Social priming improves cognitive control in elderly adults--evidence from the Simon task.
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SUBMITTER: Aisenberg D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4311990 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:While information that is associated with inappropriate responses can interfere with an ongoing task and be detrimental to performance, cognitive control mechanisms and specific contextual conditions can alleviate interference from unwanted information. In the spatial correspondence (Simon) task, interference has been consistently shown to be reduced by spatial non-correspondence in the previous trial (i.e., correspondence sequence effect, CSE); however the mechanisms supporting this sequential effect are not well understood. Here we investigated the role of novelty and trial-to-trial changes in stimulus and response features in a Simon task, observing similar modulation of CSE for novel and non-novel stimulus changes. However, changing the response modality from trial to trial dampened CSE, and this dampening was more pronounced when the probability of switch trials was higher, suggesting a role for long-term learning. The results are consistent with recent accounts, which indicate that spatial interference can be prevented by cognitive control mechanisms triggered by learned bindings.
| S-EPMC10497436 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Previous research has indicated that frontal midline theta (FMθ) reflects a domain-general cognitive control mechanism of the prefrontal cortex. Brain imaging studies have shown that the inhibition of implicit stereotypes was dependent on this domain-general cognitive control mechanism. Based on this knowledge, the present study investigated the neural oscillatory correlates of implicit gender stereotype control in an extrinsic affective Simon task (EAST) using electrophysiological methods. Participants in this task conducted verification to white gender names and colored gender traits, and their behavioral response and electroencephalogram (EEG) were recorded during their performances. As predicted, stereotype-inconsistent trials resulted in reduced response accuracies and slower response times than stereotype-consistent trials. For the event-related potential (ERP) results, the enhanced performance of stereotype-inconsistent trials was accompanied by an enhanced N400 amplitude but an attenuated late positive potential amplitude. In contrast, early attentional components such as P2 and N2 as well as their amplitudes were impacted by the experimental manipulations and individual differences in gender factors. In addition, based on time–frequency (TF) analysis, we found that the enhanced performance of stereotype-inconsistent trials was also accompanied by an event-related synchronization on the frontal theta oscillation. This frontal theta appeared at a late processing stage and persisted across a time window from N400 to late positive potential. Additionally, this enhanced frontal theta effect was not modulated by the experimental manipulations and individual differences in gender factors. Based on these findings, the feature of frontal theta oscillation in the implicit gender stereotype control process was discussed.
| S-EPMC7773647 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In this paper we probe the interaction between sequential and hierarchical learning by investigating implicit learning in a group of school-aged children. We administered a serial reaction time task, in the form of a modified Simon Task in which the stimuli were organised following the rules of two distinct artificial grammars, specifically Lindenmayer systems: the Fibonacci grammar (Fib) and the Skip grammar (a modification of the former). The choice of grammars is determined by the goal of this study, which is to investigate how sensitivity to structure emerges in the course of exposure to an input whose surface transitional properties (by hypothesis) bootstrap structure. The studies conducted to date have been mainly designed to investigate low-level superficial regularities, learnable in purely statistical terms, whereas hierarchical learning has not been effectively investigated yet. The possibility to directly pinpoint the interplay between sequential and hierarchical learning is instead at the core of our study: we presented children with two grammars, Fib and Skip, which share the same transitional regularities, thus providing identical opportunities for sequential learning, while crucially differing in their hierarchical structure. More particularly, there are specific points in the sequence (k-points), which, despite giving rise to the same transitional regularities in the two grammars, support hierarchical reconstruction in Fib but not in Skip. In our protocol, children were simply asked to perform a traditional Simon Task, and they were completely unaware of the real purposes of the task. Results indicate that sequential learning occurred in both grammars, as shown by the decrease in reaction times throughout the task, while differences were found in the sensitivity to k-points: these, we contend, play a role in hierarchical reconstruction in Fib, whereas they are devoid of structural significance in Skip. More particularly, we found that children were faster in correspondence to k-points in sequences produced by Fib, thus providing an entirely new kind of evidence for the hypothesis that implicit learning involves an early activation of strategies of hierarchical reconstruction, based on a straightforward interplay with the statistically-based computation of transitional regularities on the sequences of symbols.
| S-EPMC7224470 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Stroop task is a paradigmatic psychological task for investigating stimulus conflict and the effect this has on response selection. The model of Cohen et al. (Cohen et al. 1990 Psychol. Rev. 97, 332-361) has hitherto provided the best account of performance in the Stroop task, but there remains certain key data that it fails to match. We show that this failure is due to the mechanism used to perform final response selection-one based on the diffusion model of choice behaviour (Ratcliff 1978 Psychol. Rev. 85, 59-108). We adapt the model to use a selection mechanism which is based on the putative human locus of final response selection, the basal ganglia/thalamo-cortical complex (Redgrave et al. 1999 Neuroscience 89, 1009-1023). This improves the match to the core human data and, additionally, makes it possible for the model to accommodate, in a principled way, additional mechanisms of cognitive control that enable better fits to the data. This work prompts a critique of the diffusion model as a mechanism of response selection, and the features that any response mechanism must possess to provide adaptive action selection. We conclude that the consideration of biologically constrained solutions to the action selection problem is vital to the understanding and improvement of cognitive models of response selection.
| S-EPMC2440779 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Introduction The ability to resolve interference declines with age and is attributed to neurodegeneration and reduced cognitive function and mental alertness in older adults. Our previous study revealed that task-irrelevant but environmentally meaningful sounds improve performance on the modified Simon task in older adults. However, little is known about neural correlates of this sound facilitation effect. Methods Twenty right-handed older adults [mean age = 72 (SD = 4), 11 female] participated in the fMRI study. They performed the modified Simon task in which the arrows were presented either in the locations matching the arrow direction (congruent trials) or in the locations mismatching the arrow direction (incongruent trials). A total of 50% of all trials were accompanied by task-irrelevant but environmentally meaningful sounds. Results Participants were faster on the trials with concurrent sounds, independently of whether trials were congruent or incongruent. The sound effect was associated with activation in the distributed network of auditory, posterior parietal, frontal, and limbic brain regions. The magnitude of the behavioral facilitation effect due to sound was associated with the changes in activation of the bilateral auditory cortex, cuneal cortex, and occipital fusiform gyrus, precuneus, left superior parietal lobule (SPL) for No Sound vs. Sound trials. These changes were associated with the corresponding changes in reaction time (RT). Older adults with a recent history of falls showed greater activation in the left SPL than those without falls history. Conclusion Our findings are consistent with the dedifferentiation hypothesis of cognitive aging. The facilitatory effect of sound could be achieved through recruitment of excessive neural resources, which allows older adults to increase attention and mental alertness during task performance. Considering that the SPL is critical for integration of multisensory information, individuals with slower task responses and those with a history of falls may need to recruit this region more actively than individuals with faster responses and those without a fall history to overcome increased difficulty with interference resolution. Future studies should examine the relationship among activation in the SPL, the effect of sound, and falls history in the individuals who are at heightened risk of falls.
| S-EPMC10461020 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Many studies have investigated how social exclusion influences cognitive control but reported inconsistent findings. Based on the dual mechanisms of control framework, this study investigated how social exclusion influences proactive and reactive modes of control (Experiment 1) and the underlying mechanisms (Experiment 2). The Cyberball game was used to manipulate social exclusion. Eighty-six female participants (about 40 for each experiment) performed cognitive control tasks while event-related potentials were recorded. In Experiment 1, an AX Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) was adopted to differentiate between proactive and reactive control. Results showed that social exclusion weakened proactive control but enhanced reactive control, as reflected by the weaker proactive control indicators (i.e., P3b and CNV), but strengthened reactive control indicators (accuracy and N2) in excluded individuals. More importantly, in Experiment 2, through varying in whether task cues were available before or after target onset in a cued-flanker task, we further manipulated the possibility of engaging proactive control, and found the weakened proactive control could be attributed to both impaired cognitive ability and lowered motivation to engage proactive control in excluded individuals. Together, these results provide insight on how social exclusion influences cognitive control and suggest promising implications for designing effective interventions to relieve the negative impact of social exclusion.
| S-EPMC7294065 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To determine whether older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus and cognitive dysfunction have poorer metabolic control of glycosylated hemoglobin, systolic blood pressure, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol than those without cognitive dysfunction.Prospective cohort study.A minority cohort in New York City previously recruited for a trial of telemedicine.Persons aged 73.0 ± 3.0 (N = 613; 69.5% female; 82.5% Hispanic, 15.5% non-Hispanic black).Participants were classified with executive or memory dysfunction based on standardized score cutoffs (<16th percentile) for the Color Trails Test and Selective Reminding Test. Linear mixed models were used to compare repeated measures of the metabolic measures and evaluate the rates of change in individuals with and without dysfunction.Of the 613 participants, 331 (54%) had executive dysfunction, 202 (33%) had memory dysfunction, and 96 (16%) had both. Over a median of 2 years, participants with executive or memory dysfunction did not exhibit significantly poorer metabolic control than those without executive function or memory type cognitive dysfunction.Cognitive dysfunction in the mild range did not seem to affect diabetes mellitus control parameters in this multiethnic cohort of older adults with diabetes mellitus, although it cannot be excluded that cognitive impairment was overcome through assistance from formal or informal caregivers. It is possible that more-severe cognitive dysfunction could affect control.
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Project description:Aging is associated with impaired vaccine efficacy and increased susceptibility to infectious and malignant diseases. CD8(+) T-cells are key players in the immune response against pathogens and tumors. In aged mice, the dwindling naïve CD8(+) T-cell compartment is thought to compromise the induction of de novo immune responses, but no experimental evidence is yet available in humans. Here, we used an original in vitro assay based on an accelerated dendritic cell coculture system in unfractioned peripheral blood mononuclear cells to examine CD8(+) T-cell priming efficacy in human volunteers. Using this approach, we report that old individuals consistently mount quantitatively and qualitatively impaired de novo CD8(+) T-cell responses specific for a model antigen. Reduced CD8(+) T-cell priming capacity in vitro was further associated with poor primary immune responsiveness in vivo. This immune deficit likely arises as a consequence of intrinsic cellular defects and a reduction in the size of the naïve CD8(+) T-cell pool. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the cellular immune insufficiencies that accompany human aging.
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Project description:The dynamics of cognitive control have been investigated by the proportion congruency effect. However, the theory that this effect is due to attentional modulation has been challenged by contingency learning accounts. This raises the question of how the cognitive control system operates during and after increasing the strength of task-irrelevant stimulus-response (S-R) associations. We employed a novel paradigm that elicits positive and reversed Simon effects via task rule manipulations, and combined it with a between subjects proportion congruency manipulation. The pattern of enhancement and reversal of the positive and reversed Simon effects across conditions suggested that participants used strengthened task-irrelevant S-R associations to predict responses. Functional neuroimaging identified proportion congruency effects that interacted with task S-R associations, showing greater activity when strengthened task-irrelevant S-R associations conflicted with task-defined S-R associations in frontoparietal regions, including bilateral superior parietal lobule (SPL) and dorsal premotor cortex (dPMC), presupplementary motor area/anterior midcingulate cortex (Pre-SMA/aMCC), and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). These results suggest that the aMCC and DLPFC shifted to responding mainly to the conflict induced by the strengthened irrelevant S-R associations. The SPL and dPMC might represent the strengthened irrelevant S-R associations. Hum Brain Mapp 37:756-772, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
| S-EPMC6867322 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent studies have demonstrated that maintaining task-sets in working memory (WM) for prospective implementation can interfere with performance on an intervening task when the same stimulus requires incompatible responses in the ongoing versus the prospective task. This prospective task-set interference effect has previously been conceptualized as an obligatory process, resulting from instruction-based reflexivity (IBR). However, the extent to which strategic control can be exerted over interference in ongoing behavior from prospective task-sets held in WM has heretofore not been tested directly. To probe for strategic control over this effect, the authors conducted 3 experiments using a common inducer-diagnostic task design that manipulated the proportion compatibility of trials in the ongoing task. They hypothesized that if prospective task-set interference were malleable by control, participants would suppress the influence of the prospective set on ongoing processing when incompatible trials are frequent. Consistent with this prediction, the results show that prospective task-set interference is subject to modulation by strategic control such that the magnitude of interference is reduced, eliminated, or reversed in the presence of frequent incompatible trials. Thus, the influence on ongoing behavior of a prospective task-set held in WM is not obligatory, but subject to strategic control. (PsycINFO Database Record
| S-EPMC5934324 | biostudies-literature