Lecture 1: Executive Processes And Dysexecutive Disorders Flashcards
What are executive processes?
Processes that organise and co-ordinate the functioning of the cognitive system to achieve current goals
What is dysexecutive syndrome?
A condition in which damage to the frontal lobes causes impairments to the central executive component of working memory.
Examples of executive processes:
Planning, organising, thinking ahead, mentally simulating a future event, deciding between/reaching decisions/conclusions, multitasking, filtering information and concentrating/focusing on whats important for the current task
Three executive processes (miyake et al, 2000)
- inhibition function
- shifting function
- updating function
What is inhibition function?
One’s ability to deliberately inhibit behaviour that is automatic (used in stoop task)
What is Shifting function?
Shifting back and forth between multiple tasks. (Performance is slower in the task switching condition).
What is updating function?
The updating and monitoring of working memory representations.
What do cognitive tasks involve? What is the effect of this?
Various processes. Making it difficult to obtain clear evidence for any single process.
What did miyake et al (2000) use to identify common processes involved in cognitive tasks?
Latent-variable analysis to identify positive correlations
What areas did collette et al find activated in relation to,
- attention to relevant and suppression of irrelevant info?
- switching and integration processes?
- monitoring and temporal organisation?
- right intraparietal sulcus
- left superior parietal sulcus
- lateral prefrontal cortex
What is the dual task situation? (Baddeley, 1996)
What area of the brain does this engage?
Performing two tasks at the same time
Mainly the prefontal cortex
The three executive processes based in different parts of the frontal lobes (as proposed by Stuss and Alexander, 2007)
-task setting: planning
-monitoring: checking the task for quality or adjustment
-energisation: initiation and sustaining of any response
(These tasks are not independent from one another)
What 2 issues need more research?
- The differences in the executive processes found by research on healthy and damaged frontal cortex’s.
- The relationship between the major differences between executive processes and how they are also closely related to one another.
2 facts about the prefrontal lobes
- they make up the largest area of the brain
- it develops properly last (until late teens, early 20’s)
1848 phineas gage: damage to frontal area of brain. Previously efficient, smart and well-balanced. This changed to what?
Impulsive, uninhibited, unconcerned about the effects of his actions on others.
