Early neuropsychological correlates of later clock drawing and clock copying abilities among school aged children.

Although widely used in empirical study and bedside neuropsychological evaluation of geriatric populations, there is little literature on clock copying and drawing among children. However, existing research suggests that clock drawing tests (CDTs) may be effective and efficient tools for assessing neurocognitive development in children. This paper reports data on clock drawing on demand (CDT-D) and clock drawing to copy (CDT-C) among a non-clinical sample of elementary school aged children and identifies predictive relationships between earlier measures of executive function, visuo-construction, and visual-motor coordination and CDT performance 3 years later. Similar to findings with adult samples, analyses revealed better performance on copying than on drawing. Longitudinal analyses indicate that general intelligence significantly predicted performance on both tasks. Visual-motor coordination only predicted performance on the drawing on demand subtest of the CDT.     

Association of Behavioral Self-Regulation with Concurrent Functional Capacity Among Stroke Rehabilitation Patients

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale (BDS), a measure of the executive cognitive capacity to use an intention to guide purposeful, goal-directed activity would be strongly associated with concurrent functional status after controlling for age, sex, education, severity of pain, medical comorbidity, depression, and general mental status, in a sample of 246 elderly inpatients receiving rehabilitation services following hospitalization for stroke. Functional status was assessed by rehabilitation nurses' ratings of patients on 11 ADL items and on the Barthel Index. The BDS was the strongest predictor for 11 of the 12 dependent variables. Although it correlated significantly with all outcomes, the MMSE entered only one of the regression models. Of the other covariates, only age and severity of pain made an additional contribution to the prediction of functional ability for more than 1 dependent variable. Consistent with prior results in several other samples, the ability to use intentions to guide purposeful behavior appears to be an important contributor to everyday functioning among older adults.     

Attentional processes in young children with congenital visual impairment

The study investigated attentional processes of 32 preschool children with congenital visual impairment (VI). Children with profound visual impairment (PVI) and severe visual impairment (SVI) were compared to a group of typically developing sighted children in their ability to respond to adult directed attention in terms of establishing, maintaining, and shifting attention on toys. The measures of children's sensory‐motor understanding (SMU) and language ability were obtained using the Reynell‐Zinkin scales of mental development. The video‐recordings of these play‐based assessments were coded for three categories of behavioural responses (Establish, Maintain, and Shift). The three groups were matched on verbal comprehension (VC), but differed significantly in their SMU and their chronological age. The groups of children with PVI and SVI were found to be comparable in their ability to establish and maintain attention on objects. Despite a relatively good performance overall both groups scored significantly lower on those skills than children who were sighted. However, with regards to attention shifting, children with PVI showed significantly lower performance than both the children with SVI and the sighted children who were similar on this component. Ability to maintain and shift attention was significantly related to the cognitive ability of children with PVI; however the poorer attentional responses were not confined only to the children with low IQ. The results are discussed in relation to the role of vision, cognitive ability and executive function in attentional processes in children with congenital VI.     

Neuropsychological test norms controlled for physical health: Does it matter?

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of physical health on neuropsychological test norms. Medical and neuropsychological data from 118 healthy volunteer controls, aged 26–91 years, were collected during five recruitment occasions. The examinations included a clinical investigation, brain neuroimaging, and a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. Test‐specific statistical regression‐weights for age, education and gender were calculated to establish preliminary test norms. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that control in addition for physical health moved best performance from age 60 to 65 for abstraction; replaced a plateau above age 70 for verbal fluency, with a continued rise in performance; eliminated significant negative influences of age on auditory learning, spatial reasoning and complex copying; reduced them on wordlist recall, psychomotor speed, visual scanning and mental shifting; and slightly reduced negative influences of low education on most verbal tests, several memory tests, and psychomotor speed, indicating rises in normative scores of up to 0.8 SD at age 80 and 0.4 SD at age 60. No differences were found at age 40. Although the sample size is not adequate to be used for normative data, the findings indicate that norms uncontrolled for health overestimate the negative influence of advanced age and low education, implying a risk of drawing false diagnostic conclusions.     

Do attentional capacities and processing speed mediate the effect of age on executive functioning?

The executive processes are well known to decline with age, and similar data also exists for attentional capacities and processing speed. Therefore, we investigated whether these two last nonexecutive variables would mediate the effect of age on executive functions (inhibition, shifting, updating, and dual-task coordination). We administered a large battery of executive, attentional and processing speed tasks to 104 young and 71 older people, and we performed mediation analyses with variables showing a significant age effect. All executive and processing speed measures showed age-related effects while only the visual scanning task performance (selective attention) was explained by age when controlled for gender and educational level. Regarding mediation analyses, visual scanning partially mediated the age effect on updating while processing speed partially mediated the age effect on shifting, updating and dual-task coordination. In a more exploratory way, inhibition was also found to partially mediate the effect of age on the three other executive functions. Attention did not greatly influence executive functioning in aging while, in agreement with the literature, processing speed seems to be a major mediator of the age effect on these processes. Interestingly, the global pattern of results seems also to indicate an influence of inhibition but further studies are needed to confirm the role of that variable as a mediator and its relative importance by comparison with processing speed.     

Cognitive aspects of change in drawings: A neo‐Piagetian theoretical account

This study reconsiders a series of drawing tasks ( Goodnow, 1978 ) in which children have to modify their stereotypical drawing of the human figure to represent a person in movement. Another task, in which children have to differentiate the drawing of a kangaroo from that of a person, is also considered. According to a neo‐Piagetian model of drawing development ( Morra, 1995 ), it is hypothesized that three factors underlie children's ability to flexibly modify their drawings: (a) the amount of attentional resources (M capacity) that a child can use to activate task‐relevant figurative and operative schemes; (b) automatic activation of figurative schemes from perceptual input that can be obtained by presenting a model; and (c) activation of executive schemes that set appropriate goals and monitor performance, which can be obtained by manipulating contextual variables, such as task order. Three experiments (with a total of 645 participants in the age range from 5 to 9 years) tested successfully the theoretical predictions about the causal factors of drawing flexibility.     

Attentional orienting and executive control are affected by different types of meditation practice

Several studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of meditation on attention. The present study investigated the relationship between focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM) meditation skills and the various functions of attention. In Experiment 1, we executed the attention network test and compared the performance of experts on dandao meditation with that of ordinary people on this test. The results indicated that the experts specializing in OM meditation demonstrated greater attentional orienting ability compared with those specializing in FA meditation and the control group. In addition, both expert groups registered improvements in their executive control abilities compared with the control group. In Experiment 2, we trained beginners in FA meditation for 3 months. The results showed that the experimental group exhibited significantly enhanced executive control ability. We infer that FA meditation skills promote executive control function and OM meditation skills promote both executive control and attentional orienting functions.     

Attentional control in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

Across different studies, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) demonstrate impairments on numerous measures of attentional control that are classically associated with frontal lobe functioning. One aspect of attentional control that has not been examined in TLE is the ability to execute two modality‐specific tasks concurrently. We sought to examine the status of dual‐task coordination in TLE. We further examined the cohorts' performance on a range of traditional measures of attentional control. Eighteen TLE patients and 22 healthy controls participated in the study. Dual‐task performance involved comparing the capacity to execute a tracking and a digit recall task simultaneously with the capacity to execute the tasks separately. We also administered measures of: set shifting (odd‐man‐out test), sustained attention (elevator counting), selective attention (elevator counting with distraction), and divided attention (trail making test). We found that the proportional decrement in dual‐task performance relative to single‐task performance did not vary between the groups (TLE = 92.48%; controls = 93.70%), nor was there a significant difference in sustained attention (p > .10). Patients with TLE did demonstrate marked deficits in selective attention (p < .0001), divided attention (p < .01), and set shifting (p < .01). These findings add to the knowledge about cognitive dysfunction in TLE, indicating that impairments in attentional control in TLE tend to be selective. The greatest deficits appear to be on tasks that invoke a high level of processing resources. In contrast, sustained attention is less compromised and the capacity to allocate cognitive resources appears to be normal in patients with TLE.     

Executive functions underlying multiplicative reasoning: Problem type matters

We investigated the extent to which inhibition, updating, shifting, and mental-attentional capacity (M-capacity) contribute to children’s ability to solve multiplication word problems. A total of 155 children in Grades 3–6 (8- to 13-year-olds) completed a set of multiplication word problems at two levels of difficulty: one-step and multiple-step problems. They also received a reading comprehension test and a battery of inhibition, updating, shifting, and M-capacity measures. Structural equation modeling showed that updating mediated the relationship between multiplication performance (controlling for reading comprehension score) and latent attentional factors M-capacity and inhibition. Updating played a more important role in predicting performance on multiple-step problems than did age, whereas age and updating were equally important predictors on one-step problems. Shifting was not a significant predictor in either model. Implications of proposing executive function updating as a mediator between mathematical cognition and chronological age and attention resources are discussed.     

Executive Functions and Mental Attentional Capacity in Preschoolers

ABSTRACT

The structure of executive functions in preschoolers is controversial. Miyake and colleagues found that, in adults, inhibition, shifting, and updating are correlated but distinguishable processes; this finding was sometimes replicated with schoolchildren. Based on schoolchildren data, Im-Bolter, Johnson, and Pascual-Leone proposed a four-component model, with mental attentional capacity and inhibition as basic resources, and shifting and updating as executive processes that partly rely on those resources. Studies on preschoolers propose either a single factor or two factors. We tested 118 children (36 to 73 months old) using measures of mental attentional capacity (Mr. Cucumber, Direction Following Task, and Backward Word Span), inhibition (Bear/Dragon and Day-Night Stroop), shifting (Dimensional Change Card Sort) and updating (Magic House). Confirmatory factor analyzes showed that the best-fitting model comprises two highly correlated factors – one loading the mental attentional capacity measures, the other loading inhibition, shifting, and updating measures. Performance in inhibition, shifting, and updating tasks showed qualitative changes with increasing attentional capacity. In preschoolers, shifting and updating seem to emerge tied to inhibition – but only when sufficient capacity enables children to perform executive control tasks. This seems consistent with Im-Bolter’s et al.’s proposal of two basic resources.     

French adaptation of the Attentional Control Scale: Confirmatory factor analyses and relationship with trait anxiety and efficiency of orienting,alerting, and executive control attentional networks

BackgroundThe Attentional Control Scale (ACS) is a self-report questionnaire that measures individual differences in attentional control.ObjectiveThis study compared four models of the French version of the ACS and examined its links to trait anxiety and three attentional networks (orienting, alerting, and executive control) measured with the Attention Network Test (ANT).ResultsConfirmatory analyses conducted with a sample of 284 university students supported a two-factor (focusing and shifting) model. For 59 participants who completed the ANT, we found a positive correlation between focusing and the executive control network, while shifting was negatively correlated with alerting and orienting. Trait anxiety was negatively correlated with focusing and the alerting and executive control networks.ConclusionResults are discussed with a view to improving the assessment of attentional control, a key executive dimension for emotion regulation and attentional disengagement in anxiety.     

How do you think she feels? Vulnerability in empathy and the role of attention in school‐aged children born extremely preterm

The aim of this study was to examine empathic competence in children born extremely preterm (EP, <28 weeks) given vulnerabilities in social relationships. Empathy in typically developing children is mediated by executive functions. Executive functioning is also impaired in preterm children. Of particular interest in this study are the attentional components of executive functioning as mediators of empathic development. Thirty‐two 7‐year‐old EP children and 40 age‐matched term children participated in the Project K.I.D.S program and completed the Kids Empathy Development Scale (KEDS), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC‐IV), and Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA‐Ch). Children born extremely preterm exhibited poorer performance on all measures. The mediating role of attention in empathy competence was not supported by mediation modelling when FSIQ was controlled. As predicted, the EP group showed weaker empathic development relative to typically developing children. They also showed poorer attentional abilities. However, the effect of preterm birth on empathy was not mediated by executive‐level attention. The cognitive mechanisms underpinning poor empathy competence in EP children remain unclear. Future research needs to examine the role of inhibition, social–emotional recognition, and regulation.     

Anxiety and cognitive performance: attentional control theory

Attentional control theory is an approach to anxiety and cognition representing a major development of Eysenck and Calvo's (1992) processing efficiency theory. It is assumed that anxiety impairs efficient functioning of the goal-directed attentional system and increases the extent to which processing is influenced by the stimulus-driven attentional system. In addition to decreasing attentional control, anxiety increases attention to threat-related stimuli. Adverse effects of anxiety on processing efficiency depend on two central executive functions involving attentional control: inhibition and shifting. However, anxiety may not impair performance effectiveness (quality of performance) when it leads to the use of compensatory strategies (e.g., enhanced effort; increased use of processing resources). Directions for future research are discussed.     

Executive and attentional contributions to Theory of Mind deficit in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children has been associated with attentional and executive problems, but also with socioemotional difficulties possibly associated with deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM). Socioemotional problems in ADHD are associated with more negative prognoses, notably interpersonal, educational problems, and an increased risk of developing other psychiatric disorders that emphasize the need to clarify the nature of their ToM deficits. In this study, we hypothesized that ToM dysfunction in children with ADHD is largely attributable to their attentional and/or executive deficits. Thirty-one children with ADHD (8–12 years, IQ > 85) and 31 typically developing (TD) children were assessed using executive functions (inhibition, planning, and flexibility) and attentional tasks, as well as two advanced ToM tasks (Reading the Mind in the Eyes and Faux Pas) involving different levels of executive control. Children with ADHD performed more poorly than TD children in attentional, executive function, and ToM tasks. Linear regression analyses conducted in the ADHD group indicated that inhibition scores predicted performance on the “Faux Pas” task the best, while attention scores were the best for predicting performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task. When controlled for inhibition and attentional variables, ToM performance in children with ADHD was actually similar to TD children. Contrarily, controlling for ToM scores did not normalize performance for inhibition and attentional tasks in children with ADHD. This unidirectional relationship suggests that deficits in the EF and attentional domains are responsible for ToM deficits in ADHD, which therefore may contribute to their socioemotional difficulties.     

The Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale and Functional Status Among Elderly Medical and Surgical Rehabilitation Patients

This research was conducted in a sample of 150 older adults (mean age = 78.0) who were inpatients receiving rehabilitation services for a variety of medical and postsurgical conditions. The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that the Behavioral Dyscontrol Scale (BDS), a measure of the ability to use intentions to guide purposeful activity, would be strongly associated with concurrent functional status after controlling for age, sex, education, severity of pain, medical comorbidity, depression (Geriatric Depression Scale), and general mental status (Mini Mental State Exam [MMSE]). Functional status was assessed by rehabilitaion nurses' ratings of patients on 11 individual Activities of Daily Living (ADL) items and the Barthel Index. The hypothesis, tested by means of multiple regression analysis, was supported by the results. The BDS was the independent variable most strongly associated with all 11 ADL items and the Barthel Index. The MMSE contributed significantly to none of the models. Other covariates made minimal contributions to the variance shared with functional ability. Consistent with prior results in other samples, the ability to use intentions to guide purposeful behavior appears to be an important contributor to everyday functioning among older adults.     

Before and after entering school: The development of attention and executive functions from 6 to 8 years in Finnish children

In this 2‐year prospective follow‐up study we examined typical and atypical development of attention and executive function (AEF) across the transition to school. The NEPSY‐battery was used to evaluate the AEFs of the children before school at 6 years of age. Two subgroups, typical AEF (n = 25) and atypical AEF (n = 25), were formed according to the performance in AEF tasks. Children were assessed again at 8 years, when they were at the 2nd grade. The same subtests of the NEPSY‐battery and the ATTEX behavioral rating completed by a teacher were used. The effects of AEF deficits were compared with and without controlling for IQ. The group effect was significant in four out of the six NEPSY subtests used. The atypical AEF group had problems especially on subtests measuring motor inhibition both at the age of 6 and 8. The group‐time interaction effect was found in the subtest measuring attentional shifting. A catch‐up effect on shifting skills was observed in the atypical AEF group by the age of 8 years. In school at the 2nd grade, the early AEF problems were still observable, and related especially to inattention problems. Our results support the interpretation that inhibitory problems are at the core of executive dysfunction, that the problems are stable from preschool to 2nd grade, and that the effects of early AEF problems go over and beyond intellectual deficits. Our results also support the use of performance based measures of inhibition as an important part of the neuropsychological evaluation for school readiness.     

大鼠注意定势转移任务模型的深入研究：种系和检测程序的影响

注意定势转移任务(attentional set-shifting task, AST)可用于特异性检测啮齿类动物前额叶皮层及其皮层下神经通路介导的认知灵活性, 是目前研究认知灵活性及其障碍神经基础的重要模型。本研究系统调查了大鼠种系和检测程序差异对AST结果的影响。通过比较Wistar和Sprague Dawley (SD)两个种系大鼠在七阶段和五阶段两种AST检测程序中的认知表现, 研究发现：(1) SD和Wistar大鼠前额叶认知功能存在差异, 后者的总体认知表现优于前者。尤其是Wistar大鼠在逆反学习阶段的达标训练次数及错误率显著低于SD大鼠, 表明Wistar大鼠具有更高的策略转换灵活性。(2)在AST测试中逆反学习和外维度定势转移是认知灵活性评价的核心指标。这两种认知转换过程分别以前期策略和注意定势建立为基础。结果显示在两种AST检测程序中Wistar和SD大鼠在逆反学习和/或外维度定势转移等复杂学习阶段的达标训练次数和错误率均高于其它简单关联学习阶段, 表明在目前实验条件下大鼠均表现出定势形成和转换困难的反应模式, 不同认知反应间的结构关系具有稳定性。这些结果提示大鼠前额叶皮质介导的认知灵活性存在种系差异, AST各阶段认知反应间的结构效度不受目前使用的大鼠种系和检测程序差异的影响, 扩展了对AST模型的认识。     

Intact theory of mind in TBI with behavioural disturbance

Behavioural disturbance following TBI is common. Theory of mind(ToM) deficits have been noted in autism where difficulties with social interaction and communication are evident. It was hypothesised that TBI patients with behavioural disturbance would show deficits on ToM tasks independent of executive function. Twenty TBI patients with behavioural disturbance and 20 TBI patients without were assessed on verbal (stories) and non-verbal (cartoons) ToM tasks,standard psychometry, and measures of executive function.TBI patients were unimpaired on the ToM tasks. Both groups were unimpaired on standard tests of executive function (verbal fluency and trail making test) but were impaired on the Behavioural Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS). Groups did not differ significantly on these tests.It is concluded that ToM ability does not predict behavioural disturbance and may be independent of executive functioning.     

The impact of meaning and dimensionality on the accuracy of children's copying

Studies of intellectual realism have shown that children aged 7 to 9 copy a line drawing of a cube less accurately than a non‐object pattern composed of the same lines ( Phillips, Hobbs, & Pratt, 1978 ). However, it remains unclear whether performance is worse on the cube because it is a three‐dimensional representation, or because it is a meaningful object, or both. The accuracy with which twenty 7‐year‐old and twenty 9‐year‐old children reproduced 16 line drawings of two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional objects and non‐objects was assessed. Older children copied all types of drawing more accurately than younger participants, and children of all ages copied two‐dimensional drawings more accurately than three‐dimensional. Meaningfulness interacted with dimensionality for ratings of drawing accuracy, assisting the copying of two‐dimensional drawings, but having no impact on the copying of three‐dimensional drawings. For an objective measure based on position, length, and orientation of line, meaningfulness interacted with age group, being beneficial for 7‐ but not 9‐year‐olds. Overall, the results imply that, contrary to previous suggestions, meaningfulness can actually be beneficial to copying.     

Executive function in children with high and low attentional skills: Correspondences between behavioural and cognitive profiles

Cognitive performance was compared between two groups of typically developing children, who had been observed and rated as differing significantly in their attentional skills at school. The participants were 24 8‐ and 9‐year‐old children scoring poorly relative to peers, on a classroom observation scale and teacher rating scale for attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity [low‐attentional skills (LAS) group] and 24 sex‐ and age‐matched children scoring at a high level compared to peers [high‐attentional skills (HAS) group]. The two groups were compared on a series of cognitive tasks to assess executive function (EF). The LAS group performed within the typical range yet at a significantly lower level than the HAS group on the majority of the EF tasks administered, namely working memory and inhibition measures, even though there were no significant differences between the groups on a measure of intellectual ability. Working memory measures followed by measures of inhibition emerged as the best predictors of group membership. These findings provide empirical evidence that there are individual differences in attentional skills. Specifically, that there is a relationship between behavioural inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity and cognitive performance on working memory and inhibitory control tasks.