Chanting and meditation: an 8-week intervention to promote executive functions in school-age children

In the past three decades, there has been increasing interest in assessing children's Executive Functions (EF). However, studies on the conceptualization and operationalization of this construct are incongruent and guidance for clinicians and researchers aiming to assess EF is insufficient due to measurement variability. The purpose of this article was to examine current theories and models of EF in children, identify their assessment instruments, issues, and challenges, and discuss their impact on children's cognitive, behavioral, social and/or emotional development. This narrative review reflected on English and French scholarly articles on EF assessment in children. References were identified through searches of PubMed, Medline, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and APA PsychNet throughout the last two decades up to June 2022. There are commonalities despite divergence in the definition and operationalization of EF. Assessment of EF requires psychometric tests as well as rating scales that must be integrated and interpreted considering the child's biological makeup, environmental background, and cultural specificities. Current EF theories, assessment tools, issues, and challenges were discussed in addition to the impact of their components' dysfunctions on children's development. Further studies should be conducted to develop new measurement methods and technologies to improve the ecological and ethological validity of youth assessment, treatment, and interventions.

This systematic review aims to evaluate previous findings on the dose-related effects of short- and long-term physical activities (PA) on executive functions (EF) using a new approach by considering the success of experimental manipulation. Eight electronic databases were searched between May 2021 and September 2021. Randomized control trials among healthy children (6-12 years) were screened. Data extraction included the measurement of experimental manipulations and pre-post measurements of physical fitness. After identifying 1774 records, 17 studies were included (nine short-term PA and eight long-term PA). The overall results suggest that a single 20-min PA may be overwhelming for short-term EF in children up to 9 years of age but may be beneficial for children 9 years and older. A dose-related relationship between PA and EF could not be verified in long-term studies, which is possibly due to insufficient fitness gains and participation in the intervention. Short- and long-term endurance and coordination training could improve children's executive functions, but so far, there is no specific evidence on the duration, frequency, and intensity of PA. Not quantity but quality of intervention seems to be important in this context. Further intervention studies are needed that control for the characteristics of the experimental manipulation.

This study investigated the age-related differences in the random number generation (RNG) of children aged 7 to 15 years old (n=106) divided into three groups (7-9, 10-12 and 13-15 years of age) as it was compared to computer-generated pseudorandom sequences. The results showed that there was an age effect on four out of seven indices of randomization that are known to tap the Inhibition ability and the Updating ability (i.e., active manipulation of relevant information in working memory). The participants’ (children’s and adolescents’; n=106) responses were significantly different from pseudorandom sequences (n=106) produced by the RgCalc program and no gender differences were observed. The RNG task indices that reflect inhibition ability did not correlate with the participants’ performance on the Stroop color-word task. The development of executive functions in school-aged children and adolescents is discussed.

The ADHD Report • 7 Weyandt, L.L. (2004). Neuropsychological performance of adults with ADHD. In D. Gozal and D. Molfese (Eds.), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: From Genes to Animal Models to Patients. Totowa, NJ: Humana. Weyandt, L.L., Rice, J.A., Linterman, I., Mitzlaff, L., & Emert, E. (1998). Neuropsychological performance of a sample of adults with ADHD, developmental reading disorder, and controls. Developmental Neuropsychology, 14, 643–656. Weyandt, L.L., & Willis, W.G. (1994). Executive functions in school-aged children: Potential efficacy of tasks in discriminating clinical groups. Developmental Neuropsychology, 10, 27–38. Willcutt, E.G. (2004). Genetics of ADHD. In D. Barch (Ed.), Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience of Psychopathology. New York: Oxford University Press. Willcutt, E.G., Doyle, A.E., Nigg, J.T., Faraone, S.V., & Pennington, B.F. (2005). Validity of the executive function theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A meta-analytic review. Biological Psychiatry, 57, 1336–1346. Willcutt, E.G., Pennington, B.F., Boada, R., Tunick, R.A., Ogline, J., Chabiladas, N.A., & Olson, R.K. (2001). A comparison of the cognitive deficits in reading disability and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 157–172. Willcutt, E.G., Pennington, B.F., Olson, R.K., Chhabildas, N., & Hulslander, J. (2005). Neuropsychological analyses of comorbidity between reading disability and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: In search of the common deficit. Developmental Neuropsychology, 21, 35–78. Wu, K.K., Anderson, V., & Castiello, U. (2002). Neuropsychological evaluation of deficits in executive functioning for ADHD children with or without learning disabilities. Developmental Neuropsychology, 22, 501–531. Young, S.E., Friedman, N.P., Miyake, A., Willcutt, E.G., Corley, R.P., Habersticky, B.C., & Hewitt, J.K. (2009). Behavioral disinhibition: Liability for externalizing spectrum disorders and its genetic and environmental relation to response inhibition across adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 117–130.

Research on the effects of repeated opioid use on striatal dopamine transporters has yielded inconsistent results, possibly confounded by a history of methamphetamine or methadone exposure in opioid-dependent individuals. Previous studies have shown that striatal dopamine transporter density is positively correlated with the cognitive performance of healthy volunteers. This study aimed to investigate changes in striatal dopamine transporter density and their functional significance in opioid-dependent individuals. Single-photon emission computed tomography with [(99m) Tc]TRODAT-1 as a ligand was used to measure striatal dopamine transporter levels in 20 opioid-dependent individuals and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Opioid-dependent individuals had no history of methamphetamine or methadone use. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was performed to assess neurocognitive function. We found that compared with healthy controls, opioid-dependent individuals showed a significant reduction in striatal dopamine transporter density. They also showed poorer performance on the WCST in terms of the trials administered, total errors, perseverative responses, perseverative errors, and non-perseverative errors. Striatal dopamine transporter levels negatively correlated with non-perseverative errors not only in opioid-dependent individuals but also in healthy controls. These findings suggest that in human, repeated opioid exposure reduces striatal dopamine transporter density, which can be associated with non-perseverative errors. Non-perseverative errors may be one of the more sensitive parameters in WCST to identify working memory deficits associated with striatal dopamine transporter reduction. Moreover, we suggest that whether opioid-associated neurotoxicity is reversible depends on the brain region.

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance before and after temporal lobectomy

The specificity of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) for assessing frontal lobe pathology remains controversial, although lesion and cerebral blood flow studies continue to suggest a role for the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in WCST performance. Inconsistencies might derive from the extended use of various WCST scores as equivalent indicators of frontal pathology. In this study, event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 32 normal subjects who committed perseverative and non-perseverative errors. Both types of WCST errors evoked anomalous but distinct ERP patterns over frontal lobe regions. Perseverative errors were also associated with a dysfunctional extrastriate response to stimulation. This evidence suggests that perseverative and non-perseverative errors result from disruptions in two different prefrontal neural networks engaged during card sorting.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of acute exercise on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test with different intensities. Sixty college students voluntarily participated in this study, and randomly assigned into control, low, moderate and high intensity exercise groups. All participants were instructed to perform the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test while performing the acute exercise with different intensities. The indices of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, including Number of Categories Completed, Perseverative Responses, Percent Conceptual Level Responses and Failure to Maintain Set scores were recorded. These indices represented the working memory, problem solving and attention. The results from this study revealed that participants' Perseverative Responses, Number of Categories Completed and Conceptual Level Responses were significantly reduced with high intensity exercise, while no differences were found with low and moderate exercise intensities. In addition, no difference was noticed on Failure to Maintain Set in all exercise intensity groups. Our findings concluded that working memory and problem solving were impaired during high intensity exercise, but not affected during low and moderate intensity exercise performance. Furthermore, participants' attention was not affected with all exercise intensities. To sum up, high intensity exercise effect supported the transient hypofrontality theory, whereas, prefrontal oxygenation, cerebral metabolic ratio and fitness were able to clarify the effect of low and moderate exercise intensities for stable cognitive performances in young college students.

Cognitive deficits (CDs) in schizophrenia affect poor outcome and real-world community functioning. Because redox imbalance has been implicated, among other factors, in the pathophysiology of CDs, antioxidant compounds may have a beneficial effect in their treatment. Red yeast rice (RYR), besides its lipid-lowering effect, exhibit antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Thirty-five schizophrenia outpatients (age range, 18-60 years) on stable antipsychotic treatment and assessed by neuropsychological (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test [WCST], Verbal Fluency, and Stroop task) and psychodiagnostic instruments (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) received RYR at daily dosage of 200 mg/d (total monacolin K/capsule content, 11.88 mg) for 12 weeks. Red yeast rice supplementation significantly improved WCST "perseverative errors" (P = 0.015), "total errors" (P = 0.017, P = 0.001), and phonemic fluency test (P = 0.008); a trend for improvement on other WCST variables ("nonperseverative errors," "perseverative responses," and "categories") was observed. Effect sizes, according to Cohen's suggestions, were small in all explored cognitive dimensions. There were no significant change in clinical symptoms and no subject-reported adverse effects. Despite several limitations (open design, lack of a control group, short period of observation, small sample size, mode of controlling patients' compliance, the lack of assessment of patients' functional improvement), results suggest that RYR supplementation may be a potentially promising strategy for addressing CDs in schizophrenia; further randomized, placebo-controlled studies are needed to better evaluate the potential role of RYR for the treatment of CDs in schizophrenia.

Objective The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is among the most commonly used tests of executive functioning. We aimed to generate normative data on the 64-item version of this test (WCST-64) for Spanish-speakers living in the U.S.–Mexico Border region. Methods Participants included 189 native Spanish-speakers (Age: 19–60; Education: 0–20; 59.3% female) from the Neuropsychological Norms for the U.S.–Mexico Border Region in Spanish (NP-NUMBRS) project who completed the WCST-64. Univariable and interactive associations between demographic variables and raw scores were examined via Spearman correlations, Wilcoxon Rank-sum tests and linear regressions. T-scores for various WCST-64 measures (Total Errors, Perseverative Responses, Perseverative Errors, Conceptual Level Responses and Number of Categories) were obtained using fractional polynomial equations with weights for age, education, and gender. Percentile scores were reported for Failures to Maintain Set. Rates of impairment (T-score < 40) were calculated by applying the newly developed norms and published norms for non-Hispanic English-speaking Whites and Blacks. Results Older age was associated with worse performance and education was linked to better performance on most WCST-64 raw scores, with stronger education effects among females than males. The norms developed here resulted in expected rates of impairment (14–16% across measures). Applying published norms for non-Hispanic Blacks resulted in generally comparable impairment rates. In contrast, applying previously published norms for non-Hispanic Whites overestimated impairment (38–52% across measures). Conclusions These data will enhance interpretation performance on the WCST-64 for Spanish-speakers living in the U.S.–Mexico Border region. Future work will need to examine the generalizability of these norms to other Hispanic/Latino groups.

P.1.i.034 - Assessment of the myelination of brain structures in patients with schizophrenia using the MRI method

Executive functioning and risk for Alzheimer's disease in the cognitively intact: Family history predicts Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance.

The commercially available Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is one of the most commonly used tests for assessing executive functions within clinical settings. Importantly, however, it remains relatively unclear exactly what processes are assessed by the test. Conceptually, increased perseverative errors in sorting cards are usually related to deficient inhibition processes. Empirically, evidence supporting this conclusion is limited. In a sample of 38 healthy adults we addressed the question to what extent inhibition mechanisms assessed by the go/no-go and the stop-signal paradigm are related to WCST performances. Inhibition-related scores were found to predict non-perseverative errors better than perseverative errors. Consequently we conclude that the non-perseverative errors score reflects processes that are partly dependent on inhibition functions.

Executive Function and Decision-Making in Women with Fibromyalgia

The present study was designed to investigate characteristics by 38 school-age children in Grades 2, 4, and 6 of perseverative errors using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Children's performance was measured as number of categories completed and perseverative errors, which were classified into perseverative errors of types described by Milner in 1963 and Nelson in 1976. Analysis indicated that the number of completed categories increased and perseverative errors decreased across age groups. Perseverative errors (Milner) were very similar in these grades and perseverative errors (Nelson) were significantly different between children in Grades 2 and 4. The results suggested a pattern of development for shifting inhibiting set.