SP 4: Development of Executive Functioning Flashcards
Week 4
what is executive functioning
‘air traffic control system’
umbrella term for various cognitive processes that give rise to goal-directed behavior
- novel and demanding situations
- flexible adjustment
- adaptive behavior, creativity
consequences of low executive functioning
- worse school performance
- difficulty keeping jobs
- lower income
- difficulty maintaining relationships
- increased risk for mental health problems
3 core components executive functioning
1) working memory
- maintenance and manipulation
2) inhibitory control
- suppressing interfering and irrelevant thoughts
3) cognitive flexibility
more complex executive functions
planning
reasoning
problem solving
performance monitoring
measures of executive functioning
research: gain insight into typical development
clinical/school setting: executive functioning often impaired in clinical groups
- ADHD
- learning disabilities
- depression
measure of simple executive functioning
go/no go task
- inhibition
measures of complex executive functioning
- tower of london
- stroop task
- day and night task
- delayed gratification task
- delay discounting task
- dimensional change card sorting test (DCCS)
- wisconsin card sorting task
Tower of London
task difficulty increases with number of moves needed to solve the problem
- spatial problem solving, planning
the more difficult, the more time adults take before the first move, not in adolescents
Stroop task
yellow written in red
- inhibition
Day and Night task
- say ‘night’ when seeing sun, etc.
automatic response inhibition
Delayed Gratification Task
the longer the child waits, the better able the child is to self-regulate
- self regulation, inhibition
Delay Discounting task
self regulation, inhibition
Dimensional Change Card Sorting Test (DCCS)
first sort by one dimension, then by another
- cognitive flexibility, switching, shifting
- 3 y/o perseverate but know the new rule
- similar to patients with frontal brain damage
Wisconsin Cart Sorting Test
more difficult than DCCS
- no explicit instructions about rule, so no instruction when rule changes
- feedback learning/performance monitoring
BRIEF/BRIEF-2
questionnaire; screening of executive functions
- often used in clinical/school setting to assess EF in 5-18 y/o
- filled out by teacher/parent
- BRIEF-2: also 11-18 y/o can fill out form
- BRIEF-2: behavioral, emotional and cognitive regulation index
(dis)advantages measuring complex EF
disadvantages:
- more difficult to identify disability
- more difficult to track development
advantages:
- better predictor for EF problems in daily life
- better predictor of school performance
executive functions and the brain
EF rely mostly of PFC function
- dorsolateral PFC: working memory
- orbito FC: inhibition
- medial PFC: cognitive flexibility
neuroscience methods
- frontal lobe damage (Phineas Gage)
- NFL players with many concussions
- healthy brains for developmental neuroscience
-> MRI: brain structure
-> fMRI: brain function
-> task-related fMRI: substraction method = substracting activity in 2 pics
feedback learning
learning from previous behaviors
- dependent on multiple executive functions, like working memory, cognitive flexiblity and inhibition
- predicts reading fluency and math 2 years later
executive functioning in adolescents
in adolescence, limbic regions are far more developed/active than PFC regions
- peak in emotional sensitivity
- so NO EF deficit of impulsivity
- adolescents have better EF than children, but are driven by immediate rewards
structural brain development
changes in gray matter differ per region; gray matter decreases with age (pruning)
- DLPFC matures relatively late
