Executive control in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A worldwide mega-analysis of task-based functional neuroimaging data of the ENIGMA-OCD consortium

Patients with schizophrenia exhibit impairments in working memory that often appear in attenuated form in persons at high risk for the illness. The authors hypothesized that deviations in task-related brain activation and deactivation would occur in persons with an at-risk mental state performing a working memory task that entailed the maintenance and manipulation of letters. Participants at ultra high risk for developing psychosis (N=60), identified using the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States, and healthy comparison subjects (N=38) 14 to 29 years of age underwent functional MRI while performing a verbal working memory task. Group differences in brain activation were identified using analysis of covariance. The two groups did not show significant differences in speed or accuracy of performance, even after accounting for differences in education. Irrespective of task condition, at-risk participants exhibited significantly less activation than healthy comparison subjects in the left anterior insula. During letter manipulation, at-risk persons exhibited greater task-related deactivation within the default-mode network than comparison subjects. Region-of-interest analysis in the at-risk group revealed significantly greater right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation during manipulation of letters. Despite comparable behavioral performance, at-risk participants performing a verbal working memory task exhibited altered brain activation compared with healthy subjects. These findings demonstrate an altered pattern of brain activation in at-risk persons that contains elements of reduced function as well as compensation.

Reversal Learning as a Neuropsychological Indicator for the Neuropathology of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? A Behavioral Study

Inhibit, switch, and update: A within-subject fMRI investigation of executive control

Recent studies revealed inconsistent evidences of a bilingual advantage in executive processing. One potential source of explanation is the multifaceted experience of the bilinguals in these studies. This study seeks to test whether bilinguals who engage in language selection more frequently would perform better in executive control tasks than those bilinguals who engage in language selection less frequently. We examined the influence of the degree of bilingualism (i.e., language proficiency, frequency of use of two languages, and age of second language acquisition) on executive functioning in bilingual young adults using a comprehensive battery of executive control tasks. Seventy-two 18- to 25-years-old English–Mandarin bilinguals performed four computerized executive function (EF) tasks (Stroop, Eriksen flanker, number–letter switching, and n-back task) that measure the EF components: inhibition, mental-set shifting, and information updating and monitoring. Results from multiple regression analyses, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping supported the positive association between age of second language acquisition and the interference cost in the Stroop task. Most importantly, we found a significant effect of balanced bilingualism (balanced usage of and balanced proficiency in two languages) on the Stroop and number–letter task (mixing cost only), indicating that a more balanced use and a more balanced level of proficiency in two languages resulted in better executive control skills in the adult bilinguals. We did not find any significant effect of bilingualism on flanker or n-back task. These findings provided important insights to the underlying mechanisms of the bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis, demonstrating that regular experience with extensive practice in controlling attention to their two language systems results in better performance in related EFs such as inhibiting prepotent responses and global set-shifting.

Objective:Executive functioning (EF) is impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and EF challenges are exacerbated in youth with ASD and ADHD (ASD+ADHD), which may impact diagnostic timing. We hypothesized youth with ASD+ADHD would be more impaired in EF (as opposed to other functional domains) compared to autistic youth without ADHD (ASD-only), with particular deficits in metacognition and inhibition. We also predicted youth with ASD+ADHD would be at significant risk for delayed ASD diagnosis and that greater EF challenges would predict earlier age of ASD diagnosis across groups.Participants and Methods:Data from a clinical database was extracted for 400 youth who received a new diagnosis of ASD after age 5, either with a co-occurring diagnosis of ADHD (ASD+ADHD group: n=297; Mage of ASD diagnosis=10.49; 25.9% female; 48.1% white) or without a co-occurring ADHD diagnosis (ASD-only group: n=100; Mage of ASD diagnosis=12.02; 34.0% female; 44.7% white). EF was measured with the BRIEF-2 parent-report, and ASD symptom strength was measured with the SRS-2 School Age form. Independent samples t-tests investigated whether a) the ASD+ADHD group was uniquely impaired in EF compared to the ASD-only group, b) parents of ASD+ADHD report elevated EF problems, and c) the ASD+ADHD group was at significant risk for delayed ASD diagnosis. Pearson correlations examined the association between age of ASD diagnosis and EF for each diagnostic group. Hierarchical linear regressions further analyzed whether specific EF domains concurrently predicted age of ASD diagnosis, after controlling for the known predictors of assigned sex at birth, FSIQ, and ASD symptom strength.Results:The ASD+ADHD group had greater challenges in overall EF (t=-6.42, p<.001), metacognitive skills (t=-6.47, p <.001), and inhibition skills (t=-7.06, p<.001). There was no significant difference in parent-reported autism symptoms between the ASD and ASD+ADHD groups (t=0.973, p=.331). The ASD+ADHD group received ASD diagnoses earlier than the ASD-only group (t=4.194, p<.001). In the ASD-only group, age of ASD diagnosis was not significantly correlated to overall EF, metacognitive skills, nor inhibition skills (ps>.05). In the ASD+ADHD group, ASD diagnosis was significantly related to overall EF (r(297)=.128, p=.027) and metacognitive skills (r(297)=.329, p<.001) but not inhibition skills (r(297)=.078, p=.180). Hierarchical linear regressions controlling for assigned sex at birth, FSIQ, and SRS-2 T-scores were used to determine whether these EF components significantly predicted age of ASD diagnosis. Overall EF did not predict age of ASD diagnosis in the ASD+ADHD group (ß=.034, t=1.417, p=.157), but metacognitive skills did (ß=.123, t=5.582, p<.001).Conclusions:Our findings suggest youth with ASD+ADHD have greater impairment in overall EF, metacognition, and inhibition compared to ASD-only youth, despite similar levels of ASD traits, consistent with hypotheses. Contrary to our hypothesis, youth with ASD+ADHD in this sample were diagnosed with ASD earlier. However, results also suggest EF problems, specifically metacognitive deficits, predict later age of ASD diagnosis. Future research is needed to replicate findings and better understand how EF and other functional domains predict ASD diagnostic timing.

Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) appear to be deficient in executive control. The purpose of this study was to determine if adults with ADHD are also deficient in executive control. The performance of 18 adults with ADHD and 18 control subjects was compared on two tests of executive control, and two control tasks. The executive control tasks used in the study were the Trail Making Test (B), and the Tower of Hanoi. The control tasks used were the Trail Making Test (A), and the Benton Facial Recognition Test. The subjects with ADHD performed more poorly than did the normal controls on the executive control tasks. The subjects with ADHD, however, also performed more poorly on the Trail Making Test (A). The ADHD subjects showed a deficit in executive control, but this deficit was not confined to the executive control domain.

Examining non-sport-related cognitive tasks of attention and executive control in skilled athletes may provide insight into the acquisition of highly specific skills developed in experts as well as help identify successful performance in sport. Through a cross-sectional design, this study examined performance on aspects of attention and executive control among varsity athletes playing soccer (strategic sport) or track & field (static sport) using a computerized test of attention and executive control. Ninety-seven university athletes participating in soccer (n = 50) or track and field (n = 47) were included in the study. Domains of attention and executive control were examined using the Attention Network Test-Interactions (ANT-I). Mean reaction time (RT) and intra-individual variability (IIV) were compared between groups as measures of performance speed and performance stability respectively. Soccer players demonstrated overall faster RTs (p = 0.0499; ηp2 = .04) and higher response accuracy (p = .021, d = .48) on the ANT-I compared to track and field athletes. Faster RTs were observed for soccer players when presented with an alerting tone (p = .029, d = .45), valid orienting cue (p = .019, d = .49) and incongruent flanker (p = .031, d = .45). No significant group differences were observed in IIV (p = .083, d = .36). Athletes engaging in strategic sports (i.e., soccer) demonstrated faster performance under test conditions that required higher vigilance and conflict resolution. These findings suggest that engagement in strategic sports is associated with enhanced performance on non-sport-related cognitive tasks of attention and executive control.

Diminished executive function and attentional control has been reported in chronic pain patients. However, the precise pattern of impairment in these aspects of cognition in chronic pain remains unclear. Moreover, a decline in psychomotor speed could potentially influence executive and attentional control performance in pain patients. To examine different aspects of executive and attentional control in chronic pain together with the confounding role of psychomotor slowing. Neuropsychological tests of sustained attention, planning ability, inhibition and mental flexibility were administered to 34 participants with chronic pain and 32 control participants. Compared with the controls, participants with chronic pain took longer to complete tests of sustained attention and mental flexibility, but did not perform worse on inhibition or planning tasks. The decreased performance on the mental flexibility task likely reflects a reduction in psychomotor speed. The pattern of performance on the sustained attention task reveals a specific decline in attention, indicated by a disproportionate decline in performance with an increase in task duration and by increased fluctuations in attention during task performance. No additional effect was noted of pain intensity, pain duration, pain catastrophizing, depressive symptoms, reduced sleep because of the pain or opioid use. Executive and attention functions are not uniformly affected in chronic pain. At least part of the previously reported decline in executive function in this group may reflect psychomotor slowing. Overall, limited evidence was found that executive and attention performance is indeed lower in chronic pain. Therefore, it can be concluded that in chronic pain sustained attention performance is diminished while mental flexibility, planning and inhibition appear to be intact.

Neuropsychological functions in anxiety disorders in population-based samples: evidence of episodic memory dysfunction

Background: Pupil dilation, a measure of physiological arousal, is associated with increased cognitive demand (Moresi et al, 2008) and response preparation in the antisaccade task. Greater change in pupil size during the preparatory period prior to saccade generation for correctly performed antisaccade trials vs prosaccade errors has been observed among healthy controls, perhaps reflecting inhibitory input from the frontal eye fields (FEF) and superior colliculus (SC) to brainstem regions responsible for saccade generation (Wang et al, 2015). The relationship between pupillary response and antisaccade performance in individuals across the psychosis spectrum is less established. Our objective was to examine differences in the relationship between changes in pupil size during the preparatory period and antisaccade performance in individuals across the psychosis spectrum and healthy controls.

Inefficient executive cognitive control in schizophrenia is preceded by altered functional activation during information encoding: An fMRI study

Association of executive function impairment, history of falls and physical performance in older adults: a cross-sectional population-based study in eastern France.

We investigated the contribution of linguistic and executive control processes in verbal fluency performance for young healthy Bengali-English bilingual and English monolingual speakers. We collected verbal fluency data, executive control data and detailed background measures to characterize each participant. This dataset contains the transcribed one-minute verbal fluency data from semantic fluency trials (animals, fruits and vegetables, and clothing) and letter fluency trials (F, A, S) in English from 25 Bengali-English bilinguals and 25 English monolinguals. The verbal fluency task was collected using audio recorder, later transcribed orthographically. Demographic information and vocabulary testing data were collected using paper and pen tasks. Information on bilingualism was assessed through questionnaires for bilingual participants. Executive control tasks were assessed using computer based tasked and were programmed and delivered using E-Prime. The groups were matched for receptive vocabulary, age, education and non-verbal intelligence. The dataset includes six datasheets. They include following data and their codes: 1) demographic details for each participant (age, sex, education) along with their background measures on vocabulary and IQ, executive control tasks (Stroop, task switching task, and backward digit span); 2) details of bilingual language profiles for bilingual participants; 3) time-stamped verbal fluency data for each item for every trial for each individual participant; and 4) mean values of several verbal fluency measures (e.g., clustering and switching analysis, time course analysis). These data could be used by future researchers to answer their specific questions regarding verbal fluency performances amongst different language users (e.g., monolinguals vs. bilinguals) as well as cognitive and linguistic underpinnings of the task (e.g., executive control measures, bilingualism measures, vocabulary measures). Dataset accompanying the paper entitled: Patra A, Bose A, Marinis T (2019). Performance difference in verbal fluency in bilingual and monolingual speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918001098

Background: Identifying treatment-response predictors could help improve treatment protocols as well as appropriately tailoring them to each subject, leading to a more desirable and accelerated recovery in patients. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the role of demographic characteristics, memory deficits, and executive functioning impairments in failure to respond to fluvoxamine among patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Methods: This 2-group design (treatment-responsive and treatment-resistant) experimental study explored 76 participants who had received fluvoxamine monotherapy for OCD for ≥6 months. The study participants were from Iran. Four data collection tools were used in this study (ie, Demographic Data Form, WMS-III, WCST, and Y-BOCS). The achieved data were analyzed in SPSS-16 by descriptive statistics, such as mean and standard deviation and frequency and percentages, as well as an independent samples t-test, a chi-square test, and a Fisher exact test at P <0.05. Results: The present study findings indicated that 56 (81.2%) out of 76 patients with OCD responded to fluvoxamine treatment. A significant difference between the study groups highlighted age as an influential factor in providing a positive therapeutic response to fluvoxamine (P=0.048). However, the groups did not significantly differ in terms of gender (P=0.272), marital status (P=0.753), educational level (P=0.332), disease duration (P=0.276), and occupational status (P=0.473). While there was no significant difference between the groups (P=0.639) in terms of memory deficits (P=0.639), the response rate to fluvoxamine treatment was significantly higher in those with a healthy executive functioning, compared with patients with impairments in this respect (P=0.043). Conclusion: The obtained data suggested that fluvoxamine has a favorable efficacy in the treatment of OCD, and especially in young patients with healthy executive functioning.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by executive function impairment and by clinical responsivity to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Executive planning deficits constitute a candidate endophenotype for OCD. It is not known whether this endophenotype is responsive to acute serotonin manipulation. The study aimed to investigate the effects of acute SSRI administration on executive function in patients with OCD, first-degree relatives of patients with OCD, and healthy controls. A randomized double-blind cross-over study assessed the effects of single-dose escitalopram (20mg) and placebo on executive planning in 24 patients with OCD, 13 clinically unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with OCD, and 28 healthy controls. Performance on a Tower of London task measuring executive planning was assessed 4h after oral administration of the pharmacological challenge/placebo and compared across and within groups using a mixed model analysis of variance. On the outcome measure of interest, i.e., the mean number of choices to obtain the correct solution, there was a marginally significant effect of group (F(2, 59) = 3.1; p= 0.052), with patients (least square (LS) mean 1.43; standard error [SE] 0.06; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.31-1.55) and their relatives (LS mean 1.46; SE 0.08; 95% CI, 1.30-1.62) performing worse than matched healthy controls (LS mean 1.26; SE 0.05; 95% CI, 1.15-1.37) on placebo. There was a trend towards a significant group × treatment interaction (F(2, 58) = 2.8, p= 0.069), with post hoc tests showing (i) patients (p= 0.009; LS mean difference 0.23; SE 0.08) and relatives (p= 0.03; LS mean difference 0.22; SE 0.10) were more impaired compared to controls and (ii) escitalopram was associated with improved executive planning in patients with OCD (p= 0.013; LS mean difference 0.1; SE 0.04), but not other groups (both p> 0.1; controls: LS mean difference - 0.03; SE 0.04; relatives: LS mean difference 0.02; SE 0.05). Our findings are consistent with a view that there is impaired executive planning in OCD and that this constitutes a behavioural endophenotype. In patients with OCD, but not in relatives, acute SSRI administration ameliorated this deficit. Further investigation is needed to understand common and differential involvement of neurochemical systems in patients with OCD and their relatives.