Executive Function: What It Is and How It Affects Reading Comprehension

Executive function is a very key component of development. Awareness of executive function has become more prominent in education. Research has been able to determine how the executive function develops in children versus adults. Specific areas of executive function have been identified. When the area was identified and how they influence behavior, interventions and strategies could be developed to counter the deficit. In the education world, assessing students with the purpose of identifying the deficits was difficult. Administering assessment naturally took care of the need for EF skills. New assessments needed to be developed. Companies have made those developments. Affective interventions for executive function have been developed. They are successfully implemented. Affective interventions for reading deficits have been successful. Data has been collected on both individually. Research needs to combine the interventions on both working together

Resting-state functional connectivity in deaf and hearing individuals and its link to executive processing

Sensory experience shapes brain structure and function, and it is likely to influence the organisation of functional networks of the brain, including those involved in cognitive processing. Here we investigated the influence of early deafness on the organisation of resting-state networks of the brain and its relation to executive processing. We compared resting-state connectivity between deaf and hearing individuals across 18 functional networks and 400 ROIs. Our results showed significant group differences in connectivity between seeds of the auditory network and most large-scale networks of the brain, in particular the somatomotor and salience/ventral attention networks. When we investigated group differences in resting-state fMRI and their link to behavioural performance in executive function tasks (working memory, inhibition and switching), differences between groups were found in the connectivity of association networks of the brain, such as the salience/ventral attention and default-mode networks. These findings indicate that sensory experience influences not only the organisation of sensory networks, but that it also has a measurable impact on the organisation of association networks supporting cognitive processing. Overall, our findings suggest that different developmental pathways and functional organisation can support executive processing in the adult brain

Development of social feedback processing and responses in childhood:an fMRI test-replication design in two age cohorts

This study investigated behavioral and neural correlates underlying social feedback processing and subsequent aggressive behaviors in childhood in two age cohorts (test sample: n = 509/n = 385 and replication sample: n = 354/n = 195, 7-9 years old). Using a previously validated Social Network Aggression Task, we showed that negative social feedback resulted in most behavioral aggression, followed by less aggression after neutral and least aggression after positive feedback. Receiving positive and negative social feedback was associated with increased activity in the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Responding to feedback was associated with additional activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) following positive feedback. This DLPFC activation correlated negatively with aggression. Furthermore, age analyses showed that older children showed larger reductions in aggression following positive feedback and more neural activation in the DLPFC when responding to positive feedback compared to younger children. To assess the robustness of our results, we examined these processes in two independent behavioral/functional magnetic resonance imaging samples using equivalence testing, thereby contributing to replicable reports. Together, these findings demonstrate an important role of social saliency and regulatory processes where regulation of aggression rapidly develops between the ages of 7 and 9 years.</p

A comparative study of the executive functions of students with learning disabilities and normal students دراسة مقارنة للوظائف التنفيذية لكل من الطلبة ذوي صعوبات التعلم والطّلبة العاديين

Abstract: This study aimed to identify the differences in the executive functions of students with learning disabilities, and ordinary students. It is a comparative descriptive study, during which the researchers applied a diagnostic test in the form of a scale called BRIEF2. It is a test in the form of a battery to assess the behavior of students.It includes forms to be filled by the class room teacher and the special education teacher.The scale consists of 59 items distributed over (9) dimensions for the estimation of teachers and to ensure the characteristics and validity of the scale of executive functions.The researchers calculated the reliability of the test using (teast-retest) method, and Alfa – Cronbach formula, the sample consisted of 100 students ,the students were divided into two groups,(50) students with learning disabilities and (50) normal students. The ages of the students ranged between (7-11) years. The study included public and private schools in Amman. To analyze the data, the arithmetic means and standard deviations of the students\u27 marks were calculated on the level of the executive functions to the student\u27s status variable (those with learning disabilities and ordinary students).The results indicated that there were apparent differences between the arithmetic means of the students\u27 marks on the level of executive Functions. ملخص: هدفت هذه الدراسة التعرّف إلى الفروق في الوظائف التنفيذية للطلبة ذوي صعوبات التعلم, والطلبة العاديين, وهي دراسة وصفية مقارنة, قامت باحثة خلالها بتطبيق مقياس BRIEF2 وهو مقياس على شكل بطارية لتقدير السلوك يقوم بتعبئته معلم الصّف ومعلم التربية الخاصة, ويتكون المقياس من 59 فقرة موزعة على (9) أبعاد لتقدير المعلمين وللتأكد من خصائص مقياس الوظائف التنفيذية وصلاحيته, قامت الباحثة بحساب الثبات بطريقة الإعادة, ومعامل الفا كرونباخ, تكوّن أفراد العينة من 100 طالب موزعين على (50) طالباً صعوبات تعلم و(50) طالباً من الطلبة العادين تراوحت أعمارهم بين (7-11) سنة, موزعين بين المدارس الحكومية والخاصة في عمان, ولتحليل البيانات حُسبت المتوسطات الحسابية والانحرافات المعيارية لدرجات الطلبة على مقياس مستوى الوظائف التنفيذية تبعاً لمتغير حالة الطالب (ذوي صعوبات التعلم والطلبة العاديين), باستُخدِم تحليل التباين الأحادي (ONE Way ANOVA) لمعرفة دلالة الفروق للمقياس ككل, كما أشارت النتائج إلى وجود فروق ظاهرية بين المتوسطات الحسابية لدرجات الطلبة على مقياس مستوى الوظائف التنفيذية تبعاً لمتغير حالة الطالب, ولمعرفة دلالة الفروق تم تطبيق تحليل التباين الأحادي

Making the Executive ‘Function’ for the Foundations of Mathematics: the Need for Explicit Theories of Change for Early Interventions

A vast body of work highlights executive functions (EFs) as robust correlates of mathematics achievement over the primary and preschool years. Yet, despite such correlational evidence, there is limited evidence that EF interventions yield improvements in early years mathematics. As intervention studies are a powerful tool to move beyond correlation to causality, failures of transfer from executive functions interventions are, we argue, highly problematic for both applied and theoretical reasons. We review the existing correlational and intervention literature at complementary neuroscientific, cognitive, developmental and educational levels. We appraise distinct theories of change underpinning the correlations between EF and early mathematics, as well as explicit or implicit theories of change for different types of EF interventions. We find that isolated EF interventions are less likely to transfer to improvements in mathematics than integrated interventions. Via this conceptual piece, we highlight that the field of EF development is in need of (1) a clearer framework for the mechanisms underpinning the relationships between early EF and other developing domains, such as mathematical cognition; (2) clearer putative theories of change for how interventions of different kinds operate in the context of EF and such domains; (3) and greater clarity on the developmental and educational contexts that influence these causal associations. Our synthesis of the evidence emphasises the need to consider the dynamic development of EFs with co-developing cognitive functions, such as early math skills, when designing education environments

Atypical development of attentional control associates with later adaptive functioning, autism and ADHD traits

Autism is frequently associated with difficulties with top-down attentional control, which impact on individuals' mental health and quality of life. The developmental processes involved in these attentional difficulties are not well understood. Using a data-driven approach, 2 samples (N = 294 and 412) of infants at elevated and typical likelihood of autism were grouped according to profiles of parent report of attention at 10, 15 and 25 months. In contrast to the normative profile of increases in attentional control scores between infancy and toddlerhood, a minority (7-9%) showed plateauing attentional control scores between 10 and 25 months. Consistent with pre-registered hypotheses, plateaued growth of attentional control was associated with elevated autism and ADHD traits, and lower adaptive functioning at age 3 years

The Development of Flexible Behavior: Age Differences and Training-Related Changes in Activation, Connectivity, and Neural Representations During Task Switching

The ability to flexibly adapt behavior in the light of changing contextual demands is crucial for successful goal pursuit. With age, children become increasingly able to flexibly switch between tasks but show poorer switching performance even in late childhood. Given the crucial role of cognitive flexibility in daily life, such as the ability to shift to a new strategy to solve a problem when the previous one did not work, studies have aimed to improve cognitive flexibility with training in children. A key question for the effectiveness of these interventions is understanding why children show lower cognitive flexibility than adults. In this dissertation, I shed new light on this question, by investigating 8–11-year-old children using behavioral measures in combination with measures of univariate activation, multivariate decoding, and task-related connectivity based on data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In Papers 1 & 2, I first addressed the question of which neural processes support the development of cognitive flexibility. In Paper 3, I examined how these neural processes change with training. I have prefaced the three papers with a synopsis in which I outline the theoretical framework of the dissertation and summarize the current empirical findings. Finally, I summarize the results of the empirical part of this dissertation and discuss their contribution to our understanding of the development of cognitive flexibility. Flexibly switching between tasks comes at a cost, evident in decreased accuracy and increased response times. Specifically, compared to performing single tasks in isolation, task switching poses greater demands on maintaining and managing multiple task sets, thus eliciting so-called mixing costs. Additionally, a switch to a different task compared to a repetition of the same one requires the inhibition of the previously relevant task set and updating the newly relevant one, resulting in so-called switch costs. Previous research has demonstrated that mixing and switch costs show different patterns of age differences with switch costs approaching adult levels earlier. The present dissertation builds on these findings to examine the neurocognitive processes contributing to the presumably protracted development of mixing costs. In Paper 1, comparing children (8–11 years) and adults (20–30 years), I examined how neural processes supporting sustained and transient control processes support age-related decreases in mixing and switch costs, respectively. I showed that while evident for both, age differences were greater for sustained activation and mixing costs than for transient activation and switch costs. Additionally, the results of Paper 1 outline a potential alternative mechanism via which children can address increased sustained control demands: children that showed a less adult-like sustained activation pattern but greater increases in connectivity performed better. Taken together, Paper 1 demonstrated that children managed increased sustained control demands during task switching in at least two ways, (1) increased activation in the brain regions also recruited by adults, or (2) increased connectivity with additional brain regions in the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC), thus potentially relying on additional metacontrol processes. One factor proposed to contribute to age-related improvements in task switching is an increasing ability to represent multiple rules and effectively update these when necessary. Using the same sample of children and adults, Paper 2 investigated this hypothesis using multivariate pattern analysis to elucidate the role of neural task-set representations on age differences in task switching. Results demonstrated that neural activation patterns on switch trials held less information regarding the currently relevant task than on repeat trials. Intriguingly, this switch-related reduction of task-set distinctiveness did not differ between children and adults, showing a striking level of maturity in the neural representation of task sets and raising the question which other mechanisms contributed to greater switch costs in late childhood. Building on the insights from Papers 1 and 2, Paper 3 explored how the neural and cognitive processes supporting the development of task switching changed in children that either trained intensive single tasking or intensive task switching over nine weeks. Using drift-diffusion models and fMRI data, I investigated how cognitive and neural processes during task switching changed with training. Faster accumulation of evidence as indicated by increased drift rates, along with decreased activation in the lPFC suggested more efficient rule processing with intensive task-switching training. The accompanying changes in boundary separation further suggested strategy changes, such that children may have allocated cognitive control resources differently, potentially because of improvements in monitoring task demands, enabling them to match their performance accordingly. Taken together, the empirical findings of this dissertation converge to reveal a consistent picture of increasingly more refined recruitment of frontoparietal brain regions, in particular the lPFC, both with age and with intensive training during childhood. They thus raise questions on the role of hierarchical cognitive control and metacontrol processes for developmental improvements of cognitive flexibility. The novel insights into task switching presented in this dissertation thus further our understanding of development and learning in cognitive control, and cognition more generally.Die Fähigkeit zur Anpassung unseres Verhaltens an wechselnde kontextuelle Anforderungen bildet eine wichtige Voraussetzung für die flexible und effiziente Verfolgung von Handlungszielen. Mit zunehmendem Alter gelingt es Kindern besser, zwischen verschiedenen Aufgaben zu wechseln. Im Vergleich zu Erwachsenen lassen sich aber auch am Ende der Kindheit noch Effizienzunterschiede im Aufgabenwechsel nachweisen. Angesichts der hohen Bedeutung kognitiver Flexibilität sind Versuche unternommen worden, die kognitive Flexibilität bei Kindern durch Training zu verbessern. Die theoretische Begründung dieser Trainingsstudien war häufig wenig präzise und die Befundlage entsprechend unklar. In meiner Dissertation gehe ich daher einer überwiegend grundlagenwissenschaftlichen und vorgelagerten Fragestellung nach: Ich untersuche auf behavioraler und neuronaler Ebene die Gründe von Altersunterschieden und Trainingszugewinnen in der kognitiven Flexibilität. Zu diesem Zweck untersuche ich 8–11-jährige Kinder mithilfe von Verhaltensdaten sowie von Bildgebungsdaten der funktionellen Magnetresonanztomographie bezüglich der univariaten Aktivierung, der Konnektivität und der multivariaten Dekodierung von Repräsentationen. In den Schriften 1 und 2 gehe ich zunächst der Frage nach, welche neuronalen Prozesse die Entwicklung der kognitiven Flexibilität unterstützen. Schrift 3 untersucht, wie sich Verhalten und neuronale Prozesse trainingsbedingt verändern. Den drei Schriften habe ich eine Synopse vorangestellt, in der ich den theoretischen Rahmen der Dissertation erläutere und die Befundlage zusammenfasse. Abschließend fasse ich die Ergebnisse meiner Dissertation zusammen und erörtere ihren Beitrag zum Stand der Forschung. Die Kosten eines Aufgabenwechsels zeigen sich in geringerer Genauigkeit und längeren Reaktionszeiten. Dabei stellt der Aufgabenwechsel im Gegensatz zur isolierten Ausführung einzelner Aufgaben höhere Anforderungen an die Aufrechterhaltung und Handhabung mehrerer Aufgabensets (engl. task sets), die mit sogenannten Mischkosten einhergehen. Darüber hinaus stellt der Wechsel zu einer anderen Aufgabe im Vergleich zur Wiederholung derselben Aufgabe erhöhte Anforderungen an die Hemmung des zuvor relevanten Aufgabensets und die Aktualisierung des nun relevanten Aufgabensets, die zu sogenannten Wechselkosten führen. Vorliegende Befunde zeigen, dass Mischkosten und Wechselkosten unterschiedliche Muster von Altersunterschieden aufweisen; dabei nähern sich die Wechselkosten von Kindern dem Niveau von Erwachsenen früher an als die Mischkosten. Die vorliegende Dissertation baut auf diesen Befunden auf und untersucht die Gründe der unterschiedlichen Entwicklungsverläufe von Misch- und Wechselkosten auf behavioraler und neuronaler Ebene. In Schrift 1 untersuche ich den Beitrag andauernder und vorübergehender Kontrollprozesse zu Altersunterschieden in Misch- und Wechselkosten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Altersunterschiede zwischen Kindern und Erwachsenen in Mischkosten und der damit zusammenhängenden andauernden Aktivierung größer sind als bei den Wechselkosten und der vorübergehenden Aktivierung. Darüber lassen die Ergebnisse von Schrift 1 Rückschlüsse auf einen möglichen alternativen Mechanismus zu, mit dem Kinder erhöhte Anforderungen an die andauernde Kontrolle bewältigen: Kinder, deren andauerndes Aktivierungsmuster weniger dem der Erwachsenen ähnelte, die dafür aber eine stärkere Zunahme der Konnektivität zeigten, wiesen geringere Mischkosten auf. Insgesamt konnte ich in Schrift 1 meiner Dissertation somit zeigen, dass Kinder erhöhte Anforderungen an andauernde Kontrolle während des Aufgabenwechsels auf mindestens zwei Arten bewältigen: (1) durch die erhöhte Aktivierung von Hirnregionen, die auch bei Erwachsenen rekrutiert werden, oder (2) durch erhöhte Konnektivität mit weiteren Hirnregionen im lateralen präfrontalen Kortex, die möglicherweise auf die Beteiligung zusätzlicher Prozesse der Handlungssteuerung hinweisen. Die Zunahme der Fähigkeit zur Repräsentation und handlungsdienlichen Aktivierung mehrerer Regeln könnte einen wichtigen Grund für die zunehmende Genauigkeit und Schnelligkeit des Aufgabenwechsels darstellen. In Schrift 2 habe ich diese Hypothese mit Hilfe einer multivariaten Musteranalyse untersucht, mit der sich der Beitrag der neuronalen Repräsentation von Aufgabenset zu Altersunterschieden im Aufgabenwechsel bestimmen lässt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die neuronalen Aktivierungsmuster bei Aufgaben, denen ein Wechsel von einem Aufgabenset zu einem anderen vorausgeht, weniger Informationen über die aktuell relevante Aufgabe enthielten als bei Aufgaben, denen kein Wechsel vorausgeht. Interessanterweise ließen sich zwischen Kindern und Erwachsenen keine Unterschiede in der wechselbedingten Verringerung der Repräsentationsgüte nachweisen. Dies lässt auf einen bemerkenswerten Reifegrad der neuronalen Repräsentation von Aufgabensets bei den Kindern schließen und wirft die Frage auf, welche weiteren Mechanismen zu den im Vergleich zum Erwachsenenalter erhöhten Wechselkosten in der späten Kindheit beitragen. Aufbauend auf den zuvor gewonnenen Erkenntnissen gilt Schrift 3 meiner Dissertation der detaillierten Untersuchung trainingsbedingter Veränderungen von Aufgabenwechselkosten in der späten Kindheit. Mithilfe von Drift-Diffusionsmodellen habe ich trainingsbedingte Veränderungen in den kognitiven Prozesses des Aufgabenwechsel untersucht. Hier zeigte sich, dass intensives Training des Aufgabenwechsels zu einer schnelleren Evidenzakkumulation für die korrekte Antwort führt. Ein schnelleres Akkumulieren von Evidenz, zusammen mit einer Reduktion der Aktivierung im lateralen präfrontalen Kortex deutet auf eine effizientere Regelverarbeitung durch Training hin. Diese Veränderungen gingen außerdem mit Strategieänderungen einher, sodass die Kinder ihre kognitiven Kontrollressourcen anders zugewiesen haben könnten, möglicherweise aufgrund von Verbesserungen bei der Überwachung der Anforderungen und der entsprechenden Anpassung ihrer Leistung. Zusammengenommen ergeben die empirischen Befunde meiner Dissertation das Bild einer zunehmend verfeinerten Beteiligung frontoparietaler Hirnregionen am Aufgabenwechsel. Dabei scheint der laterale präfrontale Kortex eine wichtige Rolle zu spielen, und zwar sowohl in Bezug auf Altersunterschiede zwischen Kindern und Erwachsenen als auch in Bezug auf trainingsbedingte Veränderungen bei den Kindern. Dies unterstreicht die Bedeutung des lateralen präfrontalen Kortex für hierarchische Kontrollprozesse sowie deren Beitrag zur Entwicklung der kognitiven Flexibilität im Kindesalter. Die Ergebnisse meiner Dissertation erweitern das Verständnis des Beitrags kognitiver Kontrollprozesse zur kognitiven Entwicklung. Sie bilden zugleich eine Grundlage für weiterführende Untersuchungen des Zusammenspiels erfahrungsbedingter und reifungsbedingter Einflüsse auf die kognitive Entwicklung im Kindesalter

Development of social feedback processing and responses in childhood: an fMRI test-replication design in two age cohorts

This study investigated behavioral and neural correlates underlying social feedback processing and subsequent aggressive behaviors in childhood in two age cohorts (test sample: n=509/n=385 and replication sample: n=354/n=195, 7-9 years old). Using a previously validated Social Network Aggression Task (Achterberg et al., 2020), we showed that negative social feedback resulted in most behavioral aggression, followed by less aggression after neutral and least aggression after positive feedback. Receiving positive and negative social feedback was associated with increased activity in the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Responding to feedback was associated with additional activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex following positive feedback. This DLPFC activation correlated negatively with aggression. Furthermore, age analyses showed that older children showed larger reductions in aggression following positive feedback and more neural activation in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when responding to positive feedback compared to younger children. To assess the robustness of our results, we examined these processes in two independent behavioral/fMRI samples using equivalence testing, thereby contributing to replicable reports. Together, these findings demonstrate an important role of social saliency and regulatory processes where regulation of aggression rapidly develops between ages 7-9 years.Pathways through Adolescenc

Developmental Patterns of EEG and ECG Physiological Similarity Between Mother and Child

Physiological indicators like heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV) from ECG (electrocardiograms), and frontal lobe alpha power asymmetry (AA) and frontoparietal connectivity from EEG (electroencephalograms), can elucidate the role of the nervous system and other visceral organs and their effects on behavioral measures of cognitive and emotional self-regulation. Knowledge of the intergenerational transmission of cardiac and cerebral physiology can provide insight as to the developmental patterns of the organization and stabilization of these physiological processes in children and their mothers. The current study addresses a key question: Is there a developmental shift from 3-9 years of age in the overall pattern of EEG and ECG similarity between children and their mothers? The hypothesis was that there would be increasing child-mother similarity with age. EEG and ECG physiology was examined during a resting-state baseline period, during completion of cognitive tasks, and as baseline-to-task changes in EEG AA and frontoparietal coherence, and ECG HR and HRV in children and their mothers. A socioeconomically diverse longitudinal sample of 171 mothers with their children at ages 3, 6, and 9 years completed questionnaires and laboratory visits. Results indicated that there was some evidence to suggest the presence of mother-child similarity. Twenty of the seventy-two estimated intraclass correlations were significant. Furthermore, of the 20 significant correlations overall, none were present at child age 3 years, 6 were significant at child age 6 years, and 14 were significant at child age 9 years. Thus, overall, there was evidence that by age 6 years, child-mother similarity in physiological indicators of SR had begun to emerge. Additionally, consistent with the study hypothesis, there was some evidence of a pattern of increasing similarity for certain physiological indicators. Of the 72 estimated age-difference Fisher tests for increasing similarity, 17 were significant and in the hypothesized direction. The greatest number were seen during the task condition for ages 6 and 9, and particularly for the frontoparietal EEG variables. Findings are interpreted in light of social learning and behavioral genetics theories

Mommy and me: How the relationship between maternal affect and infant temperament predicts executive function development and academic achievement

Infancy is a crucial period of development when children’s experiences are shaped by both their internal traits and external circumstances. These influential factors shape the foundation of executive function abilities that can impact future outcomes, including academic achievement. The focus of this study was the interaction between infant temperament and maternal positive affect predicting later executive function (EF) skills and academic achievement. Data on the target variables were collected from 304 infants at 10-months, and subsequently at 48-months, and 9-years, and EF was assessed using both parent report and behavioral measures. Results indicated a significant relationship between infant negative affect and later EF, but not maternal positive affect nor an interaction between the variables. Measures of EF did not show a significant path from EF to math or reading achievement, but post-hoc analyses using separate models considering only task measures of EF did support a significant path from EF to academic achievement. Practical applications and future directions are discussed