Specific Executive Function Components Research Articles

Deficits in specific executive functions manifest by severity in major depressive disorder: a comparison of antidepressant naïve inpatient, outpatient, subclinical, and healthy control groups.

Previous research has highlighted the executive function (EF) deficits present in depressed patients; however, conflicting results exist regarding the impact of depression severity on the size of these deficits. This study aimed to compare deficits in EF between antidepressant naïve inpatient and outpatient depressed, a group with subclinical depression symptoms, and a healthy control group while controlling for education, sex, and age. In cross-sectional research, 245 antidepressant naive participants (46 inpatient, 68 outpatient, 65 subclinical, and 67 healthy control individuals) were recruited by convenience sampling. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 Disorders (SCID-5) and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) were used to assess depression. EF was measured using several neuropsychological tests, including the Stroop Color-Word Test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and the N-back Test, which assessed the components of Inhibition, Shifting, and Updating, respectively. Multivariate analysis of covariance revealed a significant difference between the groups in EF components (p < 0.001). Pairwise comparisons further showed that inpatient and outpatient patients had more depressive symptoms and worse EF performance than subclinical and healthy control groups (p < 0.05). In the analysis of EF measures, a significant difference was found among the four groups, with post-hoc tests revealing variations in specific EF components. Overall, patients with more severe depressive symptoms show more deficits in EF. Additionally, correlations between clinical characteristics and EF measures varied across patient groups, but many correlations became non-significant after adjusting for the false discovery rate (FDR). This study emphasizes the impact of depression severity on deficits in the EF of depressed patients and at-risk populations. Consequently, it is important to consider executive dysfunctions as an underlying vulnerability in the development and persistence of depressive disorder.

Between Shifting and Feedback Processing in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in Children with Developmental Language Disorder.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrate deficits in executive functioning; however, the specific components of executive functioning that are affected in this population are not well understood. This study evaluated set shifting and feedback processing in a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) performed by 24 children with and without DLD. The behavioral results revealed poorer performance by the DLD group in measures of accuracy, proportion of correct rule shifts, perseverative errors on shift trials, and proportion of effective responses to feedback. Electrophysiological measures (event-related potentials, or ERPs) indicated different patterns of response to negative feedback that signaled the need for rule shifting, with the DLD group showing a trend toward processing shift cues as negative feedback. Group differences were found in the processing of the first and last positive feedback, with overall stronger responses to positive feedback by children with DLD. However, both groups showed a similar pattern of diminished attention to positive feedback when rule learning was established. Taken together, children with DLD demonstrated the inefficient processing of negative feedback in the context of rule-shifting and difficulty in establishing and maintaining a rule.

Predictions about the Cognitive Consequences of Language Switching on Executive Functioning Inspired by the Adaptive Control Hypothesis Fail More Often than Not.

The adaptive control hypothesis developed by Green and Abutalebi is the most influential theory of bilingual language control. The focus of this article is on the predictions that other researchers have derived based on the three different modes of interactional context described by the hypothesis. Foremost, that dual-language contexts should enhance domain-general executive functions more than single-language contexts. Several recent and ambitious behavioral tests of these predictions are reviewed. Although there was some evidence that dual-language contexts are associated with smaller switch costs, the evidence is inconsistent and there were no similar advantages for inhibitory control. The hypothesis also predicts neuroanatomical adaptations to the three types of interactional context. A careful evaluation of the relevant fMRI and ERP studies that take into account whether behavioral differences align with neuroscience differences and resolves valence ambiguities led to the conclusion that the neuroscience evidence for the hypothesis is, at best, inconsistent. The study also includes new analyses of two large-sample studies that enable the identification of relatively pure cases of single-language bilinguals, dual-language bilinguals, and dense-code switchers. Across nine different measures of executive functioning, the predicted advantage of the dual-language context never materialized. The hypotheses derived from the adaptive control hypothesis do not accurately predict behavioral performance on tests of executive functioning and do not advance our understanding as to what dimensions of bilingualism may lead to enhancements in specific components of executive functioning.

Training Executive Functions to Improve Academic Achievement: Tackling Avenues to Far Transfer.

The aim of training executive functions is usually to improve the ability to attain real-life goals such as academic achievement, that is, far transfer. Although many executive function trainings are successful in improving executive functions, far transfer is more difficult to achieve (cf. Diamond and Lee, 2011; Sala and Gobet, 2020). In this perspective article, we focus on the transfer of executive function training to academic performance. First, we disentangle possible sources of transfer problems. We argue that executive functions can facilitate academic performance via two specific pathways, namely learning-related behaviors and learning-related cognitions. Further, we discuss how domain-specific factors (e.g., task-specific demands and prior knowledge) may influence the successful application of executive functions to learning in this domain. Second, we discuss how the school setting can be used to enhance executive function training with approaches to facilitating far transfer to academic achievement. Specifically, we suggest that training executive functions as a means to improve academic performance is most promising in young students, for whom both behavioral and domain-specific cognitive demands of formal schooling are quite novel challenges. Furthermore, we outline that students could be supported in far transfer of trained executive functions by being informed of the specific relevance of these skills for learning-related behaviors and by having them practice executive functions under such authentic conditions. Moreover, we suggest that in order to promote ongoing effects of executive function training beyond short-term interventions, teachers should be equipped to consider the specific executive function components that might facilitate and support students’ acquisition of a particular subject matter.

Consecutive and temporally distant perseverations after right brain damage: A prospective study.

Objective: Right brain-damaged patients may show omissions and/or additional marks in target cancellation. The latter is classified as perseverative behavior and has been attributed to defective response inhibition or attentional disengagement deficit. This study aimed at (a) verifying that consecutive (immediate) and return (temporally distant) motor perseverations could be due to different mechanisms; (b) investigating the relationships among different types of perseveration (e.g., consecutive, return, scribble), spatial neglect and the impairment in specific components of executive functioning. Method: Seventeen right brain-damaged patients underwent letter, star, bell, and apple cancellation tasks. A global index for each type of perseveration found and Mean Position of Hits, as a neglect index, were calculated. The following components of executive functioning were evaluated: motor programming (Frontal Assessment Battery [FAB] subtest), inhibitory control FAB, interference sensitivity (FAB and Stroop color-word interference test), set-shifting (Weigl sorting test, Phonemic/semantic alternate fluencies), and working memory (Backward Digit span). Results: Ten patients out of 17 showed some degree of perseveration. Regularized linear regression analyses demonstrated that interference sensitivity and Stroop test performances were related to return perseverations and backward digit to scribble ones. No significant relationships were found for consecutive perseverations and between neglect and any type of perseverations. Conclusions: The present study showed that return perseverations might have a distinct etiology from consecutive ones, being related to an inability to update and shift between action programs according to the visual stimuli. A finer classification of perseverations could help in unveiling the neuropsychological mechanisms underlying each type of behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Cerebellar-Subcortical-Cortical Systems as Modulators of Cognitive Functions.

Over the past few decades, research has established that the cerebellum is involved in executive functions; however, its specific role remains unclear. There are numerous theories of cerebellar function and numerous cognitive processes falling under the umbrella of executive function, making investigations of the cerebellum's role in executive functioning challenging. In this review, we explored the role of the cerebellum in executive functioning through clinical and cognitive neuroscience frameworks. We reviewed the neuroanatomical systems and theoretical models of cerebellar functions and the multifaceted nature of executive functions. Using attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and cerebellar tumor as clinical developmental models of cerebellar dysfunction, and the functional magnetic resonance imaging literature, we reviewed evidence for cerebellar involvement in specific components of executive function in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. There is evidence for posterior cerebellar contributions to working memory, planning, inhibition, and flexibility, but the heterogeneous literature that largely was not designed to study the cerebellum makes it difficult to determine specific functions of the cerebellum or cerebellar regions. In addition, while it is clear that cerebellar insult in childhood affects executive function performance later in life, more work is needed to elucidate the mechanisms by which executive dysfunction occurs and its developmental course. The limitations of the current literature are discussed and potential directions for future research are provided.

Pathways from socioeconomic status to early academic achievement: The role of specific executive functions

Among the many factors contributing to the SES-achievement gap, executive function (EF) skills have received a considerable amount of attention, given their role in supporting academic skill development. While recent work has demonstrated that global EF constructs mediate SES-achievement relations, less attention has been paid to unpacking the role of specific EF components in linking SES to achievement. Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1273) were analyzed to assess direct and indirect associations between SES indicators, preschool EF skills, and first-grade math and reading achievement. Using path analysis, we found parent education and working memory to be uniquely and most predictive of both achievement domains. Further, after controlling for baseline academic skills, verbal ability, and other child- and family-level covariates, only working memory mediated the association between parent education and children’s math achievement. These findings offer a comprehensive look at the specific mechanisms through which socioeconomic disadvantage contributes to children’s academic development and provide an initial step towards generating more precise targets for policies and interventions aimed at closing the achievement gap.

Frontoparietal structural properties mediate adult life span differences in executive function

Executive function (EF) refers to a set of cognitive functions that support goal-directed behaviors. Recent findings have suggested that the frontoparietal network (FPN) subserves neural processes that are related to EF. However, the FPN structural and functional network properties that mediate age-related differences in EF components remain unclear. To this end, we used three experimental tasks to test the component processes of EF based on Miyake and Friedman’s model: one common EF component process (incorporating inhibition, shifting, and updating) and two specific EF component processes (shifting and updating). We recruited 126 healthy participants (65 females; 20 to 78 years old) who underwent both structural and functional MRI scanning. We tested a mediation path model of three structural and functional properties of the FPN (i.e., gray matter volume, white matter fractional anisotropy, and intra/internetwork functional connectivity) as mediators of age-related differences in the three EF components. The results indicated that age-related common EF component differences are mediated by regional gray matter volume changes in both hemispheres of the frontal lobe, which suggests that structural changes in the frontal lobe may have an indirect influence on age-related general elements of EF. These findings suggest that the FPN mediates age-related differences in specific components of EF.

Age Differences in Prospective Memory: A Further Evaluation of the Executive Framework

ABSTRACTAccording to the executive framework of prospective memory (PM), age-related differences in PM performance are mediated by age-related differences in executive functioning (EF). The present study further explored this framework by examining which specific components of EF are associated with PM differences between and within three age groups. A group of children (7–9 years; N = 108), adolescents (12–14 years; N = 112), and adults (17–23 years; N = 106) performed focal- and non-focal event-based PM (EBPM) tasks, a time-based PM (TBPM) task, and tasks measuring EF components. Differences between age groups in focal EBPM, non-focal EBPM, and TBPM performance were mediated by, respectively, differences in interference control and response inhibition, performance on the ongoing task, and differences in working memory and response inhibition. However, within-age group analyses only revealed WM updating as significant predictor of TBPM performance in the adolescent group. These results support and further qualify the executive framework of PM. The differences in outcome dependent on the examined age range might be important for explaining mixed results of previous studies regarding the precise EF components underlying age-related PM task performance differences.

Theoretical and methodological implications of associations between executive function and mathematics in early childhood

Despite agreement about the importance of executive function (EF) for children’s early math achievement, its treatment in correlational studies reflects a lack of agreement about the theoretical connection between the two. It remains unclear whether the association between EF and math operates through a latent EF construct or specific EF components. Specifying the correct measurement model has important theoretical implications for the predicted effects of EF interventions on children’s math achievement. In the current study, we tested whether associations between EF and math operate via a latent EF factor, or via specific EF components using data from a large, nationally representative sample. We then replicated these same analyses with a meta-analytic database drawn from ten studies that collected measures of children’s EF and math achievement. Our results lend support to explanations that a single EF factor accounts for most of the EF component-specific associations with math achievement. We discuss theoretical and methodological implications of these findings for future work.

An Evaluation of the Specificity of Executive Function Impairment in Developmental Psychopathology

Deficits in executive function (EF) are common in neuropsychiatric disorders, but the specificity of these deficits remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the pattern of EF impairment across psychopathologies in children and adolescents. Associations among components of EF with dimensions of psychopathology, including an overall psychopathology factor, were assessed. Participants (8-21 years) were from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (N= 9,498). Data from a structured clinical screening interview were reduced to 5 dimensional domains using factor analyses: overall psychopathology, anxious-misery, fear, externalizing, and psychosis. EF components of attentional vigilance, response inhibition, conceptual flexibility, and working memory were assessed. Associations of clinical dimensions with general EF ability and with specific EF components were examined. EF ability showed common and domain-specific associations with clinical symptoms. General EF was directly associated with the general psychopathology, anxious-misery, and psychosis domains but not with the fear or externalizing domains. For the EF subcomponents, differences emerged in the magnitude and direction of the association between components and clinical domains. Poorer EF was typically associated with increased symptoms across clinical domains; however, in some instances, better EF ability was associated with greater symptom burden, particularly in the fear domain. EF has widespread associations with psychopathology in youth. Findings showed some overlap in the type of EF impairment across clinical phenotypes, as indicated by similar patterns of associations between some clinical symptoms and EF. However, findings also showed domain-specific associations with EF that differed across EF components and clinical domains.

The relationship between bilingualism and selective attention in young adults: Evidence from an ambiguous figures task.

Previous research has shown that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on a variety of tasks that have been described as involving executive functioning, but the precise mechanism for those effects or a clear definition for "executive function" is unknown. This uncertainty has led to a number of studies for which no performance difference between monolingual and bilingual adults has been detected. One approach to clarifying these issues comes from research with children showing that bilinguals were more able than their monolingual peers to perceive both interpretations of an ambiguous figure, an ability that is more tied to a conception of selective attention than to specific components of executive function. The present study extends this notion to adults by assessing their ability to see the alternative image in an ambiguous figure. Bilinguals performed this task more efficiently than monolinguals by requiring fewer cues to identify the second image. This finding has implications for the role of selective attention in performance differences between monolinguals and bilinguals.

Deconstructing the associations between executive functioning, problematic alcohol use and intimate partner aggression: A dyadic analysis.

Problematic drinking and executive functioning deficits are two known risk factors for intimate partner aggression (IPA). However, executive functioning is a multifaceted construct, and it is not clear whether deficits in specific components of executive functioning are differentially associated with IPA perpetration generally and within the context of problematic alcohol use. To address this question, the present study investigated the effects of problematic drinking and components of executive functioning on physical IPA perpetration within a dyadic framework. Participants were 582 heavy drinking couples (total n = 1164) with a recent history of psychological and/or physical IPA recruited from two metropolitan cities in the USA. Multilevel models were used to examine effects within an actor-partner interdependence framework. The highest levels of physical IPA were observed among actors who reported everyday consequences of executive functioning deficits related to emotional dysregulation whose partners were problematic drinkers. However, the association between executive functioning deficits related to emotional dysregulation and IPA was stronger towards partners who were non-problematic drinkers relative to partners who were problematic drinkers. No such effect was found for executive functioning deficits related to behavioural regulation. Results provide insight into how problematic drinking and specific executive functioning deficits interact dyadically in relation to physical IPA perpetration. [Parrott DJ, Swartout KM, Eckhardt CI, Subramani OS. Deconstructing the associations between executive functioning, problematic alcohol use and intimate partner aggression: A dyadic analysis. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;36:88-96].

Sex-specific associations of testosterone with prefrontal-hippocampal development and executive function

Testosterone is thought to play a crucial role in mediating sexual differentiation of brain structures. Examinations of the cognitive effects of testosterone have also shown beneficial and potentially sex-specific effects on executive function and mnemonic processes. Yet these findings remain limited by an incomplete understanding of the critical timing and brain regions most affected by testosterone, the lack of documented links between testosterone-related structural brain changes and cognition, and the difficulty in distinguishing the effects of testosterone from those of related sex steroids such as of estradiol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Here we examined associations between testosterone, cortico-hippocampal structural covariance, executive function (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function) and verbal memory (California Verbal Learning Test-Children’s Version), in a longitudinal sample of typically developing children and adolescents 6–22 yo, controlling for the effects of estradiol, DHEA, pubertal stage, collection time, age, handedness, and total brain volume. We found prefrontal-hippocampal covariance to vary as a function of testosterone levels, but only in boys. Boys also showed a specific association between positive prefrontal-hippocampal covariance (as seen at higher testosterone levels) and lower performance on specific components of executive function (monitoring the action process and flexibly shifting between actions). We also found the association between testosterone and a specific aspect of executive function (monitoring) to be significantly mediated by prefrontal-hippocampal structural covariance. There were no significant associations between testosterone-related cortico-hippocampal covariance and verbal memory. Taken together, these findings highlight the developmental importance of testosterone in supporting sexual differentiation of the brain and sex-specific executive function.

Tuning the mind: Exploring the connections between musical ability and executive functions

A growing body of research suggests that musical experience and ability are related to a variety of cognitive abilities, including executive functioning (EF). However, it is not yet clear if these relationships are limited to specific components of EF, limited to auditory tasks, or reflect very general cognitive advantages. This study investigated the existence and generality of the relationship between musical ability and EFs by evaluating the musical experience and ability of a large group of participants and investigating whether this predicts individual differences on three different components of EF – inhibition, updating, and switching – in both auditory and visual modalities. Musical ability predicted better performance on both auditory and visual updating tasks, even when controlling for a variety of potential confounds (age, handedness, bilingualism, and socio-economic status). However, musical ability was not clearly related to inhibitory control and was unrelated to switching performance. These data thus show that cognitive advantages associated with musical ability are not limited to auditory processes, but are limited to specific aspects of EF. This supports a process-specific (but modality-general) relationship between musical ability and non-musical aspects of cognition.

Patients with bipolar disorder show differential executive dysfunctions: A case-control study

Executive deficits in euthymic bipolar I disorder were examined in a fractionated manner based on the “Supervisory Attentional System” (SAS) model, and the relationship between the degree of executive impairment and the demographic and clinical characteristics of bipolar I participants was explored. A battery of neurocognitive tests capturing specific components of executive function was administered on 30 patients with bipolar I disorder in euthymic state, and compared with 30 healthy controls who were matched by age, gender and IQ. A differential impairment in executive function was demonstrated in euthymic bipolar I participants by using a fractionated approach of the SAS. Euthymic bipolar I patients were found to have significantly poorer performance in immediate and delayed visual memory; and in the executive domains of “initiation”, “sustained attention”, and “attention allocation and planning”. Those with a greater number of executive impairments had lower IQ and higher negative sub-scores on PANSS. These findings might provide a the basis for further studies on identifying the executive components that are associated with particular disease characteristics of bipolar disorder, and those with poorer functional outcome, so that rehabilitation can be focused on the selective domains concerned.

Executive Functioning in Alcohol Use Studies: A Brief Review of Findings and Challenges in Assessment.

There is a wealth of research about the links between executive functioning (EF) and alcohol use. However, difficulty may arise in interpreting findings because of the variability between studies regarding the specific components of EF measured, as well as the variability of tasks used to examine each EF construct. The current article considers each of these problems within the context of a literature review that focuses on two topics: (1) the efficacy of EF in predicting alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences, and (2) the effect of acute alcohol intoxication on EF task performance. An additional goal was to identify and describe commonly used EF measures with the intention of providing alcohol researchers information on the assessment of different EF domains. Our findings indicate that there is strong evidence supporting a relation between EF difficulties (particularly response inhibition and information updating) and alcohol use, with additional evidence of a significant interaction between EF and implicit associations on alcohol use. In contrast, research supporting a link between set shifting abilities and later alcohol use is scarce. Additionally, this review found evidence of alcohol acutely affecting many EF processes (particularly response inhibition). Overall, there is a need to replicate these findings with commonly used EF tasks (versus developing numerous tasks within individual laboratories) to better advance our understanding of the relation between EF and alcohol use.

Does the BRIEF-P Predict Specific Executive Function Components in Preschoolers?

The current study explored the association between the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool (BRIEF-P; Gioia, Espy, & Isquith, 2003) and a new battery of direct executive function (EF) measures designed for preschoolers. Forty-two typically developing 3- to 5-year-olds were given the Preschool Executive Function Battery (PEFB; Garon, Smith & Bryson, 2014); their mothers filled out the BRIEF-P. The findings support distinct associations between 3 BRIEF-P scales and corresponding direct EF measures. In particular, a strong association was found between the BRIEF-P Inhibition scale and children's performance on the PEFB Inhibition measure. The findings indicate that parent ratings of preschoolers’ everyday EF behavior are related to performance on the PEFB, a laboratory measure. These findings have implications for early screening of children's EF difficulties as well as for future research.

Musical training, bilingualism, and executive function: a closer look at task switching and dual-task performance.

This study investigated whether musical training and bilingualism are associated with enhancements in specific components of executive function, namely, task switching and dual-task performance. Participants (n=153) belonging to one of four groups (monolingual musician, bilingual musician, bilingual non-musician, or monolingual non-musician) were matched on age and socioeconomic status and administered task switching and dual-task paradigms. Results demonstrated reduced global and local switch costs in musicians compared with non-musicians, suggesting that musical training can contribute to increased efficiency in the ability to shift flexibly between mental sets. On dual-task performance, musicians also outperformed non-musicians. There was neither a cognitive advantage for bilinguals relative to monolinguals, nor an interaction between music and language to suggest additive effects of both types of experience. These findings demonstrate that long-term musical training is associated with improvements in task switching and dual-task performance.

Gait profiles as indicators of domain-specific impairments in executive control across neurodevelopmental disorders

In neurodevelopmental disorders, unique profiles of executive control and attention appear to co-occur with poor motor coordination. However, less is known about how syndrome-specific cognitive profiles interact with motor control and impact behavioural outcomes in neurodevelopmental disorders such as Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS). Here we aimed to examine the extent to which specific components of executive function interact with gait control when performing cognitive dual-tasks (verbal fluency, digit span) in WS and DS. Spatiotemporal gait characteristics and intra-individual variability of gait were assessed in individuals with WS who were matched on spatial ability to individuals with DS, and chronologically age (CA) matched controls. During the concurrent verbal fluency task, the WS group had greater dual-task costs on spatiotemporal gait parameters and variability than CA controls. Conversely, individuals with DS had selective gait interference during the concurrent digit span task when compared to CA controls, but only under increased demands on cognitive control where there was greater variability in step timing in DS. The interrelationships between cognitive-motor interference and behavioural measures of executive functioning appeared to differentiate between WS and DS, and emphasise the importance of task modality in unpacking the executive control profile in these neurodevelopmental disorders. These findings support the notion that associated cerebellar-cortico abnormalities may produce quite distinct profiles of executive control across cognitive and motor domains that impact on behavioural outcomes in neurodevelopmental disorders.