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Results for “Executive Function”

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PubMed2000

Locating and fractionating working memory using functional neuroimaging: storage, maintenance, and executive functions.

Working memory encompasses the short-term store of information and operations on that information. We review functional neuroimaging studies that have attempted to determine cortical areas involved in working memory functions. Current research suggests distinct systems for verbal information, visual objects, and spatial locations. Passive storage buffers appear to be located in posterior brain areas, whereas active maintenance of the information involves ventrolateral prefrontal areas. More complex, executive operations appear to recruit dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. The possible involvement of reciprocal circuits including frontal cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus is also discussed.

Brain↗

PubMed2000

Executive function oculomotor tasks in girls with ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: To assess executive function in girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using oculomotor tasks as possible trait markers for neurobiological studies. METHOD: Thirty-two girls aged 6 to 13 years with DSM-IV ADHD and 20 age-matched, normal control girls were tested on a variety of oculomotor tasks requiring attention, working memory, and response inhibition, which included smooth pursuit, delayed response, and go-no go tasks. RESULTS: Girls with ADHD performed the delayed response task correctly on 32% of trials as measured by number of memory-guided saccades, in contrast to 62% of trials for control subjects (p = .0009). Patients made twice as many commission errors to no go stimuli (p = .0001) and 3 times as many intrusion errors (saccades in the absence of go or no go stimuli; p = .004) during the go-no go task compared with controls. Smooth pursuit performance was statistically equivalent across subject groups. Repeated testing in a subgroup of 15 patients revealed substantial practice effects on go-no go performance. CONCLUSIONS: The data confirm that girls with ADHD exhibit impairments in executive function, as has been reported in boys, implying a similar pathophysiology of ADHD in both sexes. However, practice effects may limit the utility of the oculomotor go-no go task for some neurobiological studies.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Evaluation of executive functions in children].

OBJECTIVES: This is a review of the available instruments to evaluate executive functions in children and adolescents. DEVELOPMENT: Executive functions (EF) give support for organization, anticipation, inhibition, working memory, flexibility, control and autoregulation of behavior. EF appear abnormal in several neurological an psychopathological conditions e.g. learning and behavior disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, Asperger syndrome, and temporal epilepsy. The large spectrum of the so called EF makes difficult to propose any simple and comprehensive instrument for evaluation. In spite of that, here are described the more useful tests adapted to developmental ages. CONCLUSIONS: The measure of FE in children and adolescents needs further developments of more solids theoretical models. Nevertheless, in the last recent years relevant progresses have been done, and several useful instruments of evaluation have been built for clinical practice and research.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Compensating for executive function impairments after TBI: a single case study of functional intervention.

UNLABELLED: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of compensatory strategies for impairments in executive function. The strategies were designed to enable a client with traumatic brain injury (TBI) to obtain professional employment. In a series of individual speech-language therapy sessions, compensatory strategies were developed, refined, and trained in mock-interview situations. Significant improvements were noted in report-writing accuracy and self-reported stress during report-writing. The client was able to obtain and maintain competitive employment in his chosen profession. The results support the use of strategies aimed at supporting executive function to improve performance on verbal tasks, and were informative regarding the effects of self-perceived efficacy and stress on performance after TBI. They illustrate that intervention based on real-life supports may be effective even many years post-TBI. LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the conclusion of this article, readers will: (1) identify aspects of executive function that relate to communication in the workplace, (2) describe the steps in considering intervention within a single subject research design framework, and (3) consider the effects of stress and perceived self-efficacy on performance of communication tasks.

Brain Injuries↗

PubMed2002

Adaptive skills and executive function in autism spectrum disorders.

There is active debate regarding the nature of executive dysfunction in autism. Additionally, investigations have yet to show a relationship between deficits in executive function and the everyday behavioral difficulties that may originate from them. The present study examined the relationship between executive abilities and adaptive behavior in 35 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, using two parent reports of everyday functioning, the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (VABS) and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Results found several relationships: The Initiate and Working Memory domains were negatively correlated with most domains of adaptive behavior. Also, the Communication and Socialization domains of the VABS were negatively correlated with several areas of executive functioning, suggesting that impairments in executive abilities are strongly associated with the deficits in communication, play and social relationships found in children with autism.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1999

Action (verb naming) fluency as an executive function measure: convergent and divergent evidence of validity.

Numerous studies have demonstrated dissociable neuroanatomic underpinnings for the retrieval of grammatical classes of words such as nouns and verbs. Whereas retrieval of common and proper nouns is primarily mediated by posterior and anterior temporal regions, respectively, verb retrieval is primarily mediated by frontal regions. The majority of studies evaluating verb production have utilized tasks requiring subjects to name a graphically depicted action (i.e. action naming), leaving tests of verb generation in the absence of prompting stimuli (i.e. action fluency) largely unexamined. In a recent study, Piatt, Fields, Paolo, Koller and Tröster (in press) found that an action fluency task discriminated demented Parkinson's disease (PD) patients from non-demented PD patients and healthy control subjects, whereas lexical and categorical fluency tasks did not. These authors suggested that action fluency was sensitive to the fronto-striatal pathophysiology associated with PD dementia, and thus, that action fluency might serve as an indicator of executive functioning. This study was undertaken to evaluate the construct validity of action fluency as an executive function measure in a group of healthy elderly control subjects. Findings revealed modest to moderate relationships between action fluency and several putative executive measures. Action fluency was unrelated to indices of semantic and episodic memory. Results support the construct validity of action fluency as an executive function measure and suggest that this task may provide some unique information not tapped by traditional executive function tasks.

Aged↗

PubMed1995

Impairments of discourse abilities and executive functions in traumatically brain-injured adults.

Preliminary findings from an ongoing investigation of the potential relationship between narrative discourse performance and executive functions in adults with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are reported. Narrative stories were elicited from 32 adults with TBI. Stories were analysed at three levels: sentence production, intersentential cohesive adequacy, and story episode structure. These measures were then correlated with scores from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the primary measure of executive function. A significant correlation was noted between a factor score from the WCST and the measure of story structure, but not sentence production or cohesive adequacy. These results suggest that executive functions may be a promising avenue to pursue in the search for underlying causal factors of narrative discourse dysfunction and, therefore to better delineate the nature of communicative deficits secondary to TBI.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Insight in schizophrenia: associations with executive function and coping style.

It has been suggested that lack of awareness of illness in schizophrenia may result from deficits in executive function and/or an avoidant style of coping. To examine this question, 132 persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were rated as either "aware," "partially unaware" or "unaware" of: (a) their illness, (b) need for treatment and (c) consequences of disorder on the abbreviated Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder. We next compared the performance of the aware, partially unaware and unaware groups on the "escape-avoidance" and "positive reappraisal" subtests of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire and on two tests of executive function: the Letter Number Sequencing Subtest of the WAIS III and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. MANCOVA followed by ANCOVA and planned comparisons, controlling for age indicated that the participants who were unaware of symptoms, treatment need and consequences generally performed more poorly than the aware groups on tests of executive function. Participants unaware of symptoms also had a greater preference for positive reappraisal than aware or partially unaware participants. The participants unaware of the consequences of disorder endorsed a greater preference for escape-avoidance than the partially unaware participants. Implications for understanding the etiology of lack of awareness in schizophrenia are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2001

Dissociation of social cognition and executive function in frontal variant frontotemporal dementia.

In this paper, we adopt a neurodevelopmental stance to examining frontal variant frontotemporal dementia (fv-FTD) by using experimental procedures from the literature on the growth of social behaviour in children to examine the deficits in social reasoning which may underpin behavioural disturbance in fv-FTD. We present the case of a 47-year-old man with a diagnosis of fv-FTD and severe antisocial behaviour. Tests of general neuropsychology and of executive function were performed. In addition, the patient, JM, was assessed on tasks which test theory of mind. Theory of mind develops in distinct stages through childhood and is a core ability to represent the thoughts and feelings of others, independent of the level of intellectual ability. The results indicate relatively intact general neuropsychological and executive function, but extremely poor performance on tasks of theory of mind. This indicates a dissociation of social cognition and executive function suggesting that in psychiatric presentations of fv-FTD there may be a fundamental deficit in theory of mind independent of the level of executive function. The implications of this finding for diagnostic procedures and possible behavioural management are discussed.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗

PubMed2001

Memory and executive function impairments in deficit syndrome schizophrenia.

The relationship between deficit syndrome schizophrenia, as determined by the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome, and impairments in memory and executive function was investigated by administering the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test, and the Wechsler Memory Scales to outpatients with deficit (n=33) and non-deficit (n=57) syndrome. A factor analysis of test variables revealed three factors: executive functioning; simple verbal memory; and semantic verbal memory. Results indicated that the deficit group performed significantly worse on the executive functioning factor, but not on either of the verbal memory factors. These findings support the hypothesis that deficit syndrome schizophrenia represents a specific cognitive impairment in executive processing and not necessarily graver global cognitive impairment.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Attention and executive function deficits in adolescent sex offenders.

Thirty male adolescent sex offenders and 20 age-matched male adolescents completed an extensive battery of attention and executive function tests. Controls were obtained from adolescents from a socially and economically deprived background, typical of the offending group. The attention battery was based on Mirksy, Anthony, Duncan, Ahearn, and Kellam (1991) and the executive function battery on Kelly (2000a). Successful matching for IQ was not achieved and therefore ANCOVA comparisons were made between the groups, with IQ as the covariate. In attention a highly significant difference was found on the focus-execute factor and a significant difference on the shift factor. In executive function there was a highly significant difference only on the response speed factor. In all cases better abilities were demonstrated by the control group. The importance of thorough neuropsychological investigation in the clinical assessment of this forensic group is supported. The clinical implications of neuropsychological deficits in terms of risk assessment and clinical management are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Executive functions: the need for the integration of concepts].

INTRODUCTION: The new cognitive neuropsychology approaches have aroused an increasing interest in understanding the higher cognitive processes as well as the neural substrates linked to them. Particularly, the executive functions, reckoned to be essential to control the information processing and to co ordinate behaviour, have received preferential treatment from specialised literature on the subject. DEVELOPMENT: From obsessive compulsive disorder to schizophrenia, from Parkinson s disease to multiple sclerosis, there are many reports that show the affectation of these functions in all these morbid processes. On the other hand, the part that the prefrontal cortex plays in human behaviour in general, and in executive functions in particular, constitutes one of the most important fields of research of neurosciences nowadays. Thus, this cortical area appears closely linked to the executive processes, affecting different respects of the cognitive functions. Working memory, supervisory attentional system, somatic marker, information processing, behaviour planning, social judgement, are processes which have been related to the prefrontal cortex activity as a structure, and to the executive processes as a function. CONCLUSIONS: The aim of this article is to revise the concept of executive functions, and give rise reflections about the usefulness of the aforementioned concept and its practical applicability. It is essential that we understand the difference between structure and function, cognition and emotion, brain activity and behaviour, category and dimension, and between mind and brain, to achieve a more comprehensive approach to this concept of executive functions we all use, and many times find difficult to define and to understand.

Cognition Disorders↗

PubMed2002

Positive mood and executive function: evidence from stroop and fluency tasks.

Contrasting predictions have been made about the effects of positive mood states on the performance of frontal lobe tests that tap executive functions such as inhibition, switching, and strategy use. It has been argued that positive mood is likely to improve some cognitive processes, particularly those dependent on the frontal cortex and anterior cingulate of the brain. However, there is some evidence that happy mood may impair executive functioning. The current experiments investigated the effects of positive mood on Stoop and fluency tests, which are frequently used to assess executive function. Positive mood impaired performance on a switching condition of the Stroop test, but improved performance on a creative uses test of fluency. The effect of positive mood on an executive task may therefore depend on whether a task is inherently motivating or is impaired by diffuse semantic activation.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Investigation of executive function change following anterior temporal lobectomy: selective normalization of verbal fluency.

The nociferous cortex hypothesis predicts that electrophysiological normalization to distal extratemporal brain regions following anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) will result in improvements in executive functioning. The present study examined the effects of seizure laterality and seizure control on executive function change. The authors administered the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Trails B, and the Controlled Oral Word Association Test to 174 temporal lobe epilepsy patients who underwent ATL. No significant changes were found on the WCST or Trails B tests, regardless of surgery side or seizure-free status. However, verbal fluency significantly improved in seizure-free patients. Findings were consistent with the nociferous cortex hypothesis suggesting selective executive function improvement following ATL. These findings are discussed in terms of recent research demonstrating extrahippocampal metabolic normalization following surgery.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

Biological and psychological development of executive functions.

The purpose of this overview is to provide a background for understanding the relation between the biological maturation of the frontal lobes and the development of the psychological concept of executive functions. In the first section, an interactive hierarchical feedback model is presented as a heuristic way of conceptualizing the relationship of the frontal lobes and executive functions to other brain regions and abilities. The following two sections present a synopsis of research on biological maturation and the psychological development of executive functions.

Child↗

PubMed2002

Apathy and executive function in Alzheimer's disease.

Apathy is a common behavioral disturbance in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent studies have linked the presence of apathy to alterations in frontal lobe functions, but few studies have explored the relationship using standard neuropsychological measures in patients with AD. We administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests and a behavior rating scale to 80 patients with AD. We explored the relationship of apathy to executive dysfunction. AD patients with apathy performed significantly worse on tests of executive function (WAIS-R Digit Symbol, Trail-Making, Stroop Color Interference Test) than AD patients without apathy. The presence of dysphoria did not modify these results and no significant relationships were found between tests of executive functions and dysphoria. Performance on executive measures as a group were effective in correctly classifying patients as apathetic or nonapathetic with 75% accuracy. Neuropsychological measures not dependent on executive functions were unrelated to apathy. Apathy is associated with executive dysfunction and not with other neuropsychological deficits. Apathy is distinct from dysphoria.

Aged↗

PubMed2003

Rate dependency of the human cortical network subserving executive functions during generation of random number series--a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

In a random number generation (RNG) task subjects are instructed to generate the numbers 1-10 in a random fashion. RNG performance is assumed to involve executive functions, as it requires controlled response generation and suppression of habitual responses. To investigate cerebral structures involved in RNG associated executive functions we investigated functional magnetic resonance imaging in eight healthy subjects while performing an RNG task at two different response rates (1 and 2 Hz). During the 1 Hz condition an activation was detected bilaterally in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9/46), the lateral premotor cortex (BA 6), the anterior cingulate (BA 32), the inferior and superior parietal cortex (BA 7/40) and the cerebellar hemispheres. In the 2 Hz condition behavioural data showed higher counting tendencies reflecting poorer executive control. In parallel, a homogenous diminution of the activity in the involved cortical areas was obtained. This finding would support the theory of a cortical network involved in executive functions consisting of distinct brain regions working together rather than a distinct fronto-cortical functional localisation.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Do executive function deficits differentiate between adolescents with ADHD and oppositional defiant/conduct disorder? A neuropsychological study using the Six Elements Test and Hayling Sentence Completion Test.

Two neuropsychological measures of executive functions--Six Elements Tests (SET) and Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSCT)--were administered to 110 adolescents, aged 12-15 years. Participants comprised four groups: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) only (n = 35). ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder (ODD/CD) (n = 38), ODD/CD only (n = 11), and a normal community control group (n = 26). Results indicated that adolescents with ADHD performed significantly worse on both the SET and HSCT than those without ADHD, whether or not they also had ODD/CD. The adolescents with ADHD and with comorbid ADHD and ODD/CD were significantly more impaired in their ability to generate strategies and to monitor their ongoing behavior compared with age-matched controls and adolescents with ODD/CD only. It is argued that among adolescents with clinically significant levels of externalizing behavior problems, executive function deficits are specific to those with ADHD. The findings support the sensitivity of these two relatively new tests of executive functions and their ecological validity in tapping into everyday situations, which are potentially problematic for individuals with ADHD.

Adolescent↗