SPRING cog control across lifespan

Question 1

steinberg 2013 development of exec function

Answer 1

court argues neurobio immaturity in adolescence so shouldnt be reprimanded for behaviour
early 20s > risk
dual systems model: hightened socioemotional processing thought to tax capacity of limited self reg abilities in young age - inclines adults towards risk and reward

Question 2

what is pruning

Answer 2

synaptic connections when young - increase till 2-4y

unnecesary connections removed and others strengthened to macimise speed of processing

Question 3

what is myelination

Answer 3

myelin sheeth improve speed of synaptic transmission via saltatory conduction

Question 4

blakemore and choudhury 2006 dev of white matter

Answer 4

MRI - steady increase in white mater in throughout hildhood and adol
younger more grey matter

Question 5

sowell et al 1999 dev white matter

Answer 5

higher white matter in frontal and parietal cortex old>young

young > grey matter - pruning and less developed/prioritized connections

Question 6

what is grey matter made up of

Answer 6

neuronal cells, dendrites, myelinated and unmyelinated axons

Question 7

gogtay et al 2005 grey matter maturation

Answer 7

cross sectional longditudinal mri of 13 children every 2 years from 4-21y
grey loss in dorsal, parietal, primary sensory motor then spread to frontal and temporal cortices
follows maturation milestones ie motor and sensory dev early, then speech, lang and spatial, then exec function, thought etc
dlPFC last grey maturation, OF into 21y/o
white linear increase, grey loss region specific

Question 8

grey vs white matter dev

Answer 8

grey NON LINEAR REGION SPECIFIC
white LINEAR
- grey increase till 12 then decline

Question 9

grey matter and PFC dev (sowell et al 2001)

Answer 9

inverse relationship

gre decrease density (reduced no synapses) and DLPFC increase vol

Question 10

dev of EF

Answer 10

basic function areas mature earlier ie motor/sensory - support goal directed beh
EF longer to mature ie spatial orientation and attention (Frontal lobe/DLPFC)

Question 11

hwang et al 2010 antisaccade task - dev of top down control

Answer 11

antisaccade from target
adults top down control show increase connectivity to downstream cortical and subcortical areas assoc with occulomotor processing + decreases in short range connectivity to parietal/frontal regions
children more parietal and less top down
++ sig decrease in grey matter = more robust prepub increase in white in dPFC
adults better at inhibiting and saccading away and ability to override improves throughout dev

Question 12

older brain characteristics

Answer 12

older experience greater decline in overall brain volume

Question 13

exec funciton in aging

Answer 13

performance decreases from 20 y
vocab increase -experince
- ex.f. tasks depend on internal representation, maintenance and updating of context info in exerting control over thought and beh

Question 14

Fotenos et al 208 brain vol with age

Answer 14

% grey matter + % wm ability sig decreases from 50 years

steeper with age - particularly in areas assoc with exec function and memory tasks

Question 15

lemaitre et al 2010 PFC with age

Answer 15

healthy brains of 18-87y/o
As ef decrease,age related declines in frontal gyri + PFC thickness, SA and vol
This is the area that is last to develop but also the first to decline – succeptable to brain changes across the lifespan
PARTICULARLY lateral and dorsomedial PFC

Question 16

age and amyg (van reekum et al)

Answer 16

change in EF also related to ability to suppress amyg activation despite increased cortical activity - greater response to bottom up
increase amyg = decrease EF capabilities

Question 17

Braver et al 2001 DA and PFC Function

Answer 17

canonical model
DA learn contingencies between stimuli and reward
processing and response to stimuli depend on weighting of reward prediction via DA system- increase DA = increase PFC prioritisation
PFC op down bias of context via mod gated channels
dlPFC reg access to context info

Question 18

hebb rat studies in cog decline

Answer 18

rat environ stimulation improve neural circuits and maze navigation

Question 19

smith et al 2009 cog tasks in old age

Answer 19

comp cog training 1 hour a day, 5 days a week for 8 weeks
improve on battery of tests: memory, attention, backward digit, letter no sequencing, verbal learning, delayed recall - NOT AREAS DIRECTLY TRAINED IN - generalised

Question 20

nouchi et al 2012

Answer 20

nintendo brain training games vs tetris
long and short term interventions
4 hours a day for 5 days or 1 hour a day for 4 weeks
more sig improvement over longer duration with shorter intervals - improved WM on n back and increase in white matter of dlPFC - some only improve in trained domain
-DEPENDS ON THE STRATEGIES USED WITHIN THE TASKS

Question 21

sandberg 2014 predictors of gain

Answer 21

strategy based intervention on ep memory - recall links between letters and no (ie d=25)
better pre task episodic memory = better improved memory (+ for speed of processing and verbal knowledge )
gain more if already good

Question 22

colcombe and cramer 2003 aeorbic

Answer 22

meta of aerobic on cog

fitness increase cog with greater influence on ef

Question 23

why might exercise improve cog

Answer 23

incerase in cerebral blood flow
change in hippocampus
social engagement and interactions
- improve levels of activation, processing of reward, change brain strucure/volume etc?

Question 24

eaton et al 2006 teens and risk

Answer 24

13000 adolsecents death in uk from motor vehicle crashes, unintentional injury, homicide and suicide

Question 25

van lejenhorst et al 2010 adolescents and risk in monetary reward

Answer 25

risk increase with increased reward across ages

teen peak in vmPFC and VS in adolescence - greater responsivity to emotionally valent stimuli/rewards

Question 26

dreyfuss et al 2014 go no go fear

Answer 26

adol specific increase in false alarms to threat stimuli
reflect failure to inhibit response to emotionally valient stimuli in the environment
- processing of neg/threat stimuli assoc with amyg activation (ledoux)

Question 27

winocur 1998 enrich enviorn

Answer 27

enriched in disadvantaged environ show redution in learn and memory - stay active

Question 28

smith et al 2009 cog assessments

Answer 28

improvements in 
memory
attention
backward digit 
letter no sequencing
delayed word recall

Question 29

guiney et al 2015 cerebral blood flow on cog

Answer 29

regular physical activity in young adults = greater aeorbic fitness = greater CBF reg and greater cog inhibition

Question 30

erikson 2011 hipp changes on cog

Answer 30

hipp shrinks into late adulthodo
BUT hipp and MTL increase in volume via exercise
active older adults show improved spatial memory following 2% increase in hipp volume
ONLY SPECIFIC AREAS IMPROVE