Development of Sustained Attention Assessed Using the Continuous Performance Test among Children 6–15 Years of Age

The Continuous Performance Test (CPT) is a widely used measure of sustained attention, which may rely on the efficiency of cognitive inhibition. We examined the relationships of age and sex with CPT performance among 341 randomly selected school children 6–15 years of age. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the hit rate, false alarm rate, and sensitivity of both the undegraded and the degraded CPT were associated with age by a quadratic relationship. The age–development curves for the hit rate and sensitivity were convex, whereas that for the false alarm rate was concave. Sex was associated with the hit rate and sensitivity on the degraded CPT only. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that sustained attention develops during the primary school ages. The data reported are essential for identifying children with conditions associated with sustained attention deficit, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as those at an increased risk for developing schizophrenia.     

Dual-tasking alleviated sleep deprivation disruption in visuomotor tracking: an fMRI study

Effects of dual-responding on tracking performance after 49-h of sleep deprivation (SD) were evaluated behaviorally and with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Continuous visuomotor tracking was performed simultaneously with an intermittent color-matching visual detection task in which a pair of color-matched stimuli constituted a target and non-matches were non-targets. Tracking error means were binned time-locked to stimulus onset of the detection task in order to observe changes associated with dual-responding by comparing the error during targets and non-targets. Similar comparison was made with fMRI data. Our result showed that despite a significant increase in the overall tracking error post SD, from 20 pixels pre SD to 45 pixels post SD, error decreased to a minimum of about 25 pixels 0-6s after dual-response. Despite an overall reduced activation post SD, greater activation difference between targets and non-targets was found post SD in task-related regions, such as the left cerebellum, the left somatosensory cortex, the left extrastriate cortex, bilateral precuneus, the left middle frontal gyrus, and the left motor cortex. Our results suggest that dual-response helps to alleviate performance impairment usually associated with SD. The duration of the alleviation effect was on the order of seconds after dual-responding.     

Intra-limb coordination in karate kicking: Effect of impacting or not impacting a target

This study aimed to investigate the kicking limb coordinative patterns adopted by karate practitioners (karateka) when impacting (IRK), or not impacting (NIRK) a target during a roundhouse kick. Six karateka performed three repetitions of both kicks while kicking limb kinematics were recorded using a stereophotogrammetric system. Intra-limb coordination was quantified for hip and knee flexion–extension from toe-off to kick completion, using the Continuous relative phase (CRP). Across the same time interval, thigh and shank angular momentum about the vertical axis of the body was calculated. For all trials, across all participants, CRP curve peaks and maximum and minimum angular momentum were determined. A RM-ANOVA was performed to test for differences between kicking conditions.The CRP analysis highlighted, during the central portion of both kicks, a delayed flexion of the hip with respect to the knee. Conversely, during the terminal portion of the CRP curves, the NIRK is performed with a more in-phase action, caused by a higher hip angular displacement. The NIRK is characterized by a lower angular momentum which may enhance control of the striking limb. It would seem that the issue of no impact appears to be solved through the control of all segments of the kicking limb, in contrast to the primary control of the lower leg only observed during the IRK.     

The mental representation of the magnitude of symbolic and nonsymbolic ratios in adults

This study mainly investigated the specificity of the processing of fraction magnitudes. Adults performed a magnitude-estimation task on fractions, the ratios of collections of dots, and the ratios of surface areas. Their performance on fractions was directly compared with that on nonsymbolic ratios. At odds with the hypothesis that the symbolic notation impedes the processing of the ratio magnitudes, the estimates were less variable and more accurate for fractions than for nonsymbolic ratios. This indicates that the symbolic notation activated a more precise mental representation than did the nonsymbolic ratios. This study also showed, for both fractions and the ratios of dot collections, that the larger the components the less precise the mental representation of the magnitude of the ratio. This effect suggests that the mental representation of the magnitude of the ratio was activated from the mental representation of the magnitude of the components and the processing of their numerical relation (indirect access). Finally, because most previous studies of fractions have used a numerical comparison task, we tested whether the mental representation of magnitude activated in the fraction-estimation task could also underlie performance in the fraction-comparison task. The subjective distance between the fractions to be compared was computed from the mean and the variability of the estimates. This distance was the best predictor of the time taken to compare the fractions, suggesting that the same approximate mental representation of the magnitude was activated in both tasks.     

Conners’ continuous performance test (CCPT-II) in children with ADHD,ODD, or a combined ADHD/ODD diagnosis

The current study investigated if results on the Conners’ Continuous Performance Test (CCPT-II) could discriminate between children with ADHD (n = 59), ODD (n = 10), ADHD+ODD (n = 15), and normal controls (n =160), and how the results are associated with and explained by the intellectual function of the child. The sample was derived from the Bergen Child Study (BCS), a longitudinal, ongoing, population-based study of children’s development and mental health. CCPT-II performance did not differentiate between the three diagnostic groups (i.e., ADHD, ODD, and ADHD+ODD). Children with ODD (with or without comorbid ADHD) did not differ from children in the control group on any CCPT-II parameters. Children with ADHD made statistically significant more errors of omissions and showed a more variable response time to targets than the control group. The correlations between CCPT-II measures and IQ were mild to moderate, and there was a statistically significant group difference in IQ: Children with ADHD, and children with ADHD+ODD, obtained lower IQ scores than normal controls. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that IQ, but not diagnostic group status, was significant predictors of CCPT-II performance. CCPT-II performance should be interpreted with caution when assessing ADHD and/or ODD in children.     

AULA virtual reality test as an attention measure: Convergent validity with Conners’ Continuous Performance Test

The majority of neuropsychological tests used to evaluate attention processes in children lack ecological validity. The AULA Nesplora (AULA) is a continuous performance test, developed in a virtual setting, very similar to a school classroom. The aim of the present study is to analyze the convergent validity between the AULA and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) of Conners. The AULA and CPT were administered correlatively to 57 children, aged 6–16 years (26.3% female) with average cognitive ability (IQ mean = 100.56, SD = 10.38) who had a diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) according to DSM-IV-TR criteria. Spearman correlations analyses were conducted among the different variables. Significant correlations were observed between both tests in all the analyzed variables (omissions, commissions, reaction time, and variability of reaction time), including for those measures of the AULA based on different sensorial modalities, presentation of distractors, and task paradigms. Hence, convergent validity between both tests was confirmed. Moreover, the AULA showed differences by gender and correlation to Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory indexes of the WISC-IV, supporting the relevance of IQ measures in the understanding of cognitive performance in ADHD. In addition, the AULA (but not Conners’ CPT) was able to differentiate between ADHD children with and without pharmacological treatment for a wide range of measures related to inattention, impulsivity, processing speed, motor activity, and quality of attention focus. Additional measures and advantages of the AULA versus Conners’ CPT are discussed.     

Reaching towards an end: Numerical end and distance effects in motor movements

Numerical comparisons are affected by the distance between the numbers and by the presence of an end stimulus. In line with embodied cognition approaches, past studies found evidence for the distance effect in continuous motor movements. The present study is the first to provide evidence for the end effect (i.e., faster comparisons for pairs that include an end stimulus of a set) using continuous motor movements. Two digits were presented horizontally on a screen and participants reached towards the larger one using a computer mouse cursor. Response trajectories were straighter (1) when the number pair included the end stimulus of 1, and (2) when the numerical distance between the numbers was large. Importantly, the end effect appeared earlier in the motor trajectory than the distance effect. The implications of this pattern for the cognitive processes underlying the end and the distance effects are discussed.     

Quality of Life and General Health Perception in Women with Obesity

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in general health status and quality of life between patients who present “non-normative eating behaviours” (namely, binge eating disorder, night eating syndrome, sweet /fat food cravings and continuous nibbling) and patients without these eating behaviour characteristics. A cohort of 168 women with obesity, all candidates to bariatric surgery, aged between 15 and 65 (M = 39.04; SD = 10.86), with a body mass index ranging between 30.37 and 80.65 (M = 48.79; SD = 8.37), was studied. Participants answered to a clinical interview, to SF-36 and to ORWELL-97, after their informed consent. Results suggest that women with obesity reporting binge eating disorder, night eating syndrome and continuous nibbling show poorer general health status and worst quality of life than those who do not present these “non-normative eating behaviours”. Moreover, the general health status and the quality of life of patients with sweet/fat food cravings do not differ from those who do not report this eating behaviour. Nevertheless, patients reporting the eating behaviours studied do not differ from the others regarding their body mass index.     

Event-learning and robust policy heuristics

In this paper we introduce a novel reinforcement learning algorithm called event-learning. The algorithm uses events, ordered pairs of two consecutive states. We define event-value function and we derive learning rules. Combining our method with a well-known robust control method, the SDS algorithm, we introduce Robust Policy Heuristics (RPH). It is shown that RPH, a fast-adapting non-Markovian policy, is particularly useful for coarse models of the environment and could be useful for some partially observed systems. RPH may be of help in alleviating the ‘curse of dimensionality’ problem. Event-learning and RPH can be used to separate time scales of learning of value functions and adaptation. We argue that the definition of modules is straightforward for event-learning and event-learning makes planning feasible in the RL framework. Computer simulations of a rotational inverted pendulum with coarse discretization are shown to demonstrate the principle.