scholarly journals Developing Adaptive Control: Age-related Differences in Task Choices and Awareness of Proactive and Reactive Control Demands

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse C Niebaum ◽  
Nicolas Chevalier ◽  
Ryan Mori Guild ◽  
Yuko Munakata
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Control Mode ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Age Related

Developmental changes in executive function are often explained in terms of core cognitive processes and associated neural substrates. For example, younger children tend to engage control reactively in the moment as needed, whereas older children increasingly engage control proactively, in anticipation of needing it. Such developments may reflect increasing capacities for active maintenance dependent upon dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. However, younger children will engage proactive control when reactive control is made more difficult, suggesting that developmental changes may also reflect decisions about whether to engage control, and how. We tested awareness of temporal control demands and associated task choices in 5- and 10-year-olds and adults using a demand selection task. Participants chose between one task that enabled proactive control and another task that enabled reactive control. Adults reported awareness of these different control demands and preferentially played the proactive task option. Ten-year-olds reported awareness of control demands but selected task options at chance. Five-year-olds showed neither awareness nor task preference, but a subsample who exhibited awareness of control demands preferentially played the reactive task option, mirroring their typical control mode. Thus, developmental improvements in executive function may in part reflect better awareness of cognitive demands and adaptive behavior, which may in turn reflect changes in dorsal anterior cingulate in signaling task demands to lateral prefrontal cortex.

scholarly journals Cognitive Control in Young and Older Adults: Does Mood Matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Linda Truong ◽  
Kesaan Kandasamy ◽  
Lixia Yang
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Mood Induction ◽  
Control Mode ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Control Framework ◽  
Neutral Mood

The dual mechanisms of control framework (DMC) proposes two modes of cognitive control: proactive and reactive control. In anticipation of an interference event, young adults primarily use a more proactive control mode, whereas older adults tend to use a more reactive one during the event, due to age-related deficits in working memory. The current study aimed to examine the effects of mood induction on cognitive control mode in older (ages 65+) compared to young adults (ages 18–30) with a standard letter-cue (Experiment 1) and a modified face-cue AX-CPT (Experiment 2). Mood induction into negative and/or positive mood versus neutral mood was conducted prior to the cognitive control task. Experiment 1 replicated the typical pattern of proactive control use in young adults and reactive control use in older adults. In Experiment 2, older adults showed comparable proactive control to young adults in their response time (RT). Mood induction showed little effect on cognitive control across the two experiments. These results did not reveal consistent effects of mood (negative or positive) on cognitive control mode in young and older adults, but discovered (or demonstrated) that older adults can engage proactive control when dichotomous face cues (female or male) are used in AX-CPT.

scholarly journals Dynamic Adjustments of Midfrontal Control Signals in Adults and Adolescents

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mate Gyurkovics ◽  
Liat Levita
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Early Adolescents ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Theta Oscillations ◽  
Temporal Consistency ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Age Related

Abstract During task performance, our level of cognitive control is dynamically adjusted to task demands as reflected, for example, by the congruency sequence effect (CSE) in conflict tasks. Although brain areas related to cognitive control show protracted maturation across adolescence, previous studies found that adolescents show similar behavioral CSEs to adults. In the present study, we investigated whether there are age-related changes in the neural underpinnings of dynamic control adjustments using electroencephalography. Early adolescents (ages 12–14, N = 30) and young adults (ages 25–27, N = 29) completed a confound-minimized flanker task optimized for the detection of sequential control adjustments. The CSE was observed in midfrontal theta power thought to capture anterior cingulate cortex-mediated monitoring processes but was not modulated significantly by age. Adolescents, however, showed a smaller congruency effect in the power and cross-trial temporal consistency of midfrontal theta oscillations than adults. No age differences were observed in phase-based connectivity between midfrontal and lateral frontal regions in the theta band. These findings provide strong support for the role of midfrontal theta oscillations in conflict monitoring and reactive control and suggest that the cognitive system of early adolescents initially responds less reliably to the occurrence of conflict than that of adults.

scholarly journals Can a Theater Acting Intervention Enhance Inhibitory Control in Older Adults? A Brain-Behavior Investigation

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aishwarya Rajesh ◽  
Tony Noice ◽  
Helga Noice ◽  
Andrew Jahn ◽  
Ana M. Daugherty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Active Control ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Age Related

Purpose: Studies of reactive and proactive modes of inhibitory control tend to show age-related declines and are accompanied by abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex. We explored which mode of inhibitory control would be more amenable to change and accrue greater benefits following engagement in a 4-week theater acting intervention in older adults. These gains were evaluated by performance on the AX-CPT task. We hypothesized that an increase in proactive control would relate to an increase in AY errors and a decrease in BX errors. In contrast, an increase in reactive control would be associated with a decrease in AY errors, no change in AY reaction time, and an increase in BX response time. Further, we posited that an increase in behavioral proactive control would accompany greater cue versus probe activity for previously identified regions in the prefrontal cortex. In contrast, an increase in behavioral reactive control would be accompanied by greater probe activation in these identified brain areas.Materials and Methods: The participants were 179 community-dwelling adults aged 60–89 years who were on average, college-educated. Participants were pseudo-randomly assigned to either an active-experiencing acting intervention condition (n = 93) or the active control condition (n = 86); participant assignment was subject to time of enrollment. Participants in both groups were trained by theater-actor researchers with expertise in acting interventions. In contrast to the active control participants who attended a course on theater acting, the acting-intervention group was required to consistently deploy proactive and reactive control mechanisms. Both groups met two times/week for 75-min for 4 weeks. Participant brain-behavioral performance on the AX-CPT task was evaluated prior to and after this four-week period.Results: No intervention effects were found in favor of proactive control. Behavioral evidence in favor of reactive control was weak. Brain-related benefits to reactive control was illustrated by greater probe-activation in Brodmann areas 6 and 8, relative to controls and pre-intervention.Conclusion: We found some evidence for improvements in reactive control via brain measures, attributed to engagement in the acting intervention.

scholarly journals The Interactions Between Cognitive Control, Aging, and Emotion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Truong
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Goal Maintenance ◽  
Age Related

The dual mechanisms of control framework proposes that age-related declines in cognitive control are due to deficits with continuous goal maintenance (proactive control). Older adults default instead to another form of control (reactive control). In contrast to these declines, older adults demonstrate preserved emotional processing. According to the socioemotional selectivity theory, perceived time constraints related to advancing age results in emotional regulation goals in which older adults prioritize positive well-being or mood. To achieve this, they devote more cognitive resources and pay greater attention to positive versus negative information (“positivity effects”) than younger adults. Research on the interactions between cognitive control and emotion is increasing but work focused on the interactions in older adults is limited. Thus, it is unknown how older adults' emotional goals may influence their goal maintenance deficits. This study manipulated mood and emotional face stimuli to examine whether these factors affect age differences in cognitive control between younger (ages 18-30) and older adults (ages 65+). Experiment 1 induced neutral or negative moods prior to a cognitive control task (the standard letter AX-CPT task). Results indicated typical patterns of proactive control in younger adults and reactive control in older adults that did not vary substantially by mood. Experiment 2 examined the effects of neutral, negative, and positive mood inductions on a less cognitively demanding version of the AX-CPT (with face cues as contextual information). Results showed evidence of enhanced proactive control in older adults that was comparable to that of younger adults across all mood conditions, although this was limited to response time data. Additionally, there was evidence of small mood effects on cognitive control. Finally, Experiment 3 examined the effect of positive, negative, and neutral contextual information (face cues) on older adults' cognitive control performance using a different variant of the AX-CPT (face AX-CPT). Results indicated strong engagement in reactive control that did not vary by the emotionality of the contextual information. Together, the results of this study suggest that older adults’ proactive control patterns are affected by the task demands of the AX-CPT, but there is less evidence of mood or emotional stimuli effects.

Age differences in ventromedial prefrontal cortex functional connectivity during socioemotional content processing

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Ryan T. Daley ◽  
Holly J. Bowen ◽  
Eric C. Fields ◽  
Angela Gutchess ◽  
Elizabeth A. Kensinger
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Emotional Content ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Supramarginal Gyrus ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Content Processing

Self-relevance effects are often confounded by the presence of emotional content, rendering it difficult to determine how brain networks functionally connected to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are affected by the independent contributions of self-relevance and emotion. This difficulty is complicated by age-related changes in functional connectivity between the vmPFC and other default mode network regions, and regions typically associated with externally oriented networks. We asked groups of younger and older adults to imagine placing emotional and neutral objects in their home or a stranger's home. An age-invariant vmPFC cluster showed increased activation for self-relevant and emotional content processing. Functional connectivity analyses revealed age × self-relevance interactions in vmPFC connectivity with the anterior cingulate cortex. There were also age × emotion interactions in vmPFC functional connectivity with the anterior insula, orbitofrontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus. Interactions occurred in regions with the greatest differences between the age groups, as revealed by conjunction analyses. Implications of the findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Slower adaptation of control strategies in individuals with high impulsive tendencies

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Grisetto ◽  
Yvonne N. Delevoye-Turrell ◽  
Clémence Roger
Keyword(s):  
Control Strategies ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Score Distribution ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Split Method ◽  
Median Split ◽  
Reactive Processes

AbstractFlexible use of reactive and proactive control according to environmental demands is the key to adaptive behavior. In this study, forty-eight adults performed ten blocks of an AX-CPT task to reveal the strength of proactive control by the calculation of the proactive behavioral index (PBI). They also filled out the UPPS questionnaire to assess their impulsiveness. The median-split method based on the global UPPS score distribution was used to categorize participants as having high (HI) or low (LI) impulsiveness traits. The analyses revealed that the PBI was negatively correlated with the UPPS scores, suggesting that the higher is the impulsiveness, the weaker the dominance of proactive control processes. We showed, at an individual level, that the PBI increased across blocks and suggested that this effect was due to a smaller decrease in reactive control processes. Notably, the PBI increase was slower in the HI group than in the LI group. Moreover, participants who did not adapt to task demands were all characterized as high impulsive. Overall, the current study demonstrates that (1) impulsiveness is associated with less dominant proactive control due to (2) slower adaptation to task demands (3) driven by a stronger reliance on reactive processes. These findings are discussed in regards to pathological populations.

scholarly journals Aging-Related Hypometabolism in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex of Cognitively Intact, Amyloid-Negative Seniors at Rest Mediates the Relationship between Age and Executive Function but Not Memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
José V Pardo ◽  
Shantal M Nyabwari ◽  
Joel T Lee ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Metabolic Dysfunction ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Regional Specificity ◽  
Cognitively Intact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) shows the most aging-related brain metabolic dysfunction that correlates with decreasing executive processing in otherwise healthy, cognitively intact volunteers. Here, data from ADNI are used to elucidate potential pathophysiological mechanisms involved in cognitive aging, that is, age-related decline in cognitive performance in the absence of known neurodegenerative disease. Amyloid-negative volunteers showed statistically significant mediation of ACC metabolism in the relationship between age and verbal fluency. A nonlinguistic task of executive function, Trails B, showed also negative correlation between performance and age, albeit weaker, but was not significant in the mediation analysis. Recall of story items, minimizing attentional demands compared with learning of word lists, did not correlate with age. ADNI subjects selected for low vascular risks also showed correlation between age and declining ACC metabolism. In the whole-brain amyloid-negative subset, ACC amyloid was not correlated with age. As expected, the metabolism in an arbitrary region such as motor cortex that was not expected to decline with cognitive aging showed no correlation with age or ACC metabolism suggesting regional specificity. These findings motivate the search for the pathophysiology of aging-related ACC dysfunction to prevent, diagnose, and treat the decline in executive function associated with cognitive aging.

scholarly journals Sustained and Transient Processes in Event-based Prospective Memory in Adolescence and Adulthood

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1924-1945
Author(s):  
Lucía Magis-Weinberg ◽  
Ruud Custers ◽  
Iroise Dumontheil
Keyword(s):  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Proactive Control ◽  
Reactive Control ◽  
Strategic Monitoring ◽  
Cue Salience ◽  
Event Based

Prospective memory (PM) refers to the cognitive processes associated with remembering to perform an intended action after a delay. Varying the salience of PM cues while keeping the intended response constant, we investigated the extent to which participants relied on strategic monitoring, through sustained, top–down control, or on spontaneous retrieval via transient bottom–up processes. There is mixed evidence regarding developmental improvements in event-based PM performance after the age of 13 years. We compared PM performance and associated sustained and transient neural correlates in 28 typically developing adolescents (12–17 years old) and 19 adults (23–30 years old). Lower PM cue salience associated with slower ongoing task (OT) RTs, reflected by increased μ ex-Gaussian parameter, and sustained increases in frontoparietal activation during OT blocks, both thought to reflect greater proactive control supporting cue monitoring. Behavioral and neural correlates of PM trials were not specifically modulated by cue salience, revealing little difference in reactive control between conditions. The effect of cue salience was similar across age groups, suggesting that adolescents are able to adapt proactive control engagement to PM task demands. Exploratory analyses showed that younger, but not older, adolescents were less accurate and slower in PM trials relative to OT trials than adults and showed greater transient activation in PM trials in an occipito-temporal cluster. These results provide evidence of both mature and still maturing aspects of cognitive processes associated with implementation of an intention after a delay during early adolescence.

Prefrontal Cortex Activity During Walking: Effects of Aging and Associations With Gait and Executive Function

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 915-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscila Nóbrega-Sousa ◽  
Lilian Teresa Bucken Gobbi ◽  
Diego Orcioli-Silva ◽  
Núbia Ribeiro da Conceição ◽  
Victor Spiandor Beretta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Compensatory Mechanism ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Obstacle Crossing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Gait Parameters ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
Gait Impairments

Background Declines in gait parameters are common with aging and more pronounced in tasks with increased executive demand. However, the neural correlates of age-related gait impairments are not fully understood yet. Objectives To investigate ( a) the effects of aging on prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity and gait parameters during usual walking, obstacle crossing and dual-task walking and ( b) the association between PFC activity and measures of gait and executive function. Methods Eighty-eight healthy individuals were distributed into 6 age-groups: 20-25 (G20), 30-35 (G30), 40-45 (G40), 50-55 (G50), 60-65 (G60), and 70-75 years (G70). Participants walked overground under 3 conditions: usual walking, obstacle crossing, and dual-task walking. Changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin in the PFC were recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Gait spatiotemporal parameters were assessed using an electronic walkway. Executive function was assessed through validated tests. Results Between-group differences on PFC activity were observed for all conditions. Multiple groups (ie, G30, G50, G60, and G70) showed increased PFC activity in at least one of the walking conditions. Young adults (G20 and G30) had the lowest levels of PFC activity while G60 had the highest levels. Only G70 showed reduced executive function and gait impairments (which were more pronounced during obstacle crossing and dual-task walking). PFC activity was related to gait and executive function. Conclusions Aging causes a gradual increase in PFC activity during walking. This compensatory mechanism may reach the resource ceiling in the 70s, when reduced executive function limits its efficiency and gait impairments are observed.

scholarly journals Interaction of irritability and anxiety on emotional responding and emotion regulation: a functional MRI study

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Kathleen I. Crum ◽  
Soonjo Hwang ◽  
Karina S. Blair ◽  
Joseph M. Aloi ◽  
Harma Meffert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Emotional Disorders ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Emotional States

Abstract Background Irritability and anxiety frequently co-occur in pediatric populations. Studies separately looking at the neural correlates of these symptoms have identified engagement of similar neural systems – particularly those implicated in emotional processing. Both irritability and anxiety can be considered negative valence emotional states that might relate to emotion dysregulation. However, previous work has not examined the neural responding during the performance of an emotion regulation task as a function of interaction between irritability and anxiety simultaneously. Methods This fMRI study involved 155 participants (90 with significant psychopathologies and 92 male) who performed the Affective Stroop Task, designed to engage emotion regulation as a function of task demands. The Affective Reactivity Index (ARI) was used to index irritability and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) was used to index anxiety. Results Levels of irritability, but not anxiety, was positively correlated with responses to visual images within the right rostro-medial prefrontal cortex and left anterior cingulate cortex during view trials. The second region of ventral anterior cingulate cortex showed a condition-by-emotion-by-ARI score-by-SCARED score interaction. Specifically, anxiety level was significantly correlated with a decreased differential BOLD response to negative relative to neutral view trials but only in the presence of relatively high irritability. Conclusions Atypical maintenance of emotional stimuli within the rostro-medial prefrontal cortex may exacerbate the difficulties faced by adolescents with irritability. Moreover, increased anxiety combined with significant irritability may disrupt an automatic emotional conflict-based form of emotion regulation that is particularly associated with the ventral anterior cingulate cortex.

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