A selective and critical review of neuropsychological deficits and the frontal lobes

Presumptions about the functions of the frontal lobes, and the sensitivity and specificity of certain tests to measure frontal lobe functions, are having a substantial influence on both clinical and research conclusions. In this paper the authors examine the details of the studies that have contributed to these presumptions, and find that the evidence to support these conclusions is weak. A detailed evaluation of the evidence relating to the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Thurstone Word Fluency Test is also presented. Finally, the development of the belief that frontal lobe functions can be specifically measured is reviewed. The authors of this paper conclude that the bewildering array of deficits attributed to frontal lesions still seems to prevail.     

Psychopathy and structure of primary mental abilities

The Comprehensive Ability Battery (CAB) was used to assess 18 primary mental abilities in 53 white, male prison inmates for whom highly reliable ratings of psychopathy were available. None of the correlations between ratings of psychopathy and scores on the CAB tests was significant, and the overall pattern or structure of abilities was the same for inmates with low and high ratings of psychopathy. The possibility is raised that the personality characteristics of psychopaths make them appear to be brighter and more creative than they actually are. Compared with norms for male high school students, the inmates as a group generally performed well, falling near the 50th percentile on 11 of the tests. The inmates performed significantly better than the normative sample on tests of verbal ability, esthetic judgment, aiming, and representational drawing, and significantly worse on tests of ideational fluency, spontaneous flexibility, and word fluency.This research was supported by Grant MT-4511 from the Medical Research Council of Canada.     

Concurrent schedules: Effects of time- and response-allocation constraints

Five pigeons were trained on concurrent variable-interval schedules arranged on two keys. In Part 1 of the experiment, the subjects responded under no constraints, and the ratios of reinforcers obtainable were varied over five levels. In Part 2, the conditions of the experiment were changed such that the time spent responding on the left key before a subsequent changeover to the right key determined the minimum time that must be spent responding on the right key before a changeover to the left key could occur. When the left key provided a higher reinforcer rate than the right key, this procedure ensured that the time allocated to the two keys was approximately equal. The data showed that such a time-allocation constraint only marginally constrained response allocation. In Part 3, the numbers of responses emitted on the left key before a changeover to the right key determined the minimum number of responses that had to be emitted on the right key before a changeover to the left key could occur. This response constraint completely constrained time allocation. These data are consistent with the view that response allocation is a fundamental process (and time allocation a derivative process), or that response and time allocation are independently controlled, in concurrent-schedule performance.     

THE FUNCTIONS OF ASSESSMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR SELECTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF DEVICES FOR ASSESSING REPERTOIRES IN CLINICAL,EDUCATIONAL, AND OTHER SETTINGS

An attempt is made to identify the many different functions that assessment of an individual's repertoire can serve. Implications of these functions for the character of and evidence about assessment devices are suggested. The functions fall into two general groups, those which influence decisions regarding an individual learner, and those which influence policy, program development, and scientific knowledge. The first group of functions is presented in a rough chronological sequence such that they form a “behavioral assessment funnel,” beginning with functions involving broad-band assessment to identify likely persons and skill areas, and narrowing to the precise pinpointing, monitoring, and follow-up functions. The contribution of behavior analysis and behavior therapy to assessment methodology in this sequence is identified as well as the areas where more traditionally conceived methods are still useful. The second group of functions and behavioral contributions to it are then discussed.     

Stimulation cognitive chez les personnes âgées : effets d’une méthode de stimulation cognitive par les jeux sur les fonctions cognitives et l’estime de soi

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a cognitive stimulation program with games on scores to cognitive tests (processing speed, mental flexibility, working memory, inhibition) and how this program can benefit to a psycho-affective measure, self-esteem in older adults. Forty-eight participants over 60 years old took part in the experiment. They were divided into two groups: 1 group followed a program of cognitive stimulation using leisure activities with games and 1 control group in which people gathered every week. There were 8 sessions of cognitive stimulation using leisure activities like games, one-hour session a week. Measures have focused on speed of processing and executive functions (shifting, updating and inhibition). They have been evaluated before and after the training program. Results show that the cognitive stimulation program using leisure activities with games is effective on speed of processing, memory span, inhibition and self-esteem but shows no benefits on shifting and updating. These results indicate that it seems to be possible to enhance cognitive resources, inhibition and self-esteem using leisure activities with games as a tool for cognitive stimulation.     

The impact of demographics and nutritional status on cognitive functioning in an Iranian adults sample

This study investigated the impact of demographic variables and nutritional status on adult cognitive functioning using structural equation modeling. Demographic variables that were considered were height, weight and gender, whilst nutritional status was measured on the Nutrition Assessment Inventory (NAI). Cognitive functions, such as executive cognitive functions, cognitive flexibility, cognitive ability and cognitive vulnerability were measured using the Amsterdam Executive Function Inventory (AEFI), the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS), the Cognitive Ability Questionnaire (CAQ), and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Form A-Revised (DAS-A-R) respectively. Findings indicated that ethnicity and weight variables contribute to 8.8% of the nutritional status variations observed. A SEM analysis showed that nutritional status has an impact on 13% on the measured cognitive abilities of adults. The effects of “healthy nutrition”, “use of complementary nutritients”, “coping with high fat foods”, and “high fat food assumption” subscales of the nutrition scale were found to play a role in cognitive ability. This study shows a fitted SEM for the predictive roles of ethnicity, weight and nutritional status on the cognitive ability in adults.     

Inhibitory control and set shifting describe different pathways from behavioral inhibition to socially anxious behavior

Individuals with a behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament are more likely to develop social anxiety. However, the mechanisms by which socially anxious behavior emerges from BI are unclear. Variation in different forms of top‐down control, specifically executive functions (EF), may play distinct roles and characterize differential pathways to social anxiety. Here 291 children were assessed for BI in toddlerhood (ages 2 and 3), parent‐reported inhibitory control and set shifting during middle childhood (age 7), and multidimensional assessment of socially anxious behavior completed during late childhood and early adolescence (ages 9 and 12). Structural equation modeling revealed that early variation in BI predicted the development of socially anxious behavior through either higher levels of parent‐reported inhibitory control or lower levels of parent‐reported set shifting. These data reinforce the notion that top‐down control does not uniformly influence relations between temperament and socially anxious behavior. These data suggest novel approaches to thinking about the role of EFs and social anxiety outcomes as children approach adolescence.     

Toward ethical cognitive architectures for the development of artificial moral agents

New technologies based on artificial agents promise to change the next generation of autonomous systems and therefore our interaction with them. Systems based on artificial agents such as self-driving cars and social robots are examples of this technology that is seeking to improve the quality of people’s life. Cognitive architectures aim to create some of the most challenging artificial agents commonly known as bio-inspired cognitive agents. This type of artificial agent seeks to embody human-like intelligence in order to operate and solve problems in the real world as humans do. Moreover, some cognitive architectures such as Soar, LIDA, ACT-R, and iCub try to be fundamental architectures for the Artificial General Intelligence model of human cognition. Therefore, researchers in the machine ethics field face ethical questions related to what mechanisms an artificial agent must have for making moral decisions in order to ensure that their actions are always ethically right. This paper aims to identify some challenges that researchers need to solve in order to create ethical cognitive architectures. These cognitive architectures are characterized by the capacity to endow artificial agents with appropriate mechanisms to exhibit explicit ethical behavior. Additionally, we offer some reasons to develop ethical cognitive architectures. We hope that this study can be useful to guide future research on ethical cognitive architectures.     

老年人视听觉整合的影响因素及其神经机制

老年人的视听觉整合能力强于还是弱于年轻人, 目前尚存在很大争议。对老年人视听觉整合脑机制的研究, 将为老年人脑保健提供一种科学的跨通道整合方案。基于已有研究成果从两方面进行论述：1)影响老年人视听觉整合的因素, 包括刺激的物理属性、刺激呈现的时空关系以及刺激得到的注意资源。2)老年人视听觉整合效应。研究表明, 一方面, 老年人表现出更高的功能连接性、网络效率和较强的视听觉整合效应, 如：老年人在后顶叶、内侧前额叶和左前额叶等脑区有较强的激活, 额中央区的P2振幅表现出超加性; 老年人比年轻人的视听觉整合发生较早并有较长的延伸。另一方面, 老年人有较长的反应时和较弱的整合促进, 以及对视听觉刺激进行反应时颞上回脑区的振幅弱于年轻人。简单刺激诱发的老年人视听觉整合为进一步揭示整合机制提供了可靠的基础, 但是对于复杂情景下的视听觉信息整合加工机制仍待探究。     

音乐训练对大学生执行功能的影响

近年来大量研究发现音乐训练对认知能力的具有积极影响,一些理论认为音乐训练的广泛迁移效应是通过执行功能起中介作用,但音乐训练与执行功能的关系至今仍存争议。研究将执行功能分为抑制控制、工作记忆和认知灵活性三个子成分,并将抑制控制进一步细分为注意抑制和反应抑制,同时区分工作记忆中主动性控制和反应性控制两种认知过程。通过对比音乐组和控制组在执行功能各任务（Go/No-go, Stroop, AX-CPT, Task-switching）上的行为表现来系统考察音乐训练与执行功能的关系。结果表明音乐训练对执行功能不同子成分的影响具有差异性,其促进效应主要体现在抑制控制中的注意抑制和工作记忆中的主动性控制,对抑制控制中的反应抑制、工作记忆中的反应性控制和认知灵活性影响较小。