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Results for “Cognitive Flexibility”

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14 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2026

Playing with Fire, Losing the Drive: Bidirectional Links Between Problematic Smartphone Use and Grit Dimensions.

This study examined bidirectional longitudinal associations between grit dimensions (consistency of interest [CI] and perseverance of effort [PE]) and problematic smartphone use (PSU) and tested cognitive flexibility as a mediating mechanism. A sample of 1,641 Chinese university students (55.2 percent female; Mage = 20.1 years) completed measures at two time points 6 months apart. A four-variable cross-lagged panel model revealed that CI and PSU negatively predicted each other over time, whereas PSU unidirectionally predicted decreased PE. Cognitive flexibility partially mediated the PSU-to-PE pathway (indirect effect = -0.004, 95 percent bootstrap CI [-0.010, -0.0001]). Competing models analysis confirmed this directionality: the forward mediation (PSU → cognitive flexibility → PE) was significant, whereas the reverse was not. These findings demonstrate that grit dimensions exhibit distinct longitudinal patterns with PSU and identify cognitive flexibility as a cognitive mechanism through which PSU specifically undermines effort persistence. Implications for dimensional approaches to grit and targeted interventions are discussed.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

Effects of acute resistance exercise on prefrontal oxygenation and task-switching performance: Considerations of loading strategies and blood flow restriction.

Although acute resistance exercise (RE) has been proposed to influence cognitive flexibility and underlying neural mechanisms, it remains unclear whether these effects vary across loading strategies and whether exercise-induced prefrontal hemodynamic responses translate into cognitive outcomes. The present study examined (1) prefrontal cortex (PFC) oxygenated hemoglobin (O2Hb) responses across exercise sets and conditions, (2) the effects of low-load (LL), LL with blood flow restriction (BFR), and high-load (HL) RE on task-switching performance, and (3) whether exercise-related PFC O2Hb responses were associated with pre- to post-exercise changes in task-switching performance. Thirty physically active adults completed three randomized, counterbalanced RE conditions consisting of four sets of barbell squats. LL was performed at 30% one-repetition maximum (1RM) with and without BFR, whereas HL was performed at 70% 1RM. Cognitive flexibility was assessed pre- and post-exercise using a modified Stroop task, indexed by switch-cost reaction time (RT) and accuracy. PFC O2Hb was assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy during exercise and expressed as changes from the resting baseline for each set (Sets 1-4). PFC O2Hb increased across sets, rising from Set 1 to Set 3 before plateauing, with no differences observed across conditions. Switch cost RT and accuracy did not improve from pre- to post-exercise, and no differences across conditions were detected. PFC O2Hb during the final set was not associated with changes in switch cost. These findings suggest that although acute RE elicits robust increases in prefrontal hemodynamic activity, such responses may not translate into acute improvements in cognitive flexibility.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

Synaptic Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress Contributes to Individual Variability in Age-Related Cognitive Inflexibility in Mice.

Aging is associated with impairments in cognitive flexibility, a key executive function supported by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), yet the biological mechanisms underlying individual variability in age-related decline remain poorly understood. Here we investigated behavioral, ultrastructural, and proteomic correlates of cognitive inflexibility in mice across aging. Using a touchscreen-based attentional set-shifting task, we observed substantial individual variability in cognitive inflexibility among aged C57BL/6J mice. Volume electron microscopy of the mPFC revealed age-related reductions in synaptic density, but these structural changes did not correlate with cognitive performance. Instead, the proportion of synapses containing presynaptic mitochondria was inversely associated with cognitive flexibility in aged mice. To identify molecular correlates, we performed proteomic profiling of mPFC whole tissue and synaptosome fractions. Proteins associated with individual variability in cognitive inflexibility were largely distinct from those associated with chronological aging. Notably, synaptosomal proteins negatively correlated with cognitive performance were strongly enriched for mitochondrial pathways, including oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial translation, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Consistent with these findings, the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ improved attentional set-shifting performance in aged mice without affecting initial learning. Proteomic analyses revealed that MitoQ reduced the abundance of synaptosomal mitochondrial proteins, particularly those involved in mitochondrial apoptotic signaling. Together, these results suggest that synaptic mitochondrial oxidative stress in the mPFC contributes to individual vulnerability to cognitive inflexibility. Targeting synaptic mitochondrial oxidative stress may therefore represent a promising strategy to preserve executive function during aging.

Animals↗

PubMed2026

Subacute and long-term changes in cognitive functioning after administration of classic psychedelics, MDMA and ketamine: A systematic review of clinical and preclinical evidence.

Psychedelic agents induce a window of heightened neuroplasticity that extends beyond acute intoxication, during which neural circuits are more amenable to change. This period may facilitate changes in cognition relevant to the treatment of psychiatric disorders. This systematic review synthesised clinical and preclinical evidence of subacute and long-term (≥1 day) effects of classic and non-classic psychedelics on cognition. MEDLINE, EMBASE, APA PsycInfo and Web of Science were searched to identify human and animal studies investigating psychedelics and cognition (executive function, attention, decision-making). Sixty-seven (47 clinical, 20 preclinical) articles met inclusion criteria. Psilocybin demonstrated the most consistent evidence of subacute and longer-term cognitive improvement, particularly in cognitive flexibility and attention. Ketamine showed enhancement across cognitive domains, although findings were heterogeneous. LSD and DMT showed no consistent subacute changes, while MDMA was associated with transient cognitive impairments that resolved within days. Risk of bias assessments revealed selective outcome reporting, poor reporting of missing data and inadequate methodological detail, limiting the confidence of findings. Current evidence provides preliminary support for subacute changes in cognition following administration of select psychedelic agents. Cognitive improvements were more frequently seen in psychiatric populations than healthy subjects, which may reflect a remediation of existing cognitive deficit rather than enhancement above normal functioning. Adequately powered, controlled studies with standardised reporting of cognitive outcomes are required to determine the magnitude, durability and clinical relevance of psychedelic-associated cognitive change.

Hallucinogens↗

PubMed1979

Exposure to polybrominated biphenyls. Some effects on personality and cognitive functioning.

Twenty-one persons exposed to polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) were compared with hospital volunteers on a battery of tests measuring memory, motor strength and coordination, cortical-sensory perception, personality, and higher cognitive functioning. Patients exposed to PBB were selected for this study only if they had persistent medical complaints. The PBB adipose levels did not correlate with performance on any test in the battery. The two groups did differ on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, suggesting an adjustment reaction with depressive symptoms and somatizing defenses. Persons exposed to PBB were also impaired relative to control subjects on tests of prose recall, short-term memory, concentration, and cognitive flexibility. However these differences vanished when group differences on education and personality were statistically held constant. The selective admission criteria for this study limit the generalizability of these findings.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed1979

Effects of an enkephalin analog on complex learning in the rhesus monkey.

Facilitation of the learning of a discrimination reversal task for a reward of food was found in rhesus monkeys after subcutaneous administration of a potent pentafluorinated enkephalin analog. (D-Ala2)-F5-Phe4-enkephalin-NH2. General activity, short-term memory, startle, and analgesia, however, were not significantly affected. In a within-subject design, each of 6 monkeys (3 males and 3 females) received each of 5 doses of the enkephalin analog (0.1, 1, 10, 100, and 1,000 microgram/kg). One daily injection was made for 7 consecutive days, including pre- and posttests on the first and last days with the diluent control. The enkephalin doses, with the exception of the 0.1 microgram/kg level, produced significantly faster learning than the diluent. Some sex differences were suggested by the data, but these effects are difficult to interpret. The results suggest that relatively small amounts of this analog given systematically can exert a reliable effect on a complex behavior such as reversal learning at doses devoid of opiate effects, due perhaps to enhanced cognitive flexibility rather than improvement in short-term memory or association formation.

Analgesia↗

PubMed2026

Executive function in alcohol use disorder with low psychiatric comorbidity: Comparison with a non-clinical sample and predictive value for treatment outcome.

BACKGROUND: Executive functions (EF) encompass abilities such as planning, decision-making, and inhibitory control, critical for learning, establishing and maintaining behavioral change. The association between alcohol use disorder (AUD) and impairments in EF are well established. However, prior research is dominated by studies on convenience samples including individuals with severe AUD with high levels of psychiatric comorbidity, which limits generalizability. The present study therefore aimed to investigate the degree of impairment and predictive ability of EF, on alcohol consumption, among individuals with moderate AUD with low levels of psychiatric comorbidity. METHODS: Adults with moderate AUD (n = 147) were recruited at three specialized addiction outpatient clinics in Stockholm, to a randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of two psychological treatments. Participants underwent neuropsychological testing before treatment. Eight tests from the CANTAB® battery were administered at baseline, assessing mental flexibility, sustained attention, visuospatial working memory, response inhibition, and delay discounting. Assessments of alcohol use and related symptoms were conducted at baseline, the 12- and 26-weeks follow-up. A non-clinical reference sample (n = 72) completed corresponding CANTAB® tests. The two groups were compared regarding EF using descriptive statistics and t-tests, and the predictive value of EF for reduction in alcohol consumption, was investigated using multiple regression models. RESULTS: Individuals with AUD did not perform worse on any of the tests on executive function (CANTAB®) as compared to the non-clinical reference sample. Measures of EF were not significant predictors for reduction in alcohol use for the 12-week, or the 26-week follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: EFs were not impaired and were not a clinically relevant predictor of treatment outcomes in this population with AUD. Future research on EF as a predictor in AUD treatment, needs to corroborate the present findings, and include other populations, e.g., with different socio-economic backgrounds and by including other methodologies for measuring EF.

Humans↗

PubMed2026

Cognitive impairment as a manifestation of SPG7: case report.

Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is a group of genetic disorders caused by >80 genes that can be described as either pure or complex forms.We report a case of a patient with a complex form of SPG7 with significant cognitive impairment.A 42-year-old man presented with a 10-year history of dysarthria, 5 years of gait difficulties, and 3 years of cognitive symptoms. Neuropsychological analysis showed deficits involving speed of information processing, mental flexibility, ideational fluency, verbal concept formation, visual working memory, and visual-spatial perception. Next-generation sequencing on whole blood revealed 2 heterozygous pathogenic variants in SPG7 (c. 1049_1077del, p. Pro350Glnfs*36 and c. 1529C>T, p. Ala510Val).There are emerging reports of complex forms of SPG7 presenting with impairments in memory, executive dysfunction, language, visuospatial processing, social functioning, and emotional communication. In this report, we describe a complex SPG7 patient who underwent formal neuropsychological testing to assess cognitive status in depth. This revealed deficits in speed of processing, visuospatial working memory and perception, impaired non-verbal intellect, and overall lack of insight, which have not yet been described in the literature.

Cognitive impairment↗

PubMed1978

Stress management training for the handicapped.

Stress Management Training (SMT) is described for teaching handicapped patients the use of relaxation as a coping skill. The procedure combines progressive muscle relaxation and clinical meditation into a standardized but flexible 8-session protocol. The training consists of 3 components: First, the patient is given a cognitive understanding of stress and relaxation. Second, the patient is taught to relax by controlling muscle tension and sympathetic activation. Third, the patient adapts the relaxation skill to real-life stress situations. Case reports demonstrating the process are included. Methods of assessing outcome and adaptations for particular handicaps are described.

Curriculum↗

PubMed1978

The role of frontal and parietal cortex in cognitive processing: tests of spatial and sequence functions.

Normal monkeys and monkeys with resection of anterior frontal or posterior parietal cortex were trained to press a panel next to a green panel as a test of extrapersonal spatial orientation and to press a panel next to their own prior press as a test of personal spatial orientation. All monkeys also learned two sets of sequence problems in which the solutions were made independent of spatial location by randomly shifting the locations of the stimuli after each response within a trial. The Parietal Group was significantly impaired on the extrapersonal 'next-to' task but not the more difficult personal 'next-to' task. The Frontal Group was impaired on both the personal and the extrapersonal 'next-to' tasks but only when the relevant cues shifted spatial locations from trial to trial. The performance of the Parietal Group completely overlapped that of the Normal Group on the sequence problems regardless of the level of testing sophistication the monkeys had attained. In contrast, the Frontal Group demonstrated a significant impairment in learning sequences but only when the monkeys were naive. Once they became sophisticated they learned each sequence at a normal rate. Their poor performance was attributed to the lack of stability in the spatial location of the stimuli. The data support the view that a distinction between personal and extrapersonal spatial orientation is relevant to posterior parietal function but indicate that neither sequencing per se nor personal spatial orientation or spatial memory per se is dependent on intact frontal functioning. Rather, the frontal cortex is involved with a higher-order control essential to allow the monkey to perceive the reliable aspects of stimuli contained in a stimulus context full of unreliable noise and to further allow for flexible response pattern appropriate to the demands of a variable context.

Animals↗

PubMed1979

A group self-care approach to stress management.

A procedure is described for teaching patients the use of relaxation as a coping skill. The procedure, called Stress Management Training, combines Progressive Relaxation and Clinical Meditation into a standardized but flexible seven-session protocol. The technique has been used to treat a variety of stress-related medical and psychological problems. The training consists of three components. The first is giving the patient a cognitive understanding of stress and relaxation. The second, teaching the patient to relax by controlling the muscle tension and sympathetic nervous system activity. The third, teaching the patient to generalize the relaxation skill to real-life stress situations. Patients are also instructed in the relationship between stress, basic health practices, and physical health status.

Humans↗

PubMed1978

Family interaction and communication deviance in disturbed and normal families: a review of research.

Recent family interaction studies are reviewed with an emphasis on looking for dimensions along which disturbed and normal families differ. Several areas of consistency in the literature were found, including: family coalition patterns, patterns of conflict, flexibility versus rigidity, family effectiveness and efficiency, and deviant styles of communication. It was concluded that several measures reliably discriminate disturbed from normal families and that one type of measure in particular is a reliable predictor of thought disorder in offspring. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.

Affective Symptoms↗

PubMed1979

[Modern aspects of mood disorders].

Mood disorders, particularly depression, now represent a major world health problem which will most likely continue increasing. From a clinical standpoint, the synthesis of new antidepressant agents of various chemical structures and the advent of the thymoregulators (lithium salts) has allowed a more flexible, better individualized, therapeutic approach to the affective disorders. However, the widespread use by general practitioners of the antidepressants, alone or in combination with other psychotropic drugs, often with mitigated success, brings to psychiatric consultation patients whose symptomatology has become less characteristics, is more difficult to identify rapidly, requiring thus greater diagnositc refinement. Moreover, greater attention is currently given to depressive affects that can occur during organic illnesses or at various periods of life, particularly at senescence. Besides sustained concerns concerning suicide, the attitude of man confronted with his death arouses great interest and a depressive phase constitutes one of the steps towards this ending. Finally, during the last two decades, some psychoanalysts have reexamined the psychodynamic concepts of mood disorders, whereas from behavioral and cognitive theories new techniques of treatment of depression have emerged. In brief, if no revolution has occurred, there has been evolution. Mood disorders and their approach have known modifications and some concepts pertinent to this are considered here from various angles, particularly from the clinical (association with organic illnesses, with respect to death), therapeutic (psychopharmacological, behavioral and cognitive therapies), sociological (including suicide) and psychoanalytic viewpoints.

Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic↗

PubMed1979

A comparison of the clinical and psychological effects of diazepam and amylobarbitone in anxious patients.

1. Twenty-four anxious inpatients were treated with diazepam, amylobarbitone sodium and placebo in flexible dosage for 1 week. They each received all three treatments according to a fully-balanced design, using double-blind procedures. 2. The clinical and the psychological effects of the drugs were assessed by the comprehensive battery of psychiatrist's ratings, subjective and psychological tests before treatment and at the end of each week of treatment. The tests included self-rating of anxiolytic and hypnotic effects, reaction-time, card sorting, coding and cancellation tasks, arithmetic and tappin. 3. Diazepam improved significantly subjective anxiety and insomnia, while amylobarbitone improved only the self-rated quality of sleep. Occasion effects were absent on clinical measures, indicating that the patients did not respond to non-specific temporal factors. Performance on motor tasks improved over time because of the expected practice effect, but an impairment relative to placebo was detected on two motor tests after the barbiturate and on four other tests with a cognitive component after the benzodiazepine.

Adult↗