scholarly journals The relationship between frontotemporal effective connectivity and performance during auditory working memory task in noise

2020 ◽  
Vol 1497 ◽  
pp. 012011
Author(s):  
E A Othman ◽  
A N Yusoff ◽  
M Mohamad ◽  
H Abdul Manan
Author(s):  
Alberto Quílez-Robres ◽  
Nieves Moyano ◽  
Alejandra Cortés-Pascual

Academic achievement has been linked to executive functions. However, it is necessary to clarify the different predictive role that executive functions have on general and specific academic achievement and to determine the most predictive executive factor of this academic achievement. The relationship and predictive role between executive functions and their components (initiative, working memory, task monitoring, organization of materials, flexibility, emotional control, inhibition, self-monitoring) with academic achievement are analyzed in this study, both globally and specifically in the areas of Language Arts and Mathematics, in 133 students from 6 to 9 years of age. The relationship obtained in Pearson’s correlation analysis does not differ substantially between overall achievement (r = 0.392) and specific achievement (r = 0.361, r = 0.361), but task monitoring (r = 0.531, r = 0.455, r = 0.446) and working memory (r = 0.512, r = 0.475, r = 0.505) had a greater relationship with general and specific achievement. Finally, regression analyses based on correlation results indicate that executive functions predict general academic performance (14.7%) and specific performance (12.3%, 12.2%) for Language Arts and Mathematics, respectively. Furthermore, working memory and task supervision represent 32.5% of general academic performance, 25.5% of performance in Language Arts, and 27.1% of performance in Mathematics. In conclusion, this study yielded exploratory data on the possible executive functions (task supervision and working memory) responsible for good general academic achievements and specific academic achievements in Mathematics and Language Arts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 796
Author(s):  
Micaela Maria Zucchelli ◽  
Laura Piccardi ◽  
Raffaella Nori

Individuals with agoraphobia exhibit impaired exploratory activity when navigating unfamiliar environments. However, no studies have investigated the contribution of visuospatial working memory (VSWM) in these individuals’ ability to acquire and process spatial information while considering the use of egocentric and allocentric coordinates or environments with or without people. A total of 106 individuals (53 with agoraphobia and 53 controls) navigated in a virtual square to acquire spatial information that included the recognition of landmarks and the relationship between landmarks and themselves (egocentric coordinates) and independent of themselves (allocentric coordinates). Half of the participants in both groups navigated in a square without people, and half navigated in a crowded square. They completed a VSWM test in addition to tasks measuring landmark recognition and egocentric and allocentric judgements concerning the explored square. The results showed that individuals with agoraphobia had reduced working memory only when active processing of spatial elements was required, suggesting that they exhibit spatial difficulties particularly in complex spatial tasks requiring them to process information simultaneously. Specifically, VSWM deficits mediated the relationship between agoraphobia and performance in the allocentric judgements. The results are discussed considering the theoretical background of agoraphobia in order to provide useful elements for the early diagnosis of this disorder.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jefferson Ortega ◽  
Chelsea Reichert Plaska ◽  
Bernard A Gomes ◽  
Timothy M Ellmore

Spontaneous eye blink rate (sEBR) has been found to be a non-invasive indirect measure of striatal dopamine activity. Dopamine (DA) neurons project to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) through the mesocortical dopamine pathway and their activity is implicated in a range of cognitive functions, including attention and working memory (WM). The goal of the present study was to understand how fluctuations in sEBR during different phases of a working memory task relate to task performance. Across two experiments, with recordings of sEBR inside and outside of a magnetic resonance imaging bore, we observed sEBR to be positively correlated with WM performance during the WM delay period. Additionally we investigated the non-linear relationship between sEBR and WM performance, and modeled a proposed Inverted-U-shape relationship between DA and WM performance. We also investigated blink duration, which is proposed to be related to sustained attention, and found blink duration to be significantly shorter during the encoding and probe periods of the task. Taken together, these results provide support towards sEBR as an important correlate of working memory task performance. The relationship of sEBR to DA activity and the influence of DA on the PFC during WM maintenance is discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 204380871987614
Author(s):  
Nisha Yao ◽  
Marcus A. Rodriguez ◽  
Mengyao He ◽  
Mingyi Qian

Experimental studies have yielded discrepant results regarding the relationship between anxiety and attention bias to threat. Cognitive factors modulating the presence of threat-related attention bias in anxiety have drawn growing attention. Previous research demonstrated that visual working memory (WM) representations can guide attention allocation in a top-down manner. Whether threat-related WM representations affected the presence of attention bias in anxiety awaits examination. Combining a memory task and a dot-probe task, this study investigated how WM representations of faces with neutral or negative expressions modulated the attention bias to threat among highly anxious individuals versus controls. Results showed that highly anxious individuals developed more pronounced attention bias to threat when maintaining WM representations of negative faces as compared to the control group. There were no significant between-group effects when the WM representations were neutral. These results suggested that highly anxious individuals were more susceptible to the influence of mental representations with negative valence on attention deployment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 98-98
Author(s):  
Corinne Cannavale ◽  
Caitlyn Edwards ◽  
Ruyu Liu ◽  
Samantha Iwinski ◽  
Anne Walk ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Carotenoids are plant pigments known to deposit in neural tissues including the hippocampus, a brain substrate that supports several memory forms. However, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding carotenoid status and working memory function in children. Accordingly, this study aimed to understand the relationship between macular and skin carotenoids to visual and auditory working memory (WM) function. Methods Seventy preadolescent children (7–12 years, 32 males) were recruited from the East-Central Illinois area. Auditory working memory was assessed using the story recall subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Test of Cognitive Abilities. A subsample (N = 61, 27 males) completed a visual working memory task and reaction time was quantified to determine speed of memory processing at set sizes of 1 to 4 items. Macular pigment optical density (MPOD) was assessed using customized heterochromatic flicker photometry. Skin carotenoids were assessed using reflection spectroscopy (Veggie Meter). Hierarchical linear regressions were conducted to assess the relationship between carotenoid status and WM function, while controlling for age, sex, income, and whole-body % fat (DXA). Results Auditory WM was positively associated with skin carotenoids (b = 0.263, P = 0.039) but not MPOD (b = −0.044, P = 0.380). In contrast, MPOD was significantly associated with faster visual WM speed at set size 3 (b = −0.253, P = 0.039) and trending at set sizes of 1 (b = −0.225, P = 0.051), 2 (b = −0.171, P = 0.121), and 4 (b = −0.230, P = 0.055). Interestingly, skin carotenoids were not related to visual WM performance at either set size (all P’s > 0.300). Conclusions These results indicate that auditory and visual WM may be differentially related to carotenoids. While skin carotenoids encompass all carotenoids consumed in diet, lutein and zeaxanthin are the only carotenoids which deposit in the macula. Given that MPOD was only related to visual WM, this suggests lutein plays a larger role in these neural functions relative to auditory WM. Interestingly, MPOD's relationship with visual WM increased in strength with the more difficult trial type (i.e., increasing set size), indicating MPOD is related at higher levels of WM capacity. Funding Sources This study was funded by the Egg Nutrition Center.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (1) ◽  
pp. 13658
Author(s):  
Amir Erez ◽  
Christine L. Porath ◽  
Trevor Foulk

2008 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriëlla A.M. Blokland ◽  
Katie L. McMahon ◽  
Jan Hoffman ◽  
Gu Zhu ◽  
Matthew Meredith ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1708) ◽  
pp. 20160005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Umeda ◽  
Saiko Tochizawa ◽  
Midori Shibata ◽  
Yuri Terasawa

Previous studies on prospective memory (PM), defined as memory for future intentions, suggest that psychological stress enhances successful PM retrieval. However, the mechanisms underlying this notion remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that PM retrieval is achieved through interaction with autonomic nervous activity, which is mediated by the individual accuracy of interoceptive awareness, as measured by the heartbeat detection task. In this study, the relationship between cardiac reactivity and retrieval of delayed intentions was evaluated using the event-based PM task. Participants were required to detect PM target letters while engaged in an ongoing 2-back working memory task. The results demonstrated that individuals with higher PM task performance had a greater increase in heart rate on PM target presentation. Also, higher interoceptive perceivers showed better PM task performance. This pattern was not observed for working memory task performance. These findings suggest that cardiac afferent signals enhance PM retrieval, which is mediated by individual levels of interoceptive accuracy. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Interoception beyond homeostasis: affect, cognition and mental health’.


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