Executive Function and Mental Rotation During Middle Childhood: The Effect of Age

The authors examined the relative contributions of three aspects of executive function with two-dimensional (2D) mental rotation in children between 8 and 12?years old. Participants were given one standard 2D mental rotation measure, two working memory tasks (Corsi blocks and digit span), two inhibitory control tasks (Stroop and go/no go), and two planning ability tests (Tower of Hanoi and Tower of London). The correlational patterns between executive function and 2D mental rotation were different depending on age. More inhibitory control in younger children was associated with better performance in mental rotation, but not in older children. These results add to the understanding of the specific nature of children’s executive function-mental rotation relations.     

儿童青少年时期加工速度和执行功能在流体智力发展中的作用

以7~15岁儿童青少年为研究对象,考察加工速度和执行功能对流体智力的影响。研究结果表明,随着年龄的增长,感觉运动加工速度、知觉加工速度对流体智力从具有直接影响到只通过执行功能中的记忆更新成分产生间接影响,但这种影响存在年龄间的差异。在童年中期（7~9岁）,知觉加工速度对流体智力不仅具有直接的预测作用,还通过记忆更新对其产生间接的影响。童年晚期（10~12岁）,感觉运动加工速度和知觉加工速度不再对流体智力具有直接预测作用,都是通过记忆更新和抑制/转换合成成分间接对流体智力起作用。青春期（13~15岁）,知觉加工速度对流体智力只通过记忆更新产生间接影响。     

The Nature of Executive Function (EF) Deficits in Daily Life Activities in Adults with ADHD and Their Relationship to Performance on EF Tests

Although attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is believed to impair EF, research using EF tests shows such deficits exist in only a minority of those with ADHD. This study hypothesized that this disparity is largely due to the low ecological validity of these EF tests. A 91-item rating scale of EF was constructed based on EF theories and found to represent 5 underlying dimensions: Self-Management to Time, Self-Organization/Problem-Solving, Self-Discipline, Self-Motivation, and Self-Activation/Concentration. Three groups were compared on these scales: Adults with ADHD (N = 146), Clinical control adults not diagnosed with ADHD (N = 97), and a Community control group (N = 109). The ADHD group had more severe EF ratings than did the Clinical group and Community control groups on all 5 scales using both self and other-reported versions. Relationships between the EF scales and tests were low and mostly not significant. Most ADHD adults were clinically impaired on the EF ratings but only a small minority were so on the tests. The EF ratings were more highly associated with measures of deviant behavior (antisocial acts, crime diversity, negative driving outcomes) than the EF tests, most of which were unrelated to such behavior. These results agree with previous research showing that EF tests are largely unrelated to EF ratings and that EF ratings are more strongly associated with impairment in major life activities, in this case deviant or antisocial behavior. Contrary to earlier conclusions based on EF tests, adult ADHD involves substantial problems in EF in daily life.     

The Contribution of Executive Function to Source Memory Development in Early Childhood

Age-related differences in episodic memory judgments assessing recall of fact information and the source of this information were examined. The role of executive function (EF) in supporting early episodic memory ability was also explored. Four- and 6-year-old children were taught 10 novel facts from two different sources (experimenter or puppet), and memory for both fact and source information was later tested. Measures of working memory, inhibitory control, and set shifting were obtained to produce an indicator of children's EF. Six-year-olds recalled more fact and source information than did 4-year-olds. Regression analyses revealed that age, language ability, and EF accounted for unique variance in children's fact recall and source recall performance. These findings suggest a link between episodic memory and EF, and we propose that developmental investigations should further explore this association.     

Long-Term Executive Function Deficits in Children With Traumatic Brain Injuries: Assessment Using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF)

Long-term deficits in executive functions following childhood traumatic brain injuries (TBI) were examined using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Parents completed the BRIEF approximately 5 years postinjury as part of a prospective study of children injured between the ages of 6 and 12. The children were between 10 and 19 years of age at the time of the assessment, and included 33 with severe TBI, 31 with moderate TBI, and 34 with orthopedic injuries. Parents also rated children's adaptive functioning and completed several other measures of parent and family functioning. Children were administered a neuropsychological test battery that included several measures of executive functions. The groups displayed a significant linear trend in BRIEF scores, with the largest deficits in executive functions reported in children with severe TBI. BRIEF scores were related consistently across groups to a test of working memory, but not to other neuropsychological measures. BRIEF scores also predicted children's adaptive functioning and behavioral adjustment, as well as parent psychological distress, perceived family burden, and general family functioning. The findings indicate that TBI results in long-term deficits in executive functions that are related to children's psychosocial outcomes, as well as to parent and family functioning.     

Cool and Hot Aspects of Executive Function in Childhood Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Aspects of executive functioning (EF) have been put forward as endophenotypes in obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD) and meta-analyses support EF underperformance in adult samples. Childhood-onset OCD has been suggested to constitute a separate neurodevelopmental subtype of the disorder but studies on neuropsychological functioning in childhood OCD are limited. The aim of the present study was to investigate performance-based EF in pediatric OCD using observed and latent variable analyses. A case-control design was applied including 50 unmedicated children and adolescents with OCD aged 7–17 years of which 70% were female, 50 pairwise age and gender matched non-psychiatric controls (NP) and 38 children and adolescents with mixed anxiety disorders (MA). Participants underwent structured diagnostic interviews and assessment with a battery encompassing cool EF tasks of working memory, set shifting, inhibition, and planning, and hot EF tasks of decision making and dot probe paradigm affective interference. First, groups were compared on observed variables with multilevel mixed-effects linear regression and analysis of variance. Then the latent structure of cool EF was tested with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and groups were compared on the CFA scores. No significant differences between groups appeared on individual cool EF tasks. On the hot EF tasks the OCD group displayed significant interference effects on the dot probe paradigm OCD-specific stimuli relative to NP, but not compared to MA and no group differences emerged for decision making. In the CFA a one-factor solution showed best fit, but the groups did not differ significantly on the resulting latent variable. The present study does not support cool or hot EF impairments in childhood OCD.     

Assessment and development of executive function (EF) during childhood.

This review paper outlines the issues associated with the assessment of executive function (EF) in children and adolescents, and describes the developmental profile of executive processes across childhood. At the outset, EF is defined, and cognitive and behavioral impairments associated with executive dysfunction (EDF) are described. A developmental model of EF is proposed incorporating four discrete but inter-related executive domains (attentional control, cognitive flexibility, goal setting, and information processing) which operate in an integrative manner to enable "executive control". Characteristics that constitute traditional EF measures are discussed, as are the problems associated with test interpretation. The ecological validity of EF tests and neuropsychological assessment procedures are examined, and adjunct methods of measurement are presented to enable a more comprehensive and valid assessment of EF. Based on developmental and normative studies, the maturation of executive domains is mapped. Attentional control appears to emerge in infancy and develop rapidly in early childhood. In contrast, cognitive flexibility, goal setting, and information processing experience a critical period of development between 7 and 9 years of age, and are relatively mature by 12 years of age. A transitional period is thought to occur at the beginning of adolescence, and shortly after "executive control" is likely to emerge. In order to confirm our current understanding of EF development and further enhance our understanding of brain-behavior relationships, longitudinal studies incorporating structural and functional neuroimaging are required.     

Development of Force Adaptation During Childhood

Humans learn to make reaching movements in novel dynamic environments by acquiring an internal motor model of their limb dynamics. Here, the authors investigated how 4- to 11-year-old children (N = 39) and adults (N = 7) adapted to changes in arm dynamics, and they examined whether those data support the view that the human brain acquires inverse dynamics models (IDM) during development. While external damping forces were applied, the children learned to perform goal-directed forearm flexion movements. After changes in damping, all children showed kinematic aftereffects indicative of a neural controller that still attempted to compensate the no longer existing damping force. With increasing age, the number of trials toward complete adaptation decreased. When damping was present, forearm paths were most perturbed and most variable in the youngest children but were improved in the older children. The findings indicate that the neural representations of limb dynamics are less precise in children and less stable in time than those of adults. Such controller instability might be a primary cause of the high kinematic variability observed in many motor tasks during childhood. Finally, the young children were not able to update those models at the same rate as the older children, who, in turn, adapted more slowly than adults. In conclusion, the ability to adapt to unknown forces is a developmental achievement. The present results are consistent with the view that the acquisition and modification of internal models of the limb dynamics form the basis of that adaptive process.     

Linking Executive Function and Peer Problems from Early Childhood Through Middle Adolescence

Peer interactions and executive function play central roles in the development of healthy children, as peer problems have been indicative of lower cognitive competencies such as self-regulatory behavior and poor executive function has been indicative of problem behaviors and social dysfunction. However, few studies have focused on the relation between peer interactions and executive function and the underlying mechanisms that may create this link. Using a national sample (n?=?1164, 48.6 % female) from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), we analyzed executive function and peer problems (including victimization and rejection) across three waves within each domain (executive function or peer problems), beginning in early childhood and ending in middle adolescence. Executive function was measured as a multi-method, multi-informant composite including reports from parents on the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire and Child Behavior Checklist and child’s performance on behavioral tasks including the Continuous Performance Task, Woodcock-Johnson, Tower of Hanoi, Operation Span Task, Stroop, and Tower of London. Peer problems were measured as a multi-informant composite including self, teacher, and afterschool caregiver reports on multiple peer-relationship scales. Using a cross-lagged design, our Structural Equation Modeling findings suggested that experiencing peer problems contributed to lower executive function later in childhood and better executive function reduced the likelihood of experiencing peer problems later in childhood and middle adolescence, although these relations weakened as a child moves into adolescence. The results highlight that peer relationships are involved in the development of strengths and deficits in executive function and vice versa.     

执行功能与精神分裂症

执行功能障碍是精神分裂症最重要的认知功能障碍,与精神分裂症其它方面的障碍有着密不可分的关系。文章在相关的认知神经心理学和临床研究的基础上,分别综述了精神分裂症执行功能障碍的特点、研究方法、相关脑机制,执行功能与注意、记忆等一般认知功能间的关系,执行功能与精神症状间的联系及其在诊断、康复、判断预后方面的作用等。对精神分裂症执行功能障碍的认识有助于更深入地理解其病因机制,并有利于临床评价与防治     

A Longitudinal Assessment of Executive Function Skills and Their Association with Math Performance

The present study was designed to examine both concurrent and predictive associations between scores on a measure of executive function (EF) skills, the Contingency Naming Test (CNT), during the early school-age years. A secondary aim of the study was to examine the association between EF skills and mathematics performance. We administered tests of mathematics ability, and the CNT, to 178 children at ages 6 to 7, 8 to 9, and 10 to 11 years. From the CNT we obtained measures of response fluency/efficiency, working memory, and inhibition. The results demonstrate main effects of age on all CNT measures of EF, as anticipated, and inconsistent main effects of gender or mathematics learning disability status. Rates of improvement in EF varied as a function of the working memory demands present during a given task. There were differences in concurrent and predictive correlations for different CNT performance measures. EF scores obtained during the first assessment were as strongly associated with each other as they were with EF scores obtained four years later, suggesting a moderately stable source of individual differences on cognitive performance. EF scores at age 6 to 7 years were associated with concurrent and later mathematics scores, and most of these correlations were stronger than the significant associations found between response fluency on a baseline task (with no working memory demand) and mathematics performance. These findings have implications for the stability of EF skills during the school-age years, and the role of EF in early and later elementary school mathematics performance.     

The Development of Judgment and Decision Making During Childhood and Adolescence

Research on adult judgment and decision making has focused on deviations from normative models, demonstrating biases and reliance on heuristic shortcuts, thus presenting a very different picture than developmental theories that describe a unidirectional progression toward greater logic and efficiency. Recent research related to this apparent contradiction indicates that children develop competencies to reason effectively and make normative decisions, but also develop biased judgment strategies that are used inappropriately in some situations. We suggest potential explanations for the findings, highlighting the need to consider models that incorporate development in both experiential and analytic information processing systems.     

Assessment of Executive Functions after Treatment of Childhood Acute Lymphoid Leukemia: a Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - Individuals treated for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have a high survival rate. This fact, however, may lead to neurocognitive impairments in survivors, as...     

Task utility and norms for the Preschool Executive Task Assessment (PETA)

Earlier identification of executive deficits in preschool children using an ecological approach would give more scope for intervention. The Preschool Executive Task Assessment (PETA) was developed to resemble an everyday age-appropriate task in order to examine the self-direction and integration of executive functions during a multistep task. It was designed so that performance can be evaluated in a microanalytic way and so individualized feedback and support can be easily communicated. The utility of the PETA was assessed with 166 three-to five-year olds. Results showed improved performance with increasing age and verbal intellectual quotient as well as good task reliability and utility. Evidence for influence of socioeconomic status, gender, and use of self-talk was also observed. Clinical applications and future directions of this novel measure are discussed.     

Childhood Executive Function Continues to Predict Outcomes in Young Adult Females with and Without Childhood-Diagnosed ADHD

We prospectively followed an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of preadolescent girls with ADHD (n?=?140) and matched comparison girls (n?=?88) over a period of 10?years, from middle childhood through late adolescence/young adulthood. Our aim was to examine the ability of childhood measures of executive function (EF) to predict functional outcomes at follow-up. Measures of EF comprised the childhood predictors, with academic, socioemotional, occupational, and global functioning serving as young adult criterion measures. Results indicated that childhood EF - particularly measures of global EF and working memory - predicted academic and occupational functioning across our entire sample (independent of diagnostic group status), but diagnostic status (ADHD versus comparison) moderated the association between (a) working memory and reading achievement and (b) a global EF measure and suspensions/expulsions. That is, in the ADHD group, low working memory predicted poor reading scores and impaired global EF predicted higher suspensions/expulsions, but this was not the case in the comparison group. Overall, these results extend previous findings of associations between EF and adolescent outcomes in girls with and without ADHD into young adulthood. Findings continue to suggest the importance of assessing and developing interventions that target EF impairments early in life in order to prevent long-term difficulties across a range of important functional domains.     

Thoughtful Friends: Executive Function Relates to Social Problem Solving and Friendship Quality in Middle Childhood

Abstract

The present study examined links between best friendship quality, social problem solving in response to a transgression and conscious control of behavior (i.e., executive function or EF). Eighty-one 7- to 10-year-olds answered questions about their best friendship quality and responses to friendship transgressions (i.e., interpretations, goals, and strategies they would endorse). They also completed a battery of EF tasks measuring working memory, inhibition, and shifting. Results revealed few relations between social problem solving and best friendship quality. Social problem solving related to EF abilities, with inhibition relating to fewer revenge goals and cognitive flexibility relating to more neutral interpretations. Better working memory related to worse best friendship quality. Finally, verbal IQ was a strong predictor of several positive social problem-solving interpretations, goals, and strategies. Results suggest cognitive abilities in EF and language may be important to consider during middle childhood in this period of advancing social problem solving and friendships.     

3～5岁幼儿执行功能的发展

该研究在两种理论背景下,探讨了3~5 岁幼儿执行功能年龄发展特征。通过运用8种不同的执行功能任务,结果发现,从3 岁到4 岁是幼儿执行功能发展的重要时期;但执行功能的不同类型在发展的趋势上有所不同,表现为:抑制控制及“热”执行功能的发展主要在3~4 岁之间,而计划控制和“冷”执行功能在3~5岁期间都有显著的发展。