Executive functioning is a multidimensional concept encompassing higher-order adaptive abilities, such as judgment, decision-making, self-monitoring, planning, and emotional regulation. Disruption in executive functioning often results in devastating impairments in vitally-important areas of life, such as one's ability to hold employment and maintain social relationships. Executive functions have been associated primarily with the prefrontal cortex. However, the nature and degree of the association between frontal lobe damage and performance on executive functioning tests remains controversial. Research suggests that the association may vary based on the specific location of damage within the prefrontal cortex, as well as the used measure of executive functioning. Few investigations have systematically addressed these variables. The current study employed the lesion method to investigate the relationship between performance on a battery of executive functioning tests and damage to specific regions of the prefrontal cortex. Three groups of participants with lesions in one of the locations of interest [ventromedial prefrontal (VMPC, n = 14), dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPC, n = 14), and non-frontal (n = 18)] were administered the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS, 2001), a comprehensive battery of executive functioning tests. Results revealed no statistically-significant differences between group performances on the D-KEFS primary measures. However, a qualitative analysis of the results revealed several meaningful group differences. It appears that some relationship exists between frontal lobe damage, particularly in the DLPC, and decreased performance on several executive functioning tests but further research overcoming the methodological limitations of most existing literature on this topic is needed to clearly resolve this issue.

[Truncated thesis] This thesis is concerned with executive functioning in two different but related ways. The first is as an information processing construct in cognitive psychology. There are many different conceptualisations of the information processing basis of executive functioning but this thesis will pursue the notion that executive functioning is best thought of as adaptation to novelty. In the thesis, this will be operationalised using performance indices (principally reaction time) from a number of information processing tasks. These tasks have typically been used in the literature to index either executive functioning or speed of information processing. Both kinds of tasks are used to tackle the second concern of this thesis, namely, how executive functioning is measured. The data analytic techniques developed in this thesis are based on the hypothesis that executive functioning is the process or processes involved in resolving task novelty and consequently measurement will be enhanced through an analysis of performance changes within tasks as the task changes from novel to familiar. The analysis methods will be based largely on the computation of coefficient of variation of reaction time in successive performance windows across the information processing tasks. An elderly sample was chosen for this thesis because of a history of research that has attempted to determine whether cognitive deficits in the elderly are the consequence of the slowing of information processing speed or to impairment in executive functioning. ... The analysis was driven by the hypothesis that a significant shift in the coefficient of variation would mark a transition from novelty to familiarity in task performance and hence from executive to non-executive phases. Three methods were applied to individual performance curves to determine the point at which for each task this transition occurred. Using criterion measures of variability to separate the task data into two stages, analyses showed, contrary to the hypothesis, that later task performance was more highly associated with executive functioning than in initial task performance. The fourth stage of analysis (Chapter 7) applied confirmatory factor analysis to the newly-formed pre- and post transition data. Evidence was found that the magnitude of the contributions of EF across the pre- and post-criterion phases was stable, failing to support the hypothesis. Finally, structural equation modelling was used to examine how age and intelligence in this elderly sample exerts its influence on task performance and whether EF or IPS was the primary cause of age-related cognitive decline. The results showed that the age and intelligence effects on performance were mediated by the requirement to adapt to novelty. Although there was limited evidence to claim that EF is the primary cause of age-related cognitive decline, ageing effects were only apparent when the participants were adapting to novelty. The thesis concludes that there is some support for the hypothesis that executive functioning is best thought of as the processes underpinning adaptation to novelty. While not a panacea, the analytic techniques developed show promise for future research.

Although anxiety disorders and conduct problems often co-occur in children and adolescents, literature describing the effects of such co-occurrence is mixed. There is evidence that symptoms of anxiety disorders may mitigate symptoms of conduct problems (buffering hypothesis) or may exacerbate symptoms of conduct problems (multiple problem hypothesis). A dual-pathway model has been proposed that suggests several possible etiological or risk processes that may differentiate these pathways (i.e., the buffering hypothesis or the multiple problem hypothesis) (Drabick, Ollendick, & Bubier, 2010). Executive functioning is one factor that has been identified that may differentially confer risk to the proposed pathways; however, little research has been done investigating its role. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the dual-pathway model by determining whether executive functioning abilities contribute to differentiating those youth for whom anxiety exacerbates conduct problems from those for whom anxiety mitigates conduct problems. Specifically, the study sought to examine if executive functioning moderated the effect of anxiety symptom severity on conduct problems. Latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data of 221 youth aged 9 to 16 in a residential treatment center who completed a full neuropsychological evaluation. Results of the study failed to support the hypothesis that executive functioning moderates the effect of anxiety on conduct problems. Furthermore, a structural equation model without an interaction between executive functioning and anxiety was found to fit the data better than a model with an interaction between those variables. Overall, the study found that executive functioning abilities could not distinguish youth for whom anxiety exacerbates conduct problems from youth for whom anxiety mitigates conduct problems. Recommendations for future research in light of the limitations of the current study, as well as remaining gaps in the literature, are discussed. / text

Le raisonnement sociomoral (RSM) est une habileté essentielle durant l’adolescence, car elle guide les décisions sociales, facilitant le fonctionnement social. Quelques facteurs sociocognitifs et socioémotionnels semblent favoriser l’évolution du RSM, cependant leur contribution particulière reste nébuleuse, car ils ont été étudiés de façon isolée. Cette étude explore les habiletés associées au RSM mature chez les adolescents en santé, ainsi que la contribution spécifique des fonctions exécutives, en utilisant un outil écologiquement valide pour cette population. Nous avons détecté quatre contributeurs indépendants du RSM mature : l’âge, l’intelligence, la flexibilité cognitive et la fluence verbale, ainsi que des différences de genre concernant la maturité du RSM et la prise de décision sociomorale. Les résultats de cette étude contribuent à améliorer la compréhension du développement moral à l’adolescence et soulignent l’importance d’utiliser des outils écologiquement valides pour mesurer les habiletés sociales. / Sociomoral reasoning (SMR) is an important skill during adolescence because it guides social decisions, facilitating social functioning. A number of sociocognitive and socioemotional factors are likely to underlie the evolution of SMR abilities; however their relative contribution remains unclear given that to date their roles have typically been explored in isolation. This study explores the underpinnings of SMR maturity in typically developing adolescents and the specific contribution of executive functions using an ecologically valid tool for assessment in the adolescent population. We detected four independent contributors of SMR maturity in healthy adolescence: age, intelligence, cognitive flexibility and verbal fluency, as well as gender differences in SMR maturity and sociomoral decision-making. Taken together, the findings of this study contribute to better understanding moral development during adolescence and highlight the importance of using ecologically valid tools to measure social skills.

This study was conducted to investigate the processes underlying the relation between executive functioning and false belief knowledge. We explored the hypothesis that children with advanced executive functioning skills are better equipped to capitalize on the experiences that are necessary to learn how to reason about others’ mental states. To examine this possibility, we recruited 3.5-year-old children with age-appropriate variability in executive functioning skills to participate in a training study designed to promote their performance on false belief tasks. We found that individual differences in executive functioning task scores strongly and consistently predicted the extent to which children benefited from false-belief training. Importantly, the relation between executive functioning and false belief improvement remained significant after controlling for age, initial performance on mental state reasoning tasks, language skills, and executive functioning improvement across the testing period. Thus, our results support the hypothesis that executive functioning skills influence the extent to which children are able to capitalize on relevant experience to better predict and understand others’ false-belief-based behaviour. This claim is discussed with respect to possible alternative explanations for our findings, and ensuing implications for understanding the interplay between neuromaturational factors and experience. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-28 14:43:16.88

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that attacks the motor system and contributes to a range of cognitive and behavioral impairments (e.g., behavioral and emotional disinhibition, planning and problem solving difficulties, impulsivity, attention, and personality change). This executive dysfunction may contribute to selfregulatory impairment across several domains, including cognitive skills, thought processes, emotion regulation, interpersonal skills, and physiology, that may be crucial to the quality of life (QOL), or well being, of patients and their caregivers. Given the relentless course and prognosis of ALS, palliative treatments for ALS should target the full range of self-regulatory deficits. Thirty-seven patient-caregiver pairs completed questionnaires regarding the patients’ ability to regulate emotions, social behavior, and thought patterns. Patients also completed neuropsychological measures of executive functions and provided measures of glycosylated hemoglobin (A1c) and heart rate variability (HRV). Results suggest that SR and EF deficits exist on a continuum in ALS, such that some patients evidence adequate or superior ability to self-regulate while others evidence deficits. Patient- caregiver agreement about patients’ selfregulatory capacity across domains was generally weak to moderate. Patients perceived themselves to have less capacity for global regulation than caregivers perceived them to have, patients perceived less dyadic cohesion than caregivers, and patients perceived themselves to ruminate more than caregivers indicated. Overall, caregivers tended to perceive a more pervasive pattern of deficits compared to patients. Additionally, measures of SR and EF were not strongly inter-correlated in general, challenging the idea that SR in different domains depends on a common resource. Accordingly, correlations among measures of theoretically similar constructs (i.e., EF and SR) were small to moderate in magnitude and non-significant. With regard to physiological functioning, when patients had better regulated glucose (A1c), patients and caregivers perceived better global regulation. A similar pattern emerged with patient ratings, with higher baseline HRV linked to less emotional lability. Last, mixed results were obtained when predicting patient and caregiver QOL. Less rumination, less dyadic cohesion and more social anxiety were associated with higher QOL for patients. Caregivers’ QOL was not significantly related to their perceptions of patients’ self-regulatory capacity in any area.

The current study explored how hot and cool executive functions (EF) could predict resting-state connectivity of the Default Mode Network (DMN) and Central Executive Network (CEN) in a mixed clinical and typically developing sample of adolescents. It was hypothesized that hot EF would predict a quadratic, inverted U-shaped, relationship between connectivity of the major regions of the DMN: the Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC) and the Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC). It also was hypothesized that cool EF would predict a quadratic, inverted U-shaped, relationship between the connectivity of the major regions of the CEN: the right Posterior Parietal Cortex (right PPC) and the right Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex (right DLPFC). The results suggested that hot EF, specifically emotional regulation, predicted a quadratic relationship in DMN connectivity. However, this relationship was U-shaped instead of an inverted U-shaped. Thus, participants who scored well or poorly in emotional regulation generally had higher connectivity than those with average scores in emotional regulation. There were no significant results between cool EF and the CEN. Additional exploratory analysis suggested that the main hypotheses were not driven or suppressed by group differences. Further exploration observed other brain regions involved in resting-state activity that may play a role in hot or cool EF. Overall, findings support the Internal Mentation Hypothesis of DMN activity and are indicative of a relationship between emotional regulation and DMN resting-state connectivity.

Despite emergent attempts to connect temperament to a neurobiological etiology there has been little research that focuses on the relationship between temperament and character and neuropsychological test performance. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the relationship between temperament, character and performance on neuropsychological tests of executive functioning. Temperament and character dimensions were operationalized according to the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), a 240-item measure that is based on the psychobiological theory of personality. Neuropsychological performance was measured on the University of Pennsylvania Computerized Neuropsychological Test Battery (PennCNP), which is a test of executive functioning and abstract reasoning. The PennCNP comprised a test of Motor Praxis (MPRAXIS), the Penn Abstraction, Inhibition and Working Memory Task (AIM), the Letter-N-Back (LNB2), the Penn Conditional Exclusion Task (PCET), the Penn Short Logical Reasoning Task (SPVRT) and the Short Raven’s Progressive Matrices (SRAVEN). The sample comprised 422 first year psychology students at a residential university in South Africa. The results from this explorative study showed a moderate relationship between temperament, character and executive functioning. The temperament dimensions Novelty Seeking and Reward Dependence were positively related to AIM-NM, AIM and SPVRT, and inversely related to MPRAXIS. These results validate the importance of research that investigates the relationship between temperament and character dimensions and neuropsychological performance. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

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