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Evaluating the Contribution of Executive Functions to Language Tasks in Cognitively Demanding Contexts.

ABSTRACT: Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which the executive functions of attention switching and inhibition predicted performance on language subtests from the Temple Assessment of Language and (Verbal) Short-Term Memory in Aphasia (TALSA; N. Martin, Minkina, Kohen, &Kalinyak-Fliszar, 2018) across 3 interval conditions (no delay, 5-s delay, and 5-s filled delay), which was designed to add a memory and executive load to language tasks. Method This study was a post hoc experimental design. Participants included 27 people with aphasia who were administered 5 subtests from the TALSA (Naming, Word Repetition, Nonword Repetition, Category Judgment, and Rhyming Judgment), which were selected to evaluate input and output levels of processing in the 3 interval conditions listed above. Three executive tasks were administered to evaluate inhibition (Simon and Flanker tasks) and attention switching (number-letter shifting). Results Independent variables were proportion correct on each TALSA task in 3 separate time conditions, and predictor variables were efficiency on the Simon task and number-letter shifting task. Linear regression modeling was completed, which revealed that inhibition was a significant predictor of proportion correct for Word Repetition and Category Judgment in the 5-s filled interval condition. Conclusions Our findings indicate that inhibition plays a role in completing tasks that require lexical and/or semantic processing in cognitively demanding conditions. Attention switching was not a significant predictor for any task. These results are an important step toward creating methods to evaluate executive skills in the context of language production. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9765107.

SUBMITTER: Obermeyer J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7233115 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Background: Choice stepping reaction time tasks are underpinned by neuropsychological, sensorimotor, and balance systems and therefore offer good indices of fall risk and physical and cognitive frailty. However, little is known of the neural mechanisms for impaired stepping and associated fall risk in older people. We investigated cognitive and motor cortical activity during cognitively demanding stepping reaction time tasks using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in older people at low and high fall risk. Methods: Ninety-five older adults [mean (SD) 71.4 (4.9) years, 23 men] were categorized as low or high fall risk [based on 12-month fall history (≥2 falls) and/or Physiological Profile Assessment fall risk score ≥1]. Participants performed a choice stepping reaction time test and a more cognitively demanding Stroop stepping task on a computerized step mat. Cortical activity in cognitive [dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)] and motor (supplementary motor area and premotor cortex) regions was recorded using fNIRS. Stepping performance and cortical activity were contrasted between the groups and between the choice and Stroop stepping conditions. Results: Compared with the low fall risk group (n = 71), the high fall risk group (n = 24) exhibited significantly greater DLPFC activity and increased intra-individual variability in stepping response time during the Stroop stepping task. The high fall risk group DLPFC activity was greater during the performance of Stroop stepping task in comparison with choice stepping reaction time. Regardless of group, the Stroop stepping task elicited increased cortical activity in the supplementary motor area and premotor cortex together with increased mean and intra-individual variability of stepping response times. Conclusions: Older people at high fall risk exhibited increased DLPFC activity and stepping response time variability when completing a cognitively demanding stepping test compared with those at low fall risk and to a simpler choice-stepping reaction time test. This increased hemodynamic response might comprise a compensatory process for postural control deficits and/or reflect a degree of DLPFC neural inefficiency in people with increased fall risk.

Project description:When sending text messages on their mobile phone to friends, children often use a special type of register, which is called textese. This register allows the omission of words and the use of textisms: instances of non-standard written language such as 4ever (forever). Previous studies have shown that textese has a positive effect on children's literacy abilities. In addition, it is possible that children's grammar system is affected by textese as well, as grammar rules are often transgressed in this register. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate whether the use of textese influences children's grammar performance, and whether this effect is specific to grammar or language in general. Additionally, studies have not yet investigated the influence of textese on children's cognitive abilities. Consequently, the secondary aim of this study was to find out whether textese affects children's executive functions. To investigate this, 55 children between 10 and 13 years old were tested on a receptive vocabulary and grammar performance (sentence repetition) task and various tasks measuring executive functioning. In addition, text messages were elicited and the number of omissions and textisms in children's messages were calculated. Regression analyses showed that omissions were a significant predictor of children's grammar performance after various other variables were controlled for: the more words children omitted in their text messages, the better their performance on the grammar task. Although textisms correlated (marginally) significantly with vocabulary, grammar and selective attention scores and omissions marginally significantly with vocabulary scores, no other significant effects were obtained for measures of textese in the regression analyses: neither for the language outcomes, nor for the executive function tasks. Hence, our results show that textese is positively related to children's grammar performance. On the other hand, use of textese does not affect--positively nor negatively--children's executive functions.

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Evaluating the Contribution of Executive Functions to Language Tasks in Cognitively Demanding Contexts.

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