhood, and concurrent interrelations with inhibitory control and anxiety symptoms

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a key brain area in considering adaptive regulatory behaviors. This includes regulatory projections to regions of the limbic system such as the amygdala, where the nature of functional connections may confer lower risk for anxiety disorders. The PFC is also associated with behaviors like executive functioning. Inhibitory control is a behavior encompassed by executive functioning and is generally viewed favorably for adaptive socioemotional development. Yet, some research suggests that high levels of inhibitory control may actually be a risk factor for some maladaptive developmental outcomes, like anxiety disorders. In a sample of 51 children ranging from 7 to 9 years old, we examined resting state functional connectivity between regions of the PFC and the amygdala. We used Subgrouping Group Iterative Multiple Model Estimation (S-GIMME) to identify and characterize data-driven subgroups of individuals with similar networks of connectivity between these brain regions. Generated subgroups were collapsed into children characterized by the presence or absence of recovered connections between the PFC and amygdala. For subsets of children with available data (N = 38–44), we then tested whether inhibitory control, as measured by a stop signal task, moderated the relation between these subgroups and child-reported anxiety symptoms. We found an inverse relation between stop-signal reaction times and reported count of anxiety symptoms when covarying for connectivity group, suggesting that greater inhibitory control was actually related to greater anxiety symptoms, but only when accounting for patterns of PFC-amygdala connectivity. These data suggest that there is a great deal of heterogeneity in the nature of functional connections between the PFC and amygdala during this stage of development. The findings also provide support for the notion of high levels of inhibitory control as a risk factor for anxiety, but trait-level biopsychosocial factors may be important to consider in assessing the nature of risk.

Higher levels of inhibitory control are associated with superior neuromuscular performance in adolescent athletes

Higher levels of inhibitory control are associated with superior neuromuscular performance in adolescent athletes

Inhibitory Control Mediates the Associations Between Parenting Practices and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Gene

Ample evidence suggested that parental responsiveness, demandingness, and autonomy granting protect adolescents from depressive symptoms. However, what is less well understood is how parenting practices reduce the risk of depressive symptoms. This study tested the protective effects of parenting practices and inhibitory control on depressive symptoms, along with the mediating role of inhibitory control and the moderating role of the COMT gene in linking parenting practices to depressive symptoms. The study utilized cross-sectional data from a community sample of Chinese Han adolescents (N = 943, Mage = 15.25 years, SD = 0.70 years; 51.9% girls). Results showed that parental responsiveness and autonomy granting promoted higher inhibitory control, which in turn was associated with lower depressive symptoms. Further, the mediation effects were moderated by the COMT gene. For adolescents with ValVal homozygotes, both responsiveness and autonomy granting were related to higher levels of inhibitory control, which reduced risk for depressive symptoms, but the mediation effects were not observed among Met allele carriers. The mediating role of inhibitory control did not hold in the parental demandingness model. Findings support the cognitive theory that inhibitory control is a proximal factor linking parenting practices to depressive symptoms exclusively in ValVal homozygotes. These results also suggested that differentiating different dimensions of parenting practices may help to further clarify the processes by which parenting practices eventuate depressive symptoms.

Negative Emotionality and Internalizing Behaviors in Preschool Children: Moderating Role of Inhibitory Control.

Negative emotionality in childhood is typically positively associated with internalizing behaviors, whereas inhibitory control is negatively associated with internalizing behaviors. Recent work, however, has also found that inhibitory control paradoxically increases risk for internalizing behaviors in the context of some reactive temperamental styles. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether inhibitory control moderated the association between negative emotionality and prospective internalizing behaviors in typically developing preschoolers (N = 104, 51 girls, Mage = 3.46years, SDage = 0.19). We found that negative emotionality at T1 was only positively associated with internalizing behaviors at T2 in preschoolers with relatively higher inhibitory control. Our results suggest that relatively high levels of inhibitory control may be less adaptive for children who also have relatively high levels of negative emotionality. Findings are discussed in the context of cognitive overcontrol in understanding risk for internalizing behaviors before formal school entry.

Dopaminergic associations between behavioral inhibition, executive functioning, and anxiety in development

Temperamental Behavioral Inhibition (BI) is a well-documented risk factor for social anxiety in development. However, not all BI children will ultimately demonstrate anxious symptomology. Levels of inhibitory control have been proposed as a possible risk or protective factor for these children, but research remains mixed on whether higher levels of inhibitory control may increase or decrease risk in development. However, the idea of elevated inhibitory control as a risk factor for maladaptation is often considered incongruent with prior conceptions of advantages conferred by proficient inhibitory control. Here, we review theories pertaining to greater inhibitory control as a risk factor for BI children. We also review how individual differences in dopaminergic activity may link BI, executive functioning, and anxiety both concurrently and longitudinally, explaining these nonlinear relations. By way of these associations, we propose a model examining how transactions between these dopamine- modulated domains over time may predict socioemotional adaptation or maladaptation, and discuss how spontaneous eye blink rate may allow for the developmentally-friendly testing of cognitive and socioemotional associations with dopaminergic activity across different forms of experimental design.

Sad Dads and Troubled Tots: Protective Factors Related to the Stability of Paternal Depression and Early Childhood Internalizing Problems.

The present study tested the moderating role of interparental relationship quality and child inhibitory control on the stability of paternal depression over time and associations between paternal depression and child internalizing problems in early childhood. Participants were a subsample (n = 166) of families from the Early Steps Multisite study, a longitudinal study of low-income parents and children. Interparental relationship quality (age 2) attenuated the association between paternal depressive symptoms at age 2 and paternal depressive symptoms at age 3. Both interparental relationship quality (age 3) and child inhibitory control (age 3) attenuated the association between paternal depressive symptoms (age 3) and age 4 child internalizing problems. Results suggest that high interparental relationship quality may be a protective factor in terms of lessening the stability of paternal depressive symptoms over time, as well as the association between paternal depression and later child internalizing problems. Similarly, high levels of inhibitory control may buffer children from the negative effects of paternal depression on the development of internalizing problems.

Inhibitory control moderates the quadratic association between resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and prosocial behaviors in children.

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is thought to be an important physiological correlate of prosocial behaviors. A negative quadratic association between resting RSA and prosocial behaviors has been found in recent studies. However, it remains unknown whether inhibitory control (IC), as an aspect of cognitive regulation, moderates this quadratic association. This issue was examined in the present study. One hundred and forty-eight children (81 girls, 54.7%) aged 7-8years completed a go/no-go task to assess their IC, and the children's parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-Chinese version (SDQ-CV) to assess children's prosocial behaviors. Resting RSA was calculated by electrocardiogram (ECG) data collected during a resting period in the laboratory. The results showed a significant quadratic association between resting RSA and children's prosocial behaviors. More importantly, IC had a significant moderating effect on the quadratic association between resting RSA and prosocial behaviors. Specifically, the quadratic effect of resting RSA on prosocial behaviors was observed only among children with low and average IC and disappeared in children with better IC. The findings suggest that IC interacts with resting RSA to contribute to prosocial behaviors in children. High levels of IC could attenuate the negative impact of high and low resting RSA on prosocial behaviors.

Effect of an eight-week smartphone-guided HRV-biofeedback intervention on autonomic function and impulsivity in healthy controls

A large body of scientific studies suggest a close relationship between increased vagal function and better cognitive performance. Objective: In the current study, we investigated the association between autonomic function and behavioral impulsivity. We hypothesized that heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback training increases HRV and enhances inhibitory control. Approach: A total of 28 healthy participants were recruited. After drop-out, 14 participants completed an eight-week HRV biofeedback training with five training sessions per week including one session at the clinic’s laboratory and four sessions at home using a mobile application running on their smartphone. Ten control subjects matched with respect to age and gender played a mobile game according to the same schedule as the biofeedback group. The assessment of autonomic status and the stop-signal task were conducted before the beginning of the training (T1) and after finishing the schedule (T2). Main results: We found a relationship of reaction times in the stop-signal task and standard HRV as well as cardiorespiratory indices. After biofeedback training, short-term HRV and baroreflex function significantly increased by 33% (CI [2%, 64%], p < 0.05) and 21% (CI [5%, 36%], p < 0.05), respectively. The performance in the stop-signal task was not affected by the biofeedback intervention. Compared to the changes of autonomic indices in the control group, only a decrease of skin conductance levels in the biofeedback group remained statistically significant. Significance: Our results indicate that a smartphone-based HRV biofeedback intervention can be applied to improve cardiovagal function in healthy subjects. Although higher HRV was associated with higher levels of inhibitory control, HRV biofeedback had no effect on measures of impulsivity.

Classroom Climate, Cardiac Vagal Tone, and Inhibitory Control: Links to Focused Attention in First Graders

ABSTRACTThe present study aimed to investigate the role of classroom climate and self‐regulation in terms of cardiac vagal tone and inhibitory control in primary school students' focused attention. A combination of direct and indirect measures was used to assess classroom climate, sustained and selective attention, and inattention behaviors among 62 first graders. We also registered students' cardiac vagal tone at rest and their levels of inhibitory control in a reaction time task. A single underlying factor combining sustained and selective attention as well as (the lack of) inattention behaviors accounted for students' focused attention. A regression analysis revealed that classroom climate, cardiac vagal tone, and inhibitory control interacted to explain first graders' focused attention. In classrooms with a negative climate, high levels of inhibitory control attenuated the negative effect of low cardiac vagal tone on students' ability to remain focused during classroom activities. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Linking Shyness With Social and School Adjustment in Early Childhood: The Moderating Role of Inhibitory Control

ABSTRACTResearch Findings: The aim of the present study was to examine the moderating role of inhibitory control (IC) in the associations between shyness and young children’s social and school adjustment. Participants were 112 Italian children (M = 56.85 months, SD = 10.14) enrolled in preschool. Parents and teachers assessed child shyness and IC as well as indices of social and school adjustment. Children were interviewed to assess vocabulary. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed several significant interaction effects between shyness and IC in the prediction of outcome variables. Follow-up simple slope analyses indicated that among children with higher levels of IC, shyness was negatively related to prosocial behavior and popularity. In contrast, among children with lower levels of IC, shyness was positively associated with regulated school behaviors. Practice or Policy: The findings provide evidence to suggest that the combination of shyness and IC may contribute to children’s behavioral rigidity, which in turn may promote social and school adjustment difficulties.

Self-Construals and Social Adjustment in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Early Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Executive Functioning.

This study examined whether executive functions (EFs) moderate the association between independent and interdependent self-construals and social adjustment in 488 Moroccan, Romanian, and Italian preadolescents (ages 11-13) in Italy. Participants were assessed using self-report questionnaires and standardized EF tasks. Better working memory was related to increased social competence across all groups. High levels of inhibitory control were found to enhance the positive relation between interdependence and prosocial behavior for native Italian youth, and between interdependence and social competence for Moroccan preadolescents. High levels of cognitive flexibility boosted the interdependence-social competence link for the immigrant groups, whereas among native Italian preadolescents, the interdependence-social competence link was significant at low levels of flexibility. Implications for developmental theory and practice are discussed.

Early Childhood Professional Development: Coaching and Coursework Effects on Indicators of Children’s School Readiness

ABSTRACT Research Findings Effects on children’s school readiness were evaluated for 2 interventions focused on improving teacher–student interactions (coursework, coaching) implemented sequentially across 2 years. Teachers from public prekindergarten programs in 10 locations were assigned randomly to treatment or control conditions in each year. Children’s language behavior was observed during the coaching year: Coaching and the course each had positive impacts on children’s multiword language behavior. Treatment impacts on directly assessed literacy, language, and self-regulation skills were evaluated within an intent-to-treat framework for children taught by the participating teachers in the coaching and postcoaching years. Children demonstrated higher levels of inhibitory control in direct assessments when their teacher had received coaching the prior year. Teachers who received both coursework and coaching reported in the postcoaching year that children in their classrooms demonstrated greater levels of behavioral control. Treatment effects did not differ as a consequence of child, classroom, or program characteristics, and there were no significant effects on directly assessed literacy or language skills. Practice or Policy: Results suggest modest benefits for children’s language behavior and self-regulation for intervention(s) that improve the quality of teacher–child interaction.

Early social fear predicts kindergarteners' socially anxious behaviors: Direct associations, moderation by inhibitory control, and differences from nonsocial fear.

Although social and nonsocial fear are discernable as early as preschool, little is known about their distinct associations with developmental outcomes. For example, fear has been identified as a predictor of social anxiety problems, but no work has examined whether social and nonsocial fear make independent contributions to risk. We investigated the extent to which early social and nonsocial fear were associated with socially anxious behaviors during kindergarten. To do this, we identified distinct trajectories of social and nonsocial fear across toddlerhood and preschool. Only social fear was associated with socially anxious behaviors at ages 2 and 5. Because the ability to regulate fear contributes to the degree to which fearful children are at risk for anxiety problems, we also tested whether an early developing aspect of self-regulation modulated associations between early fear and kindergarten socially anxious behaviors. Specifically, we tested whether inhibitory control differentially modulated associations between early levels of social and nonsocial fear and socially anxious behaviors during kindergarten. Associations between trajectories of early social fear and age 5 socially anxious behaviors were moderated by individual differences in inhibitory control. Consistent with previous research showing associations between overcontrol and anxiety symptoms, more negative outcomes were observed when stable, high levels of social fear across childhood were coupled with high levels of inhibitory control. Results suggest that the combination of social fear and overcontrol reflect a profile of early risk for the development of social inhibition and social anxiety problems. (PsycINFO Database Record

Inhibiting uncertainty: Priming inhibition promotes reduction of uncertainty

Uncertainty affects performance in many cognitive tasks, including the visual-search task, and individual differences in the experience of uncertainty may contribute to several psychological disorders. Despite the importance of uncertainty, to date, no study has explained the basic mechanisms underlying individual differences in the experience of uncertainty. However, it has been suggested that inhibition, a cognitive mechanism aimed at suppressing unwanted thoughts or actions, may affect the development of uncertainty. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between inhibition and behavioral responses to uncertainty in the visual-search task. To accomplish this goal, forty six university students completed a novel combined visual-search and stop-signal task, in which we manipulated the degree to which the inhibitory control system was activated by varying the proportions of stop signals in separate blocks. We utilized target-absent trials in the visual-search task as a behavioral probe of responses to uncertainty. We found that activating higher levels of inhibitory control resulted in faster responses to target-absent visual-search trials, while not affecting target-present trials. These findings suggest that activation of inhibitory control may causally affect behavioral responses to uncertainty. Thus, individual differences in inhibitory control may influence the ability to rely on internal-ambiguous cues which are common in visual-search and other cognitive tasks. Clinical implications for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other disorders involving deficient inhibitory control and difficulty with uncertainty are discussed.

Memory Suggestibility under Social Pressure and Inhibitory Control in Preschoolers

The current study examined the interaction of inhibitory control and social pressure on young children’s memory suggestibility. Children were administered the Video Memory Suggestibility Scale for Children (VMSSC) and batteries of inhibitory control tasks, and were exposed to different levels of situational social pressures during interviews for memory suggestibility. The findings indicated that inhibitory control played a significantly moderating role in the relationship between social pressure and memory suggestibility. The greater the inhibitory control, the lower the effects of social pressure on the memory suggestibility of children. For the children with lower levels of inhibitory control, the social pressure positively predicted memory suggestibility; but for the children with higher levels of inhibitory control, the social pressure didn’t significantly predict memory suggestibility. So, to a certain extent, memory suggestibility may be a dynamic integration of stable trait and fluctuating state elements. The implications for the essence of memory suggestibility were discussed.