Executive Functioning

Question 0

What happened to phineas gage

Answer 0

Balance between his intellectual facilities and animal propensities seem to have been destroyed
Fitful, irreverent and indulging at times in the grossest profanity
Impatient of restraint and or advice when it conflict with his desires
‘He was no longer gage’

Question 1

Have I looked at SAS YET?

Answer 1

In not then I need to

Question 2

What functions does the Wisconsin card sorting task Tap into

Answer 2

Many things including inhibition, attention, working memory etc

Question 3

What is utilisation behaviour

Answer 3

When behaviour becomes stimulus driven after frontal lobe lesions
Loss of the SAS leads to a lack of supervision over contention scheduling

Question 4

What is the Francois lhermitte example? (And what is it an example of)

Answer 4

Example of utilisation behaviour
Patients just grabbed objects and used them at the inappropriate time
Something about a hammer, nail and picture but need to read

Question 5

What is the SAS

Answer 5

Supervisory attention system

Question 6

What are the problems with the SAS?

Answer 6

Who controls the controller
Doesn’t say how things are controlled only what
‘Hominculus’ criticism

Question 7

What is the quote about fractionating the executive function

Answer 7

Dissolve, deconstruct or fractionated the executive, let a hundred itiors flourish

Said to identify the basic cognitive processes underlying control

Question 8

What happened in Rogers and monsell (1995)

Answer 8

No sure need to research

Question 9

What happened in Morris and jones 1990

Answer 9

Not sure need to research

Question 10

What happened in Logan 1994

Answer 10

Not sure need to research

Question 11

What is the six elements task - shallice and burgess 1991

Answer 11

Limited time and six tasks to work on (e.g. Picture naming, arithmetic)
Goal is to work on all task and get them completed in the time
Score is based on number if tasks attempted and penalties for rule infractions or not spending an equal amount of time on each task

Question 12

What were the deficits that patients with frontal lobe lesions showed on the six elements taks

Answer 12

The process lie in the domain of the creation and maintenance if goals and intention, of their realisation at appropriate times and of planning… Where a task cannot be adequately carried out through the application if well learned action or thought routines alone, it requires the use if a supervisory system, which is anteriorly located in the cortex

Think they showed lower number of tackles of sub task (control= 5.7) and more time spent on a single task (control= 5.35)

Question 13

Draw the diagram of the supervisory system (Norman & shallice)

Answer 13

Supervisory attentional system
^|
Environment > sensory. >. Trigger >. Contention
Perceptual > data > Scheduling > action >
System > base. > |
^——————————
Output from recently activated schemata

Question 14

How would we fractionated the executive function

Answer 14

Identify the basic cognitive processes underlying control (behavioural data- factor analysis)
Identify different brain regions underlying different cognitive control processes (neuropsychology - neuroimaging)

Question 15

What are the three studies that he puts in after fractionation which I don’t understand

Answer 15

Number/letter task (Rogers and monsell)
Letter memory task (Morris and jones)
Stop signal reaction time task (Logan)

Question 16

What were the three secondary categories shown in the factor analysis of executive function that led onto complex executive task

Answer 16

Shifting
Updating
Inhibition

Question 17

What does the right lateral pre frontal cortex control

Answer 17

Monitoring
Checking task for quality control and adjusting behaviour
Updating

Question 18

What section control 1)monitoring 2) checking for ‘quality contro’ and adjusting behaviour 3) updating

Answer 18

Right lateral pre frontal cortex

Question 19

What does the left lateral pre frontal cortex control

Answer 19

Task setting
Ability to set stimulus- response relationship
Shifting

Question 20

What does the left medial pre frontal cortex show

Answer 20

Energising

The process of inhibition and the sub staining of any response

Question 21

What has neuroimaging shown of the medial PFC

Answer 21

The anterior cingulate cortex is an error detection module

Question 22

What is the Acc involved in

Answer 22

Conflict detection

Tasks that require resolution if conflicts between competing information streams by sensory and/or response selection

Question 23

What is the possible role for the Acc in evaluations effort associated with a choice

Answer 23

Grinband ACc activation linked to time on task
Potential resolution to inconsistency
ACC sensitive to the amount of effort involved in task performance

Question 24

What areas decode task rules from patterns of activation

Answer 24

Lateral PFC and parietal cortex

Question 25

What does evidence from neuropsychology suggest for the right lateral PFC

Answer 25

Stuss: process of checking the task over time for quality control and the adjustment if behaviour
Aron et al: demonstrated the particular importance of the right inferior frontal cortex for response inhibition

Question 26

Right inferior frontal cortex may play an important role in….

Answer 26

Response inhibition

Connectivity with other brain regions suggests a dual role in attention and action plausible

Question 27

What the alternative perspective from neuroimaging of the frontoparietal cortex (Duncan and Owen) 2000

Answer 27

Multi demand network

Question 28

What does the multiple demand network in the frontoparietal lobe do

Answer 28

Construction of attentional episodes
Neuron ps have highly dynamic response properties, adapting to code the specific information and events within the current attentional focus
With the transition between one episode and the next, neural coalitions for one kind of information processing dissolve and coalitions for the next episode form producing a system in constant flux

Question 29

What is the support for the multi demand hypothesis from neuropsychology

Answer 29

Disorganisation of behaviour
Chaotic behaviour in complex problems but success if the task is externally structured into simple parts
Lesions of the frontal lobe result in ‘goal neglect’ - inhabiliy to follow task rules respite intact memory for them. Goal neglect is sensitive to the complexity of the overall set of rules

Question 30

What the role of the frontopolar cortex (BA10)

Answer 30

Patients with lesions to Ba10 have deficits in multitasking
Patients made fewer voluntary task switches, attempted fewer sub tasks and spent longer in individual subtaks
Pattern suggests a deficit in prospective memory - difficulty disengaging from externally driven behaviour to switch it an internal goal driven mode

Question 31

What is the role of the orbitofrontal cortex

Answer 31

Value- based decision making

1) retrieving value of goals that are outcomes of the decision making process
2) establish a relative preference ranking of goals
3) send signal to other brain regions to compute action values

Question 32

What is the role of the basal ganglia in cognitive control : evidence from Parkinson’s disease

Answer 32

Gradual loss of dopamine neurons in the basal ganglia
Primary deficits are in motor control
Deficits also in executive control

Question 33

What is the dual role for the basal ganglia

Answer 33

Flexible updating of current goal states into PFC