Developmental Trajectories of Executive and Verbal Processes in Children with Phenylketonuria.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Hawks ZW
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5902806 | biostudies-literature | 2018
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The development of verbal fluency is associated with the maturation of executive function skills, such as the ability to inhibit irrelevant information, shift between tasks, and hold information in working memory. Some evidence suggests that multilinguistic upbringing may underpin disadvantages in verbal fluency and lexical retrieval, but can also afford executive function advantages beyond the language system including possible beneficial effects in older age. This study examined the relationship between verbal fluency and executive function in 324 individuals across the lifespan by assessing the developmental trajectories of English monolingual and multilingual children aged 7-15 years (N = 154) and adults from 18 to 80 years old (N = 170). The childhood data indicated patterns of improvement in verbal fluency and executive function skills as a function of age. Multilingual and monolingual children had comparable developmental trajectories in all linguistic and non-linguistic measures used in the study with the exception of planning, for which monolingual children showed a steeper improvement over the studied age range relative to multilingual children. For adults, monolinguals and multilingual participants had comparable performance on all measures with the exception of nonverbal inhibitory control and response times on the Tower of London task: monolinguals showed a steeper decline associated with age. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that verbal fluency was associated with working memory and fluid intelligence in monolingual participants but not in multilinguals. These findings raise the possibility that early acquisition of an additional language may impact on the development of the functional architecture serving high-level human cognition.
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Project description:In verbal working memory, two processes serve to retain a fading memory trace: subvocal rehearsal and lexical redintegration. While recent studies on students with mild and borderline intellectual disabilities (MBID) have yielded mixed results on rehearsal, redintegration has not been researched in MBID, yet. Furthermore, most studies have used a group-matched design which, due to methodological constraints, can only distinguish between two different development patterns. Thus, we study both rehearsal and redintegration in students with MBID using developmental trajectories that have greater potential for identifying differential developmental patterns than traditional group-matching approaches. We investigate whether three aspects in working memory develop differently in students with MBID in comparison to typically developing students: (a) the general capacity of the phonological loop, and the effectiveness of (b) rehearsal, and (c) redintegration. We use three different developmental indicators to compare trajectories: chronological age, cognitive capacity, and vocabulary size. N = 210 students (87 students with MBID, 123 typically developing students) completed working memory span tasks with short and long (1- vs. 3-syllable) real words and pseudowords. The effect for word length (short vs. long) measures rehearsal, and the lexicality effect (real words vs. pseudowords) measures redintegration. Results show that developmental trajectories reveal an intercept difference but no slowed rate in rehearsal, and no impairment in redintegration. However, concerning the developmental relation between redintegration and vocabulary size, students with MBID reveal a differential pattern as redintegration appears higher for students with small vocabulary size, but unexpectedly decreases as vocabulary size increases. We conclude that students with MBID show a delayed onset in the development of capacity of the phonological loop and rehearsal and that they do not catch up in their development. Redintegration does not seem to be impaired in relation to age and cognitive capacity. However, the differential relation of redintegration with vocabulary size calls for further research. While impaired subvocal rehearsal appears to be connected to the developmental problems of students with MBID, lexical redintegration seems to be intact in relation to chronological age and cognitive capacity, making it a possible area of strength.
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Project description:Executive functions demonstrate variable developmental and aging profiles, with protracted development into early adulthood and declines in older age. However, relatively few studies have specifically included middle-aged adults in investigations of age-related differences in executive functions. This study explored the age-related differences in executive function from late childhood through to old age, allowing a more informed understanding of executive functions across the lifespan. Three hundred and fifty participants aged 10 to 86 years-old completed a battery of tasks assessing the specific roles of inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning. Results highlighted continued improvement in working memory capacity across adolescence and into young adulthood, followed by declines in both working memory and inhibitory control, beginning from as early as 30-40 years old and continuing into older age. Analyses of planning abilities showed continued improvement across adolescence and into young adulthood, followed by a decline in abilities across adulthood, with a small (positive) change in older age. Interestingly, a dissociation was found for cognitive flexibility; switch costs decreased, yet mixing costs increased across the lifespan. The results provide a description of the developmental differences in inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility and planning, above any effects of IQ or SES, and highlight the importance of including middle-aged adults in studies seeking to establish a more comprehensive picture of age-related differences in executive function.
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Project description:The modern understanding of the term metacognition encompasses two levels of processing: a lower level awareness or knowledge of one's own thoughts and a higher level regulation or control of our thinking. Metacognition, therefore, bears conceptual similarity with executive function: both are concerned with top-down monitoring and control of cognition in the service of ongoing goal-directed behaviour. Previous studies have shown a possible executive function advantage in multilingual speakers but also a possible disadvantage in metacognitive processing. To progress theory on metacognitive processing and the relationship with executive function and linguistic experience across the lifespan, we conducted a study testing 330 healthy individuals in four age groups from 7 to 80 years old. All participants performed a metacognition task and two measures of executive function, which included the Simon task and the Tower of London task. Half the participants were multilingual speakers since birth. We built developmental trajectories of metacognitive and executive function across the lifespan. The best metacognitive efficiency was observed in mid-adulthood, whereas the best executive function processing reached its peak in young adulthood. A steep cognitive decline was observed in older age, while metacognitive efficiency was preserved. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that metacognition and executive function are served by different factors across all ages. Contrary to previous findings in the bilingual literature, a multilinguistic experience conferred neither any significant advantage nor disadvantage in both executive function and metacognitive processing across the lifespan.
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Project description:We tested the hypothesis that brain white matter integrity mediates the relationship between phenylalanine (Phe) control and executive abilities in children with phenylketonuria (PKU; N = 36). To do so, we examined mean diffusivity (MD) from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in two white matter brain regions (posterior parietal-occipital, PPO; centrum semiovale, CSO) and lifetime phenylalanine (Phe) exposure; the executive abilities examined included verbal strategic processing, nonverbal strategic processing, and working memory. Mediation modeling showed that MD in the PPO and CSO mediated the relationship between Phe exposure and nonverbal strategic processing, MD in the CSO mediated the relationship between Phe exposure and verbal strategic processing, and MD in the PPO mediated the relationship between Phe exposure and working memory. These exploratory findings demonstrate the importance of using sophisticated modeling procedures to understand the interplay among metabolic control, neural factors, and functional outcomes in individuals with PKU.
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Project description:Using an all-female sample, we examined trajectories of executive functioning (EF) performance from childhood through emerging adulthood-and their prediction of key emerging-adult outcomes. One hundred forty girls carefully diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 88 matched comparison girls were administered EF measurements assessing global EF, response inhibition, and verbal working memory during childhood (M age = 9.5 years), adolescence (M age = 14.1 years), the earliest years of adulthood (M age = 19.6 years), and the end of emerging adulthood (M age = 25.6 years). Retention rates were excellent. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to estimate growth curves for each EF measure. The linear EF slopes were then used to explore how changes in EF interacted with each participant's persistence/remission of ADHD over time to influence behavioral, emotional, and academic impairment in emerging adulthood. Although all women experienced absolute improvements in EF performance across time, women with histories of ADHD consistently lagged behind comparison women, even if their ADHD symptoms had remitted by early adulthood. However, EF performance over time did not significantly influence the link between ADHD status and (a) maternal reports of associated behavioral and emotional impairment or (b) objective measures of academic achievement. These findings indicate that EF deficits should be considered when developing and implementing treatments for ADHD through emerging adulthood. Future research should be aimed at understanding the mechanisms behind these observed trajectory differences.
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Project description:Purpose:Research shows an atypical cognitive process in children with ?nonverbal ?learning ?disorder (NLD) compared to typically developing children, but a wealth of information indicates that physical activity can influence cognitive processes. However, little is known about the effects of perceptual-motor training and its impact on the cognitive process of children with NLD. Thus, the major goals of this study are to compare the ?executive ?functions (EFs) in children with NLD with typically developing children and then to investigate the effect of perceptual-motor training on EFs of children with NLD. Methods:To achieve the first goal, 400 typically developing (IQ >80) and NLD children (7-13 years old) were randomly selected in the city of Mashhad, Iran, during the period 2017-2018. As for the second goal, 50 children with NLD were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. To evaluate executive functions, Delis-Kaplan executive function system test was used at the pretest, posttest, and 3-month follow-up. The experimental group received the Werner and Reini's perceptual-motor training program in sixteen 45-min sessions (three sessions per week), but the control group did not receive any intervention. Results:The results showed that children with NLD were significantly weaker than typically developing children in London Tower Test (t (38) = -4.662, p <0.01), Trail Making Test (t (33.926) = -3.11, p <0.01), Card ?Sorting ?Test (t (38) = -3.427, p <0.01), and Stroop ?Color ?Test (t (30.035) = -5.876, p <0.01). The Pilates training had an obvious effect on enhancing the performance of participants in the experimental group (p<0.001), but similar results were not observed in the control group. Conclusion:Children with NLD have problems in EFs, but perceptual-motor training can be used as an effective intervention for these children.
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