Driving Frequency Modulates Correlations Between Executive Functions and Driving Performance: A Driving Simulator Study.

Objective: This exploratory study aimed to examine associations between executive function and simulated and self-reported driving behavior among young adults with and without a history of prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE). Methods: Young adult drivers with PCE (n = 38) and with no drug exposure (NDE; n = 25) were recruited from an ongoing longitudinal birth cohort study assessing effects of PCE on development (Mean age = 23.7; 60.3% male; 61.9% with a valid U.S. driver’s license, 38.1% report independent driving without a license). Participants completed executive function tasks (i.e., the Stop Signal Task and Groton Maze Learning Task) and self-reported driving measures (i.e., Checkpoints Risky Driving Scale (C-RDS)) outside the cab. Average stop signal reaction time(s) measured inhibitory control, number of exploratory errors measured visuo-spatial working memory, and the total C-RDS score measured self-reported risky driving. Participants completed a high-fidelity driving simulation scenario in a miniSim™ ½ cab National Advanced Driving Simulator (NADS) that yielded indicators of driving performance shown in previous research to correlate with inhibitory control (e.g., average speed, standard deviation lane position (SDLP)) and working memory (minimum headway time, lane departures). Multivariate linear regression models tested whether PCE status, licensure status and executive function measures were associated with simulated driving measures or C-RDS, controlling for sex. Results: Multivariate regression models demonstrated inhibitory control, working memory and PCE group status was not significantly associated with driving outcomes. Licensure was significantly associated with total lane departures (β = −0.66, SE = 0.19; p < 0.01) and C-RDS (β = 5.86, SE = 1.4; p ≤ 0.001). Conclusions: This exploratory study suggests that young adults with PCE have similar neurocognitive performance and driving behaviors as their non-drug exposed (NDE) peers. These findings add to the growing literature demonstrating that the effect of PCE on cognitive functions in childhood may not persist to young adulthood. Further research with similar groups of young drivers in a naturalistic driving context (i.e., instrumented vehicles) is needed to more definitively translate and confirm our findings.

Event Abstract Back to Event Brain pathways underlying Response Inhibition and Response Caution Renate Thienel1*, Elise Mansfield1, Patrick S. Cooper1, Andrew Heathcote1, Birte Forstmann2, Pat Michie1, Gavin Cooper1 and Frini Karayanidis1 1 School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Australia 2 University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Background: Our previous findings suggest that the striatum is instrumental in mediating response caution in a task switching paradigm (Mansfield et al., J. Neurosci 2011, 31:14688-92), and that structural integrity in two separate fronto-striatal networks are associated with adopting an overall more risky or more cautious response threshold. In the present study, we examine whether a similar network underlies response inhibition, as operationalized by a stop signal task. Response inhibition has been shown to be mediated by cortical and subcortical structures within the inferior frontal lobe and the subthalamic nucleus, respectively. We investigate whether structural integrity measures in these regions can explain the relationship between stop signal related event related potential (ERP) components and estimates of stop signal reaction time (SSRT). Finally the relationship between, and the differential structural pathways contributing to, response threshold adjustment (task-switching paradigm) and stop signal response time will be examined. Methods: Diffusion weighted Imaging (DWI), ERP and behavioural data has been collected in 16 healthy participants (24.5 years, 5 male). A correlational analysis was performed for the ERPs and the behavioural measures of both tasks (task switching and stop signal task). Tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) of the DWI data was performed to compare the white matter pathways associated with response thresholds adjustment (task-switching task), and response inhibition (stop-signal task) respectively. These regions were then used to explain variation in ERP data. Results/Discussion: The integrity within distinct structural pathways (DWI data) explained the relationship between (1) ERP measures and response threshold adjustment and (2) ERP measures and SSRTs. Distinct fronto-basal ganglia pathways mediated threshold setting and response suppression. Keywords: task-switching, stop signal task, DWI, fronto-striatal circuits, response inhibition Conference: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Executive Processes Citation: Thienel R, Mansfield E, Cooper PS, Heathcote A, Forstmann B, Michie P, Cooper G and Karayanidis F (2013). Brain pathways underlying Response Inhibition and Response Caution. Conference Abstract: ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00145 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Sep 2013; Published Online: 25 Nov 2013. * Correspondence: Dr. Renate Thienel, School of Psychology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, renate.thienel@newcastle.edu.au Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Renate Thienel Elise Mansfield Patrick S Cooper Andrew Heathcote Birte Forstmann Pat Michie Gavin Cooper Frini Karayanidis Google Renate Thienel Elise Mansfield Patrick S Cooper Andrew Heathcote Birte Forstmann Pat Michie Gavin Cooper Frini Karayanidis Google Scholar Renate Thienel Elise Mansfield Patrick S Cooper Andrew Heathcote Birte Forstmann Pat Michie Gavin Cooper Frini Karayanidis PubMed Renate Thienel Elise Mansfield Patrick S Cooper Andrew Heathcote Birte Forstmann Pat Michie Gavin Cooper Frini Karayanidis Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Inhibitory control is a key executive function and has been studied extensively using the stop signal task. By applying a simple race model that posits an independent race between a GO process responsible for initiation of responses and a STOP process responsible for inhibition of responses, one can estimate how long it takes an individual to inhibit an ongoing response, the stop signal reaction time. Here, we examined how stop signal reaction time can be affected by working memory. Participants engaged in a dual task; they completed a stop signal task under low and high working memory load conditions. Working memory capacity was also measured. We found that the STOP process was lengthened in the high, compared to the low, working memory load condition, as evidenced by differences in stop signal reaction time. The GO process was unaffected and working memory capacity could not account for differences across the load conditions. These results indicate that inhibitory control can be influenced by placing demands on working memory.

A lack of inhibitory control has been suggested to be the core deficit in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), especially in adults. This means that a primary deficit in inhibition mediates a cascade of secondary deficits in other executive functions, such as attention. Impaired stopping has been claimed to support the inhibition hypothesis. However, executive functions such as inhibition and attention are hard to disentangle. To use event-related potentials in adult patients with ADHD to show that impaired stopping is associated with abnormalities of attention. The stop signal task was presented to 24 adults with ADHD combined subtype and 24 controls. Stop event-related potentials are distorted by overlap from event-related potentials to other stimuli in close temporal proximity, but we applied a method (Adjar level 2) to effectively remove this overlap. In line with an inhibitory control deficit, the stop signal reaction time was longer in adults with ADHD (F(1,46) = 7.12, P<.01) whereas there was no significant difference for go stimulus reaction time. Overlap-free stop event-related potentials revealed smaller stop P3s in adults with ADHD (F(1,44) = 4.20, P<.05). In children with ADHD, this has been interpreted to reflect deficient inhibitory control. However, controls were also found to have larger early responses in the auditory cortex (N1) when stop signals resulted in successful stops, relative to failed stops, signifying increased attention (F(1,23) = 11.88, P<.01). This difference was completely absent in adults with ADHD. Disturbed attentional processing of the stop signal contributed to impaired stopping in adults with ADHD. This finding may have implications for treatment.

According to the balance model of self-regulation, dysfunction of the inhibitory control and reward processing might be a behavioral marker for addiction and problematic behaviors. Although several studies have separately examined the inhibitory control or reward processing of individuals exhibiting problematic Internet use (PIU), no study has explored these two functions simultaneously to examine the potential imbalance of these functions. This study aimed to investigate whether the self-regulatory failure of PIU individuals results from deficits in both inhibitory control [indexed with the stop signal reaction time (SSRT) in a stop signal task] and risk taking with losses (measured as the acceptance rates of risky gables or the ratio of win/loss in a mixed gambles task). The results revealed that PIU individuals, compared with controls, showed decreased SSRT and increased error rates as well as reduced risk taking with losses. Correlational analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between the SSRT and risk taking with losses. These findings suggest that both the inhibitory control and reward functions are impaired in PIU individuals and reveal an association between these two systems. These results strengthen the balance model of self-regulation theory’s argument that deficits in inhibitory control and risk taking with losses may assist in identifying risk markers for early diagnosis, progression, and prediction of PIU.

Heterogeneity in PFC-amygdala connectivity in middle childhood, and concurrent interrelations with inhibitory control and anxiety symptoms

Introduction Ambulatory assessment of executive function – particularly in the form working memory (WM) – is increasingly common. Few studies to date, however, have also incorporated ambulatory measures of inhibitory control. Critically, the extended within-person reliability of ambulatory tasks tapping each of these constructs has been largely overlooked. Method Participants (N = 283, M age = 23.74 years, SD = 9.04) received notifications every 3 days (for 4 weeks) to undertake ambulatory assessment versions of the n-Back and Stop-Signal Tasks (SST) via the smartphone application CheckCog. Within-person reliability of these measures was explored. Results Compliance ranged from 66% (for eight sessions) to 89% (for four sessions). Our results reveal significant changes in performance within the first two sessions for both the n-Back and SST, with performance remaining largely consistent across the remaining (two to eight) sessions. In terms of test–retest reliability, the ICC (C, 1) values ranged from .29 to .68 on the n-Back (with overall accuracy being .51) and .31–.73 on the SST (with stop-signal reaction time being .53). Conclusion The results of the current study contribute to the literature by demonstrating the reliability of brief measures of executive function – in the form of inhibitory control and WM – delivered using smartphones in participants’ natural environments. Based on our findings, the CheckCog app reliability tracks baseline systematic changes in WM and response inhibition across multiple time points and for an extended period in healthy individuals.

BackgroundAltered brain activity that has been observed in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) while performing cognitive control tasks like the stop signal task (SST) has generally been interpreted as reflecting either weak (under-active) or compensatory (over-active) versions of the same functions as in healthy controls. If so, then regional activities that correlate with the efficiency of inhibitory control (i.e. stop signal reaction time, SSRT) in healthy subjects should also correlate with SSRT in ADHD. Here we test the alternate hypothesis that BOLD (blood-oxygen-level-dependent) differences might instead reflect the redirection of neural processing resources normally used for task-directed inhibitory control, towards actively managing symptomatic behaviour. If so, then activities that correlate with SSRT in TD should instead correlate with inattentive and hyperactive symptoms in ADHD.MethodsWe used fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) in 14 typically developing (TD) and 14 ADHD adolescents performing the SST, and in a replication sample of 14 healthy adults. First, we identified significant group BOLD differences during all phases of activity in the SST (i.e. warning, response, reactive inhibition, error detection and post-error slowing). Next, we correlated these phases of activity with SSRT in TD and with SSRT, inattentive and hyperactive symptom scores in ADHD. We then identified whole brain significant correlations in regions of significant group difference in activity.ResultsOnly three regions of significant group difference were correlated with SSRT in TD and replication groups (left and right inferior frontal gyri (IFG) during error detection and hypothalamus during post-error slowing). Consistent with regions of altered activity managing symptomatic behaviour instead of task-directed behaviour, left IFG correlated with greater inattentive score, right IFG correlated with lower hyperactive score and hypothalamus correlated with greater inattentive score and oppositely correlated with SSRT compared to TD.ConclusionsStimuli that elicit task-directed integration of neural processing in healthy subjects instead appear to be directing integrated function towards managing symptomatic behaviour in ADHD. The ability of the current approach to determine whether altered neural activities reflect comparable functions in ADHD and control groups has broad implications for the development and monitoring of therapeutic interventions.

Tourette Syndrome (TS) has previously been associated with deficits in inhibitory control (IC). However, studies on IC in individuals with TS have produced conflicting results. In the present study, we investigated IC, comparing the Stop Signal Reaction Time (SSRT) measure with parent and teacher ratings of daily life IC in 169 children aged 8–12 (60 with TS, 60 typically developing controls, 27 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and 22 with TS + ADHD). We further investigated associations of IC with TS and ADHD symptom severity. Children with TS showed intact SSRT performance, but impairments in daily life IC, as reported by parents and teachers. For the latter, we observed a staircase distribution of groups, with the healthy controls presenting with the best IC, followed by TS, TS + ADHD, and finally ADHD. Dimensional analyses indicated a strong association between ADHD severity and both measures of IC. Our results indicate that children with TS are not impaired in a laboratory-based measure of IC, although some difficulties were evident from measures of everyday behaviour, which may in part be due to parents and teachers interpreting tics as disinhibited behaviour. Comorbid ADHD or the severity of subthreshold ADHD symptomatology appeared to account for IC deficits.

The current study aimed to investigate the impact of recreational gymnastics on executive function in Chinese preschoolers, with a focus on gymnastics potential to enhance core components of executive function. A total of 63 preschool children who received full-time education were randomly assigned to either an intervention group (N = 31, mean age = 66.27 months, SD = 3.12 months) or a control group (N = 32, mean age = 66.79 months, SD = 3.34 months). The intervention group engaged in recreational gymnastics for 60 min, three times a week for 12 weeks. Meanwhile, the control group continued with their typical outdoor activities at kindergarten and did not participate in any organized sports. The intervention program was primarily conducted through group play and was facilitated by teachers who underwent standardized training. Various simple and complex tasks were utilized to evaluate delay gratification (Snack delay and Wrapped gift), inhibitory control (Stop signal task and Circle drawing task), working memory (Letter memory task and Keep track task), and cognitive flexibility (Go/No-Go task and Dots task). The analysis of covariance revealed that the children who participated in the intervention outperformed the control group on most simple and complex executive function tasks. Specifically, these children demonstrated an enhanced ability to regulate persistent responses, process and update information, and manage high cognitive conflict. The findings of this investigation lend support to the hypothesis that moderate-intensity recreational gymnastics is an efficacious means of enhancing executive function in early childhood. Future research should employ a larger sample size, incorporate a long-term follow-up design, and utilize a multi-method approach to further substantiate the impact of moderate-intensity gymnastics on the executive function of young children, as well as to investigate its underlying mechanism and generalizability.

BackgroundA robust feature of sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) performance in finger tapping to an auditory pacing signal is the negative asynchrony of the tap with respect to the pacing signal. The Paillard–Fraisse hypothesis suggests that negative asynchrony is a result of inter-modal integration, in which the brain compares sensory information across two modalities (auditory and tactile). The current study compared the asynchronies of vocalizations and finger tapping in time to an auditory pacing signal. Our first hypothesis was that vocalizations have less negative asynchrony compared to finger tapping due to the requirement for sensory integration within only a single (auditory) modality (intra-modal integration). However, due to the different measurements for vocalizations and finger responses, interpreting the comparison between these two response modalities is problematic. To address this problem, we included stop signals in the synchronization task. The rationale for this manipulation was that stop signals would perturb synchronization more in the inter-modal compared to the intra-modal task. We hypothesized that the inclusion of stop signals induce proactive inhibition, which reduces negative asynchrony. We further hypothesized that any reduction in negative asynchrony occurs to a lesser degree for vocalization than for finger tapping.MethodA total of 30 participants took part in this study. We compared SMS in a single sensory modality (vocalizations (or auditory) to auditory pacing signal) to a dual sensory modality (fingers (or tactile) to auditory pacing signal). The task was combined with a stop signal task in which stop signals were relevant in some blocks and irrelevant in others. Response-to-pacing signal asynchronies and stop signal reaction times were compared across modalities and across the two types of stop signal blocks.ResultsIn the blocks where stopping was irrelevant, we found that vocalization (−61.47 ms) was more synchronous with the auditory pacing signal compared to finger tapping (−128.29 ms). In the blocks where stopping was relevant, stop signals induced proactive inhibition, shifting the response times later. However, proactive inhibition (26.11 ms) was less evident for vocalizations compared to finger tapping (58.06 ms).DiscussionThese results support the interpretation that relatively large negative asynchrony in finger tapping is a consequence of inter-modal integration, whereas smaller asynchrony is associated with intra-modal integration. This study also supports the interpretation that intra-modal integration is more sensitive to synchronization discrepancies compared to inter-modal integration.

The ability to inhibit actions inappropriate for the context is essential for meeting the shifting demands of complex environments. The stop signal task (SST) has been used in many previous studies to examine the interactions between go and stop responses in a cognitively demanding task involving attention, conflict resolution, and motor plan selection. The current study uses a variant of the SST, in which the continue signal instructs participants to proceed with the go response they were preparing. Reaction times (RTs) on continue trials were bimodally distributed, suggesting that an aspect of inhibition was involved in at least some of the trials. We investigated whether the cognitive processes delaying the generation of a behavioural response on continue trials are the same as for stop trials. We found improvement of stop signal reaction times (SSRTs) following stop trials, but the decrease in continue signal reaction times (CSRTs) was not significant. No improvement in either SSRT or CSRT was found following continue trials, suggesting that activation of the processes delaying the response on continue trials is insufficient to drive subsequent adjustments in SSRT or CSRT. In addition, go RTs only slowed following stop trials. These effects may suggest the presence of a selective learning process, which requires that the initial inhibition captured by SSRT and CSRT be combined with recognition of the stop signal specifically to affect subsequent performance.

Previous studies have shown cultural differences in the behavioral and neural processes of perspective taking and social emotional processing. It is less clear whether culture influences cognitive functions that do not explicitly involve face perception, group membership or social interactions. Here, we addressed this issue by imaging 29 Asians and 168 European Americans while they performed a stop signal task (SST)—a behavioral paradigm widely used to study cognitive control. In the SST participants responded to a frequent go signal and interrupted their response to an infrequent stop signal. Imaging data were processed by published routines implemented in Statistical Parametric Mapping. Behaviorally Asians and European Americans did not differ in SST performance measures, including the go and stop success rates, go and stop signal reaction time, and the sequential effect, an index of performance monitoring and behavioral adjustment. In a Bayesian model of the SST performance, we identified regional responses to stimulus prediction error (expecting go while encountering stop signal or vice versa) and showed that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) responded to Bayesian prediction error, a surprise signal. Importantly, compared to European Americans, Asians showed higher dACC response to prediction error in a voxelwise analysis examined at a corrected threshold. This finding suggested that, although an increased response to surprise did not impact behavioral performance, Asians appeared to exhibit higher arousal to a salient signal than European Americans, a process likely mediated by midbrain catecholaminergic system. This finding supports racial cultural differences in cognitive and affective processes that go beyond the domains of social emotions, and adds to a growing literature of cultural neuroscience.

Inhibitory control dysfunction in nicotine dependence and the influence of short-term abstinence

The Stop Signal Task (SST), a commonly used measure of response inhibition, uses standard psychophysical methods to gain an estimate of the time needed to withhold a prepotent response. Under some circumstances, conventional forms of the SST are impractical to use because of the large number of trials necessary to gain a reliable estimate of the speed of inhibition. Here we applied to the SST an adaptive method for estimating psychometric parameters that can find reliable threshold estimates over a relatively small number of trials. The Ψ adaptive staircase, which uses a Bayesian algorithm to find the most likely parameters of a psychophysical function, was used to estimate the critical stop signal delay at which the probability of successful response inhibition equals 0.5. Using computational modeling and adult participants, estimates of stop signal reaction time (SSRT) based on the Ψ staircase were compared to estimates using the method of constant stimuli and a standard staircase method of adjustment. Results demonstrate that a reliable estimate of SSRT can be gained very quickly (20–30 stop trials), making the method very useful for testing populations that cannot maintain concentration for long periods or for rapidly obtaining multiple SSRT estimates from healthy adult participants.