Syndrome-source-coding and its universal generalization. [error correcting codes for data compression

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ancheta, T. C., Jr.

1976-01-01

A method of using error-correcting codes to obtain data compression, called syndrome-source-coding, is described in which the source sequence is treated as an error pattern whose syndrome forms the compressed data. It is shown that syndrome-source-coding can achieve arbitrarily small distortion with the number of compressed digits per source digit arbitrarily close to the entropy of a binary memoryless source. A 'universal' generalization of syndrome-source-coding is formulated which provides robustly effective distortionless coding of source ensembles. Two examples are given, comparing the performance of noiseless universal syndrome-source-coding to (1) run-length coding and (2) Lynch-Davisson-Schalkwijk-Cover universal coding for an ensemble of binary memoryless sources.

Influence of Threat and Serotonin Transporter Genotype on Interference Effects

PubMed Central

Jasinska, Agnes J.; Ho, S. Shaun; Taylor, Stephan F.; Burmeister, Margit; Villafuerte, Sandra; Polk, Thad A.

2012-01-01

Emotion-cognition interactions are critical in goal-directed behavior and may be disrupted in psychopathology. Growing evidence also suggests that emotion-cognition interactions are modulated by genetic variation, including genetic variation in the serotonin system. The goal of the current study was to examine the impact of threat-related distracters and serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR/rs25531) on cognitive task performance in healthy females. Using a novel threat-distracter version of the Multi-Source Interference Task specifically designed to probe emotion-cognition interactions, we demonstrate a robust and temporally dynamic modulation of cognitive interference effects by threat-related distracters relative to other distracter types and relative to no-distracter condition. We further show that threat-related distracters have dissociable and opposite effects on cognitive task performance in easy and difficult task conditions, operationalized as the level of response interference that has to be surmounted to produce a correct response. Finally, we present evidence that the 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 genotype in females modulates susceptibility to cognitive interference in a global fashion, across all distracter conditions, and irrespective of the emotional salience of distracters, rather than specifically in the presence of threat-related distracters. Taken together, these results add to our understanding of the processes through which threat-related distracters affect cognitive processing, and have implications for our understanding of disorders in which threat signals have a detrimental effect on cognition, including depression and anxiety disorders. PMID:22590463

Interference Impacts Working Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment

PubMed Central

Aurtenetxe, Sara; García-Pacios, Javier; del Río, David; López, María E.; Pineda-Pardo, José A.; Marcos, Alberto; Delgado Losada, Maria L.; López-Frutos, José M.; Maestú, Fernando

2016-01-01

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is considered a transitional stage between healthy aging and dementia, specifically Alzheimer's disease (AD). The most common cognitive impairment of MCI includes episodic memory loss and difficulties in working memory (WM). Interference can deplete WM, and an optimal WM performance requires an effective control of attentional resources between the memoranda and the incoming stimuli. Difficulties in handling interference lead to forgetting. However, the interplay between interference and WM in MCI is not well-understood and needs further investigation. The current study investigated the effect of interference during a WM task in 20 MCIs and 20 healthy elder volunteers. Participants performed a delayed match-to-sample paradigm which consisted in two interference conditions, distraction and interruption, and one control condition without any interference. Results evidenced a disproportionate impact of interference on the WM performance of MCIs, mainly in the presence of interruption. These findings demonstrate that interference, and more precisely interruption, is an important proxy for memory-related deficits in MCI. Thus, the current findings reveal novel evidence regarding the causes of WM forgetting in MCI patients, associated with difficulties in the mechanisms of attentional control. PMID:27790082

The Problem State: A Cognitive Bottleneck in Multitasking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borst, Jelmer P.; Taatgen, Niels A.; van Rijn, Hedderik

2010-01-01

The main challenge for theories of multitasking is to predict when and how tasks interfere. Here, we focus on interference related to the problem state, a directly accessible intermediate representation of the current state of a task. On the basis of Salvucci and Taatgen's (2008) threaded cognition theory, we predict interference if 2 or more…

Cognitive interference can be mitigated by consonant music and facilitated by dissonant music.

PubMed

Masataka, Nobuo; Perlovsky, Leonid

2013-01-01

Debates on the origins of consonance and dissonance in music have a long history. While some scientists argue that consonance judgments are an acquired competence based on exposure to the musical-system-specific knowledge of a particular culture, others favor a biological explanation for the observed preference for consonance. Here we provide experimental confirmation that this preference plays an adaptive role in human cognition: it reduces cognitive interference. The results of our experiment reveal that exposure to a Mozart minuet mitigates interference, whereas, conversely, when the music is modified to consist of mostly dissonant intervals the interference effect is intensified.

Cognitive interference can be mitigated by consonant music and facilitated by dissonant music

PubMed Central

Masataka, Nobuo; Perlovsky, Leonid

2013-01-01

Debates on the origins of consonance and dissonance in music have a long history. While some scientists argue that consonance judgments are an acquired competence based on exposure to the musical-system-specific knowledge of a particular culture, others favor a biological explanation for the observed preference for consonance. Here we provide experimental confirmation that this preference plays an adaptive role in human cognition: it reduces cognitive interference. The results of our experiment reveal that exposure to a Mozart minuet mitigates interference, whereas, conversely, when the music is modified to consist of mostly dissonant intervals the interference effect is intensified. PMID:23778307

Pain and Cognitive Function Among Older Adults Living in the Community.

PubMed

van der Leeuw, Guusje; Eggermont, Laura H P; Shi, Ling; Milberg, William P; Gross, Alden L; Hausdorff, Jeffrey M; Bean, Jonathan F; Leveille, Suzanne G

2016-03-01

Pain related to many age-related chronic conditions is a burdensome problem in elderly adults and may also interfere with cognitive functioning. The purpose of this study was to examine the cross-sectional relationship between measures of pain severity and pain interference and cognitive performance in community-living older adults. We studied 765 participants in the Maintenance of Balance Independent Living Intellect and Zest (MOBILIZE) Boston Study, a population-based study of persons aged 70 and older. Global pain severity and interference were measured using the Brief Pain Inventory subscales. The neuropsychological battery included measures of attentional capacity (Trail Making Test A, WORLD Test), executive function (Trail Making Test B and Delta, Clock-in-a-Box, Letter Fluency), memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test), and a global composite measure of cognitive function. Multivariable linear regression models were used to analyze the relationship between pain and cognitive functioning. Elderly adults with more severe pain or more pain interference had poorer performance on memory tests and executive functioning compared to elders with none or less pain. Pain interference was also associated with impaired attentional capacity. Additional adjustment for chronic conditions, behaviors, and psychiatric medication resulted in attenuation of many of the observed associations. However, the association between pain interference and general cognitive function persisted. Our findings point to the need for further research to understand how chronic pain may contribute to decline in cognitive function and to determine strategies that may help in preventing or managing these potential consequences of pain on cognitive function in older adults. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The Lévy flight foraging hypothesis: forgetting about memory may lead to false verification of Brownian motion.

PubMed

Gautestad, Arild O; Mysterud, Atle

2013-01-01

The Lévy flight foraging hypothesis predicts a transition from scale-free Lévy walk (LW) to scale-specific Brownian motion (BM) as an animal moves from resource-poor towards resource-rich environment. However, the LW-BM continuum implies a premise of memory-less search, which contradicts the cognitive capacity of vertebrates. We describe methods to test if apparent support for LW-BM transitions may rather be a statistical artifact from movement under varying intensity of site fidelity. A higher frequency of returns to previously visited patches (stronger site fidelity) may erroneously be interpreted as a switch from LW towards BM. Simulations of scale-free, memory-enhanced space use illustrate how the ratio between return events and scale-free exploratory movement translates to varying strength of site fidelity. An expanded analysis of GPS data of 18 female red deer, Cervus elaphus, strengthens previous empirical support of memory-enhanced and scale-free space use in a northern forest ecosystem. A statistical mechanical model architecture that describes foraging under environment-dependent variation of site fidelity may allow for higher realism of optimal search models and movement ecology in general, in particular for vertebrates with high cognitive capacity.

Interference Control, Working Memory Capacity, and Cognitive Abilities: A Latent Variable Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash

2010-01-01

The present study examined whether various indices of interference control were related to one another and to other cognitive abilities. It was found that the interference control measures were weakly correlated and could form a single factor that was related to overall memory performance on the tasks as well as to measures of working memory…

Relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and interference control in breast cancer survivors.

PubMed

Zuniga, Krystle E; Mackenzie, Michael J; Roberts, Sarah A; Raine, Lauren B; Hillman, Charles H; Kramer, Arthur F; McAuley, Edward

2016-06-01

Nutrition plays an important role in brain structure and function, and the effects of diet may even be greater in those at greater risk of cognitive decline, such as individuals with cancer-related cognitive impairment. However, the relation of dietary components to cognitive function in cancer survivors is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine whether breast cancer survivors (BCS) evidenced impairments in interference control, a component of cognitive control, compared to age-matched women with no prior history of cancer, and to examine the moderating role of diet on cognitive function. In this cross-sectional study, a modified flanker task was used to assess interference control in BCS (n = 31) and age-matched women with no prior history of cancer (n = 30). Diet was assessed with 3-day food records. Differences between BCS and age-matched controls were assessed using linear mixed models, and multilevel regression analyses were conducted to assess the moderating role of diet on cognitive performance. Cognitive performance was not different between groups. Fruit intake and vegetable intake were significantly associated with better performance on the incompatible condition of the flanker task (i.e., shorter reaction time and increased accuracy), independent of disease status. The association between dietary components and cognition was stronger for the incompatible incongruent condition, suggesting that fruit and vegetables may be important for the up-regulation of cognitive control when faced with higher cognitive demands. There was no difference in performance on an interference control task between BCS and age-matched controls. The data suggest that greater fruit intake and vegetable intake were positively associated with interference control in both BCS and age-matched controls.

Constrained Bayesian Active Learning of Interference Channels in Cognitive Radio Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsakmalis, Anestis; Chatzinotas, Symeon; Ottersten, Bjorn

2018-02-01

In this paper, a sequential probing method for interference constraint learning is proposed to allow a centralized Cognitive Radio Network (CRN) accessing the frequency band of a Primary User (PU) in an underlay cognitive scenario with a designed PU protection specification. The main idea is that the CRN probes the PU and subsequently eavesdrops the reverse PU link to acquire the binary ACK/NACK packet. This feedback indicates whether the probing-induced interference is harmful or not and can be used to learn the PU interference constraint. The cognitive part of this sequential probing process is the selection of the power levels of the Secondary Users (SUs) which aims to learn the PU interference constraint with a minimum number of probing attempts while setting a limit on the number of harmful probing-induced interference events or equivalently of NACK packet observations over a time window. This constrained design problem is studied within the Active Learning (AL) framework and an optimal solution is derived and implemented with a sophisticated, accurate and fast Bayesian Learning method, the Expectation Propagation (EP). The performance of this solution is also demonstrated through numerical simulations and compared with modified versions of AL techniques we developed in earlier work.

Computerized Testing Software for Assessing Interference Suppression in Children and Adults: The Bivalent Shape Task (BST)

PubMed Central

Mueller, Shane T.; Esposito, Alena G.

2015-01-01

We describe the Bivalent Shape Task (BST), software using the Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL), for testing of cognitive interference and the ability to suppress interference. The test is available via the GNU Public License, Version 3 (GPLv3), is freely modifiable, and has been tested on both children and adults and found to provide a simple and fast non-verbal measure of cognitive interference and suppression that requires no reading. PMID:26702358

Load theory of selective attention and cognitive control.

PubMed

Lavie, Nilli; Hirst, Aleksandra; de Fockert, Jan W; Viding, Essi

2004-09-01

A load theory of attention in which distractor rejection depends on the level and type of load involved in current processing was tested. A series of experiments demonstrates that whereas high perceptual load reduces distractor interference, working memory load or dual-task coordination load increases distractor interference. These findings suggest 2 selective attention mechanisms: a perceptual selection mechanism serving to reduce distractor perception in situations of high perceptual load that exhaust perceptual capacity in processing relevant stimuli and a cognitive control mechanism that reduces interference from perceived distractors as long as cognitive control functions are available to maintain current priorities (low cognitive load). This theory resolves the long-standing early versus late selection debate and clarifies the role of cognitive control in selective attention. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)

Increasing Cognitive Load Reduces Interference from Masked Appetitive and Aversive but Not Neutral Stimuli

PubMed Central

Uher, Rudolf; Brooks, Samantha J.; Bartholdy, Savani; Tchanturia, Kate; Campbell, Iain C.

2014-01-01

Interactions between cognition and emotion are important for survival, often occurring in the absence of awareness. These interactions have been proposed to involve competition between cognition and emotion for attentional resources. Emotional stimuli have been reported to impair performance on cognitive tasks of low, but not high, load if stimuli are consciously perceived. This study explored whether this load-dependent interference effect occurred in response to subliminal emotional stimuli. Masked emotional (appetitive and aversive), but not neutral, stimuli interfered with performance accuracy but not response time on a cognitive task (n-back) at low (1-back), but not high (2-back) load. These results show that a load-dependent interference effect applies to masked emotional stimuli and that the effect generalises across stimulus categories with high motivational value. This supports models of selective attention that propose that cognition and emotion compete for attentional resources. More specifically, interference from masked emotional stimuli at low load suggests that attention is biased towards salient stimuli, while dissipation of interference under high load involves top-down regulation of attention. Our data also indicate that top-down goal-directed regulation of attention occurs in the absence of awareness and does not require metacognitive monitoring or evaluation of bias over behaviour, i.e., some degree of self-regulation occurs at a non-conscious level. PMID:24709953

Domain-Specific Interference Tests on Navigational Working Memory in Military Pilots.

PubMed

Verde, Paola; Boccia, Maddalena; Colangeli, Stefano; Barbetti, Sonia; Nori, Raffaella; Ferlazzo, Fabio; Piccolo, Francesco; Vitalone, Roberto; Lucertini, Elena; Piccardi, Laura

2016-06-01

Human navigation is a very complex ability that encompasses all four stages of human information processing (sensory input, perception/cognition, selection, and execution of an action), involving both cognitive and physical requirements. During flight, the pilot uses all of these stages and one of the most critical aspect is interference. In fact, spatial tasks competing for the same cognitive resource cause greater distraction from a concurrent task than another task that uses different resource modalities. Here we compared and contrasted the performance of pilots and nonpilots of both genders performing increasingly complex navigational memory tasks while exposed to various forms of interference. We investigated the effects of four different sources of interference: motor, spatial motor, verbal, and spatial environment, focusing on gender differences. We found that flight experts perform better than controls (Pilots: 6.50 ± 1.29; Nonpilots: 5.45 ± 1.41). Furthermore, in the general population, navigational working memory is compromised only by spatial environmental interference (Nonpilots: 4.52 ± 1.50); female nonpilots were less able than male nonpilots. Also, the flight expert group showed the same interference, even if reduced (Pilots: 5.24 ± 0.92); moreover, we highlighted a complete absence of gender-related effects. Spatial environmental interference is the only interference producing a decrease in performance. Nevertheless, pilots are less affected than the general population. This is probably a consequence of the need to commit substantial cognitive resources to process spatial information during flight.

Distinctive amygdala subregions involved in emotion-modulated Stroop interference

PubMed Central

Han, Hyun Jung; Lee, Kanghee; Kim, Hyun Taek; Kim, Hackjin

2014-01-01

Despite the well-known role of the amygdala in mediating emotional interference during tasks requiring cognitive resources, no definite conclusion has yet been reached regarding the differential roles of functionally and anatomically distinctive subcomponents of the amygdala in such processes. In this study, we examined female participants and attempted to separate the neural processes for the detection of emotional information from those for the regulation of cognitive interference from emotional distractors by adding a temporal gap between emotional stimuli and a subsequent cognitive Stroop task. Reaction time data showed a significantly increased Stroop interference effect following emotionally negative stimuli compared with neutral stimuli, and functional magnetic resonance imaging data revealed that the anterior ventral amygdala (avAMYG) showed greater responses to negative stimuli compared with neutral stimuli. In addition, individuals who scored high in neuroticism showed greater posterior dorsal amygdala (pdAMYG) responses to incongruent compared with congruent Stroop trials following negative stimuli, but not following neutral stimuli. Taken together, the findings of this study demonstrated functionally distinctive contributions of the avAMYG and pdAMYG to the emotion-modulated Stroop interference effect and suggested that the avAMYG encodes associative values of emotional stimuli whereas the pdAMYG resolves cognitive interference from emotional distractors. PMID:23543193

Lexical selection in the semantically blocked cyclic naming task: the role of cognitive control and learning

PubMed Central

Crowther, Jason E.; Martin, Randi C.

2014-01-01

Studies of semantic interference in language production have provided evidence for a role of cognitive control mechanisms in regulating the activation of semantic competitors during naming. The present study investigated the relationship between individual differences in cognitive control abilities, for both younger and older adults, and the degree of semantic interference in a blocked cyclic naming task. We predicted that individuals with lower working memory capacity (as measured by word span), lesser ability to inhibit distracting responses (as measured by Stroop interference), and a lesser ability to resolve proactive interference (as measured by a recent negatives task) would show a greater increase in semantic interference in naming, with effects being larger for older adults. Instead, measures of cognitive control were found to relate to specific indices of semantic interference in the naming task, rather than overall degree of semantic interference, and few interactions with age were found, with younger and older adults performing similarly. The increase in naming latencies across naming trials within a cycle was negatively correlated with word span for both related and unrelated conditions, suggesting a strategy of narrowing response alternatives based upon memory for the set of item names. Evidence for a role of inhibition in response selection was obtained, as Stroop interference correlated positively with the change in naming latencies across cycles for the related, but not unrelated, condition. In contrast, recent negatives interference correlated negatively with the change in naming latencies across unrelated cycles, suggesting that individual differences in this tap the degree of strengthening of links in a lexical network based upon prior exposure. Results are discussed in terms of current models of lexical selection and consequences for word retrieval in more naturalistic production. PMID:24478675

Traditional test administration and proactive interference undermine visual-spatial working memory performance in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Girard, Todd A; Wilkins, Leanne K; Lyons, Kathleen M; Yang, Lixia; Christensen, Bruce K

2018-05-31

Introduction Working-memory (WM) is a core cognitive deficit among individuals with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD). However, the underlying cognitive mechanisms of this deficit are less known. This study applies a modified version of the Corsi Block Test to investigate the role of proactive interference in visuospatial WM (VSWM) impairment in SSD. Methods Healthy and SSD participants completed a modified version of the Corsi Block Test involving both high (typical ascending set size from 4 to 7 items) and low (descending set size from 7 to 4 items) proactive interference conditions. Results The results confirmed that the SSD group performed worse overall relative to a healthy comparison group. More importantly, the SSD group demonstrated greater VSWM scores under low (Descending) versus high (Ascending) proactive interference; this pattern is opposite to that of healthy participants. Conclusions This differential pattern of performance supports that proactive interference associated with the traditional administration format contributes to VSWM impairment in SSD. Further research investigating associated neurocognitive mechanisms and the contribution of proactive interference across other domains of cognition in SSD is warranted.

Voluntary eyeblinks disrupt iconic memory.

PubMed

Thomas, Laura E; Irwin, David E

2006-04-01

In the present research, we investigated whether eyeblinks interfere with cognitive processing. In Experiment 1, the participants performed a partial-report iconic memory task in which a letter array was presented for 106 msec, followed 50, 150, or 750 msec later by a tone that cued recall of onerow of the array. At a cue delay of 50 msec between array offset and cue onset, letter report accuracy was lower when the participants blinked following array presentation than under no-blink conditions; the participants made more mislocation errors under blink conditions. This result suggests that blinking interferes with the binding of object identity and object position in iconic memory. Experiment 2 demonstrated that interference due to blinks was not due merely to changes in light intensity. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that other motor responses did not interfere with iconic memory. We propose a new phenomenon, cognitive blink suppression, in which blinking inhibits cognitive processing. This phenomenon may be due to neural interference. Blinks reduce activation in area V1, which may interfere with the representation of information in iconic memory.

Hardware-efficient implementation of digital FIR filter using fast first-order moment algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Li; Liu, Jianguo; Xiong, Jun; Zhang, Jing

2018-03-01

As the digital finite impulse response (FIR) filter can be transformed into the shift-add form of multiple small-sized firstorder moments, based on the existing fast first-order moment algorithm, this paper presents a novel multiplier-less structure to calculate any number of sequential filtering results in parallel. The theoretical analysis on its hardware and time-complexities reveals that by appropriately setting the degree of parallelism and the decomposition factor of a fixed word width, the proposed structure may achieve better area-time efficiency than the existing two-dimensional (2-D) memoryless-based filter. To evaluate the performance concretely, the proposed designs for different taps along with the existing 2-D memoryless-based filters, are synthesized by Synopsys Design Compiler with 0.18-μm SMIC library. The comparisons show that the proposed design has less area-time complexity and power consumption when the number of filter taps is larger than 48.

Distracted and down: neural mechanisms of affective interference in subclinical depression

PubMed Central

Andrews-Hanna, Jessica R.; Spielberg, Jeffrey M.; Warren, Stacie L.; Sutton, Bradley P.; Miller, Gregory A.; Heller, Wendy; Banich, Marie T.

2015-01-01

Previous studies have shown that depressed individuals have difficulty directing attention away from negative distractors, a phenomenon known as affective interference. However, findings are mixed regarding the neural mechanisms and network dynamics of affective interference. The present study addressed these issues by comparing neural activation during emotion-word and color-word Stroop tasks in participants with varying levels of (primarily subclinical) depression. Depressive symptoms predicted increased activation to negative distractors in areas of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), regions implicated in cognitive control and internally directed attention, respectively. Increased dACC activity was also observed in the group-average response to incongruent distractors, suggesting that dACC activity during affective interference is related to overtaxed cognitive control. In contrast, regions of PCC were deactivated across the group in response to incongruent distractors, suggesting that PCC activity during affective interference represents task-independent processing. A psychophysiological interaction emerged in which higher depression predicted more positively correlated activity between dACC and PCC during affective interference, i.e. greater connectivity between cognitive control and internal-attention systems. These findings suggest that, when individuals high in depression are confronted by negative material, increased attention to internal thoughts and difficulty shifting resources to the external world interfere with goal-directed behavior. PMID:25062838

The Developmental Effect of Concurrent Cognitive and Locomotor Skills: Time-Sharing from a Dynamical Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitall, Jill

1991-01-01

Presents research on the effects of concurrent verbal cognition on locomotor skills. Results revealed no interference with coordination variables across age, but some interference with control variables, particularly in younger subjects. Coordination of gait required less attention than setting of control parameters. This coordination was in place…

Dissociating Interference-Control Processes between Memory and Response

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bissett, Patrick G.; Nee, Derek Evan; Jonides, John

2009-01-01

The ability to mitigate interference is of central importance to cognition. Previous research has provided conflicting accounts about whether operations that resolve interference are singular in character or form a family of functions. Here, the authors examined the relationship between interference-resolution processes acting on working memory…

Tonic Inhibitory Control of Dentate Gyrus Granule Cells by α5-Containing GABAA Receptors Reduces Memory Interference.

PubMed

Engin, Elif; Zarnowska, Ewa D; Benke, Dietmar; Tsvetkov, Evgeny; Sigal, Maksim; Keist, Ruth; Bolshakov, Vadim Y; Pearce, Robert A; Rudolph, Uwe

2015-10-07

Interference between similar or overlapping memories formed at different times poses an important challenge on the hippocampal declarative memory system. Difficulties in managing interference are at the core of disabling cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders. Computational models have suggested that, in the normal brain, the sparse activation of the dentate gyrus granule cells maintained by tonic inhibitory control enables pattern separation, an orthogonalization process that allows distinct representations of memories despite interference. To test this mechanistic hypothesis, we generated mice with significantly reduced expression of the α5-containing GABAA (α5-GABAARs) receptors selectively in the granule cells of the dentate gyrus (α5DGKO mice). α5DGKO mice had reduced tonic inhibition of the granule cells without any change in fast phasic inhibition and showed increased activation in the dentate gyrus when presented with novel stimuli. α5DGKO mice showed impairments in cognitive tasks characterized by high interference, without any deficiencies in low-interference tasks, suggesting specific impairment of pattern separation. Reduction of fast phasic inhibition in the dentate gyrus through granule cell-selective knock-out of α2-GABAARs or the knock-out of the α5-GABAARs in the downstream CA3 area did not detract from pattern separation abilities, which confirms the anatomical and molecular specificity of the findings. In addition to lending empirical support to computational hypotheses, our findings have implications for the treatment of interference-related cognitive symptoms in neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly considering the availability of pharmacological agents selectively targeting α5-GABAARs. Interference between similar memories poses a significant limitation on the hippocampal declarative memory system, and impaired interference management is a cognitive symptom in many disorders. Thus, understanding mechanisms of successful interference management or processes that can lead to interference-related memory problems has high theoretical and translational importance. This study provides empirical evidence that tonic inhibition in the dentate gyrus (DG), which maintains sparseness of neuronal activation in the DG, is essential for management of interference. The specificity of findings to tonic, but not faster, more transient types of neuronal inhibition and to the DG, but not the neighboring brain areas, is presented through control experiments. Thus, the findings link interference management to a specific mechanism, proposed previously by computational models. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3513699-15$15.00/0.

Contribution of fronto-striatal regions to emotional valence and repetition under cognitive conflict.

PubMed

Chun, Ji-Won; Park, Hae-Jeong; Kim, Dai Jin; Kim, Eosu; Kim, Jae-Jin

2017-07-01

Conflict processing mediated by fronto-striatal regions may be influenced by emotional properties of stimuli. This study aimed to examine the effects of emotion repetition on cognitive control in a conflict-provoking situation. Twenty-one healthy subjects were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a sequential cognitive conflict task composed of emotional stimuli. The regional effects were analyzed according to the repetition or non-repetition of cognitive congruency and emotional valence between the preceding and current trials. Post-incongruence interference in error rate and reaction time was significantly smaller than post-congruence interference, particularly under repeated positive and non-repeated positive, respectively, and post-incongruence interference, compared to post-congruence interference, increased activity in the ACC, DLPFC, and striatum. ACC and DLPFC activities were significantly correlated with error rate or reaction time in some conditions, and fronto-striatal connections were related to the conflict processing heightened by negative emotion. These findings suggest that the repetition of emotional stimuli adaptively regulates cognitive control and the fronto-striatal circuit may engage in the conflict adaptation process induced by emotion repetition. Both repetition enhancement and repetition suppression of prefrontal activity may underlie the relationship between emotion and conflict adaptation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Developmental change in cognitive organization underlying stroop tasks of Japanese orthographies.

PubMed

Toma, C; Toshima, T

1989-01-01

Cognitive processes underlying Stroop interference tasks of two Japanese orthographies, hiragana (a phonetic orthography) and kanji (a logographic orthography) were studied from the developmental point of view. Four age groups (first, second, third graders, and university students) were employed as subjects. Significant interference was yielded both in the hiragana and in the kanji version. Performance time on interference task decreased with age. For elementary school children, the error frequency on the interference task was higher than that on the task of naming patch colors or on the task of reading words printed in black ink, but the error frequencies did not differ among tasks for university students. In the interference task more word reading errors were yielded in the kanji version than in the hiragana version during and after third grade. The findings suggested that (1) the recognition system of hiragana and of kanji becomes qualitatively different during and after third grade, (2) the integrative system, which organizes cognitive processes underlying Stroop task, develops with age, and (3) efficiency of the organization increases with age.

An Integrated Model of Cognitive Control in Task Switching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altmann, Erik M.; Gray, Wayne D.

2008-01-01

A model of cognitive control in task switching is developed in which controlled performance depends on the system maintaining access to a code in episodic memory representing the most recently cued task. The main constraint on access to the current task code is proactive interference from old task codes. This interference and the mechanisms that…

Distracted and down: neural mechanisms of affective interference in subclinical depression.

PubMed

Kaiser, Roselinde H; Andrews-Hanna, Jessica R; Spielberg, Jeffrey M; Warren, Stacie L; Sutton, Bradley P; Miller, Gregory A; Heller, Wendy; Banich, Marie T

2015-05-01

Previous studies have shown that depressed individuals have difficulty directing attention away from negative distractors, a phenomenon known as affective interference. However, findings are mixed regarding the neural mechanisms and network dynamics of affective interference. The present study addressed these issues by comparing neural activation during emotion-word and color-word Stroop tasks in participants with varying levels of (primarily subclinical) depression. Depressive symptoms predicted increased activation to negative distractors in areas of dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), regions implicated in cognitive control and internally directed attention, respectively. Increased dACC activity was also observed in the group-average response to incongruent distractors, suggesting that dACC activity during affective interference is related to overtaxed cognitive control. In contrast, regions of PCC were deactivated across the group in response to incongruent distractors, suggesting that PCC activity during affective interference represents task-independent processing. A psychophysiological interaction emerged in which higher depression predicted more positively correlated activity between dACC and PCC during affective interference, i.e. greater connectivity between cognitive control and internal-attention systems. These findings suggest that, when individuals high in depression are confronted by negative material, increased attention to internal thoughts and difficulty shifting resources to the external world interfere with goal-directed behavior. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Educational Attainment is not a Good Proxy for Cognitive Function in Methamphetamine Dependence

PubMed Central

Dean, Andy C.; Hellemann, Gerhard; Sugar, Catherine A.; London, Edythe D.

2014-01-01

We sought to test the hypothesis that methamphetamine use interferes with both the quantity and quality of one's education, such that the years of education obtained by methamphetamine dependent individuals serves to underestimate general cognitive functioning and overestimate the quality of academic learning. Thirty-six methamphetamine-dependent participants and 42 healthy comparison subjects completed cognitive tests and self-report measures in Los Angeles, California. An overall cognitive battery score was used to assess general cognition, and vocabulary knowledge was used as a proxy for the quality of academic learning. Linear regression procedures were used for analyses. Supporting the hypothesis that methamphetamine use interferes with the quantity of education, we found that a) earlier onset of methamphetamine use was associated with fewer years of education (p < .01); b) using a normative model developed in healthy participants, methamphetamine-dependent participants had lower educational attainment than predicted from their demographics and performance on the cognitive battery score (p < .01); and c) greater differences between methamphetamine-dependent participants' predicted and actual educational attainment were associated with an earlier onset of MA use (p ≤ .01). Supporting the hypothesis that methamphetamine use interferes with the quality of education, years of education received prior to the onset of methamphetamine use was a better predictor of a proxy for academic learning, vocabulary knowledge, than was the total years of education obtained. Results support the hypothesis that methamphetamine use interferes with the quantity and quality of educational exposure, leading to under- and overestimation of cognitive function and academic learning, respectively. PMID:22206606

Educational attainment is not a good proxy for cognitive function in methamphetamine dependence.

PubMed

Dean, Andy C; Hellemann, Gerhard; Sugar, Catherine A; London, Edythe D

2012-06-01

We sought to test the hypothesis that methamphetamine use interferes with both the quantity and quality of one's education, such that the years of education obtained by methamphetamine dependent individuals serves to underestimate general cognitive functioning and overestimate the quality of academic learning. Thirty-six methamphetamine-dependent participants and 42 healthy comparison subjects completed cognitive tests and self-report measures in Los Angeles, California. An overall cognitive battery score was used to assess general cognition, and vocabulary knowledge was used as a proxy for the quality of academic learning. Linear regression procedures were used for analyses. Supporting the hypothesis that methamphetamine use interferes with the quantity of education, we found that (a) earlier onset of methamphetamine use was associated with fewer years of education (p<.01); (b) using a normative model developed in healthy participants, methamphetamine-dependent participants had lower educational attainment than predicted from their demographics and performance on the cognitive battery score (p<.01); and (c) greater differences between methamphetamine-dependent participants' predicted and actual educational attainment were associated with an earlier onset of MA use (p≤.01). Supporting the hypothesis that methamphetamine use interferes with the quality of education, years of education received prior to the onset of methamphetamine use was a better predictor of a proxy for academic learning, vocabulary knowledge, than was the total years of education obtained. Results support the hypothesis that methamphetamine use interferes with the quantity and quality of educational exposure, leading to under- and overestimation of cognitive function and academic learning, respectively. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Selective impairment of auditory selective attention under concurrent cognitive load.

PubMed

Dittrich, Kerstin; Stahl, Christoph

2012-06-01

Load theory predicts that concurrent cognitive load impairs selective attention. For visual stimuli, it has been shown that this impairment can be selective: Distraction was specifically increased when the stimulus material used in the cognitive load task matches that of the selective attention task. Here, we report four experiments that demonstrate such selective load effects for auditory selective attention. The effect of two different cognitive load tasks on two different auditory Stroop tasks was examined, and selective load effects were observed: Interference in a nonverbal-auditory Stroop task was increased under concurrent nonverbal-auditory cognitive load (compared with a no-load condition), but not under concurrent verbal-auditory cognitive load. By contrast, interference in a verbal-auditory Stroop task was increased under concurrent verbal-auditory cognitive load but not under nonverbal-auditory cognitive load. This double-dissociation pattern suggests the existence of different and separable verbal and nonverbal processing resources in the auditory domain.

Neural correlates of impaired cognitive control over working memory in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Eich, Teal S; Nee, Derek Evan; Insel, Catherine; Malapani, Chara; Smith, Edward E

2014-07-15

One of the most common deficits in patients with schizophrenia (SZ) is in working memory (WM), which has wide-reaching impacts across cognition. However, previous approaches to studying WM in SZ have used tasks that require multiple cognitive-control processes, making it difficult to determine which specific cognitive and neural processes underlie the WM impairment. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate component processes of WM in SZ. Eighteen healthy controls (HCs) and 18 patients with SZ performed an item-recognition task that permitted separate neural assessments of 1) WM maintenance, 2) inhibition, and 3) interference control in response to recognition probes. Before inhibitory demands, posterior ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), an area involved in WM maintenance, was activated to a similar degree in both HCs and patients, indicating preserved maintenance operations in SZ. When cued to inhibit items from WM, HCs showed reduced activation in posterior VLPFC, commensurate with appropriately inhibiting items from WM. However, these inhibition-related reductions were absent in patients. When later probed with items that should have been inhibited, patients showed reduced behavioral performance and increased activation in mid-VLPFC, an area implicated in interference control. A mediation analysis indicated that impaired inhibition led to increased reliance on interference control and reduced behavioral performance. In SZ, impaired control over memory, manifested through proactive inhibitory deficits, leads to increased reliance on reactive interference-control processes. The strain on interference-control processes results in reduced behavioral performance. Thus, inhibitory deficits in SZ may underlie widespread impairments in WM and cognition. © 2013 Society of Biological Psychiatry Published by Society of Biological Psychiatry All rights reserved.

Exposing an “Intangible” Cognitive Skill among Collegiate Football Players: Enhanced Interference Control

PubMed Central

Wylie, Scott A.; Bashore, Theodore R.; Van Wouwe, Nelleke C.; Mason, Emily J.; John, Kevin D.; Neimat, Joseph S.; Ally, Brandon A.

2018-01-01

American football is played in a chaotic visual environment filled with relevant and distracting information. We investigated the hypothesis that collegiate football players show exceptional skill at shielding their response execution from the interfering effects of distraction (interference control). The performances of 280 football players from National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I football programs were compared to age-matched controls in a variant of the Eriksen flanker task (Eriksen and Eriksen, 1974). This task quantifies the magnitude of interference produced by visual distraction on split-second response execution. Overall, football athletes and age controls showed similar mean reaction times (RTs) and accuracy rates. However, football athletes were more proficient at shielding their response execution speed from the interfering effects of distraction (i.e., smaller flanker effect costs on RT). Offensive and defensive players showed smaller interference costs compared to controls, but defensive players showed the smallest costs. All defensive positions and one offensive position showed statistically smaller interference effects when compared directly to age controls. These data reveal a clear cognitive advantage among football athletes at executing motor responses in the face of distraction, the existence and magnitude of which vary by position. Individual differences in cognitive control may have important implications for both player selection and development to improve interference control capabilities during play. PMID:29479325

Threshold Based Stochastic Resonance for the Binary-Input Ternary-Output Discrete Memoryless Channels

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-01

noise (AGN) [1] and [11]. We focus on threshold communication systems due to the underwater environment, noncoherent communication techniques are...the threshold level. In the context of the underwater communications, where noncoherent communication techniques are affected both by noise and

Increased Sensitivity to Proactive and Retroactive Interference in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: New Insights

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanseeuw, Bernard J.; Seron, Xavier; Ivanoiu, Adrian

2012-01-01

Background: Increased sensitivity to proactive (PI) and retroactive (RI) interference has been observed in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). PI and RI are often explained as being the result of a response competition mechanism. However, patients with aMCI are supposed to suffer mostly from encoding deficits. We hypothesized that in aMCI…

On the flexibility of grammatical advance planning during sentence production: Effects of cognitive load on multiple lexical access.

PubMed

Wagner, Valentin; Jescheniak, Jörg D; Schriefers, Herbert

2010-03-01

Three picture-word interference experiments addressed the question of whether the scope of grammatical advance planning in sentence production corresponds to some fixed unit or rather is flexible. Subjects produced sentences of different formats under varying amounts of cognitive load. When speakers described 2-object displays with simple sentences of the form "the frog is next to the mug," the 2 nouns were found to be lexically-semantically activated to similar degrees at speech onset, as indexed by similarly sized interference effects from semantic distractors related to either the first or the second noun. When speakers used more complex sentences (including prenominal color adjectives; e.g., "the blue frog is next to the blue mug") much larger interference effects were observed for the first than the second noun, suggesting that the second noun was lexically-semantically activated before speech onset on only a subset of trials. With increased cognitive load, introduced by an additional conceptual decision task and variable utterance formats, the interference effect for the first noun was increased and the interference effect for second noun disappeared, suggesting that the scope of advance planning had been narrowed. By contrast, if cognitive load was induced by a secondary working memory task to be performed during speech planning, the interference effect for both nouns was increased, suggesting that the scope of advance planning had not been affected. In all, the data suggest that the scope of advance planning during grammatical encoding in sentence production is flexible, rather than structurally fixed.

Cognitive-Motor Interference on Upper Extremity Motor Performance in a Robot-Assisted Planar Reaching Task Among Patients With Stroke.

PubMed

Shin, Joon-Ho; Park, Gyulee; Cho, Duk Youn

2017-04-01

To explore motor performance on 2 different cognitive tasks during robotic rehabilitation in which motor performance was longitudinally assessed. Prospective study. Rehabilitation hospital. Patients (N=22) with chronic stroke and upper extremity impairment. A total of 640 repetitions of robot-assisted planar reaching, 5 times a week for 4 weeks. Longitudinal robotic evaluations regarding motor performance included smoothness, mean velocity, path error, and reach error by the type of cognitive task. Dual-task effects (DTEs) of motor performance were computed to analyze the effect of the cognitive task on dual-task interference. Cognitive task type influenced smoothness (P=.006), the DTEs of smoothness (P=.002), and the DTEs of reach error (P=.052). Robotic rehabilitation improved smoothness (P=.007) and reach error (P=.078), while stroke severity affected smoothness (P=.01), reach error (P<.001), and path error (P=.01). Robotic rehabilitation or severity did not affect the DTEs of motor performance. The results provide evidence for the effect of cognitive-motor interference on upper extremity performance among participants with stroke using a robotic-guided rehabilitation system. Copyright © 2016 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Inharmonic music elicits more negative affect and interferes more with a concurrent cognitive task than does harmonic music.

PubMed

Bonin, Tanor; Smilek, Daniel

2016-04-01

We evaluated whether task-irrelevant inharmonic music produces greater interference with cognitive performance than task-irrelevant harmonic music. Participants completed either an auditory (Experiment 1) or a visual (Experiment 2) version of the cognitively demanding 2-back task in which they were required to categorize each digit in a sequence of digits as either being a target (a digit also presented two positions earlier in the sequence) or a distractor (all other items). They were concurrently exposed to either task-irrelevant harmonic music (judged to be consonant), task-irrelevant inharmonic music (judged to be dissonant), or no music at all as a distraction. The main finding across both experiments was that performance on the 2-back task was worse when participants were exposed to inharmonic music than when they were exposed to harmonic music. Interestingly, performance on the 2-back task was generally the same regardless of whether harmonic music or no music was played. We suggest that inharmonic, dissonant music interferes with cognitive performance by requiring greater cognitive processing than harmonic, consonant music, and speculate about why this might be.

Cognitive-motor dual-task interference: A systematic review of neural correlates.

PubMed

Leone, Carmela; Feys, Peter; Moumdjian, Lousin; D'Amico, Emanuele; Zappia, Mario; Patti, Francesco

2017-04-01

Cognitive-motor interference refers to dual-tasking (DT) interference (DTi) occurring when the simultaneous performance of a cognitive and a motor task leads to a percentage change in one or both tasks. Several theories exist to explain DTi in humans: the capacity-sharing, the bottleneck and the cross-talk theories. Numerous studies investigating whether a specific brain locus is associated with cognitive-motor DTi have been conducted, but not systematically reviewed. We aimed to review the evidences on brain activity associated with the cognitive-motor DT, in order to better understand the neurological basis of the CMi. Results were reported according to the technique used to assess brain activity. Twenty-three articles met the inclusion criteria. Out of them, nine studies used functional magnetic resonance imaging to show an additive, under-additive, over- additive, or a mixed activation pattern of the brain. Seven studies used near-infrared spectroscopy, and seven neurophysiological instruments. Yet a specific DT locus in the brain cannot be concluded from the overall current literature. Future studies are warranted to overcome the shortcomings identified. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Resolving semantic and proactive interference in memory over the short-term.

PubMed

Atkins, Alexandra S; Berman, Marc G; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A; Lewis, Richard L; Jonides, John

2011-07-01

Interference is a major source of short-term errors of memory. The present investigation explores the relationship between two important forms of interference: proactive interference (PI), induced by the need to reject recently studied items no longer relevant to task performance, and semantic interference (SI), induced by the need to reject lures sharing a meaningful relationship with current memoranda. We explore the possibility that shared cognitive control processes are recruited to resolve both forms of interference. In Experiment 1, we find that the requirement to engage in articulatory suppression during the retention interval of tasks that induce either PI or SI increases both forms of interference similarly and selectively. In Experiment 2, we develop a task to examine PI and SI within the same experimental context. The results show interactive effects between factors that lead to the two forms of interference. Taken together, these findings support contextual-cuing models of short-term remembering (Nairne, Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 53-81 2002), where the context in which retrieval occurs can influence susceptibility to interference. Lastly, we discuss several theoretical hypotheses concerning the cognitive control processes that are recruited to resolve SI and PI in short-term remembering.

Resolving semantic and proactive interference in memory over the short-term

PubMed Central

Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A.; Lewis, Richard L.; Jonides, John

2011-01-01

Interference is a major source of short-term errors of memory. The present investigation explores the relationship between two important forms of interference: proactive interference (PI), induced by the need to reject recently studied items no longer relevant to task performance, and semantic interference (SI), induced by the need to reject lures sharing a meaningful relationship with current memoranda. We explore the possibility that shared cognitive control processes are recruited to resolve both forms of interference. In Experiment 1, we find that the requirement to engage in articulatory suppression during the retention interval of tasks that induce either PI or SI increases both forms of interference similarly and selectively. In Experiment 2, we develop a task to examine PI and SI within the same experimental context. The results show interactive effects between factors that lead to the two forms of interference. Taken together, these findings support contextual-cuing models of short-term remembering (Nairne, Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 53–81 2002), where the context in which retrieval occurs can influence susceptibility to interference. Lastly, we discuss several theoretical hypotheses concerning the cognitive control processes that are recruited to resolve SI and PI in short-term remembering. PMID:21327614

Outage Analysis of Dual-hop Cognitive Networks with Relay Selection over Nakagami-m Fading Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zongsheng; Pi, Xurong

2014-09-01

In this paper, we investigate the outage performance of decode-and-forward cognitive relay networks for Nakagami-m fading channels, with considering both best relay selection and interference constraints. Focusing on the relay selection and making use of the underlay cognitive approach, an exact closed-form outage probability expression is derived in an independent, non-identical distributed Nakagami-m environment. The closed-form outage probability provides an efficient means to evaluate the effects of the maximum allowable interference power, number of cognitive relays, and channel conditions between the primary user and cognitive users. Finally, we present numerical results to validate the theory analysis. Moreover, from the simulation results, we obtain that the system can obtain the full diversity.

Partial Ordering and Stochastic Resonance in Discrete Memoryless Channels

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-01

Methods for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks”, which is to analyze and develop noncoherent communication methods at the physical layer for target...Capacity Behavior for Simple Models of Optical Fiber Communication,” 8 th International conf. on Communications, COMM 2010, Bucharest, pp.1-6, July 2010

Eighteen-month-olds' memory interference and distraction in a modified A-not-B task is not associated with their anticipatory looking in a false-belief task.

PubMed

Zmyj, Norbert; Prinz, Wolfgang; Daum, Moritz M

2015-01-01

Infants' performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks is often interpreted as if they have understood false beliefs. This view has been questioned by a recent account that explains infants' performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks as the result of susceptibility to memory interference and distraction. We tested this alternative account by investigating the relationship between infants' false-belief understanding, susceptibility to memory interference and distraction, and general cognitive development in 18-month-old infants (N = 22). False-belief understanding was tested in an anticipatory looking paradigm of a standard false-belief task. Susceptibility to memory interference and distraction was tested in a modified A-not-B task. Cognitive development was measured via the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. We did not find any relationship between infants' performance in the false-belief task and the A-not-B task, even after controlling for cognitive development. This study shows that there is no ubiquitous relation between susceptibility to memory interference and distraction and performance in a false-belief task in infancy.

Eighteen-month-olds’ memory interference and distraction in a modified A-not-B task is not associated with their anticipatory looking in a false-belief task

PubMed Central

Zmyj, Norbert; Prinz, Wolfgang; Daum, Moritz M.

2015-01-01

Infants’ performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks is often interpreted as if they have understood false beliefs. This view has been questioned by a recent account that explains infants’ performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks as the result of susceptibility to memory interference and distraction. We tested this alternative account by investigating the relationship between infants’ false-belief understanding, susceptibility to memory interference and distraction, and general cognitive development in 18-month-old infants (N = 22). False-belief understanding was tested in an anticipatory looking paradigm of a standard false-belief task. Susceptibility to memory interference and distraction was tested in a modified A-not-B task. Cognitive development was measured via the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. We did not find any relationship between infants’ performance in the false-belief task and the A-not-B task, even after controlling for cognitive development. This study shows that there is no ubiquitous relation between susceptibility to memory interference and distraction and performance in a false-belief task in infancy. PMID:26157409

Working Memory Capacity and Its Relation to Stroop Interference and Facilitation Effects in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Jee Eun; Kim, Jin Hee; Jeong, Jee Hyang; Kang, Heejin

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purposes of the study were to investigate (a) the task-specific differences in short-term memory (STM) and working memory capacity (WMC) in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and normal elderly adults (NEAs), (b) the Stroop interference and facilitation effects, and (c) the relationship of STM and WMC to the Stroop…

Family Interference with Work and Workplace Cognitive Failure: The Mitigating Role of Recovery Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lapierre, Laurent M.; Hammer, Leslie B.; Truxillo, Donald M.; Murphy, Lauren A.

2012-01-01

The first goal of this study was to test whether family interference with work (FIW) is positively related to increased workplace cognitive failure (WCF), which is defined as errors made at work that indicate lapses in memory (e.g., failing to recall work procedures), attention (e.g., not fully listening to instruction), and motor function (e.g.,…

Prefrontal inhibition of threat processing reduces working memory interference

PubMed Central

Clarke, Robert; Johnstone, Tom

2013-01-01

Bottom-up processes can interrupt ongoing cognitive processing in order to adaptively respond to emotional stimuli of high potential significance, such as those that threaten wellbeing. However it is vital that this interference can be modulated in certain contexts to focus on current tasks. Deficits in the ability to maintain the appropriate balance between cognitive and emotional demands can severely impact on day-to-day activities. This fMRI study examined this interaction between threat processing and cognition; 18 adult participants performed a visuospatial working memory (WM) task with two load conditions, in the presence and absence of anxiety induction by threat of electric shock. Threat of shock interfered with performance in the low cognitive load condition; however interference was eradicated under high load, consistent with engagement of emotion regulation mechanisms. Under low load the amygdala showed significant activation to threat of shock that was modulated by high cognitive load. A directed top-down control contrast identified two regions associated with top-down control; ventrolateral PFC and dorsal ACC. Dynamic causal modeling provided further evidence that under high cognitive load, top-down inhibition is exerted on the amygdala and its outputs to prefrontal regions. Additionally, we hypothesized that individual differences in a separate, non-emotional top-down control task would predict the recruitment of dorsal ACC and ventrolateral PFC during top-down control of threat. Consistent with this, performance on a separate dichotic listening task predicted dorsal ACC and ventrolateral PFC activation during high WM load under threat of shock, though activation in these regions did not directly correlate with WM performance. Together, the findings suggest that under high cognitive load and threat, top-down control is exerted by dACC and vlPFC to inhibit threat processing, thus enabling WM performance without threat-related interference. PMID:23750133

Cognitive-motor interference during functional mobility after stroke: state of the science and implications for future research.

PubMed

Plummer, Prudence; Eskes, Gail; Wallace, Sarah; Giuffrida, Clare; Fraas, Michael; Campbell, Grace; Clifton, Kerrylee; Skidmore, Elizabeth R

2013-12-01

Cognitive-motor interference (CMI) is evident when simultaneous performance of a cognitive task and a motor task results in deterioration in performance in one or both of the tasks, relative to performance of each task separately. The purpose of this review is to present a framework for categorizing patterns of CMI and to examine the specific patterns of CMI evident in published studies comparing single-task and dual-task performance of cognitive and motor tasks during gait and balance activities after stroke. We also examine the literature for associations between patterns of CMI and a history of falls, as well as evidence for the effects of rehabilitation on CMI after stroke. Overall, this review suggests that during gait activities with an added cognitive task, people with stroke are likely to demonstrate significant decrements in motor performance only (cognitive-related motor interference), or decrements in both motor and cognitive performance (mutual interference). In contrast, patterns of CMI were variable among studies examining balance activities. Comparing people poststroke with and without a history of falls, patterns and magnitude of CMI were similar for fallers and nonfallers. Longitudinal studies suggest that conventional rehabilitation has minimal effects on CMI during gait or balance activities. However, early-phase pilot studies suggest that dual-task interventions may reduce CMI during gait performance in community-dwelling stroke survivors. It is our hope that this innovative and critical examination of the existing literature will highlight the limitations in current experimental designs and inform improvements in the design and reporting of dual-task studies in stroke. Copyright © 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Distinct loci of lexical and semantic access deficits in aphasia: Evidence from voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping and diffusion tensor imaging.

PubMed

Harvey, Denise Y; Schnur, Tatiana T

2015-06-01

Naming pictures and matching words to pictures belonging to the same semantic category negatively affects language production and comprehension. By most accounts, semantic interference arises when accessing lexical representations in naming (e.g., Damian, Vigliocco, & Levelt, 2001) and semantic representations in comprehension (e.g., Forde & Humphreys, 1997). Further, damage to the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG), a region implicated in cognitive control, results in increasing semantic interference when items repeat across cycles in both language production and comprehension (Jefferies, Baker, Doran, & Lambon Ralph, 2007). This generates the prediction that the LIFG via white matter connections supports resolution of semantic interference arising from different loci (lexical vs semantic) in the temporal lobe. However, it remains unclear whether the cognitive and neural mechanisms that resolve semantic interference are the same across tasks. Thus, we examined which gray matter structures [using whole brain and region of interest (ROI) approaches] and white matter connections (using deterministic tractography) when damaged impact semantic interference and its increase across cycles when repeatedly producing and understanding words in 15 speakers with varying lexical-semantic deficits from left hemisphere stroke. We found that damage to distinct brain regions, the posterior versus anterior temporal lobe, was associated with semantic interference (collapsed across cycles) in naming and comprehension, respectively. Further, those with LIFG damage compared to those without exhibited marginally larger increases in semantic interference across cycles in naming but not comprehension. Lastly, the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, connecting the LIFG with posterior temporal lobe, related to semantic interference in naming, whereas the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), connecting posterior with anterior temporal regions related to semantic interference in comprehension. These neuroanatomical-behavioral findings have implications for models of the lexical-semantic language network by demonstrating that semantic interference in language production and comprehension involves different representations which differentially recruit a cognitive control mechanism for interference resolution. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Measuring the effects of a visual or auditory Stroop task on dual-task costs during obstacle crossing.

PubMed

Worden, Timothy A; Mendes, Matthew; Singh, Pratham; Vallis, Lori Ann

2016-10-01

Successful planning and execution of motor strategies while concurrently performing a cognitive task has been previously examined, but unfortunately the varied and numerous cognitive tasks studied has limited our fundamental understanding of how the central nervous system successfully integrates and executes these tasks simultaneously. To gain a better understanding of these mechanisms we used a set of cognitive tasks requiring similar central executive function processes and response outputs but requiring different perceptual mechanisms to perform the motor task. Thirteen healthy young adults (20.6±1.6years old) were instrumented with kinematic markers (60Hz) and completed 5 practice, 10 single-task obstacle walking trials and two 40 trial experimental blocks. Each block contained 20 trials of seated (single-task) trials followed by 20 cognitive and obstacle (30% lower leg length) crossing trials (dual-task). Blocks were randomly presented and included either an auditory Stroop task (AST; central interference only) or a visual Stroop task (VST; combined central and structural interference). Higher accuracy rates and shorter response times were observed for the VST versus AST single-task trials (p<0.05). Conversely, for the obstacle stepping performance, larger dual task costs were observed for the VST as compared to the AST for clearance measures (the VST induced larger clearance values for both the leading and trailing feet), indicating VST tasks caused greater interference for obstacle crossing (p<0.05). These results supported the hypothesis that structural interference has a larger effect on motor performance in a dual-task situation compared to cognitive tasks that pose interference at only the central processing stage. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

System Lifetimes, The Memoryless Property, Euler's Constant, and Pi

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agarwal, Anurag; Marengo, James E.; Romero, Likin Simon

2013-01-01

A "k"-out-of-"n" system functions as long as at least "k" of its "n" components remain operational. Assuming that component failure times are independent and identically distributed exponential random variables, we find the distribution of system failure time. After some examples, we find the limiting…

Ventral striatal hyperconnectivity during rewarded interference control in adolescents with ADHD.

PubMed

Ma, Ili; van Holstein, Mieke; Mies, Gabry W; Mennes, Maarten; Buitelaar, Jan; Cools, Roshan; Cillessen, Antonius H N; Krebs, Ruth M; Scheres, Anouk

2016-09-01

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by cognitive deficits (e.g., interference control) and altered reward processing. Cognitive control is influenced by incentive motivation and according to current theoretical models, ADHD is associated with abnormal interactions between incentive motivation and cognitive control. However, the neural mechanisms by which reward modulates cognitive control in individuals with ADHD are unknown. We used event-related functional resonance imaging (fMRI) to study neural responses during a rewarded Stroop color-word task in adolescents (14-17 years) with ADHD (n = 25; 19 boys) and healthy controls (n = 33; 22 boys). Adolescents with ADHD showed increased reward signaling within the superior frontal gyrus and ventral striatum (VS) relative to controls. Importantly, functional connectivity analyses revealed a hyperconnectivity between VS and motor control regions in the ADHD group, as a function of reward-cognitive control integration. Connectivity was associated with performance improvement in controls but not in the ADHD group, suggesting inefficient connectivity. Adolescents with ADHD show increased neural sensitivity to rewards and its interactions with interference control in VS and motor regions, respectively. The findings support theoretical models of altered reward-cognitive control integration in individuals with ADHD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The association between aerobic fitness and cognitive function in older men mediated by frontal lateralization.

PubMed

Hyodo, Kazuki; Dan, Ippeita; Kyutoku, Yasushi; Suwabe, Kazuya; Byun, Kyeongho; Ochi, Genta; Kato, Morimasa; Soya, Hideaki

2016-01-15

Previous studies have shown that higher aerobic fitness is related to higher cognitive function and higher task-related prefrontal activation in older adults. However, a holistic picture of these factors has yet to be presented. As a typical age-related change of brain activation, less lateralized activity in the prefrontal cortex during cognitive tasks has been observed in various neuroimaging studies. Thus, this study aimed to reveal the relationship between aerobic fitness, cognitive function, and frontal lateralization. Sixty male older adults each performed a submaximal incremental exercise test to determine their oxygen intake (V·O2) at ventilatory threshold (VT) in order to index their aerobic fitness. They performed a color-word Stroop task while prefrontal activation was monitored using functional near infrared spectroscopy. As an index of cognitive function, Stroop interference time was analyzed. Partial correlation analyses revealed significant correlations among higher VT, shorter Stroop interference time and greater left-lateralized dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation when adjusting for education. Moreover, mediation analyses showed that left-lateralized DLPFC activation significantly mediated the association between VT and Stroop interference time. These results suggest that higher aerobic fitness is associated with cognitive function via lateralized frontal activation in older adults. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A DS-UWB Cognitive Radio System Based on Bridge Function Smart Codes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Yafei; Hong, Sheng; Zhao, Guodong; Zhang, Fengyuan; di, Jinshan; Zhang, Qishan

This paper proposes a direct-sequence UWB Gaussian pulse of cognitive radio systems based on bridge function smart sequence matrix and the Gaussian pulse. As the system uses the spreading sequence code, that is the bridge function smart code sequence, the zero correlation zones (ZCZs) which the bridge function sequences' auto-correlation functions had, could reduce multipath fading of the pulse interference. The Modulated channel signal was sent into the IEEE 802.15.3a UWB channel. We analysis the ZCZs's inhibition to the interference multipath interference (MPI), as one of the main system sources interferences. The simulation in SIMULINK/MATLAB is described in detail. The result shows the system has better performance by comparison with that employing Walsh sequence square matrix, and it was verified by the formula in principle.

Emotion-cognition interaction in people at familial high risk for schizophrenia: the impact of sex differences.

PubMed

Phillips, Laura K; Giuliano, Anthony J; Lee, Erica H; Faraone, Stephen V; Tsuang, Ming T; Seidman, Larry J

2011-11-01

Cognitive deficits are fundamental to schizophrenia, and research suggests that negative emotion abnormally interferes with certain cognitive processes in those with the illness. To a lesser extent, cognitive impairment is found in persons at risk for schizophrenia, but there is limited research on the impact of emotion on cognitive processing in at-risk groups. It is unknown whether interference of negative emotion precedes illness and contributes to vulnerability for the disorder. We studied the extent to which negative emotional information interferes with working memory in 21 adolescent and young adult first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia and 22 community controls. Groups were comparable in age, sex, education, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Primary measures were n-back tasks varying in cognitive load (1-back, 2-back, 3-back) with emotional faces (neutral, happy, fearful) as stimuli. The control group's response times (RTs) and the women's RTs, regardless of group, differed depending on the emotion condition. In contrast, the RTs of the relatives and of the men, regardless of group, did not differ by emotion. This study is the first to examine emotion-cognition interactions in relatives of individuals with schizophrenia. Reduced efficiency in processing emotional information may contribute to a greater vulnerability for schizophrenia that may be heightened in men. Additional research with larger samples of men and women is needed to test these preliminary findings.

Interference Effects in Bimanual Coordination Are Independent of Movement Type

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calvin, Sarah; Huys, Raoul; Jirsa, Viktor K.

2010-01-01

Simultaneously executed limb movements interfere with each other. Whereas the interference between discrete movements is examined mostly from a cognitive perspective, that between rhythmic movements is studied mainly from a dynamical systems perspective. As the tools and concepts developed by both communities are limited in their applicability to…

Mechanisms and neuronal networks involved in reactive and proactive cognitive control of interference in working memory.

PubMed

Irlbacher, Kerstin; Kraft, Antje; Kehrer, Stefanie; Brandt, Stephan A

2014-10-01

Cognitive control can be reactive or proactive in nature. Reactive control mechanisms, which support the resolution of interference, start after its onset. Conversely, proactive control involves the anticipation and prevention of interference prior to its occurrence. The interrelation of both types of cognitive control is currently under debate: Are they mediated by different neuronal networks? Or are there neuronal structures that have the potential to act in a proactive as well as in a reactive manner? This review illustrates the way in which integrating knowledge gathered from behavioral studies, functional imaging, and human electroencephalography proves useful in answering these questions. We focus on studies that investigate interference resolution at the level of working memory representations. In summary, different mechanisms are instrumental in supporting reactive and proactive control. Distinct neuronal networks are involved, though some brain regions, especially pre-SMA, possess functions that are relevant to both control modes. Therefore, activation of these brain areas could be observed in reactive, as well as proactive control, but at different times during information processing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Proactive Semantic Interference is Associated with Total and Regional Abnormal Amyloid Load in Non-Demented Community-Dwelling Elders: A Preliminary Study.

PubMed

Loewenstein, David A; Greig, Maria T; Curiel, Rosie; Rodriguez, Rosemarie; Wicklund, Meredith; Barker, Warren W; Hidalgo, Jacqueline; Rosado, Marian; Duara, Ranjan

2015-12-01

To evaluate the relationship between susceptibility to proactive semantic interference (PSI) and retroactive semantic interference (RSI) and brain amyloid load in non-demented elders. 27 participants (11 cognitively normal [CN] with subjective memory complaints, 8 CN without memory complaints, and 8 with mild cognitive impairment [MCI]) underwent complete neurological and neuropsychological evaluations. Participants also received the Semantic Interference Test (SIT) and AV-45 amyloid PET imaging. High levels of association were present between total amyloid load, regional amyloid levels, and the PSI measure (in the entire sample and a subsample excluding MCI subjects). RSI and other memory measures showed much weaker associations or no associations with total and regional amyloid load. No associations between amyloid levels and non-memory performance were observed. In non-demented individuals, vulnerability to PSI was highly associated with total and regional beta-amyloid load and may be an early cognitive marker of brain pathology. Copyright © 2015 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Free recall and outdoor running: cognitive and physical demand interference.

PubMed

Epling, Samantha L; Blakely, Megan J; Russell, Paul N; Helton, William S

2016-10-01

Cognitive resource theory is a proposed explanation for people's limited ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. Reallocation of a restricted supply of cognitive resources to two or more tasks may be detrimental to performance on one or both tasks. Many professionals in high-risk fields, such as those engaged in firefighting, military, and search and rescue missions, face simultaneous mental and physical demands, yet little is known about the resources required to move over the natural terrain these operators may encounter. In the present research, we investigated whether interference was found between outdoor running and a word recall task. As hypothesized, a reduction in word recall was observed in the dual task compared to a recall-alone task; however, the distance run was not significantly different between the dual task and the run-alone task. Subjective reports of workload, task focus, and being "spent" (measures calculated from responses on a questionnaire) were greatest in the dual task. These results support the cognitive resource theory and have important theoretical and practical implications. Further research is required to better understand the type and extent of cognitive resources required by such physical tasks and the potential interference with simultaneous mental tasks.

Non-Orthogonal Random Access in MIMO Cognitive Radio Networks: Beamforming, Power Allocation, and Opportunistic Transmission

PubMed Central

Lin, Huifa; Shin, Won-Yong

2017-01-01

We study secondary random access in multi-input multi-output cognitive radio networks, where a slotted ALOHA-type protocol and successive interference cancellation are used. We first introduce three types of transmit beamforming performed by secondary users, where multiple antennas are used to suppress the interference at the primary base station and/or to increase the received signal power at the secondary base station. Then, we show a simple decentralized power allocation along with the equivalent single-antenna conversion. To exploit the multiuser diversity gain, an opportunistic transmission protocol is proposed, where the secondary users generating less interference are opportunistically selected, resulting in a further reduction of the interference temperature. The proposed methods are validated via computer simulations. Numerical results show that increasing the number of transmit antennas can greatly reduce the interference temperature, while increasing the number of receive antennas leads to a reduction of the total transmit power. Optimal parameter values of the opportunistic transmission protocol are examined according to three types of beamforming and different antenna configurations, in terms of maximizing the cognitive transmission capacity. All the beamforming, decentralized power allocation, and opportunistic transmission protocol are performed by the secondary users in a decentralized manner, thus resulting in an easy implementation in practice. PMID:28076402

Non-Orthogonal Random Access in MIMO Cognitive Radio Networks: Beamforming, Power Allocation, and Opportunistic Transmission.

PubMed

Lin, Huifa; Shin, Won-Yong

2017-01-01

We study secondary random access in multi-input multi-output cognitive radio networks, where a slotted ALOHA-type protocol and successive interference cancellation are used. We first introduce three types of transmit beamforming performed by secondary users, where multiple antennas are used to suppress the interference at the primary base station and/or to increase the received signal power at the secondary base station. Then, we show a simple decentralized power allocation along with the equivalent single-antenna conversion. To exploit the multiuser diversity gain, an opportunistic transmission protocol is proposed, where the secondary users generating less interference are opportunistically selected, resulting in a further reduction of the interference temperature. The proposed methods are validated via computer simulations. Numerical results show that increasing the number of transmit antennas can greatly reduce the interference temperature, while increasing the number of receive antennas leads to a reduction of the total transmit power. Optimal parameter values of the opportunistic transmission protocol are examined according to three types of beamforming and different antenna configurations, in terms of maximizing the cognitive transmission capacity. All the beamforming, decentralized power allocation, and opportunistic transmission protocol are performed by the secondary users in a decentralized manner, thus resulting in an easy implementation in practice.

Analysis of Optical CDMA Signal Transmission: Capacity Limits and Simulation Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garba, Aminata A.; Yim, Raymond M. H.; Bajcsy, Jan; Chen, Lawrence R.

2005-12-01

We present performance limits of the optical code-division multiple-access (OCDMA) networks. In particular, we evaluate the information-theoretical capacity of the OCDMA transmission when single-user detection (SUD) is used by the receiver. First, we model the OCDMA transmission as a discrete memoryless channel, evaluate its capacity when binary modulation is used in the interference-limited (noiseless) case, and extend this analysis to the case when additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is corrupting the received signals. Next, we analyze the benefits of using nonbinary signaling for increasing the throughput of optical CDMA transmission. It turns out that up to a fourfold increase in the network throughput can be achieved with practical numbers of modulation levels in comparison to the traditionally considered binary case. Finally, we present BER simulation results for channel coded binary and[InlineEquation not available: see fulltext.]-ary OCDMA transmission systems. In particular, we apply turbo codes concatenated with Reed-Solomon codes so that up to several hundred concurrent optical CDMA users can be supported at low target bit error rates. We observe that unlike conventional OCDMA systems, turbo-empowered OCDMA can allow overloading (more active users than is the length of the spreading sequences) with good bit error rate system performance.

Characterizing biased cancer-related cognitive processing: relationships with BRCA1/2 genetic mutation status, personal cancer history, age, and prophylactic surgery.

PubMed

Carpenter, Kristen M; Eisenberg, Stacy; Weltfreid, Sharone; Low, Carissa A; Beran, Tammy; Stanton, Annette L

2014-09-01

This study evaluated associations of cancer-related cognitive processing with BRCA1/2 mutation carrier status, personal cancer history, age, and election of prophylactic surgery in women at high risk for breast cancer. In a 2 (BRCA1/2 mutation carrier status) × 2 (personal cancer history) matched-control design, with age as an additional predictor, participants (N = 115) completed a computerized cancer Stroop task. Dependent variables were response latency to cancer-related stimuli (reaction time [RT]) and cancer-related cognitive interference (cancer RT minus neutral RT). RT and interference were tested as predictors of prophylactic surgery in the subsequent four years. RT for cancer-related words was significantly slower than other word groups, indicating biased processing specific to cancer-related stimuli. Participants with a cancer history evidenced longer RT to cancer-related words than those without a history; moreover, a significant Cancer History × Age interaction indicated that, among participants with a cancer history, the typical advantage associated with younger age on Stroop tasks was absent. BRCA mutation carriers demonstrated more cancer-related cognitive interference than noncarriers. Again, the typical Stroop age advantage was absent among carriers. Exploratory analyses indicated that BRCA+ status and greater cognitive interference predicted greater likelihood of undergoing prophylactic surgery. Post hoc tests suggest that cancer-related distress does not account for these relationships. In the genetic testing context, younger women with a personal cancer history or who are BRCA1/2 mutation carriers might be particularly vulnerable to biases in cancer-related cognitive processing. Biased processing was associated marginally with greater likelihood of prophylactic surgery. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Reactive and Proactive Interference Control in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder across the Lifespan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lever, Anne G.; Ridderinkhof, K. Richard; Marsman, Maarten; Geurts, Hilde M.

2017-01-01

As a large heterogeneity is observed across studies on interference control in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research may benefit from the use of a cognitive framework that models specific processes underlying reactive and proactive control of interference. Reactive control refers to the expression and suppression of responses and proactive…

The Effects of Physical Exercise and Cognitive Training on Memory and Neurotrophic Factors.

PubMed

Heisz, Jennifer J; Clark, Ilana B; Bonin, Katija; Paolucci, Emily M; Michalski, Bernadeta; Becker, Suzanna; Fahnestock, Margaret

2017-11-01

This study examined the combined effect of physical exercise and cognitive training on memory and neurotrophic factors in healthy, young adults. Ninety-five participants completed 6 weeks of exercise training, combined exercise and cognitive training, or no training (control). Both the exercise and combined training groups improved performance on a high-interference memory task, whereas the control group did not. In contrast, neither training group improved on general recognition performance, suggesting that exercise training selectively increases high-interference memory that may be linked to hippocampal function. Individuals who experienced greater fitness improvements from the exercise training (i.e., high responders to exercise) also had greater increases in the serum neurotrophic factors brain-derived neurotrophic factor and insulin-like growth factor-1. These high responders to exercise also had better high-interference memory performance as a result of the combined exercise and cognitive training compared with exercise alone, suggesting that potential synergistic effects might depend on the availability of neurotrophic factors. These findings are especially important, as memory benefits accrued from a relatively short intervention in high-functioning young adults.

Increased sensitivity to proactive and retroactive interference in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: new insights.

PubMed

Hanseeuw, Bernard J; Seron, Xavier; Ivanoiu, Adrian

2012-10-01

Increased sensitivity to proactive (PI) and retroactive (RI) interference has been observed in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). PI and RI are often explained as being the result of a response competition mechanism. However, patients with aMCI are supposed to suffer mostly from encoding deficits. We hypothesized that in aMCI interference may occur at encoding and not only at the retrieval stage. We developed an original paradigm enabling PI and RI to be tested with and without response competitors. Eighteen young controls (YC), 16 elderly controls (EC) and 15 aMCI participated in the study. The YC and EC groups presented interference effects only in conditions that included a direct response competitor. In contrast, aMCI had interference effects in all conditions including the one without response competitor. Increased sensitivity to interference in aMCI appears to occur at the encoding/consolidation stage and not only at the retrieval stage, as is the case in healthy subjects. This result is discussed in the context of the associative encoding deficits characterizing aMCI. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Interference Control In Elderly Bilinguals: Appearances Can Be Misleading.

PubMed

Ansaldo, Ana Inés; Ghazi-Saidi, Ladan; Adrover-Roig, Daniel

2015-01-01

Bilingualism has been associated with successful aging. In particular, research on the cognitive advantages of bilingualism suggests that it can enhance control over interference and help delay the onset of dementia signs. However, the evidence on the so-called cognitive advantage is not unanimous; furthermore, little is known about the neural basis of this supposed cognitive advantage in bilingual as opposed to monolingual elderly populations. In this study, elderly bilingual and monolingual participants performed a visuospatial interference control task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. Response times and accuracy rates were calculated for congruent and incongruent conditions of the Simon task, and the neurofunctional correlates of performance on the Simon task were examined. The results showed equivalent performance on the Simon task across groups but different underlying neural substrates in the two groups. With incongruent trials, monolinguals activated the right middle frontal gyrus, whereas bilinguals relied upon the left inferior parietal lobule. These results show that elderly bilinguals and monolinguals have equivalent interference control abilities, but relay on different neural substrates. Thus, while monolinguals show a classical PASA (posterior-anterior shift in aging) effect, recruiting frontal areas, bilinguals activate visuospatial processing alone and thus do not show this posterior-anterior shift. Moreover, a modulation of frontal activity with task-dynamic control of interference, observed in the elderly bilingual group alone, suggests that elderly bilinguals deal with interference control without recruiting a circuit that is particularly vulnerable to aging.

Face-to-face interference in typical and atypical development

PubMed Central

Riby, Deborah M; Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa

2012-01-01

Visual communication cues facilitate interpersonal communication. It is important that we look at faces to retrieve and subsequently process such cues. It is also important that we sometimes look away from faces as they increase cognitive load that may interfere with online processing. Indeed, when typically developing individuals hold face gaze it interferes with task completion. In this novel study we quantify face interference for the first time in Williams syndrome (WS) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These disorders of development impact on cognition and social attention, but how do faces interfere with cognitive processing? Individuals developing typically as well as those with ASD (n = 19) and WS (n = 16) were recorded during a question and answer session that involved mathematics questions. In phase 1 gaze behaviour was not manipulated, but in phase 2 participants were required to maintain eye contact with the experimenter at all times. Looking at faces decreased task accuracy for individuals who were developing typically. Critically, the same pattern was seen in WS and ASD, whereby task performance decreased when participants were required to hold face gaze. The results show that looking at faces interferes with task performance in all groups. This finding requires the caveat that individuals with WS and ASD found it harder than individuals who were developing typically to maintain eye contact throughout the interaction. Individuals with ASD struggled to hold eye contact at all points of the interaction while those with WS found it especially difficult when thinking. PMID:22356183

Interference tables: a useful model for interference analysis in asynchronous multicarrier transmission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Medjahdi, Yahia; Terré, Michel; Ruyet, Didier Le; Roviras, Daniel

2014-12-01

In this paper, we investigate the impact of timing asynchronism on the performance of multicarrier techniques in a spectrum coexistence context. Two multicarrier schemes are considered: cyclic prefix-based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) with a rectangular pulse shape and filter bank-based multicarrier (FBMC) with physical layer for dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio (PHYDYAS) and isotropic orthogonal transform algorithm (IOTA) waveforms. First, we present the general concept of the so-called power spectral density (PSD)-based interference tables which are commonly used for multicarrier interference characterization in spectrum sharing context. After highlighting the limits of this approach, we propose a new family of interference tables called `instantaneous interference tables'. The proposed tables give the interference power caused by a given interfering subcarrier on a victim one, not only as a function of the spectral distance separating both subcarriers but also with respect to the timing misalignment between the subcarrier holders. In contrast to the PSD-based interference tables, the accuracy of the proposed tables has been validated through different simulation results. Furthermore, due to the better frequency localization of both PHYDYAS and IOTA waveforms, FBMC technique is demonstrated to be more robust to timing asynchronism compared to OFDM one. Such a result makes FBMC a potential candidate for the physical layer of future cognitive radio systems.

Intrusive trauma recollections is associated with impairment of interference inhibition and psychomotor speed in PTSD.

PubMed

Kertzman, Semion; Avital, Avi; Weizman, Abraham; Segal, Michael

2014-10-01

Intrusive cognitions that enter consciousness involuntarily are prominent symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present study aimed to identify neuropsychological mechanisms involved. Fifty PTSD outpatients and 50 healthy controls were tested using Finger Tapping, Simple and Choice Reaction Times and Stroop Tasks, to measure motor, psychomotor speed, response selection, and interference inhibition ability respectively. PTSD patients performed poorly in all tests, presumably owing to their generalized slowness of information processing and motor reaction. Psychomotor speed was a predictor of slowness and high error rate during the Stroop. Impaired inhibition, as measured by the interference index of the Stroop task, explained 9.7% of the predicated variance in frequency of re-experiencing PTSD symptoms and 23.5% of the predicated variance in augmentation of the interference response time. Impaired interference control may be related to internal (re-experiencing) and external (sensory) stimuli that leads to cognitive deficits in PTSD patients. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sex-specific neural activity when resolving cognitive interference in individuals with or without prior internalizing disorders.

PubMed

Wang, Zhishun; Jacobs, Rachel H; Marsh, Rachel; Horga, Guillermo; Qiao, Jianping; Warner, Virginia; Weissman, Myrna M; Peterson, Bradley S

2016-03-30

The processing of cognitive interference is a self-regulatory capacity that is impaired in persons with internalizing disorders. This investigation was to assess sex differences in the neural correlates of cognitive interference in individuals with and without an illness history of an internalizing disorder. We compared functional magnetic resonance imaging blood-oxygenation-level-dependent responses in both males (n=63) and females (n=80) with and without this illness history during performance of the Simon task. Females deactivated superior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobe, and posterior cingulate cortex to a greater extent than males. Females with a prior history of internalizing disorder also deactivated these regions more compared to males with that history, and they additionally demonstrated greater activation of right inferior frontal gyrus. These group differences were represented in a significant sex-by-illness interaction in these regions. These deactivated regions compose a task-negative or default mode network, whereas the inferior frontal gyrus usually activates when performing an attention-demanding task and is a key component of a task-positive network. Our findings suggest that a prior history of internalizing disorders disproportionately influences functioning of the default mode network and is associated with an accompanying activation of the task-positive network in females during the resolution of cognitive interference. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Shutting down sensorimotor interference unblocks the networks for stimulus processing: an SMR neurofeedback training study.

PubMed

Kober, Silvia Erika; Witte, Matthias; Stangl, Matthias; Väljamäe, Aleksander; Neuper, Christa; Wood, Guilherme

2015-01-01

In the present study, we investigated how the electrical activity in the sensorimotor cortex contributes to improved cognitive processing capabilities and how SMR (sensorimotor rhythm, 12-15Hz) neurofeedback training modulates it. Previous evidence indicates that higher levels of SMR activity reduce sensorimotor interference and thereby promote cognitive processing. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups, one experimental (N=10) group receiving SMR neurofeedback training, in which they learned to voluntarily increase SMR, and one control group (N=10) receiving sham feedback. Multiple cognitive functions and electrophysiological correlates of cognitive processing were assessed before and after 10 neurofeedback training sessions. The experimental group but not the control group showed linear increases in SMR power over training runs, which was associated with behavioural improvements in memory and attentional performance. Additionally, increasing SMR led to a more salient stimulus processing as indicated by increased N1 and P3 event-related potential amplitudes after the training as compared to the pre-test. Finally, functional brain connectivity between motor areas and visual processing areas was reduced after SMR training indicating reduced sensorimotor interference. These results indicate that SMR neurofeedback improves stimulus processing capabilities and consequently leads to improvements in cognitive performance. The present findings contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying SMR neurofeedback training and cognitive processing and implicate that SMR neurofeedback might be an effective cognitive training tool. Copyright © 2014 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thought control strategies in adolescents: links with OCD symptoms and meta-cognitive beliefs.

PubMed

Wilson, Charlotte; Hall, Martin

2012-07-01

The perceived control of intrusive thoughts is important in our understanding of a variety of psychological disorders, but particularly in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Little research has explored thought control strategies in younger populations, despite the frequent onset of OCD in childhood. This study examined thought control strategies and meta-cognitive beliefs in relation to Obsessive Compulsive (OC) interference scores in an adolescent sample. A non-referred sample of 151 adolescents aged 13-16 completed the Thought Control Questionnaire, the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire - Adolescent version, and the Leyton Obsessional Inventory - Child Version. Adolescents reported using distraction and worry as thought control strategies as much as adults, but social control and reappraisal less frequently, with adolescent males also reporting less use of punishment as a strategy. The strategies of worry and punishment, and positive beliefs about worry, uncontrollability and danger beliefs (UCD) and superstition punishment and responsibility beliefs (SPR) predicted OC interference scores. Furthermore, these meta-cognitive beliefs mediated the relationships between punishment and worry and OC interference scores. Given the similarities between our results and those from research exploring these variables in adults, it is proposed that cognitive behavioural models of OCD that have been developed in adult populations may be relevant to adolescents, but that meta-cognitive beliefs about superstition, punishment and responsibility may be important in adolescence.

Age-Related Developmental and Individual Differences in the Influence of Social and Non-social Distractors on Cognitive Performance.

PubMed

Tan, Patricia Z; Silk, Jennifer S; Dahl, Ronald E; Kronhaus, Dina; Ladouceur, Cecile D

2018-01-01

This study sought to examine age-related differences in the influences of social (neutral, emotional faces) and non-social/non-emotional (shapes) distractor stimuli in children, adolescents, and adults. To assess the degree to which distractor, or task-irrelevant, stimuli of varying social and emotional salience interfere with cognitive performance, children ( N = 12; 8-12y), adolescents ( N = 17; 13-17y), and adults ( N = 17; 18-52y) completed the Emotional Identification and Dynamic Faces (EIDF) task. This task included three types of dynamically-changing distractors: (1) neutral-social (neutral face changing into another face); (2) emotional-social (face changing from 0% emotional to 100% emotional); and (3) non-social/non-emotional (shapes changing from small to large) to index the influence of task-irrelevant social and emotional information on cognition. Results yielded no age-related differences in accuracy but showed an age-related linear reduction in correct reaction times across distractor conditions. An age-related effect in interference was observed, such that children and adults showed slower response times on correct trials with socially-salient distractors; whereas adolescents exhibited faster responses on trials with distractors that included faces rather than shapes. A secondary study goal was to explore individual differences in cognitive interference. Results suggested that regardless of age, low trait anxiety and high effortful control were associated with interference to angry faces. Implications for developmental differences in affective processing, notably the importance of considering the contexts in which purportedly irrelevant social and emotional information might impair, vs. improve cognitive control, are discussed.

Long-Term Interference at the Semantic Level: Evidence from Blocked-Cyclic Picture Matching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wei, Tao; Schnur, Tatiana T.

2016-01-01

Processing semantically related stimuli creates interference across various domains of cognition, including language and memory. In this study, we identify the locus and mechanism of interference when retrieving meanings associated with words and pictures. Subjects matched a probe stimulus (e.g., cat) to its associated target picture (e.g., yarn)…

Cognitive declines in healthy aging: evidence from multiple aspects of interference resolution.

PubMed

Pettigrew, Corinne; Martin, Randi C

2014-06-01

The present study tested the hypothesis that older adults show age-related deficits in interference resolution, also referred to as inhibitory control. Although oftentimes considered as a unitary aspect of executive function, various lines of work support the notion that interference resolution may be better understood as multiple constructs, including resistance to proactive interference (PI) and response-distractor inhibition (e.g., Friedman & Miyake, 2004). Using this dichotomy, the present study assessed whether older adults (relative to younger adults) show impaired performance across both, 1, or neither of these interference resolution constructs. To do so, we used multiple tasks to tap each construct and examined age effects at both the single task and latent variable levels. Older adults consistently demonstrated exaggerated interference effects across resistance to PI tasks. Although the results for the response-distractor inhibition tasks were less consistent at the individual task level analyses, age effects were evident on multiple tasks, as well as at the latent variable level. However, results of the latent variable modeling suggested declines in interference resolution are best explained by variance that is common to the 2 interference resolution constructs measured herein. Furthermore, the effect of age on interference resolution was found to be both distinct from declines in working memory, and independent of processing speed. These findings suggest multiple cognitive domains are independently sensitive to age, but that declines in the interference resolution constructs measured herein may originate from a common cause. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Rationalizing spatial exploration patterns of wild animals and humans through a temporal discounting framework.

PubMed

Namboodiri, Vijay Mohan K; Levy, Joshua M; Mihalas, Stefan; Sims, David W; Hussain Shuler, Marshall G

2016-08-02

Understanding the exploration patterns of foragers in the wild provides fundamental insight into animal behavior. Recent experimental evidence has demonstrated that path lengths (distances between consecutive turns) taken by foragers are well fitted by a power law distribution. Numerous theoretical contributions have posited that "Lévy random walks"-which can produce power law path length distributions-are optimal for memoryless agents searching a sparse reward landscape. It is unclear, however, whether such a strategy is efficient for cognitively complex agents, from wild animals to humans. Here, we developed a model to explain the emergence of apparent power law path length distributions in animals that can learn about their environments. In our model, the agent's goal during search is to build an internal model of the distribution of rewards in space that takes into account the cost of time to reach distant locations (i.e., temporally discounting rewards). For an agent with such a goal, we find that an optimal model of exploration in fact produces hyperbolic path lengths, which are well approximated by power laws. We then provide support for our model by showing that humans in a laboratory spatial exploration task search space systematically and modify their search patterns under a cost of time. In addition, we find that path length distributions in a large dataset obtained from free-ranging marine vertebrates are well described by our hyperbolic model. Thus, we provide a general theoretical framework for understanding spatial exploration patterns of cognitively complex foragers.

Dual-Task Interference When A Response is Not Required

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanSelst, Mark; Johnston, James C.; Shafto, Michael (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

When subjects are required to respond to two stimuli presented in rapid succession, responses to the second stimulus are delayed. Such dual-task interference has been attributed to a fundamental processing bottleneck preventing simultaneous processing on both tasks. Two experiments show dual-task interference even when the first task does not require a response. The observed interference is caused by a bottleneck in central cognitive processing, rather than in response initiation or execution.

Cognitive control of familiarity: directed forgetting reduces proactive interference in working memory.

PubMed

Festini, Sara B; Reuter-Lorenz, Patricia A

2014-03-01

Proactive interference (PI) occurs when previously learned information interferes with new learning. In a working memory task, PI induces longer response times and more errors to recent negative probes than to new probes, presumably because the recent probe's familiarity invites a "yes" response. Warnings, longer intertrial intervals, and the increased contextual salience of the probes can reduce but not eliminate PI, suggesting that cognitive control over PI is limited. Here we tested whether control exerted in the form of intentional forgetting performed during working memory can reduce the magnitude of PI. In two experiments, participants performed a working memory task with directed-forgetting instructions and the occasional presentation of recent probes. Surprise long-term memory testing indicated better memory for to-be-remembered than for to-be-forgotten items, documenting the classic directed-forgetting effect. Critically, in working memory, PI was virtually eliminated for recent probes from prior to-be-forgotten lists, as compared to recent probes from prior to-be-remembered lists. Thus cognitive control, when executed via directed forgetting, can reduce the adverse and otherwise persistent interference from familiarity, an effect that we attribute to attenuated memory representations of the to-be-forgotten items.

Differential interference effects of negative emotional states on subsequent semantic and perceptual processing

PubMed Central

Gorlick, Marissa A.; Mather, Mara

2012-01-01

Past studies have revealed that encountering negative events interferes with cognitive processing of subsequent stimuli. The present study investigated whether negative events affect semantic and perceptual processing differently. Presentation of negative pictures produced slower reaction times than neutral or positive pictures in tasks that require semantic processing, such as natural/man-made judgments about drawings of objects, commonness judgments about objects, and categorical judgments about pairs of words. In contrast, negative picture presentation did not slow down judgments in subsequent perceptual processing (e.g., color judgments about words, and size judgments about objects). The subjective arousal level of negative pictures did not modulate the interference effects on semantic/perceptual processing. These findings indicate that encountering negative emotional events interferes with semantic processing of subsequent stimuli more strongly than perceptual processing, and that not all types of subsequent cognitive processing are impaired by negative events. PMID:22142207

Differential interference effects of negative emotional states on subsequent semantic and perceptual processing.

PubMed

Sakaki, Michiko; Gorlick, Marissa A; Mather, Mara

2011-12-01

Past studies have revealed that encountering negative events interferes with cognitive processing of subsequent stimuli. The present study investigates whether negative events affect semantic and perceptual processing differently. Presentation of negative pictures produced slower reaction times than neutral or positive pictures in tasks that require semantic processing, such as natural or man-made judgments about drawings of objects, commonness judgments about objects, and categorical judgments about pairs of words. In contrast, negative picture presentation did not slow down judgments in subsequent perceptual processing (e.g., color judgments about words, size judgments about objects). The subjective arousal level of negative pictures did not modulate the interference effects on semantic or perceptual processing. These findings indicate that encountering negative emotional events interferes with semantic processing of subsequent stimuli more strongly than perceptual processing, and that not all types of subsequent cognitive processing are impaired by negative events. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Cognitive interference and a food-related memory bias in binge eating disorder.

PubMed

Svaldi, Jennifer; Schmitz, Florian; Trentowska, Monika; Tuschen-Caffier, Brunna; Berking, Matthias; Naumann, Eva

2014-01-01

The present study was concerned with cognitive interference and a specific memory bias for eating-related stimuli in binge eating disorder (BED). Further objectives were to find out under which circumstances such effects would occur, and whether they are related with each other and with reported severity of BED symptoms. A group of women diagnosed with BED and a matched sample of overweight controls completed two paradigms, an n-back task with lures and a recent-probes task. The BED group generally experienced more interference in the n-back task. Additionally, they revealed selectively increased interference for food items in the recent-probes task. Findings can be reconciled with the view that control functions are generally impaired in BED, and that there is an additional bias for eating-related stimuli, both of which were related with reported severity of BED symptoms. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pre-stressor cognitive control is related to intrusive cognition of a stressful film.

PubMed

Wessel, Ineke; Overwijk, Sippie; Verwoerd, Johan; de Vrieze, Nienke

2008-04-01

It has been suggested that relatively weak cognitive control existing prior to a stressful event may be associated with intrusive memories of that stressor afterwards. We explored this in two analog studies employing unselected participants who saw an emotional film fragment and completed behavioral (i.e., color-naming interference [CNI]) and self-report indices of intrusions. Prior to film presentation, several cognitive control tests were administered. Study 1 showed that better updating/monitoring was linked to less CNI from negative film-related words. However, better updating/monitoring was associated with more diary reports of intrusive memories. Study 2 showed that a better resistance to pro-active interference (PI) predicted less self-reported film-related intrusive cognition after 24h. However, after this delay, both self-reported intrusions and CNI were not related to updating/monitoring. Taken together, the results suggest that a specific pre-existing cognitive control function (i.e., resistance to PI) may be involved in the regulation of post-stressor intrusive memory phenomena.

Modular architecture for robotics and teleoperation

DOEpatents

Anderson, Robert J.

1996-12-03

Systems and methods for modularization and discretization of real-time robot, telerobot and teleoperation systems using passive, network based control laws. Modules consist of network one-ports and two-ports. Wave variables and position information are passed between modules. The behavior of each module is decomposed into uncoupled linear-time-invariant, and coupled, nonlinear memoryless elements and then are separately discretized.

Neural Systems Underlying Emotional and Non-emotional Interference Processing: An ALE Meta-Analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Studies

PubMed Central

Xu, Min; Xu, Guiping; Yang, Yang

2016-01-01

Understanding how the nature of interference might influence the recruitments of the neural systems is considered as the key to understanding cognitive control. Although, interference processing in the emotional domain has recently attracted great interest, the question of whether there are separable neural patterns for emotional and non-emotional interference processing remains open. Here, we performed an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of 78 neuroimaging experiments, and examined common and distinct neural systems for emotional and non-emotional interference processing. We examined brain activation in three domains of interference processing: emotional verbal interference in the face-word conflict task, non-emotional verbal interference in the color-word Stroop task, and non-emotional spatial interference in the Simon, SRC and Flanker tasks. Our results show that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was recruited for both emotional and non-emotional interference. In addition, the right anterior insula, presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) were activated by interference processing across both emotional and non-emotional domains. In light of these results, we propose that the anterior insular cortex may serve to integrate information from different dimensions and work together with the dorsal ACC to detect and monitor conflicts, whereas pre-SMA and right IFG may be recruited to inhibit inappropriate responses. In contrast, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) showed different degrees of activation and distinct lateralization patterns for different processing domains, which suggests that these regions may implement cognitive control based on the specific task requirements. PMID:27895564

Training and transfer effects of interference control training in children and young adults.

PubMed

Zhao, Xin; Jia, Lina

2018-04-24

Many studies have examined transfer of working memory (WM) training improvements to non-trained cognitive tasks, with largely disappointing results. Interference control has been suggested to be a central feature of WM. However, studies examining transfer effects of a training program exclusively and directly targeting interference control are lacking. Forty-one 10‒12 year-old children and 47 19‒24 year-old adults were assigned to an adaptive interference control training or active control condition. Transfer of training effects to tasks measuring interference control, response inhibition, WM updating, task-switching, and non-verbal fluid intelligence were assessed during a 3-month follow-up session and/or an immediate post-training session. Substantial evidence of training improvements and a positive transfer effect to a non-trained interference control task were observed for both age groups. Marginal evidence for beneficial transfer of training effects for the trained compared to non-trained participants was found for a WM task for both age groups, and for the children for another interference control task and a response inhibition task. However, these transfer effects were absent during the 3-month follow-up measurement. These results suggest some potential for interference control training programs to enhance aspects of cognitive functioning, with some evidence for a more wide-spread, but short-lived, transfer for children compared to adults.

The Role of Intelligence Quotient and Emotional Intelligence in Cognitive Control Processes

PubMed Central

Checa, Purificación; Fernández-Berrocal, Pablo

2015-01-01

The relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and cognitive control processes has been extensively established. Several studies have shown that IQ correlates with cognitive control abilities, such as interference suppression, as measured with experimental tasks like the Stroop and Flanker tasks. By contrast, there is a debate about the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in individuals' cognitive control abilities. The aim of this study is to examine the relation between IQ and EI, and cognitive control abilities evaluated by a typical laboratory control cognitive task, the Stroop task. Results show a negative correlation between IQ and the interference suppression index, the ability to inhibit processing of irrelevant information. However, the Managing Emotions dimension of EI measured by the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), but not self-reported of EI, negatively correlates with the impulsivity index, the premature execution of the response. These results suggest that not only is IQ crucial, but also competences related to EI are essential to human cognitive control processes. Limitations and implications of these results are also discussed. PMID:26648901

Cardiac reactivity and preserved performance under stress: two sides of the same coin?

PubMed

Pattyn, Nathalie; Mairesse, Olivier; Cortoos, Aisha; Morais, José; Soetens, Eric; Roelands, Bart; van den Nest, Annick; Kolinsky, Régine

2014-07-01

In the present experiment, cognitive control under stress was investigated using a real-life paradigm, namely an evaluation flight for military student pilots. The magnitude of cognitive interference on color-word, numerical and emotional Stroop paradigms was studied during a baseline recording and right before the test flight. Cardio-respiratory parameters were simultaneously assessed during rest and the performance of the Stroop tasks. Cognitive data suggested a different speed/accuracy trade-off under stress, and no modulation of the interference effect for color words or numerical stimuli. However, we observed a major increase in error rates for specific emotional stimuli related to the evaluation situation in the stress condition. The increase in cognitive interference from emotional stimuli, expressed as an increase in error rates, was correlated to the decreased cardiac reactivity to challenge in the stress situation. This relationship is discussed in the framework of Sanders' (1983) model of stress and performance. In terms of future research, this link warrants a fruitful lead to be followed for investigating the causal mechanism of performance decrements under the influence of stress. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cognitive context determines dorsal premotor cortical activity during hand movement in patients after stroke.

PubMed

Dennis, Andrea; Bosnell, Rose; Dawes, Helen; Howells, Ken; Cockburn, Janet; Kischka, Udo; Matthews, Paul; Johansen-Berg, Heidi

2011-04-01

Stroke patients often have difficulties in simultaneously performing a motor and cognitive task. Functional imaging studies have shown that movement of an affected hand after stroke is associated with increased activity in multiple cortical areas, particularly in the contralesional hemisphere. We hypothesized patients for whom executing simple movements demands greater selective attention will show greater brain activity during movement. Eight chronic stroke patients performed a behavioral interference test using a visuo-motor tracking with and without a simultaneous cognitive task. The magnitude of behavioral task decrement under cognitive motor interference (CMI) conditions was calculated for each subject. Functional MRI was used to assess brain activity in the same patients during performance of a visuo-motor tracking task alone; correlations between CMI score and movement-related brain activation were then explored. Movement-related activation in the dorsal precentral gyrus of the contralesional hemisphere correlated strongly and positively with CMI score (r(2) at peak voxel=0.92; P<0.05). Similar but weaker relationships were observed in the ventral precentral and middle frontal gyrus. There was no independent relationship between hand motor impairment and CMI. Results suggest that variations in the degree to which a cognitive task interferes with performance of a concurrent motor task explains a substantial proportion of the variations in movement-related brain activity in patients after stroke. The results emphasize the importance of considering cognitive context when interpreting brain activity patterns and provide a rationale for further evaluation of integrated cognitive and movement interventions for rehabilitation in stroke.

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

PubMed Central

Janowich, Jacki; Mishra, Jyoti; Gazzaley, Adam

2015-01-01

Goal-directed behavior is often impaired by interference from the external environment, either in the form of distraction by irrelevant information that one attempts to ignore, or by interrupting information that demands attention as part of another (secondary) task goal. Both forms of external interference have been shown to detrimentally impact the ability to maintain information in working memory (WM). Emerging evidence suggests that these different types of external interference exert different effects on behavior and may be mediated by distinct neural mechanisms. Better characterizing the distinct neuro-behavioral impact of irrelevant distractions versus attended interruptions is essential for advancing an understanding of top-down attention, resolution of external interference, and how these abilities become degraded in healthy aging and in neuropsychiatric conditions. This manuscript describes a novel cognitive paradigm developed the Gazzaley lab that has now been modified into several distinct versions used to elucidate behavioral and neural correlates of interference, by to-be-ignored distractors versus to-be-attended interruptors. Details are provided on variants of this paradigm for investigating interference in visual and auditory modalities, at multiple levels of stimulus complexity, and with experimental timing optimized for electroencephalography (EEG) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. In addition, data from younger and older adult participants obtained using this paradigm is reviewed and discussed in the context of its relationship with the broader literatures on external interference and age-related neuro-behavioral changes in resolving interference in working memory. PMID:26273742

Schizotypy and specificity of negative emotions on an emotional Stroop paradigm in the general population.

PubMed

Yaffe, Beril; Walder, Deborah J

2016-05-30

Attentional-interference using emotional Stroop tasks (ESTs) is greater among individuals in the general population with positive (versus negative) schizotypal traits; specifically in response to negatively (versus positively) valenced words, potentially capturing threat-sensitivity. Variability in attentional-interference as a function of subcategories of negatively valenced words (and in relation to schizotypal traits) remains underexplored in EST studies. We examined attentional-interference across negative word subcategories (fear/anger/sadness/disgust), and in relation to positive schizotypy, among non-clinical individuals in the general population reporting varying degrees of schizotypal traits. As hypothesized, performance differed across word subcategories, though the pattern varied from expectation. Attentional-interference was greater for fear and sadness compared to anger; and analogous for fear, disgust, and sadness. In the high schizotypy group, positive schizotypal traits were directly associated with attentional-interference to disgust. Attentional-interference was comparable between high- and low-positive schizotypy. Results suggest negative emotion subcategories may differentially reflect threat-sensitivity. Disgust-sensitivity may be particularly salient in (non-clinical) positive schizotypy. Findings have implications for understanding negative emotion specificity and variability in stimulus presentation modality when studying threat-related attentional-interference. Finally, disgust-related attentional-interference may serve as a cognitive correlate of (non-clinical) positive schizotypy. Expanding this research to prodromal populations will help explore disgust-related attentional-interference as a potential cognitive marker of positive symptoms. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Novel Cognitive Stress Test for the Detection of Preclinical Alzheimer Disease: Discriminative Properties and Relation to Amyloid Load.

PubMed

Loewenstein, David A; Curiel, Rosie E; Greig, Maria T; Bauer, Russell M; Rosado, Marian; Bowers, Dawn; Wicklund, Meredith; Crocco, Elizabeth; Pontecorvo, Michael; Joshi, Abhinay D; Rodriguez, Rosemarie; Barker, Warren W; Hidalgo, Jacqueline; Duara, Ranjan

2016-10-01

To examine the utility of a novel "cognitive stress test" to detect subtle cognitive impairments and amyloid load within the brains of neuropsychologically normal community-dwelling elders. Participants diagnosed as cognitively normal (CN), subjective memory impairment (SMI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and preclinical mild cognitive impairment (PreMCI) were administered the Loewenstein-Acevedo Scale for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L), a sensitive test of proactive semantic interference (PSI), retroactive semantic interference, and, uniquely, the ability to recover from the effects of PSI. Ninety-three subjects (31 men and 62 women) were recruited from three academic institutions in a research consortium. A subset of these individuals underwent 18F florbetapir positron emission tomography scanning. Relative percentages of impairment for each diagnostic group on the LASSI-L were calculated by χ(2) and Fisher's exact tests. Spearman's rho was used to examine associations between amyloid load and different cognitive measures. LASSI-L deficits were identified among 89% of those with MCI, 47% with PreMCI, 33% with SMI, and 13% classified as CN. CN subjects had no difficulties with recovery from PSI, whereas SMI, preMCI, and MCI participants evidenced deficits in recovery from PSI effects. Among a subgroup of participants with normal scores on traditional neuropsychological tests, the strong associations were between the failure to recover from the effects of PSI and amyloid load in the brain. Failure to recover or compensate for the effects of PSI on the LASSI-L distinguishes the LASSI-L from other widely used neuropsychological tests and appears to be sensitive to subtle cognitive impairments and increasing amyloid load. Copyright © 2016 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brief Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for TMD Pain: Long-Term Outcomes and Moderators of Treatment

PubMed Central

Litt, Mark D.; Shafer, David M.; Kreutzer, Donald L.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a brief (6–8 sessions) cognitive-behavioral treatment for temporomandibular dysfunction-related pain could be efficacious in reducing pain, pain-related interference with lifestyle and depressive symptoms. The patients were 101 men and women with pain in the area of the temporomandibular joint of at least 3 months duration, randomly assigned to either Standard Treatment (STD; n=49) or to Standard Treatment + Cognitive-Behavioral skills training (STD+CBT; n=52). Patients were assessed at posttreatment (6 weeks), 12 weeks, 24 weeks, 36 weeks, and 52 weeks. Linear mixed model analyses of reported pain indicated that both treatments yielded significant decreases in pain, with the STD+CBT condition resulting in steeper decreases in pain over time compared to the STD condition. Somatization, self-efficacy and readiness for treatment emerged as significant moderators of outcome, such that those low in somatization, or higher in self-efficacy or readiness, and treated with STD+CBT reported lower pain over time. Somatization was also a significant moderator of treatment effects on pain-related interference with functioning, with those low on somatization reporting less pain interference over time when treated in the STD+CBT condition. It was concluded that brief treatments can yield significant reductions in pain, life interference and depressive symptoms in TMD sufferers, and that the addition of cognitive-behavioral coping skills will add to efficacy, especially for those low in somatization, or high in readiness or self-efficacy. PMID:20655662

Effects of Auditory Distraction on Cognitive Processing of Young Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaPointe, Leonard L.; Heald, Gary R.; Stierwalt, Julie A. G.; Kemker, Brett E.; Maurice, Trisha

2007-01-01

Objective: The effects of interference, competition, and distraction on cognitive processing are unclearly understood, particularly regarding type and intensity of auditory distraction across a variety of cognitive processing tasks. Method: The purpose of this investigation was to report two experiments that sought to explore the effects of types…

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for HIV Medication Adherence and Depression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Safren, Steven A.; Hendriksen, Ellen S.; Mayer, Kenneth H.; Mimiaga, Matthew J.; Pickard, Robert; Otto, Michael W.

2004-01-01

For patients with HIV, depression is a common, distressing condition that can interfere with a critical self-care behavior--adherence to antiretroviral therapy. The present study describes a cognitive-behavioral treatment designed to integrate cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression with our previously tested approach to improving adherence to…

Modeling Rare Baseball Events--Are They Memoryless?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huber, Michael; Glen, Andrew

2007-01-01

Three sets of rare baseball events--pitching a no-hit game, hitting for the cycle, and turning a triple play--offer excellent examples of events whose occurrence may be modeled as Poisson processes. That is, the time of occurrence of one of these events doesn't affect when we see the next occurrence of such. We modeled occurrences of these three…

Statistical modeling of storm-level Kp occurrences

USGS Publications Warehouse

Remick, K.J.; Love, J.J.

2006-01-01

We consider the statistical modeling of the occurrence in time of large Kp magnetic storms as a Poisson process, testing whether or not relatively rare, large Kp events can be considered to arise from a stochastic, sequential, and memoryless process. For a Poisson process, the wait times between successive events occur statistically with an exponential density function. Fitting an exponential function to the durations between successive large Kp events forms the basis of our analysis. Defining these wait times by calculating the differences between times when Kp exceeds a certain value, such as Kp ??? 5, we find the wait-time distribution is not exponential. Because large storms often have several periods with large Kp values, their occurrence in time is not memoryless; short duration wait times are not independent of each other and are often clumped together in time. If we remove same-storm large Kp occurrences, the resulting wait times are very nearly exponentially distributed and the storm arrival process can be characterized as Poisson. Fittings are performed on wait time data for Kp ??? 5, 6, 7, and 8. The mean wait times between storms exceeding such Kp thresholds are 7.12, 16.55, 42.22, and 121.40 days respectively.

Self-limiting filters for band-selective interferer rejection or cognitive receiver protection

DOEpatents

Nordquist, Christopher; Scott, Sean Michael; Custer, Joyce Olsen; Leonhardt, Darin; Jordan, Tyler Scott; Rodenbeck, Christopher T.; Clem, Paul G.; Hunker, Jeff; Wolfley, Steven L.

2017-03-07

The present invention related to self-limiting filters, arrays of such filters, and methods thereof. In particular embodiments, the filters include a metal transition film (e.g., a VO.sub.2 film) capable of undergoing a phase transition that modifies the film's resistivity. Arrays of such filters could allow for band-selective interferer rejection, while permitting transmission of non-interferer signals.

Cognitive load selectively influences the interruptive effect of pain on attention.

PubMed

Moore, David J; Eccleston, Christopher; Keogh, Edmund

2017-10-01

Pain is known to interrupt attentional performance. Such interference effects seem to occur preferentially for tasks that are complex and/or difficult. However, few studies have directly manipulated memory load in the context of pain interference to test this view. Therefore, this study examines the effect of experimental manipulations of both memory load and pain on 3 tasks previously found to be sensitive to pain interference. Three experiments were conducted. A different task was examined in each experiment, each comprising of a high- and low-cognitive load versions of the task. Experiment 1 comprised an attention span (n-back) task, experiment 2 an attention switching task, and experiment 3 a divided attention task. Each task was conducted under painful and nonpainful conditions. Within the pain condition, an experimental thermal pain induction protocol was administered at the same time participants completed the task. The load manipulations were successful in all experiments. Pain-related interference occurred under the high-load condition but only for the attention span task. No effect of pain was found on either the attentional switching or divided attention task. These results suggest that while cognitive load may influence the interruptive effect of pain on attention, this effect may be selective. Because pain affected the high-load version of the n-back task but did not interrupt performance on attentional switching or dual-task paradigms, this means that our findings did not completely support our hypotheses. Future research should explore further the parameters and conditions under which pain-related interference occurs.

Does oxytocin lead to emotional interference during a working memory paradigm?

PubMed

Tollenaar, Marieke S; Ruissen, M; Elzinga, B M; de Bruijn, E R A

2017-12-01

Oxytocin administration may increase attention to emotional information. We hypothesized that this augmented emotional processing might in turn lead to interference on concurrent cognitive tasks. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether oxytocin administration would lead to heightened emotional interference during a working memory paradigm. Additionally, moderating effects of childhood maltreatment were explored. Seventy-eight healthy males received 24 IU of intranasal oxytocin or placebo in a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind between-subjects study. A working memory task was performed during which neutral, positive, and negative distractors were presented. The main outcome observed was that oxytocin did not enhance interference by emotional information during the working memory task. There was a non-significant trend for oxytocin to slow down performance irrespective of distractor valence, while accuracy was unaffected. Exploratory analyses showed that childhood maltreatment was related to lower overall accuracy, but in the placebo condition only. However, the maltreated group sample size was very small precluding any conclusions on its moderating effect. Despite oxytocin's previously proposed role in enhanced emotional processing, no proof was found that this would lead to reduced performance on a concurrent cognitive task. The routes by which oxytocin exerts its effects on cognitive and social-emotional processes remain to be fully elucidated.

Does task-irrelevant colour information create extraneous cognitive load? Evidence from a learning task.

PubMed

Miller, Paul; Hazan-Liran, Batel; Cohen, Danielle

2018-06-01

Previous studies have shown that task-irrelevant information impedes learning by creating extraneous cognitive load. But still open is whether such intrusion reflects a purely semantic phenomenon or whether it also stands for sheer perceptual interference. Using Cognitive Load Theory as a framework, this study aimed to answer this question by examining whether and how task-irrelevant colour information modifies extraneous cognitive load in relation to a new code-learning paradigm. For this purpose, university students were asked to learn, based on an example, associations between colour-related and colour-unrelated words and digits presented in black or in a mismatched ink colour. Evident costs in learning efficacy were found in learning the associations between words and digits for colour-related, but not for colour-unrelated, word stimuli. This suggests that interference by task-irrelevant information in learning stands for a mere semantic conflict. Implications of the findings for extraneous cognitive load on learning efficacy are discussed.

Interference effects of categorization on decision making.

PubMed

Wang, Zheng; Busemeyer, Jerome R

2016-05-01

Many decision making tasks in life involve a categorization process, but the effects of categorization on subsequent decision making has rarely been studied. This issue was explored in three experiments (N=721), in which participants were shown a face stimulus on each trial and performed variations of categorization-decision tasks. On C-D trials, they categorized the stimulus and then made an action decision; on X-D trials, they were told the category and then made an action decision; on D-alone trials, they only made an action decision. An interference effect emerged in some of the conditions, such that the probability of an action on the D-alone trials (i.e., when there was no explicit categorization before the decision) differed from the total probability of the same action on the C-D or X-D trials (i.e., when there was explicit categorization before the decision). Interference effects are important because they indicate a violation of the classical law of total probability, which is assumed by many cognitive models. Across all three experiments, a complex pattern of interference effects systematically occurred for different types of stimuli and for different types of categorization-decision tasks. These interference effects present a challenge for traditional cognitive models, such as Markov and signal detection models, but a quantum cognition model, called the belief-action entanglement (BAE) model, predicted that these results could occur. The BAE model employs the quantum principles of superposition and entanglement to explain the psychological mechanisms underlying the puzzling interference effects. The model can be applied to many important and practical categorization-decision situations in life. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Failure to Recover from Proactive Semantic Interference and Abnormal Limbic Connectivity in Asymptomatic, Middle-Aged Offspring of Patients with Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Sánchez, Stella M; Abulafia, Carolina; Duarte-Abritta, Barbara; de Guevara, M Soledad Ladrón; Castro, Mariana N; Drucaroff, Lucas; Sevlever, Gustavo; Nemeroff, Charles B; Vigo, Daniel E; Loewenstein, David A; Villarreal, Mirta F; Guinjoan, Salvador M

2017-01-01

We have obtained previous evidence of limbic dysfunction in middle-aged, asymptomatic offspring of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) patients, and failure to recover from proactive semantic interference has been shown to be a sensitive cognitive test in other groups at risk for LOAD. To assess the effects of specific proactive semantic interference deficits as they relate to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neocortical and limbic functional connectivity in middle aged offspring of individuals with LOAD (O-LOAD) and age-equivalent controls. We examined 21 O-LOAD and 20 controls without family history of neurodegenerative disorders (CS) on traditional measures of cognitive functioning and the LASSI-L, a novel semantic interference test uniquely sensitive to the failure to recover from proactive interference (frPSI). Cognitive tests then were correlated to fMRI connectivity of seeds located in entorhinal cortex and anterodorsal thalamic nuclei among O-LOAD and CS participants. Relative to CS, O-LOAD participants evidenced lower connectivity between entorhinal cortex and orbitofrontal, anterior cingulate, and anterior temporal cortex. In the offspring of LOAD patients, LASSI-L measures of frPSI were inversely associated with connectivity between anterodorsal thalamus and contralateral posterior cingulate. Intrusions on the task related to frPSI were inversely correlated with a widespread connectivity network involving hippocampal, insular, posterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, along with precunei and anterior thalamus in this group. Different patterns of connectivity associated with frPSI were observed among controls. The present results suggest that both semantic interference deficits and connectivity abnormalities might reflect limbic circuit dysfunction as a very early clinical signature of LOAD pathology, as previously demonstrated for other limbic phenotypes, such as sleep and circadian alterations.

Event-related theta oscillatory substrates for facilitation and interference effects of negative emotion on children's cognition.

PubMed

Jiang, Zhongqing; Waters, Allison C; Liu, Ying; Li, Wenhui; Yang, Lizhu

2017-06-01

We investigated the brain oscillatory contribution to emotion-cognition interaction in young children. Five-year-old participants (n=27) underwent EEG recording while engaged in a color identification task. Each trial began with an emotional prime. Response times indicated whether emotional primes facilitated or interfered with performance. Related effects were detected in theta-band power over parietal-occipital cortex, early in the response epoch (<500ms). Children in the emotion facilitation group showed greater theta synchronization for negative stimuli. The opposite trend was observed in the interference group. Results suggest a role for theta oscillations in children's adaptive response to emotional content in cognitive performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Influence of a Pedagogical Agent on Learners' Cognitive Load

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schroeder, Noah L.

2017-01-01

According to cognitive load theorists, the incorporation of extraneous features, such as pedagogical agents, into the learning environment can introduce extraneous cognitive load and thus interfere with learning outcome scores. In this study, the influence of a pedagogical agent's presence in an instructional video was compared to a video that did…

A Novel Complex-Coefficient In-Band Interference Suppression Algorithm for Cognitive Ultra-Wide Band Wireless Sensors Networks.

PubMed

Xiong, Hailiang; Zhang, Wensheng; Xu, Hongji; Du, Zhengfeng; Tang, Huaibin; Li, Jing

2017-05-25

With the rapid development of wireless communication systems and electronic techniques, the limited frequency spectrum resources are shared with various wireless devices, leading to a crowded and challenging coexistence circumstance. Cognitive radio (CR) and ultra-wide band (UWB), as sophisticated wireless techniques, have been considered as significant solutions to solve the harmonious coexistence issues. UWB wireless sensors can share the spectrum with primary user (PU) systems without harmful interference. The in-band interference of UWB systems should be considered because such interference can severely affect the transmissions of UWB wireless systems. In order to solve the in-band interference issues for UWB wireless sensor networks (WSN), a novel in-band narrow band interferences (NBIs) elimination scheme is proposed in this paper. The proposed narrow band interferences suppression scheme is based on a novel complex-coefficient adaptive notch filter unit with a single constrained zero-pole pair. Moreover, in order to reduce the computation complexity of the proposed scheme, an adaptive complex-coefficient iterative method based on two-order Taylor series is designed. To cope with multiple narrow band interferences, a linear cascaded high order adaptive filter and a cyclic cascaded high order matrix adaptive filter (CCHOMAF) interference suppression algorithm based on the basic adaptive notch filter unit are also presented. The theoretical analysis and numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed CCHOMAF algorithm can achieve better performance in terms of average bit error rate for UWB WSNs. The proposed in-band NBIs elimination scheme can significantly improve the reception performance of low-cost and low-power UWB wireless systems.

A Novel Complex-Coefficient In-Band Interference Suppression Algorithm for Cognitive Ultra-Wide Band Wireless Sensors Networks

PubMed Central

Xiong, Hailiang; Zhang, Wensheng; Xu, Hongji; Du, Zhengfeng; Tang, Huaibin; Li, Jing

2017-01-01

With the rapid development of wireless communication systems and electronic techniques, the limited frequency spectrum resources are shared with various wireless devices, leading to a crowded and challenging coexistence circumstance. Cognitive radio (CR) and ultra-wide band (UWB), as sophisticated wireless techniques, have been considered as significant solutions to solve the harmonious coexistence issues. UWB wireless sensors can share the spectrum with primary user (PU) systems without harmful interference. The in-band interference of UWB systems should be considered because such interference can severely affect the transmissions of UWB wireless systems. In order to solve the in-band interference issues for UWB wireless sensor networks (WSN), a novel in-band narrow band interferences (NBIs) elimination scheme is proposed in this paper. The proposed narrow band interferences suppression scheme is based on a novel complex-coefficient adaptive notch filter unit with a single constrained zero-pole pair. Moreover, in order to reduce the computation complexity of the proposed scheme, an adaptive complex-coefficient iterative method based on two-order Taylor series is designed. To cope with multiple narrow band interferences, a linear cascaded high order adaptive filter and a cyclic cascaded high order matrix adaptive filter (CCHOMAF) interference suppression algorithm based on the basic adaptive notch filter unit are also presented. The theoretical analysis and numerical simulation results indicate that the proposed CCHOMAF algorithm can achieve better performance in terms of average bit error rate for UWB WSNs. The proposed in-band NBIs elimination scheme can significantly improve the reception performance of low-cost and low-power UWB wireless systems. PMID:28587085

Neural time course of threat-related attentional bias and interference in panic and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

PubMed

Thomas, Susan J; Gonsalvez, Craig J; Johnstone, Stuart J

2013-09-01

Attentional biases to threat are considered central to anxiety disorders, however physiological evidence of their nature and time course is lacking. Event-related potentials (ERPs) characterized sensory and cognitive changes while 20 outpatients with panic disorder (PD), 20 with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and 20 healthy controls (HCs) responded to the color (emotional Stroop task) or meaning of threatening and neutral stimuli. ERPs indicated larger P1 amplitude and longer N1 latency in OCD, and shorter P1 latency in PD, to threatening (versus neutral) stimuli, across instructions to attend to, or ignore, threat content. Emotional Stroop interference correlated with phobic anxiety and was significant in PD. Participants with emotional Stroop interference had augmented P1 and P3 amplitudes to threat (versus neutral) stimuli when color-naming. The results suggest early attentional biases to threat in both disorders, with disorder-specific characteristics. ERPs supported preferential early attentional capture and cognitive elaboration hypotheses of emotional Stroop interference. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Revisiting the co-existence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Chronic Tic Disorder in childhood-The case of colour discrimination, sustained attention and interference control.

PubMed

Uebel-von Sandersleben, Henrik; Albrecht, Björn; Rothenberger, Aribert; Fillmer-Heise, Anke; Roessner, Veit; Sergeant, Joseph; Tannock, Rosemary; Banaschewski, Tobias

2017-01-01

Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Chronic Tic Disorder (CTD) are two common and frequently co-existing disorders, probably following an additive model. But this is not yet clear for the basic sensory function of colour processing sensitive to dopaminergic functioning in the retina and higher cognitive functions like attention and interference control. The latter two reflect important aspects for psychoeducation and behavioural treatment approaches. Colour discrimination using the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue Test, sustained attention during the Frankfurt Attention Inventory (FAIR), and interference liability during Colour- and Counting-Stroop-Tests were assessed to further clarify the cognitive profile of the co-existence of ADHD and CTD. Altogether 69 children were classified into four groups: ADHD (N = 14), CTD (N = 20), ADHD+CTD (N = 20) and healthy Controls (N = 15) and compared in cognitive functioning in a 2×2-factorial statistical model. Difficulties with colour discrimination were associated with both ADHD and CTD factors following an additive model, but in ADHD these difficulties tended to be more pronounced on the blue-yellow axis. Attention problems were characteristic for ADHD but not CTD. Interference load was significant in both Colour- and Counting-Stroop-Tests and unrelated to colour discrimination. Compared to Controls, interference load in the Colour-Stroop was higher in pure ADHD and in pure CTD, but not in ADHD+CTD, following a sub-additive model. In contrast, interference load in the Counting-Stroop did not reveal ADHD or CTD effects. The co-existence of ADHD and CTD is characterized by additive as well as sub-additive performance impairments, suggesting that their co-existence may show simple additive characteristics of both disorders or a more complex interaction, depending on demand. The equivocal findings on interference control may indicate limited validity of the Stroop-Paradigm for clinical assessments.

Revisiting the co-existence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Chronic Tic Disorder in childhood—The case of colour discrimination, sustained attention and interference control

PubMed Central

Rothenberger, Aribert; Fillmer-Heise, Anke; Roessner, Veit; Sergeant, Joseph; Tannock, Rosemary; Banaschewski, Tobias

2017-01-01

Objective Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Chronic Tic Disorder (CTD) are two common and frequently co-existing disorders, probably following an additive model. But this is not yet clear for the basic sensory function of colour processing sensitive to dopaminergic functioning in the retina and higher cognitive functions like attention and interference control. The latter two reflect important aspects for psychoeducation and behavioural treatment approaches. Methods Colour discrimination using the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue Test, sustained attention during the Frankfurt Attention Inventory (FAIR), and interference liability during Colour- and Counting-Stroop-Tests were assessed to further clarify the cognitive profile of the co-existence of ADHD and CTD. Altogether 69 children were classified into four groups: ADHD (N = 14), CTD (N = 20), ADHD+CTD (N = 20) and healthy Controls (N = 15) and compared in cognitive functioning in a 2×2-factorial statistical model. Results Difficulties with colour discrimination were associated with both ADHD and CTD factors following an additive model, but in ADHD these difficulties tended to be more pronounced on the blue-yellow axis. Attention problems were characteristic for ADHD but not CTD. Interference load was significant in both Colour- and Counting-Stroop-Tests and unrelated to colour discrimination. Compared to Controls, interference load in the Colour-Stroop was higher in pure ADHD and in pure CTD, but not in ADHD+CTD, following a sub-additive model. In contrast, interference load in the Counting-Stroop did not reveal ADHD or CTD effects. Conclusion The co-existence of ADHD and CTD is characterized by additive as well as sub-additive performance impairments, suggesting that their co-existence may show simple additive characteristics of both disorders or a more complex interaction, depending on demand. The equivocal findings on interference control may indicate limited validity of the Stroop-Paradigm for clinical assessments. PMID:28594866

A Study on Cognitive Radio Coexisting with Cellular Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tandai, Tomoya; Horiguchi, Tomoya; Deguchi, Noritaka; Tomizawa, Takeshi; Tomioka, Tazuko

Cognitive Radios (CRs) are expected to perform more significant role in the view of efficient utilization of the spectrum resources in the future wireless communication networks. In this paper, a cognitive radio coexisting with cellular systems is proposed. In the case that a cellular system adopts Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) as a multiplexing scheme, the proposed CR terminals communicate in local area on uplink channels of the cellular system with transmission powers that don't interfere with base stations of the cellular system. Alternatively, in the case that a cellular system adopts Time Division Duplex (TDD), the CR terminals communicate on uplink slots of the cellular system. However if mobile terminals in the cellular system are near the CR network, uplink signals from the mobile terminals may interfere with the CR communications. In order to avoid interference from the mobile terminals, the CR terminal performs carrier sense during a beginning part of uplink slot, and only when the level of detected signal is below a threshold, then the CR terminal transmits a signal during the remained period of the uplink slot. In this paper, both the single carrier CR network that uses one frequency channel of the cellular system and the multicarrier CR network that uses multiple frequency channels of the cellular system are considered. The probabilities of successful CR communications, the average throughputs of the CR communications according to the positions of the CR network, and the interference levels from cognitive radio network to base stations of the cellular system are evaluated in the computer simulation then the effectiveness of the proposed network is clarified.

Task switching in video game players: Benefits of selective attention but not resistance to proactive interference.

PubMed

Karle, James W; Watter, Scott; Shedden, Judith M

2010-05-01

Research into the perceptual and cognitive effects of playing video games is an area of increasing interest for many investigators. Over the past decade, expert video game players (VGPs) have been shown to display superior performance compared to non-video game players (nVGPs) on a range of visuospatial and attentional tasks. A benefit of video game expertise has recently been shown for task switching, suggesting that VGPs also have superior cognitive control abilities compared to nVGPs. In two experiments, we examined which aspects of task switching performance this VGP benefit may be localized to. With minimal trial-to-trial interference from minimally overlapping task set rules, VGPs demonstrated a task switching benefit compared to nVGPs. However, this benefit disappeared when proactive interference between tasks was increased, with substantial stimulus and response overlap in task set rules. We suggest that VGPs have no generalized benefit in task switching-related cognitive control processes compared to nVGPs, with switch cost reductions due instead to a specific benefit in controlling selective attention. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Skill in Expert Dogs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helton, William S.

2007-01-01

The motor control of novice participants is often cognitively demanding and susceptible to interference by other tasks. As people develop expertise, their motor control becomes less susceptible to interference from other tasks. Researchers propose a transition in human motor skill from active control to automaticity. This progression may also be…

Social priming improves cognitive control in elderly adults--evidence from the Simon task.

PubMed

Aisenberg, Daniela; Cohen, Noga; Pick, Hadas; Tressman, Iris; Rappaport, Michal; Shenberg, Tal; Henik, Avishai

2015-01-01

We examined whether social priming of cognitive states affects the inhibitory process in elderly adults, as aging is related to deficits in inhibitory control. Forty-eight elderly adults and 45 young adults were assigned to three groups and performed a cognitive control task (Simon task), which was followed by 3 different manipulations of social priming (i.e., thinking about an 82 year-old person): 1) negative--characterized by poor cognitive abilities, 2) neutral--characterized by acts irrelevant to cognitive abilities, and 3) positive--excellent cognitive abilities. After the manipulation, the Simon task was performed again. Results showed improvement in cognitive control effects in seniors after the positive manipulation, indicated by a significant decrease in the magnitude of the Simon and interference effects, but not after the neutral and negative manipulations. Furthermore, a healthy pattern of sequential effect (Gratton) that was absent before the manipulation in all 3 groups appeared after the positive manipulation. Namely, the Simon effect was only present after congruent but not after incongruent trials for the positive manipulation group. No influence of manipulations was found in young adults. These meaningful results were replicated in a second experiment and suggest a decrease in conflict interference resulting from positive cognitive state priming. Our study provides evidence that an implicit social concept of a positive cognitive condition in old age can affect the control process of the elderly and improve cognitive abilities.

Social Priming Improves Cognitive Control in Elderly Adults—Evidence from the Simon Task

PubMed Central

Aisenberg, Daniela; Cohen, Noga; Pick, Hadas; Tressman, Iris; Rappaport, Michal; Shenberg, Tal; Henik, Avishai

2015-01-01

We examined whether social priming of cognitive states affects the inhibitory process in elderly adults, as aging is related to deficits in inhibitory control. Forty-eight elderly adults and 45 young adults were assigned to three groups and performed a cognitive control task (Simon task), which was followed by 3 different manipulations of social priming (i.e., thinking about an 82 year-old person): 1) negative—characterized by poor cognitive abilities, 2) neutral—characterized by acts irrelevant to cognitive abilities, and 3) positive—excellent cognitive abilities. After the manipulation, the Simon task was performed again. Results showed improvement in cognitive control effects in seniors after the positive manipulation, indicated by a significant decrease in the magnitude of the Simon and interference effects, but not after the neutral and negative manipulations. Furthermore, a healthy pattern of sequential effect (Gratton) that was absent before the manipulation in all 3 groups appeared after the positive manipulation. Namely, the Simon effect was only present after congruent but not after incongruent trials for the positive manipulation group. No influence of manipulations was found in young adults. These meaningful results were replicated in a second experiment and suggest a decrease in conflict interference resulting from positive cognitive state priming. Our study provides evidence that an implicit social concept of a positive cognitive condition in old age can affect the control process of the elderly and improve cognitive abilities. PMID:25635946

A quantum probability framework for human probabilistic inference.

PubMed

Trueblood, Jennifer S; Yearsley, James M; Pothos, Emmanuel M

2017-09-01

There is considerable variety in human inference (e.g., a doctor inferring the presence of a disease, a juror inferring the guilt of a defendant, or someone inferring future weight loss based on diet and exercise). As such, people display a wide range of behaviors when making inference judgments. Sometimes, people's judgments appear Bayesian (i.e., normative), but in other cases, judgments deviate from the normative prescription of classical probability theory. How can we combine both Bayesian and non-Bayesian influences in a principled way? We propose a unified explanation of human inference using quantum probability theory. In our approach, we postulate a hierarchy of mental representations, from 'fully' quantum to 'fully' classical, which could be adopted in different situations. In our hierarchy of models, moving from the lowest level to the highest involves changing assumptions about compatibility (i.e., how joint events are represented). Using results from 3 experiments, we show that our modeling approach explains 5 key phenomena in human inference including order effects, reciprocity (i.e., the inverse fallacy), memorylessness, violations of the Markov condition, and antidiscounting. As far as we are aware, no existing theory or model can explain all 5 phenomena. We also explore transitions in our hierarchy, examining how representations change from more quantum to more classical. We show that classical representations provide a better account of data as individuals gain familiarity with a task. We also show that representations vary between individuals, in a way that relates to a simple measure of cognitive style, the Cognitive Reflection Test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Rationalizing spatial exploration patterns of wild animals and humans through a temporal discounting framework

PubMed Central

Namboodiri, Vijay Mohan K.; Levy, Joshua M.; Mihalas, Stefan; Sims, David W.; Hussain Shuler, Marshall G.

2016-01-01

Understanding the exploration patterns of foragers in the wild provides fundamental insight into animal behavior. Recent experimental evidence has demonstrated that path lengths (distances between consecutive turns) taken by foragers are well fitted by a power law distribution. Numerous theoretical contributions have posited that “Lévy random walks”—which can produce power law path length distributions—are optimal for memoryless agents searching a sparse reward landscape. It is unclear, however, whether such a strategy is efficient for cognitively complex agents, from wild animals to humans. Here, we developed a model to explain the emergence of apparent power law path length distributions in animals that can learn about their environments. In our model, the agent’s goal during search is to build an internal model of the distribution of rewards in space that takes into account the cost of time to reach distant locations (i.e., temporally discounting rewards). For an agent with such a goal, we find that an optimal model of exploration in fact produces hyperbolic path lengths, which are well approximated by power laws. We then provide support for our model by showing that humans in a laboratory spatial exploration task search space systematically and modify their search patterns under a cost of time. In addition, we find that path length distributions in a large dataset obtained from free-ranging marine vertebrates are well described by our hyperbolic model. Thus, we provide a general theoretical framework for understanding spatial exploration patterns of cognitively complex foragers. PMID:27385831

Effect of type of cognitive task and walking speed on cognitive-motor interference during dual-task walking.

PubMed

Patel, P; Lamar, M; Bhatt, T

2014-02-28

We aimed to determine the effect of distinctly different cognitive tasks and walking speed on cognitive-motor interference of dual-task walking. Fifteen healthy adults performed four cognitive tasks: visuomotor reaction time (VMRT) task, word list generation (WLG) task, serial subtraction (SS) task, and the Stroop (STR) task while sitting and during walking at preferred-speed (dual-task normal walking) and slow-speed (dual-task slow-speed walking). Gait speed was recorded to determine effect on walking. Motor and cognitive costs were measured. Dual-task walking had a significant effect on motor and cognitive parameters. At preferred-speed, the motor cost was lowest for the VMRT task and highest for the STR task. In contrast, the cognitive cost was highest for the VMRT task and lowest for the STR task. Dual-task slow walking resulted in increased motor cost and decreased cognitive cost only for the STR task. Results show that the motor and cognitive cost of dual-task walking depends heavily on the type and perceived complexity of the cognitive task being performed. Cognitive cost for the STR task was low irrespective of walking speed, suggesting that at preferred-speed individuals prioritize complex cognitive tasks requiring higher attentional and processing resources over walking. While performing VMRT task, individuals preferred to prioritize more complex walking task over VMRT task resulting in lesser motor cost and increased cognitive cost for VMRT task. Furthermore, slow walking can assist in diverting greater attention towards complex cognitive tasks, improving its performance while walking. Copyright © 2013 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interactive Effects of Environmental Experience and Innovative Cognitive Style on Student Creativity in Product Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Chia-Chen

2017-01-01

Environmental experience can enhance the ideas of design students. Thus, this type of experience may interfere with the influence of design students' cognitive style on creativity. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of environmental experience on the relationship between innovative cognitive style and industrial design students'…

The Unconscious Allocation of Cognitive Resources to Task-Relevant and Task-Irrelevant Thoughts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuldas, Seffetullah; Hashim, Shahabuddin; Ismail, Hairul Nizam; Samsudin, Mohd Ali; Bakar, Zainudin Abu

2014-01-01

Conscious allocation of cognitive resources to task-relevant thoughts is necessary for learning. However, task-irrelevant thoughts often associated with fear of failure can enter the mind and interfere with learning. Effects like this prompt the question of whether or not learners consciously shift their cognitive resources from task-relevant to…

Limits on perceptual encoding can be predicted from known receptive field properties of human visual cortex.

PubMed

Cohen, Michael A; Rhee, Juliana Y; Alvarez, George A

2016-01-01

Human cognition has a limited capacity that is often attributed to the brain having finite cognitive resources, but the nature of these resources is usually not specified. Here, we show evidence that perceptual interference between items can be predicted by known receptive field properties of the visual cortex, suggesting that competition within representational maps is an important source of the capacity limitations of visual processing. Across the visual hierarchy, receptive fields get larger and represent more complex, high-level features. Thus, when presented simultaneously, high-level items (e.g., faces) will often land within the same receptive fields, while low-level items (e.g., color patches) will often not. Using a perceptual task, we found long-range interference between high-level items, but only short-range interference for low-level items, with both types of interference being weaker across hemifields. Finally, we show that long-range interference between items appears to occur primarily during perceptual encoding and not during working memory maintenance. These results are naturally explained by the distribution of receptive fields and establish a link between perceptual capacity limits and the underlying neural architecture. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of acute hypoglycemia on motivation and cognitive interference in people with type 1 diabetes.

PubMed

McAulay, Vincent; Deary, Ian J; Sommerfield, Andrew J; Matthews, Gerald; Frier, Brian M

2006-04-01

To examine the effect of acute hypoglycemia on motivation and cognitive interference in adult humans with type 1 diabetes. A hyperinsulinemic glucose clamp was used to either maintain euglycemia (arterialized blood glucose 4.5 mmol/L) or induce hypoglycemia (2.6 mmol/L) in 16 adults with type 1 diabetes, each of whom were studied on 2 separate occasions in a counterbalanced order. During each study condition, the subjects completed parallel tests of cognitive function. The Dundee Stress State Questionnaire (DSSQ) was administered before and after the cognitive function tests. Hypoglycemia decreased task-relevant (P = 0.03) and increased task-irrelevant (P = 0.02) interference. Self-focus of attention was much higher after hypoglycemia than euglycemia (P = 0.02). Motivation declined to a similar extent during the euglycemia and hypoglycemia conditions (P = 0.07). Hypoglycemia produced a negative mood state with a significant fall in energy levels (P = 0.03) and a concomitant rise in anxiety level (P = 0.05). The subjective perception of concentration was unaffected during hypoglycemia (P = 0.14), and the scores for control and confidence did not fall (P = 0.19). In people with type 1 diabetes, hypoglycemia causes a state of heightened self-awareness and distraction during active mental activity. This is likely to leave fewer processing resources available to allow completion of cognitive tasks. Acute hypoglycemia induces a state of significant worry and anxiety that is likely to affect the social, personal, and work activities of people with diabetes.

Energy-Efficient Optimal Power Allocation in Integrated Wireless Sensor and Cognitive Satellite Terrestrial Networks

PubMed Central

Li, Guangxia; An, Kang; Gao, Bin; Zheng, Gan

2017-01-01

This paper proposes novel satellite-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which integrate the WSN with the cognitive satellite terrestrial network. Having the ability to provide seamless network access and alleviate the spectrum scarcity, cognitive satellite terrestrial networks are considered as a promising candidate for future wireless networks with emerging requirements of ubiquitous broadband applications and increasing demand for spectral resources. With the emerging environmental and energy cost concerns in communication systems, explicit concerns on energy efficient resource allocation in satellite networks have also recently received considerable attention. In this regard, this paper proposes energy-efficient optimal power allocation schemes in the cognitive satellite terrestrial networks for non-real-time and real-time applications, respectively, which maximize the energy efficiency (EE) of the cognitive satellite user while guaranteeing the interference at the primary terrestrial user below an acceptable level. Specifically, average interference power (AIP) constraint is employed to protect the communication quality of the primary terrestrial user while average transmit power (ATP) or peak transmit power (PTP) constraint is adopted to regulate the transmit power of the satellite user. Since the energy-efficient power allocation optimization problem belongs to the nonlinear concave fractional programming problem, we solve it by combining Dinkelbach’s method with Lagrange duality method. Simulation results demonstrate that the fading severity of the terrestrial interference link is favorable to the satellite user who can achieve EE gain under the ATP constraint comparing to the PTP constraint. PMID:28869546

The Cost of Being Watched: Stroop Interference Increases under Concomitant Eye Contact

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conty, Laurence; Gimmig, David; Belletier, Clement; George, Nathalie; Huguet, Pascal

2010-01-01

Current models in social neuroscience advance that eye contact may automatically recruit cognitive resources. Here, we directly tested this hypothesis by evaluating the distracting strength of eye contact on concurrent visual processing in the well-known Stroop's paradigm. As expected, participants showed stronger Stroop interference under…

Control and Interference in Task Switching--A Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiesel, Andrea; Steinhauser, Marco; Wendt, Mike; Falkenstein, Michael; Jost, Kerstin; Philipp, Andrea M.; Koch, Iring

2010-01-01

The task-switching paradigm offers enormous possibilities to study cognitive control as well as task interference. The current review provides an overview of recent research on both topics. First, we review different experimental approaches to task switching, such as comparing mixed-task blocks with single-task blocks, predictable task-switching…

Load Theory of Selective Attention and Cognitive Control

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lavie, Nilli; Hirst, Aleksandra; de Fockert, Jan W.; Viding, Essi

2004-01-01

A load theory of attention in which distractor rejection depends on the level and type of load involved in current processing was tested. A series of experiments demonstrates that whereas high perceptual load reduces distractor interference, working memory load or dual-task coordination load increases distractor interference. These findings…

The Effect of Aging on the Dynamics of Reactive and Proactive Cognitive Control of Response Interference

PubMed Central

Xiang, Ling; Zhang, Baoqiang; Wang, Baoxi; Jiang, Jun; Zhang, Fenghua; Hu, Zhujing

2016-01-01

A prime-target interference task was used to investigate the effects of cognitive aging on reactive and proactive control after eliminating frequency confounds and feature repetitions from the cognitive control measures. We used distributional analyses to explore the dynamics of the two control functions by distinguishing the strength of incorrect response capture and the efficiency of suppression control. For reactive control, within-trial conflict control and between-trial conflict adaption were analyzed. The statistical analysis showed that there were no reliable between-trial conflict adaption effects for either young or older adults. For within-trial conflict control, the results revealed that older adults showed larger interference effects on mean RT and mean accuracy. Distributional analyses showed that the decline mainly stemmed from inefficient suppression rather than from stronger incorrect responses. For proactive control, older adults showed comparable proactive conflict resolution to young adults on mean RT and mean accuracy. Distributional analyses showed that older adults were as effective as younger adults in adjusting their responses based on congruency proportion information to minimize automatic response capture and actively suppress the direct response activation. The results suggest that older adults were less proficient at suppressing interference after conflict was detected but can anticipate and prevent inference in response to congruency proportion manipulation. These results challenge earlier views that older adults have selective deficits in proactive control but intact reactive control. PMID:27847482

The Effect of Aging on the Dynamics of Reactive and Proactive Cognitive Control of Response Interference.

PubMed

Xiang, Ling; Zhang, Baoqiang; Wang, Baoxi; Jiang, Jun; Zhang, Fenghua; Hu, Zhujing

2016-01-01

A prime-target interference task was used to investigate the effects of cognitive aging on reactive and proactive control after eliminating frequency confounds and feature repetitions from the cognitive control measures. We used distributional analyses to explore the dynamics of the two control functions by distinguishing the strength of incorrect response capture and the efficiency of suppression control. For reactive control, within-trial conflict control and between-trial conflict adaption were analyzed. The statistical analysis showed that there were no reliable between-trial conflict adaption effects for either young or older adults. For within-trial conflict control, the results revealed that older adults showed larger interference effects on mean RT and mean accuracy. Distributional analyses showed that the decline mainly stemmed from inefficient suppression rather than from stronger incorrect responses. For proactive control, older adults showed comparable proactive conflict resolution to young adults on mean RT and mean accuracy. Distributional analyses showed that older adults were as effective as younger adults in adjusting their responses based on congruency proportion information to minimize automatic response capture and actively suppress the direct response activation. The results suggest that older adults were less proficient at suppressing interference after conflict was detected but can anticipate and prevent inference in response to congruency proportion manipulation. These results challenge earlier views that older adults have selective deficits in proactive control but intact reactive control.

Emotion and sex of facial stimuli modulate conditional automaticity in behavioral and neuronal interference in healthy men.

PubMed

Kohn, Nils; Fernández, Guillén

2017-12-06

Our surrounding provides a host of sensory input, which we cannot fully process without streamlining and automatic processing. Levels of automaticity differ for different cognitive and affective processes. Situational and contextual interactions between cognitive and affective processes in turn influence the level of automaticity. Automaticity can be measured by interference in Stroop tasks. We applied an emotional version of the Stroop task to investigate how stress as a contextual factor influences the affective valence-dependent level of automaticity. 120 young, healthy men were investigated for behavioral and brain interference following a stress induction or control procedure in a counter-balanced cross-over-design. Although Stroop interference was always observed, sex and emotion of the face strongly modulated interference, which was larger for fearful and male faces. These effects suggest higher automaticity when processing happy and also female faces. Supporting behavioral patterns, brain data show lower interference related brain activity in executive control related regions in response to happy and female faces. In the absence of behavioral stress effects, congruent compared to incongruent trials (reverse interference) showed little to no deactivation under stress in response to happy female and fearful male trials. These congruency effects are potentially based on altered context- stress-related facial processing that interact with sex-emotion stereotypes. Results indicate that sex and facial emotion modulate Stroop interference in brain and behavior. These effects can be explained by altered response difficulty as a consequence of the contextual and stereotype related modulation of automaticity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cognitive-motor interference during fine and gross motor tasks in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD).

PubMed

Schott, Nadja; El-Rajab, Inaam; Klotzbier, Thomas

2016-10-01

While typically developing children produce relatively automatized postural control processes, children with DCD seem to exhibit an automatization deficit. Dual tasks with various cognitive loads seem to be an effective way to assess the automatic deficit hypothesis. The aims of the study were: (1) to examine the effect of a concurrent cognitive task on fine and gross motor tasks in children with DCD, and (2) to determine whether the effect varied with different difficulty levels of the concurrent task. We examined dual-task performance (Trail-Making-Test, Trail-Walking-Test) in 20 children with DCD and 39 typically developing children. Based on the idea of the Trail-Making-Test, participants walked along a fixed pathway, following a prescribed path, delineated by target markers of (1) increasing sequential numbers, and (2) increasing sequential numbers and letters. The motor and cognitive dual-task effects (DTE) were calculated for each task. Regardless of the cognitive task, children with DCD performed equally well in fine and gross motor tasks, and were slower in the dual task conditions than under single task-conditions, compared with children without DCD. Increased cognitive task complexity resulted in slow trail walking as well as slower trail tracing. The motor interference for the gross motor tasks was least for the simplest conditions and greatest for the complex conditions and was more pronounced in children with DCD. Cognitive interference was low irrespective of the motor task. Children with DCD show a different approach to allocation of cognitive resources, and have difficulties making motor skills automatic. The latter notion is consistent with impaired cerebellar function and the "automatization deficit hypothesis", suggesting that any deficit in the automatization process will appear if conscious monitoring of the motor skill is made more difficult by integrating another task requiring attentional resources. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A cognitive-balance control training paradigm using wii fit to reduce fall risk in chronic stroke survivors.

PubMed

Subramaniam, Savitha; Wan-Ying Hui-Chan, Christina; Bhatt, Tanvi

2014-10-01

The impaired ability to maintain balance while performing higher-level cognitive tasks (cognitive-motor interference) significantly predisposes stroke survivors to risk of falls. We investigated adherence and intervention-related effects of gaming to improve balance control and decrease cognitive-motor interference in stroke survivors. Community-dwelling individuals with hemiparetic stroke (N = 8) received balance control training using Wii Fit in conjunction with cognitive training for approximately 110 min/d for 5 consecutive days. Changes in balance and cognitive performance were evaluated by the limits of stability test performed under single-task (ST) and dual-task (DT) conditions. The outcome measures from the limits of stability test included reaction time and movement velocity of the center of pressure. The cognitive performance was quantified by the number of errors. The DT cost was computed for the balance and cognitive outcome measures using [(ST - DT)/ST × 100]. Adherence was assessed by change on the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory scores postintervention. No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the research findings reported here has conferred orwill confer. Posttraining, reaction time cost in the forward direction improved from 31 ± 8.02 to ±8.7 ± 6.6. Similarly, movement velocity cost improved from 33.7 ± 12.3 to 11 ± 1. Cognitive cost also decreased from 47.9 ± 13.9 to 20 ± 18.8. There were similar improvements in the backward direction for all the outcome measures. Scores on the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory improved from 16.6 ± 1.3 to 23.5 ± 1.5. The results demonstrate good adherence and evidence of clinical value of this high-intensity, short-duration protocol for reducing cognitive-motor interference and improving balance control in stroke survivors. Future studies should examine the dose-response effects and long-term changes of such DT training paradigm applied to improve fall efficacy.Video Abstract available. See Video (Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/JNPT/A80) for more insights from the authors.

Whole body exposure to 2.4 GHz WIFI signals: effects on cognitive impairment in adult triple transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (3xTg-AD).

PubMed

Banaceur, Sana; Banasr, Sihem; Sakly, Mohsen; Abdelmelek, Hafedh

2013-03-01

The present investigation aimed at evaluating the effects of long-term exposure to WIFI type radiofrequency (RF) signals (2.40 GHz), two hours per day during one month at a Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of 1.60 W/kg. The effects of RF exposure were studied on wildtype mice and triple transgenic mice (3xTg-AD) destined to develop Alzheimer's-like cognitive impairment. Mice were divided into four groups: two sham groups (WT, TG; n=7) and two exposed groups (WTS, TGS; n=7). The cognitive interference task used in this study was designed from an analogous human cognitive interference task including the Flex field activity system test, the two-compartment box test and the Barnes maze test. Our data demonstrate for the first time that RF improves cognitive behavior of 3xTg-AD mice. We conclude that RF exposure may represent an effective memory-enhancing approach in Alzheimer's disease. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Influence of empathetic pain processing on cognition in schizophrenia.

PubMed

Hu, Kesong; Lijffijt, Marijn; Beauchaine, Theodore P; Fan, Zhiwei; Shi, Hui; He, Shuchang

2015-10-01

Deficits in both empathy and cognition have been reported widely in patients with schizophrenia. However, little is known about how these deficits interact among such patients. In the present study, we used pain portraying pictures preceding a color-word Stroop task to investigate the effect of empathetic pain observation on cognition among patients with schizophrenia. Twenty patients with schizophrenia and twenty healthy controls were included. The control group showed increased Stroop facilitation and decreased interference during the empathetic pain condition compared with the non-empathetic condition. Although patients with schizophrenia exhibited deficits in cognition, they demonstrated a similar empathy effect to controls on Stroop facilitation, but a somewhat larger empathy effect on Stroop interference (a more decreased effect). In particular, the groups did not differ in either automatic or controlled processing during the non-empathetic condition, suggesting general rather than specific cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Together, we interpret our findings in terms of two opposing effects of empathy on cognition in schizophrenia, with possible neuromodulatory mechanism. Whereas prior studies showed empathy to be impaired, our outcomes indicate that at least some components of empathetic pain processing are preserved in such patients.

Cognitive and behavioral changes in Huntington disease before diagnosis.

PubMed

Paulsen, Jane S; Miller, Amanda C; Hayes, Terry; Shaw, Emily

2017-01-01

Phenotypic manifestations of Huntington disease (HD) can be detected at least 15 years prior to the time when a motor diagnosis is given. Advances in clinical care and future research will require consistent use of HD definitions and HD premanifest (prodromal) stages being used across clinics, sites, and countries. Cognitive and behavioral (psychiatric) changes in HD are summarized and implications for ongoing advancement in our knowledge of prodromal HD are suggested. The earliest detected cognitive changes are observed in the Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Stroop Interference, Stroop Color and Word Test-interference condition, and Trail Making Test. Cognitive changes in the middle and near motor diagnostic stages of prodromal HD involve nearly every cognitive test administered and the greatest changes over time (i.e., slopes) are found in those prodromal HD participants who are nearest to motor diagnosis. Psychiatric changes demonstrate significant worsening over time and remain elevated compared with healthy controls throughout the prodromal disease course. Psychiatric and behavior changes in prodromal HD are much lower than that obtained using cognitive assessment, although the psychiatric and behavioral changes represent symptoms most debilitating to independent capacity and wellness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Memory factors in Rey AVLT: Implications for early staging of cognitive decline.

PubMed

Fernaeus, Sven-Erik; Ostberg, Per; Wahlund, Lars-Olof; Hellström, Ake

2014-12-01

Supraspan verbal list learning is widely used to assess dementia and related cognitive disorders where declarative memory deficits are a major clinical sign. While the overall learning rate is important for diagnosis, serial position patterns may give insight into more specific memory processes in patients with cognitive impairment. This study explored these patterns in a memory clinic clientele. One hundred eighty three participants took the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). The major groups were patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), Vascular Dementia (VD), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and Subjective Cognitive Impairment (SCI) as well as healthy controls (HC). Raw scores for the five trials and five serial partitions were factor analysed. Three memory factors were found and interpreted as Primacy, Recency, and Resistance to Interference. AD and MCI patients had impaired scores in all factors. SCI patients were significantly impaired in the Resistance to Interference factor, and in the Recency factor at the first trial. The main conclusion is that serial position data from word list testing reflect specific memory capacities which vary with levels of cognitive impairment. © 2014 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Energy efficient cooperation in underlay RFID cognitive networks for a water smart home.

PubMed

Nasir, Adnan; Hussain, Syed Imtiaz; Soong, Boon-Hee; Qaraqe, Khalid

2014-09-30

Shrinking water resources all over the world and increasing costs of water consumption have prompted water users and distribution companies to come up with water conserving strategies. We have proposed an energy-efficient smart water monitoring application in [1], using low power RFIDs. In the home environment, there exist many primary interferences within a room, such as cell-phones, Bluetooth devices, TV signals, cordless phones and WiFi devices. In order to reduce the interference from our proposed RFID network for these primary devices, we have proposed a cooperating underlay RFID cognitive network for our smart application on water. These underlay RFIDs should strictly adhere to the interference thresholds to work in parallel with the primary wireless devices [2]. This work is an extension of our previous ventures proposed in [2,3], and we enhanced the previous efforts by introducing a new system model and RFIDs. Our proposed scheme is mutually energy efficient and maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the RFID link, while keeping the interference levels for the primary network below a certain threshold. A closed form expression for the probability density function (pdf) of the SNR at the destination reader/writer and outage probability are derived. Analytical results are verified through simulations. It is also shown that in comparison to non-cognitive selective cooperation, this scheme performs better in the low SNR region for cognitive networks. Moreover, the hidden Markov model's (HMM) multi-level variant hierarchical hidden Markov model (HHMM) approach is used for pattern recognition and event detection for the data received for this system [4]. Using this model, a feedback and decision algorithm is also developed. This approach has been applied to simulated water pressure data from RFID motes, which were embedded in metallic water pipes.

On the interaction between sad mood and cognitive control: the effect of induced sadness on electrophysiological modulations underlying Stroop conflict processing.

PubMed

Nixon, Elena; Liddle, Peter F; Nixon, Neil L; Liotti, Mario

2013-03-01

The present study employed high-density ERPs to examine the effect of induced sad mood on the spatiotemporal correlates of conflict monitoring and resolution in a colour-word Stroop interference task. Neuroimaging evidence and dipole modelling implicates the involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) regions in conflict-laden interference control. On the basis that these structures have been found to mediate emotion-cognition interactions in negative mood states, it was predicted that Stroop-related cognitive control, which relies heavily on anterior neural sources, would be affected by effective sad mood provocation. Healthy participants (N=14) were induced into transient sadness via use of autobiographical sad scripts, a well-validated mood induction technique (Liotti et al., 2000a, 2002). In accord with previous research, interference effects were shown at both baseline and sad states while Stroop conflict was associated with early (N450) and late (Late Positive Component; LPC) electrophysiological modulations at both states. Sad mood induction attenuated the N450 effect in line with our expectation that it would be susceptible to modulation by mood, given its purported anterior limbic source. The LPC effect was displayed at the typical posterior lateral sites but, as predicted, was not affected by sad mood. However, frontocentral LPC activity-presumably generated from an additional anterior limbic source-was affected at sad state, hinting a role in conflict monitoring. Although the neurophysiological underpinnings of interference control are yet to be clarified, this study provided further insight into emotion-cognition interactions as indexed by Stroop conflict-laden processing. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Energy Efficient Cooperation in Underlay RFID Cognitive Networks for a Water Smart Home

PubMed Central

Nasir, Adnan; Hussain, Syed Imtiaz; Soong, Boon-Hee; Qaraqe, Khalid

2014-01-01

Shrinking water resources all over the world and increasing costs of water consumption have prompted water users and distribution companies to come up with water conserving strategies. We have proposed an energy-efficient smart water monitoring application in [1], using low power RFIDs. In the home environment, there exist many primary interferences within a room, such as cell-phones, Bluetooth devices, TV signals, cordless phones and WiFi devices. In order to reduce the interference from our proposed RFID network for these primary devices, we have proposed a cooperating underlay RFID cognitive network for our smart application on water. These underlay RFIDs should strictly adhere to the interference thresholds to work in parallel with the primary wireless devices [2]. This work is an extension of our previous ventures proposed in [2,3], and we enhanced the previous efforts by introducing a new system model and RFIDs. Our proposed scheme is mutually energy efficient and maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the RFID link, while keeping the interference levels for the primary network below a certain threshold. A closed form expression for the probability density function (pdf) of the SNR at the destination reader/writer and outage probability are derived. Analytical results are verified through simulations. It is also shown that in comparison to non-cognitive selective cooperation, this scheme performs better in the low SNR region for cognitive networks. Moreover, the hidden Markov model’s (HMM) multi-level variant hierarchical hidden Markov model (HHMM) approach is used for pattern recognition and event detection for the data received for this system [4]. Using this model, a feedback and decision algorithm is also developed. This approach has been applied to simulated water pressure data from RFID motes, which were embedded in metallic water pipes. PMID:25271565

Non-Gaussian and Multivariate Noise Models for Signal Detection.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-09-01

follow, some of the basic results of asymptotic "theory are presented. both to make the notation clear. and to give some i ~ background for the...densities are considered within a detection framework. The discussions include specific examples and also some general methods of density generation ...densities generated by a memoryless, nonlinear transformation of a correlated, Gaussian source is discussed in some detail. A member of this class has the

Testing complex animal cognition: Concept learning, proactive interference, and list memory.

PubMed

Wright, Anthony A

2018-01-01

This article describes an approach for assessing and comparing complex cognition in rhesus monkeys and pigeons by training them in a sequence of synergistic tasks, each yielding a whole function for enhanced comparisons. These species were trained in similar same/different tasks with expanding training sets (8, 16, 32, 64, 128 … 1024 pictures) followed by novel-stimulus transfer eventually resulting in full abstract-concept learning. Concept-learning functions revealed better rhesus transfer throughout and full concept learning at the 128 set, versus pigeons at the 256 set. They were then tested in delayed same/different tasks for proactive interference by inserting occasional tests within trial-unique sessions where the test stimulus matched a previous sample stimulus (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 trials prior). Proactive-interference functions revealed time-based interference for pigeons (1, 10 s delays), but event-based interference for rhesus (no effect of 1, 10, 20 s delays). They were then tested in list-memory tasks by expanding the sample to four samples in trial-unique sessions (minimizing proactive interference). The four-item, list-memory functions revealed strong recency memory at short delays, gradually changing to strong primacy memory at long delays over 30 s for rhesus, and 10 s for pigeons. Other species comparisons and future directions are discussed. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

"Testing during Study Insulates against the Buildup of Proactive Interference": Correction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szpunar, Karl K.; McDermott, Kathleen B.; Roedigger, Henry L., III

2009-01-01

Reports an error in "Testing during study insulates against the buildup of proactive interference" by Karl K. Szpunar, Kathleen B. McDermott and Henry L. Roediger III ("Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition," 2008[Nov], Vol 34[6], 1392-1399). Incorrect figures were printed due to an error in the…

Development and Initial Psychometric Evaluation of the Sport Interference Checklist

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donohue, Brad; Silver, N. Clayton; Dickens, Yani; Covassin, Tracey; Lancer, Kevin

2007-01-01

The Sport Interference Checklist (SIC) was developed in 141 athletes to assist in the concurrent assessment of cognitive and behavioral problems experienced by athletes in both training (Problems in Sports Training Scale, PSTS) and competition (Problems in Sports Competition Scale, PSCS). An additional scale (Desire for Sport Psychology Scale,…

Face-to-Face Interference in Typical and Atypical Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riby, Deborah M.; Doherty-Sneddon, Gwyneth; Whittle, Lisa

2012-01-01

Visual communication cues facilitate interpersonal communication. It is important that we look at faces to retrieve and subsequently process such cues. It is also important that we sometimes look away from faces as they increase cognitive load that may interfere with online processing. Indeed, when typically developing individuals hold face gaze…

The Crosstalk Hypothesis: Why Language Interferes with Driving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergen, Benjamin; Medeiros-Ward, Nathan; Wheeler, Kathryn; Drews, Frank; Strayer, David

2013-01-01

Performing two cognitive tasks at the same time can degrade performance for either domain-general reasons (e.g., both tasks require attention) or domain-specific reasons (e.g., both tasks require visual working memory). We tested predictions of these two accounts of interference on the task of driving while using language, a naturally occurring…

Sympathetic arousal, but not disturbed executive functioning, mediates the impairment of cognitive flexibility under stress.

PubMed

Marko, Martin; Riečanský, Igor

2018-05-01

Cognitive flexibility emerges from an interplay of multiple cognitive systems, of which lexical-semantic and executive are thought to be the most important. Yet this has not been addressed by previous studies demonstrating that such forms of flexible thought deteriorate under stress. Motivated by these shortcomings, the present study evaluated several candidate mechanisms implied to mediate the impairing effects of stress on flexible thinking. Fifty-seven healthy adults were randomly assigned to psychosocial stress or control condition while assessed for performance on cognitive flexibility, working memory capacity, semantic fluency, and self-reported cognitive interference. Stress response was indicated by changes in skin conductance, hearth rate, and state anxiety. Our analyses showed that acute stress impaired cognitive flexibility via a concomitant increase in sympathetic arousal, while this mediator was positively associated with semantic fluency. Stress also decreased working memory capacity, which was partially mediated by elevated cognitive interference, but neither of these two measures were associated with cognitive flexibility or sympathetic arousal. Following these findings, we conclude that acute stress impairs cognitive flexibility via sympathetic arousal that modulates lexical-semantic and associative processes. In particular, the results indicate that stress-level of sympathetic activation may restrict the accessibility and integration of remote associates and bias the response competition towards prepotent and dominant ideas. Importantly, our results indicate that stress-induced impairments of cognitive flexibility and executive functions are mediated by distinct neurocognitive mechanisms. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Extracommunicative functions of language: verbal interference causes selective categorization impairments.

PubMed

Lupyan, Gary

2009-08-01

In addition to its communicative functions, language has been argued to have a variety of extracommunicative functions, as assessed by its causal involvement in putatively nonlinguistic tasks. In the present work, I argue that language may be critically involved in the ability of human adults to categorize objects on a specific dimension (e.g., color) while abstracting over other dimensions (e.g., size). This ability is frequently impaired in aphasic patients. The present work demonstrates that normal participants placed under conditions of verbal interference show a pattern of deficits strikingly similar to that of aphasic patients: impaired taxonomic categorization along perceptual dimensions, and preserved thematic categorization. A control experiment using a visuospatial-interference task failed to find this selective pattern of deficits. The present work has implications for understanding the online role of language in normal cognition and supports the claim that language is causally involved in nonverbal cognition.

Cognitive control in media multitaskers

PubMed Central

Ophir, Eyal; Nass, Clifford; Wagner, Anthony D.

2009-01-01

Chronic media multitasking is quickly becoming ubiquitous, although processing multiple incoming streams of information is considered a challenge for human cognition. A series of experiments addressed whether there are systematic differences in information processing styles between chronically heavy and light media multitaskers. A trait media multitasking index was developed to identify groups of heavy and light media multitaskers. These two groups were then compared along established cognitive control dimensions. Results showed that heavy media multitaskers are more susceptible to interference from irrelevant environmental stimuli and from irrelevant representations in memory. This led to the surprising result that heavy media multitaskers performed worse on a test of task-switching ability, likely due to reduced ability to filter out interference from the irrelevant task set. These results demonstrate that media multitasking, a rapidly growing societal trend, is associated with a distinct approach to fundamental information processing. PMID:19706386

Non-Interfering Effects of Active Post-Encoding Tasks on Episodic Memory Consolidation in Humans

PubMed Central

Varma, Samarth; Takashima, Atsuko; Krewinkel, Sander; van Kooten, Maaike; Fu, Lily; Medendorp, W. Pieter; Kessels, Roy P. C.; Daselaar, Sander M.

2017-01-01

So far, studies that investigated interference effects of post-learning processes on episodic memory consolidation in humans have used tasks involving only complex and meaningful information. Such tasks require reallocation of general or encoding-specific resources away from consolidation-relevant activities. The possibility that interference can be elicited using a task that heavily taxes our limited brain resources, but has low semantic and hippocampal related long-term memory processing demands, has never been tested. We address this question by investigating whether consolidation could persist in parallel with an active, encoding-irrelevant, minimally semantic task, regardless of its high resource demands for cognitive processing. We distinguish the impact of such a task on consolidation based on whether it engages resources that are: (1) general/executive, or (2) specific/overlapping with the encoding modality. Our experiments compared subsequent memory performance across two post-encoding consolidation periods: quiet wakeful rest and a cognitively demanding n-Back task. Across six different experiments (total N = 176), we carefully manipulated the design of the n-Back task to target general or specific resources engaged in the ongoing consolidation process. In contrast to previous studies that employed interference tasks involving conceptual stimuli and complex processing demands, we did not find any differences between n-Back and rest conditions on memory performance at delayed test, using both recall and recognition tests. Our results indicate that: (1) quiet, wakeful rest is not a necessary prerequisite for episodic memory consolidation; and (2) post-encoding cognitive engagement does not interfere with memory consolidation when task-performance has minimal semantic and hippocampally-based episodic memory processing demands. We discuss our findings with reference to resource and reactivation-led interference theories. PMID:28424596

Non-Interfering Effects of Active Post-Encoding Tasks on Episodic Memory Consolidation in Humans.

PubMed

Varma, Samarth; Takashima, Atsuko; Krewinkel, Sander; van Kooten, Maaike; Fu, Lily; Medendorp, W Pieter; Kessels, Roy P C; Daselaar, Sander M

2017-01-01

So far, studies that investigated interference effects of post-learning processes on episodic memory consolidation in humans have used tasks involving only complex and meaningful information. Such tasks require reallocation of general or encoding-specific resources away from consolidation-relevant activities. The possibility that interference can be elicited using a task that heavily taxes our limited brain resources, but has low semantic and hippocampal related long-term memory processing demands, has never been tested. We address this question by investigating whether consolidation could persist in parallel with an active, encoding-irrelevant, minimally semantic task, regardless of its high resource demands for cognitive processing. We distinguish the impact of such a task on consolidation based on whether it engages resources that are: (1) general/executive, or (2) specific/overlapping with the encoding modality. Our experiments compared subsequent memory performance across two post-encoding consolidation periods: quiet wakeful rest and a cognitively demanding n-Back task. Across six different experiments (total N = 176), we carefully manipulated the design of the n-Back task to target general or specific resources engaged in the ongoing consolidation process. In contrast to previous studies that employed interference tasks involving conceptual stimuli and complex processing demands, we did not find any differences between n-Back and rest conditions on memory performance at delayed test, using both recall and recognition tests. Our results indicate that: (1) quiet, wakeful rest is not a necessary prerequisite for episodic memory consolidation; and (2) post-encoding cognitive engagement does not interfere with memory consolidation when task-performance has minimal semantic and hippocampally-based episodic memory processing demands. We discuss our findings with reference to resource and reactivation-led interference theories.

The external-internal loop of interference: Two types of attention and their influence on the learning abilities of mice

PubMed Central

Sauce, Bruno; Wass, Christopher; Smith, Andrew; Kwan, Stephanie; Matzel, Louis D.

2016-01-01

Attention is a component of the working memory system, and as such, is responsible for protecting task-relevant information from interference. Cognitive performance (particularly outside of the laboratory) is often plagued by interference, and the source of this interference, either external or internal, might influence the expression of individual differences in attentional ability. By definition, external attention (also described as “selective attention”) protects working memory against sensorial distractors of all kinds, while internal attention (also called “inhibition”) protects working memory against emotional impulses, irrelevant information from memory, and automatically-generated responses. At present, it is unclear if these two types of attention are expressed independently in non-human animals, and how they might differentially impact performance on other cognitive processes, such as learning. By using a diverse battery of four attention tests (with varying levels of internal and external sources of interference), here we aimed both to explore this issue, and to obtain a robust and general (less task-specific) measure of attention in mice. Exploratory factor analyses revealed two factors (external and internal attention) that in total, accounted for 73% of the variance in attentional performance. Confirmatory factor analyses found an excellent fit with the data of the model of attention that assumed an external and internal distinction (with a resulting correlation of 0.43). In contrast, a model of attention that assumed one source of variance (i.e., “general attention”) exhibited a poor fit with the data. Regarding the relationship between attention and learning, higher resistance against external sources of interference promoted better new learning, but tended to impair performance when cognitive flexibility was required, such as during the reversal of a previously instantiated response. The present results suggest that there can be (at least) two types of attention that contribute to the common variance in attentional performance in mice, and that external and internal attentions might have opposing influences on the rate at which animals learn. PMID:25452087

Does the radiologically isolated syndrome exist? A dual-task cost pilot study.

PubMed

Dattola, Vincenzo; Logiudice, Anna Lisa; Bonanno, Lilla; Famà, Fausto; Milardi, Demetrio; Chillemi, Gaetana; D'Aleo, Giangaetano; Marino, Silvia; Calabrò, Rocco Salvatore; Russo, Margherita

2017-11-01

Simultaneous performance of motor and cognitive tasks may compete for common brain network resources in aging or patients with some neurological diseases, suggesting the occurrence of a cognitive-motor interference. While this phenomenon has been well described for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, it never has been tested on asymptomatic subject with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings suggestive of demyelinating disease (i.e., radiologically isolated syndrome: RIS). In this pilot study, 10 RIS subjects and 10 sex/age-matched healthy controls were tested by means of static posturography under eyes opened (single-task trial) and while performing two different cognitive tasks (semantic modified word list generation for first dual-task trial and phonemic semantic modified word list generation for second dual-task trial), to estimate the dual-task cost (DTC) of standing balance. In our sample, under cognitive interference (without any substantial differences between semantic and phonemic modified word list generation), the RIS group showed significance differences in CoP (center of pressure) total sway area, ellipse eccentricity, CoP sway path length, CoP median sway velocity along the AP (anteroposterior) axis and along the ML (mediolateral) axis, reflecting a higher negative DTC respect to healthy subjects (which have simply shown a statistical trend, failing to reach a significance, in some trials). The phenomenon of cognitive-motor interference might be unmasked by a dual-task posturography in RIS subjects, too. We hypothesize that this approach could be useful to early reveal the presence of a demyelinating disease and to reach a MS diagnosis in subjects otherwise classified as RIS.

Dissociations of cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and emotional interference: Voxelwise ALE meta-analyses of fMRI studies.

PubMed

Hung, Yuwen; Gaillard, Schuyler L; Yarmak, Pavel; Arsalidou, Marie

2018-06-19

Inhibitory control is the stopping of a mental process with or without intention, conceptualized as mental suppression of competing information because of limited cognitive capacity. Inhibitory control dysfunction is a core characteristic of many major psychiatric disorders. Inhibition is generally thought to involve the prefrontal cortex; however, a single inhibitory mechanism is insufficient for interpreting the heterogeneous nature of human cognition. It remains unclear whether different dimensions of inhibitory processes-specifically cognitive inhibition, response inhibition, and emotional interference-rely on dissociated neural systems. We conducted systematic meta-analyses of fMRI studies in the BrainMap database supplemented by PubMed using whole-brain activation likelihood estimation. A total of 66 study experiments including 1,447 participants and 987 foci revealed that while the left anterior insula was concordant in all inhibitory dimensions, cognitive inhibition reliably activated specific dorsal frontal inhibitory system, engaging dorsal anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and parietal areas, whereas emotional interference reliably implicated a ventral inhibitory system, involving the ventral surface of the inferior frontal gyrus and the amygdala. Response inhibition showed concordant clusters in the fronto-striatal system, including the dorsal anterior cingulate region and extended supplementary motor areas, the dorsal and ventral lateral prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, midbrain regions, and parietal regions. We provide an empirically derived dimensional model of inhibition characterizing neural systems underlying different aspects of inhibitory mechanisms. This study offers a fundamental framework to advance current understanding of inhibition and provides new insights for future clinical research into disorders with different types of inhibition-related dysfunctions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cognitive Motor Interference in Multiple Sclerosis: Insights From a Systematic Quantitative Review.

PubMed

Learmonth, Yvonne C; Ensari, Ipek; Motl, Robert W

2017-06-01

To synthesize the evidence for differences in cognitive motor interference (CMI) between persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) and those without MS by using systematic review and meta-analysis. EMBASE, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, and Web of Science. Our focused literature search was informed by past systematic reviews of CMI during walking in MS. The key terms searched included Multiple sclerosis and synonyms of motor function (eg, Gait disorders, Gait, Walking, Balance, or Fall) and motor and cognitive functions (eg, Cognitive motor interference or Thinking). From the 116 abstract-identified articles, 13 experimental studies were selected for the final analysis and were rated using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. A meta-analysis was performed for all considered outcomes. The results yielded a small overall effect size (ES) of .08 (SE=.17; 95% confidence interval, -.25 to .40; z=.49; P>.05), which indicated a nonsignificant minimal difference in CMI between persons with MS and those without MS. The moderator analysis for motor task (mobility task: ES, .22; postural task: ES, -.11) was not significantly different between persons with MS and those without MS. The moderator analysis for cognitive task (verbal fluency task: ES, .66; mental tracking task: ES, .04; discrimination and decision-making task: ES, -.30) resulted in a significant difference in CMI between persons with MS and those without MS (P<.05). We provide evidence that overall there is a minimal difference in CMI between persons with MS and those without MS. Copyright © 2016 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cognitive software defined radar: waveform design for clutter and interference suppression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirk, Benjamin H.; Owen, Jonathan W.; Narayanan, Ram M.; Blunt, Shannon D.; Martone, Anthony F.; Sherbondy, Kelly D.

2017-05-01

Clutter and radio frequency interference (RFI) are prevalent issues in the field of radar and are specifically of interest to of cognitive radar. Here, methods for applying and testing the utility of cognitive radar for clutter and RFI mitigation are explored. Using the adaptable transmit capability, environmental database, and general "awareness" of a cognitive radar system (i.e. spectrum sensing, geographical location, etc.), a matched waveform is synthesized that improves the signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR), assuming at least an estimate of the target response and the environmental clutter response are known a prior i. RFI may also be mitigated by sensing the RF spectrum and adapting the transmit center frequency and bandwidth using methods that optimize bandwidth and signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) (i.e. the spectrum sensing, multi-objective (SS-MO) algorithm). The improvement is shown by a decrease in the noise floor. The above methods' effectiveness are examined via a test-bed developed around a software defined radio (SDR). Testing and the general use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) devices are desirable for their cost effectiveness, general ease of use, as well as technical and community support, but these devices provide design challenges in order to be effective. The universal software radio peripheral (USRP) X310 SDR is a relatively cheap and portable device that has all the system components of a basic cognitive radar. Design challenges of the SDR include phase coherency between channels, bandwidth limitations, dynamic range, and speed of computation and data communication / recording.

Separating intentional inhibition of prepotent responses and resistance to proactive interference in alcohol-dependent individuals.

PubMed

Noël, Xavier; Van der Linden, Martial; Brevers, Damien; Campanella, Salvatore; Verbanck, Paul; Hanak, Catherine; Kornreich, Charles; Verbruggen, Frederick

2013-03-01

Impulsivity is a hallmark of addictive behaviors. Addicts' weakened inhibition of irrelevant prepotent responses is commonly thought to explain this association. However, inhibition is not a unitary mechanism. This study investigated the efficiency of overcoming competition due to irrelevant responses (i.e., inhibition of a prepotent response) and overcoming competition in memory (i.e., resistance to proactive interference) in sober and recently detoxified alcohol-dependent individuals. Three cognitive tasks assessing the inhibition of a prepotent response (Hayling task, anti-saccade task and Stroop task) and two tasks tapping into the capacity to resist proactive interference (cued recall, Brown-Peterson variant) were administered to 30 non-amnesic recently detoxified alcohol-dependent individuals and 30 matched healthy participants without alcohol dependency. In addition, possible confounds such as verbal updating in working memory was assessed. Alcohol-dependent subjects performed worse than healthy participants on the three cognitive tasks assessing the inhibition of irrelevant prepotent responses but group performance was similar in the tasks assessing overcoming proactive interference in memory, updating of working memory and abstract reasoning. These findings suggest that alcohol-dependence is mainly associated with impaired capacity to intentionally suppress irrelevant prepotent response information. Control of proactive interference from memory is preserved. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Higher levels of motor competence are associated with reduced interference in action perception across the lifespan.

PubMed

Wermelinger, Stephanie; Gampe, Anja; Daum, Moritz M

2017-11-07

Action perception and action production are tightly linked and elicit bi-directional influences on each other when performed simultaneously. In this study, we investigated whether age-related differences in manual fine-motor competence and/or age affect the (interfering) influence of action production on simultaneous action perception. In a cross-sectional eye-tracking study, participants of a broad age range (N = 181, 20-80 years) observed a manual grasp-and-transport action while performing an additional motor or cognitive distractor task. Action perception was measured via participants' frequency of anticipatory gaze shifts towards the action goal. Manual fine-motor competence was assessed with the Motor Performance Series. The interference effect in action perception was greater in the motor than the cognitive distractor task. Furthermore, manual fine-motor competence and age in years were both associated with this interference. The better the participants' manual fine-motor competence and the younger they were, the smaller the interference effect. However, when both influencing factors (age and fine-motor competence) were taken into account, a model including only age-related differences in manual fine-motor competence best fit with our data. These results add to the existing literature that motor competence and its age-related differences influence the interference effects between action perception and production.

Cognitive Load Selectively Interferes with Utilitarian Moral Judgment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greene, Joshua D.; Morelli, Sylvia A.; Lowenberg, Kelly; Nystrom, Leigh E.; Cohen, Jonathan D.

2008-01-01

Traditional theories of moral development emphasize the role of controlled cognition in mature moral judgment, while a more recent trend emphasizes intuitive and emotional processes. Here we test a dual-process theory synthesizing these perspectives. More specifically, our theory associates utilitarian moral judgment (approving of harmful actions…

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Body Dysmorphic Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenberg, Jennifer L.; Markowitz, Sarah; Petronko, Michael R.; Taylor, Caitlin E.; Wilhelm, Sabine; Wilson, G. Terence

2010-01-01

The onset of appearance-related concerns associated with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) typically occurs in adolescence, and these concerns are often severe enough to interfere with normal development and psychosocial functioning. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for adults with BDD. However, no treatment studies…

Cognition and speech-in-noise recognition: the role of proactive interference.

PubMed

Ellis, Rachel J; Rönnberg, Jerker

2014-01-01

Complex working memory (WM) span tasks have been shown to predict speech-in-noise (SIN) recognition. Studies of complex WM span tasks suggest that, rather than indexing a single cognitive process, performance on such tasks may be governed by separate cognitive subprocesses embedded within WM. Previous research has suggested that one such subprocess indexed by WM tasks is proactive interference (PI), which refers to difficulties memorizing current information because of interference from previously stored long-term memory representations for similar information. The aim of the present study was to investigate phonological PI and to examine the relationship between PI (semantic and phonological) and SIN perception. A within-subjects experimental design was used. An opportunity sample of 24 young listeners with normal hearing was recruited. Measures of resistance to, and release from, semantic and phonological PI were calculated alongside the signal-to-noise ratio required to identify 50% of keywords correctly in a SIN recognition task. The data were analyzed using t-tests and correlations. Evidence of release from and resistance to semantic interference was observed. These measures correlated significantly with SIN recognition. Limited evidence of phonological PI was observed. The results show that capacity to resist semantic PI can be used to predict SIN recognition scores in young listeners with normal hearing. On the basis of these findings, future research will focus on investigating whether tests of PI can be used in the treatment and/or rehabilitation of hearing loss. American Academy of Audiology.

Auditory working memory impairments in individuals at familial high risk for schizophrenia.

PubMed

Seidman, Larry J; Meyer, Eric C; Giuliano, Anthony J; Breiter, Hans C; Goldstein, Jill M; Kremen, William S; Thermenos, Heidi W; Toomey, Rosemary; Stone, William S; Tsuang, Ming T; Faraone, Stephen V

2012-05-01

The search for predictors of schizophrenia has accelerated with a growing focus on early intervention and prevention of psychotic illness. Studying nonpsychotic relatives of individuals with schizophrenia enables identification of markers of vulnerability for the illness independent of confounds associated with psychosis. The goal of these studies was to develop new auditory continuous performance tests (ACPTs) and evaluate their effects in individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives. We carried out two studies of auditory vigilance with tasks involving working memory (WM) and interference control with increasing levels of cognitive load to discern the information-processing vulnerabilities in a sample of schizophrenia patients, and two samples of nonpsychotic relatives of individuals with schizophrenia and controls. Study 1 assessed adults (mean age = 41), and Study 2 assessed teenagers and young adults age 13-25 (M = 19). Patients with schizophrenia were impaired on all five versions of the ACPTs, whereas relatives were impaired only on WM tasks, particularly the two interference tasks that maximize cognitive load. Across all groups, the interference tasks were more difficult to perform than the other tasks. Schizophrenia patients performed worse than relatives, who performed worse than controls. For patients, the effect sizes were large (Cohen's d = 1.5), whereas for relatives they were moderate (d = ~0.40-0.50). There was no age by group interaction in the relatives-control comparison except for participants <31 years of age. Novel WM tasks that manipulate cognitive load and interference control index an important component of the vulnerability to schizophrenia.

Effects of Practice Schedule on Wind Instrument Performance: A Preliminary Application of a Motor Learning Principle

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stambaugh, Laura A.; Demorest, Steven M.

2010-01-01

The effects of three practice schedules on beginning instrumental achievement were explored. A total of 19 seventh-grade clarinet and saxophone students completed one 18-minute practice session using either a blocked schedule causing a low level of cognitive (contextual) interference, a hybrid schedule causing a moderate level of interference, or…

Converging Evidence for Control of Color-Word Stroop Interference at the Item Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bugg, Julie M.; Hutchison, Keith A.

2013-01-01

Prior studies have shown that cognitive control is implemented at the list and context levels in the color-word Stroop task. At first blush, the finding that Stroop interference is reduced for mostly incongruent items as compared with mostly congruent items (i.e., the item-specific proportion congruence [ISPC] effect) appears to provide evidence…

Final Scientific Report,

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-11-26

and J.B. Thomas, "The Effect of a Memoryless Nonlinearity on the Spectrum of a Random Process," IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. IT-23, pp...Density Function from Measurements Corrupted by Poisson Noise," IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. IT-23, pp. 764-766, November 1977. H. Derin...pp. 243-249, December 1977. G.L. Wise and N.C. Gallagher, "On Spherically Invariant Random Processes," IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. IT

Tinnitus and Cognitive Interference: A Stroop Paradigm Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andersson, Gerhard; Eriksson, Jan; Lundh, Lars-Gunnar; Lyttkens, Leif

2000-01-01

This study examined the performance of 23 tinnitus patients on three versions of the Stroop color-word test. Results showed that tinnitus patients performed significantly slower than controls on all test conditions. Results suggest that tinnitus patients have impaired cognitive performance overall, possibly confounded by hearing impairment.…

Context-Sensitive Adjustment of Cognitive Control in Dual-Task Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fischer, Rico; Gottschalk, Caroline; Dreisbach, Gesine

2014-01-01

Performing 2 highly similar tasks at the same time requires an adaptive regulation of cognitive control to shield prioritized primary task processing from between-task (cross-talk) interference caused by secondary task processing. In the present study, the authors investigated how implicitly and explicitly delivered information promotes the…

Cognitive-Behavioral Classifications of Chronic Pain in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khan, Fary; Pallant, Julie F.; Amatya, Bhasker; Young, Kevin; Gibson, Steven

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to replicate, in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), the three-cluster cognitive-behavioral classification proposed by Turk and Rudy. Sixty-two patients attending a tertiary MS rehabilitation center completed the Pain Impact Rating questionnaire measuring activity interference, pain intensity, social support, and…

Interference and negative priming effects in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Pritchard, Verena E; Neumann, Ewald; Rucklidge, Julia J

2007-01-01

Three visual selective attention tasks were used to measure potential differences in susceptibility to interference and inhibitory cognitive control processes in 16 adolescents diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 45 similar-aged controls. Susceptibility to interference was assessed using the Stroop color and word naming test. Efficiency of distractor inhibition was assessed in two conceptual negative priming tasks. The majority of studies in this area indicate that people with ADHD demonstrate higher levels of interference and lower negative priming effects in comparison with age-matched peers. However, we found that although the ADHD group was consistently slower to name target stimuli than the control group, there were no differences in interference or negative priming between the two groups.

Novel Cognitive Paradigms for the Detection of Memory Impairment in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

PubMed Central

Loewenstein, David A.; Curiel, Rosie E.; Duara, Ranjan; Buschke, Herman

2017-01-01

In spite of advances in neuroimaging and other brain biomarkers to assess preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cognitive assessment has relied on traditional memory paradigms developed well over six decades ago. This has led to a growing concern about their effectiveness in the early diagnosis of AD which is essential to develop preventive and early targeted interventions before the occurrence of multisystem brain degeneration. We describe the development of novel tests that are more cognitively challenging, minimize variability in learning strategies, enhance initial acquisition and retrieval using cues, and exploit vulnerabilities in persons with incipient AD such as the susceptibility to proactive semantic interference, and failure to recover from proactive semantic interference. The advantages of various novel memory assessment paradigms are examined as well as how they compare with traditional neuropsychological assessments of memory. Finally, future directions for the development of more effective assessment paradigms are suggested. PMID:29214859

Early adolescents show sustained susceptibility to cognitive interference by emotional distractors.

PubMed

Heim, Sabine; Ihssen, Niklas; Hasselhorn, Marcus; Keil, Andreas

2013-01-01

A child's ability to continuously pay attention to a cognitive task is often challenged by distracting events. Distraction is especially detrimental in a learning or classroom environment in which attended information is typically associated with establishing skills and knowledge. Here we report a study examining the effect of emotional distractors on performance in a subsequent visual lexical decision task in 11- to 13-year-old students (n=30). Lexical decisions about neutral verbs and verb-like pseudowords (i.e., targets) were analysed as a function of the preceding distractor type (pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant photos) and the picture-target stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA; 200 or 600 ms). Across distractor categories, emotionally arousing pictures prolonged decisions about word targets when compared to neutral pictures, irrespective of the SOA. The present results demonstrate that similar to adults, early adolescent students exhibit sustained susceptibility to cognitive interference by irrelevant emotional events.

An APOA1 promoter polymorphism is associated with cognitive performance in patients with multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Koutsis, G; Panas, M; Giogkaraki, E; Karadima, G; Sfagos, C; Vassilopoulos, D

2009-02-01

Elevated ApoA1 levels have been associated with decreased dementia risk. The A-allele of the APOA1 -75G/A promoter polymorphism has been associated with elevated ApoA1 levels. We sought to investigate the effect of the APOA1 -75G/A promoter polymorphism on cognitive performance in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). A total of 138 patients with MS and 43 controls were studied and underwent neuropsychological assessment with Rao's Brief Repeatable Battery and the Stroop test. All patients were genotyped for APOA1. APOA1 A-allele carriers displayed superior overall cognitive performance compared with non-carriers (P 0.008) and had a three-fold decrease in the relative risk of overall cognitive impairment (OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.11-0.74). Regarding performance on individual cognitive domains, although APOA1 A-allele carriers performed better than non-carriers on all tests, this was significant only for semantic verbal fluency and the Stroop interference task (P 0.036 and 0.018, respectively). We found an association of the APOA1 -75G/A promoter polymorphism with cognitive performance in MS. This effect was most prominent on semantic verbal fluency and the Stroop interference task.

When Breathing Interferes with Cognition: Experimental Inspiratory Loading Alters Timed Up-and-Go Test in Normal Humans.

PubMed

Nierat, Marie-Cécile; Demiri, Suela; Dupuis-Lozeron, Elise; Allali, Gilles; Morélot-Panzini, Capucine; Similowski, Thomas; Adler, Dan

2016-01-01

Human breathing stems from automatic brainstem neural processes. It can also be operated by cortico-subcortical networks, especially when breathing becomes uncomfortable because of external or internal inspiratory loads. How the "irruption of breathing into consciousness" interacts with cognition remains unclear, but a case report in a patient with defective automatic breathing (Ondine's curse syndrome) has shown that there was a cognitive cost of breathing when the respiratory cortical networks were engaged. In a pilot study of putative breathing-cognition interactions, the present study relied on a randomized design to test the hypothesis that experimentally loaded breathing in 28 young healthy subjects would have a negative impact on cognition as tested by "timed up-and-go" test (TUG) and its imagery version (iTUG). Progressive inspiratory threshold loading resulted in slower TUG and iTUG performance. Participants consistently imagined themselves faster than they actually were. However, progressive inspiratory loading slowed iTUG more than TUG, a finding that is unexpected with regard to the known effects of dual tasking on TUG and iTUG (slower TUG but stable iTUG). Insofar as the cortical networks engaged in response to inspiratory loading are also activated during complex locomotor tasks requiring cognitive inputs, we infer that competition for cortical resources may account for the breathing-cognition interference that is evidenced here.

Cognitive Predictors of Spoken Word Recognition in Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorders.

PubMed

Evans, Julia L; Gillam, Ronald B; Montgomery, James W

2018-05-10

This study examined the influence of cognitive factors on spoken word recognition in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and typically developing (TD) children. Participants included 234 children (aged 7;0-11;11 years;months), 117 with DLD and 117 TD children, propensity matched for age, gender, socioeconomic status, and maternal education. Children completed a series of standardized assessment measures, a forward gating task, a rapid automatic naming task, and a series of tasks designed to examine cognitive factors hypothesized to influence spoken word recognition including phonological working memory, updating, attention shifting, and interference inhibition. Spoken word recognition for both initial and final accept gate points did not differ for children with DLD and TD controls after controlling target word knowledge in both groups. The 2 groups also did not differ on measures of updating, attention switching, and interference inhibition. Despite the lack of difference on these measures, for children with DLD, attention shifting and interference inhibition were significant predictors of spoken word recognition, whereas updating and receptive vocabulary were significant predictors of speed of spoken word recognition for the children in the TD group. Contrary to expectations, after controlling for target word knowledge, spoken word recognition did not differ for children with DLD and TD controls; however, the cognitive processing factors that influenced children's ability to recognize the target word in a stream of speech differed qualitatively for children with and without DLDs.

Augmented Reality Cues and Elderly Driver Hazard Perception

PubMed Central

Schall, Mark C.; Rusch, Michelle L.; Lee, John D.; Dawson, Jeffrey D.; Thomas, Geb; Aksan, Nazan; Rizzo, Matthew

2013-01-01

Objective Evaluate the effectiveness of augmented reality (AR) cues in improving driving safety in elderly drivers who are at increased crash risk due to cognitive impairments. Background Cognitively challenging driving environments pose a particular crash risk for elderly drivers. AR cueing is a promising technology to mitigate risk by directing driver attention to roadway hazards. This study investigates whether AR cues improve or interfere with hazard perception in elderly drivers with age-related cognitive decline. Methods Twenty elderly (Mean= 73 years, SD= 5 years), licensed drivers with a range of cognitive abilities measured by a speed of processing (SOP) composite participated in a one-hour drive in an interactive, fixed-base driving simulator. Each participant drove through six, straight, six-mile-long rural roadway scenarios following a lead vehicle. AR cues directed attention to potential roadside hazards in three of the scenarios, and the other three were uncued (baseline) drives. Effects of AR cueing were evaluated with respect to: 1) detection of hazardous target objects, 2) interference with detecting nonhazardous secondary objects, and 3) impairment in maintaining safe distance behind a lead vehicle. Results AR cueing improved the detection of hazardous target objects of low visibility. AR cues did not interfere with detection of nonhazardous secondary objects and did not impair ability to maintain safe distance behind a lead vehicle. SOP capacity did not moderate those effects. Conclusion AR cues show promise for improving elderly driver safety by increasing hazard detection likelihood without interfering with other driving tasks such as maintaining safe headway. PMID:23829037

Recurrent pain is associated with decreased selective attention in a population-based sample.

PubMed

Gijsen, C P; Dijkstra, J B; van Boxtel, M P J

2011-01-01

Studies which have examined the impact of pain on cognitive functioning in the general population are scarce. In the present study we assessed the predictive value of recurrent pain on cognitive functioning in a population-based study (N=1400). Furthermore, we investigated the effect of pain on cognitive functioning in individuals with specific pain complaints (i.e. back pain, gastric pain, muscle pain and headache). Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Stroop Color-Word Interference test (Stroop interference), the Letter-Digit-Substitution test (LDST) and the Visual Verbal learning Task (VVLT). Pain was measured with the COOP/WONCA pain scale (Dartmouth Primary Care Cooperative Information Project/World Organization of National Colleges, Academies, and Academic Associations of General Practice /Family Physicians). We controlled for the effects of age, sex, level of education and depressive symptoms. It was demonstrated that pain had a negative impact on the performance on the Stroop interference but not on the VVLT and the LDST. This indicates that subjects who reported extreme pain had more problems with selective attention and were more easily distracted. Effects were in general larger in the specific pain groups when compared to the associations found in the total group. Implications of these findings are discussed. The experience of recurrent pain has a negative influence on selective attention in a healthy population. Copyright © 2010 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

When Delays Improve Memory: Stabilizing Memory in Children May Require Time.

PubMed

Darby, Kevin P; Sloutsky, Vladimir M

2015-12-01

Memory is critical for learning, cognition, and cognitive development. Recent work has suggested that preschool-age children are vulnerable to catastrophic levels of memory interference, in which new learning dramatically attenuates memory for previously acquired knowledge. In the work reported here, we investigated the effects of consolidation on children's memory by introducing a 48-hr delay between learning and testing. In Experiment 1, the delay improved children's memory and eliminated interference. Results of Experiment 2 suggest that the benefit of this delay is limited to situations in which children are given enough information to form complex memory structures. These findings have important implications for understanding consolidation processes and memory development. © The Author(s) 2015.

Refining Measurement of Social Cognitive Theory Factors Associated with Exercise Adherence in Head and Neck Cancer Patients.

PubMed

Rogers, Laura Q; Fogleman, Amanda; Verhulst, Steven; Bhugra, Mudita; Rao, Krishna; Malone, James; Robbs, Randall; Robbins, K Thomas

2015-01-01

Social cognitive theory (SCT) measures related to exercise adherence in head and neck cancer (HNCa) patients were developed. Enrolling 101 HNCa patients, psychometric properties and associations with exercise behavior were examined for barriers self-efficacy, perceived barriers interference, outcome expectations, enjoyment, and goal setting. Cronbach's alpha ranged from.84 to.95; only enjoyment demonstrated limited test-retest reliability. Subscales for barriers self-efficacy (motivational, physical health) and barriers interference (motivational, physical health, time, environment) were identified. Multiple SCT constructs were cross-sectional correlates and prospective predictors of exercise behavior. These measures can improve the application of the SCT to exercise adherence in HNCa patients.

Focusing the Search: Proactive and Retroactive Interference and the Dynamics of Free Recall

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unsworth, Nash; Brewer, Gene A.; Spillers, Gregory J.

2013-01-01

Targeting information in long-term memory is an important cognitive ability, but one that is not well understood. In this study, 4 experiments were conducted to examine the influence of proactive and retroactive interference on memory targeting. Participants were given either 1 or 2 lists and asked to recall List 1, List 2, or in some cases both…

A Location-Based Duplex Scheme for Cost Effective Rural Broadband Connectivity Using IEEE 802.22 Cognitive Radio Based Wireless Regional Area Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalidoss, R.; Bhagyaveni, M. A.; Vishvaksenan, K. S.

2014-08-01

The search for a method of utilizing the scarce spectrum in an efficient manner is an active area of research in both academic and industrial communities. IEEE 802.22 is a standard for wireless regional area network (WRAN) based on cognitive radio (CR) that operates over underutilized portions of TV bands (54-862 MHz). Time division duplex (TDD)-based WRAN cells have such advantages as dynamic traffic allocation, traffic asymmetry to users and ease of spectrum allocation. However, these cells suffer from severe cross time slot (CTS) interference when the frames of the cells are not synchronized with adjacent WRAN cells. In this paper, we evaluate the location-based duplex (LBD) scheme for eliminating the CTS interference. The proposed LBD system is much more flexible and efficient in providing asymmetric data service and eliminating CTS interference by exploiting the advantages of both TDD and frequency division duplex (FDD) schemes. We also compare the performance of LBD systems with virtual cell concepts. Furthermore, our simulation results reveal that LBD-based systems outperform the virtual cell approach in terms of the low signal-to-interference (SIR) ratio requirement by mitigating the effects of CTS.

Cognitive Communications Protocols for SATCOM

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-10-20

both inadvertent Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) and deliberate jammers. Cognitive satellite and space communications strategies based on the... communications protocols for satellite and space communications with possible broad applications in defense, homeland-security as well as consumer...proposed WACR as the basis for future space communication systems that will offer significant benefits to national war‐fighting and peacekeeping

How Task Representations Guide Attention: Further Evidence for the Shielding Function of Task Sets

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dreisbach, Gesine; Haider, Hilde

2009-01-01

To pursue goal directed behavior, the cognitive system must be shielded against interference from irrelevant information. Aside from the online adjustment of cognitive control widely discussed in the literature, an additional mechanism of preventive goal shielding is suggested that circumvents irrelevant information from being processed in the…

Conflict Adaptation and Congruency Sequence Effects to Social-Emotional Stimuli in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Worsham, Whitney; Gray, Whitney E.; Larson, Michael J.; South, Mikle

2015-01-01

Background: The modification of performance following conflict can be measured using conflict adaptation tasks thought to measure the change in the allocation of cognitive resources in order to reduce conflict interference and improve performance. While previous studies have suggested atypical processing during nonsocial cognitive control tasks,…

A Cognitive Therapy Approach to Increasing Father Involvement by Changing Restrictive Masculine Schemas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahalik, James R.; Morrison, Jay A.

2006-01-01

Cognitive therapists may be able to help fathers increase their involvement with their children by identifying and changing restrictive masculine schemas that interfere with men's parenting roles. In this paper, we (a) discuss the development of restrictive masculine schemas, (b) explain how these schemas may affect men's involvement in fathering…

The Timing and Magnitude of Stroop Interference and Facilitation in Monolinguals and Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coderre, Emily L.; Van Heuven, Walter J. B.; Conklin, Kathy

2013-01-01

Executive control abilities and lexical access speed in Stroop performance were investigated in English monolinguals and two groups of bilinguals (English-Chinese and Chinese-English) in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages. Predictions were based on a bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis, implicating cognitive control ability as the…

Memory-assisted quantum key distribution resilient against multiple-excitation effects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lo Piparo, Nicolò; Sinclair, Neil; Razavi, Mohsen

2018-01-01

Memory-assisted measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MA-MDI-QKD) has recently been proposed as a technique to improve the rate-versus-distance behavior of QKD systems by using existing, or nearly-achievable, quantum technologies. The promise is that MA-MDI-QKD would require less demanding quantum memories than the ones needed for probabilistic quantum repeaters. Nevertheless, early investigations suggest that, in order to beat the conventional memory-less QKD schemes, the quantum memories used in the MA-MDI-QKD protocols must have high bandwidth-storage products and short interaction times. Among different types of quantum memories, ensemble-based memories offer some of the required specifications, but they typically suffer from multiple excitation effects. To avoid the latter issue, in this paper, we propose two new variants of MA-MDI-QKD both relying on single-photon sources for entangling purposes. One is based on known techniques for entanglement distribution in quantum repeaters. This scheme turns out to offer no advantage even if one uses ideal single-photon sources. By finding the root cause of the problem, we then propose another setup, which can outperform single memory-less setups even if we allow for some imperfections in our single-photon sources. For such a scheme, we compare the key rate for different types of ensemble-based memories and show that certain classes of atomic ensembles can improve the rate-versus-distance behavior.

An Evaluation of Deficits in Semantic Cuing, Proactive and Retroactive Interference as Early Features of Alzheimer’s disease

PubMed Central

Crocco, Elizabeth; Curiel, Rosie E.; Acevedo, Amarilis; Czaja, Sara J.; Loewenstein, David A.

2015-01-01

OBJECTIVE To determine the degree to which susceptibility to different types of semantic interference may reflect the earliest manifestations of early Alzheimer disease (AD) beyond the effects of global memory impairment. METHODS Normal elderly (NE) subjects (n= 47), subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI: n=34) and 40 subjects with probable AD were evaluated using a unique cued recall paradigm that allowed for an evaluation of both proactive and retroactive interference effects while controlling for global memory impairment (LASSI-L procedure). RESULTS Controlling for overall memory impairment, aMCI subjects had much greater proactive and retroactive interference effects than NE subjects. LASSI-L indices of learning using cued recall evidenced high levels of sensitivity and specificity with an overall correct classification rate of 90%. These provided better discrimination than traditional neuropsychological measures of memory function. CONCLUSION The LASSI-L paradigm is unique and unlike other assessments of memory in that items presented for cued recall are explicitly presented, and semantic interference and cuing effects can be assessed while controlling for initial level of memory impairment. This represents a powerful procedure allowing the participant to serve as his or her own control. The high levels of discrimination between subjects with aMCI and normal cognition that exceeded traditional neuropsychological measures makes the LASSI-L worthy of further research in the detection of early AD. PMID:23768680

Benefits of a hungry mind: When hungry, exposure to food facilitates proactive interference resolution.

PubMed

Maran, Thomas; Sachse, Pierre; Martini, Markus; Furtner, Marco

2017-01-01

Hunger is an everyday motivational state, which biases cognition to detect food. Although evidence exists on how hunger affects basic attentional and mnemonic processes, less is known about how motivational drive for food modulates higher cognition. We aimed to investigate the effects of food deprivation on proactive interference resolution, in the presence and absence of food. Normal-weight participants performed a recency probes paradigm providing an experimental block with food and object stimuli as well as a control block with object stimuli only, in a fasted and a sated state. Results showed that the interaction of shifts in nutritional state with the perception of food cues evoked an altered resolution of proactive interference. Satiety led to impaired performance, whereas a hungry state resulted in strengthened resistance to proactive interference and lying in between, the control block presenting neutral objects remained unaffected by nutritional state manipulation. Additionally, a further increase in proactive interference resolution occurred when the conflicting probe depicted food compared to non-food objects. We conclude that when exposed to food, hunger initiates biased competition of active memory representations in favor of prioritized source information at cost of familiar, but irrelevant information. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of an arousal-biased competition in working memory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Overview of Non-pathological Geroneuropsychology: Implications for Nursing Practice and Research

PubMed Central

Graham, Martha A.; Fazeli, Pariya L.; Heaton, Karen; Moneyham, Linda

2011-01-01

One aspect of successful aging is maintaining cognitive functioning; that includes both subjective cognitive functioning and objective cognitive functioning even in lieu of subtle cognitive deficits that occur with normal, non-pathological aging. Age-related cognitive deficits emerge across several domains including attention, memory, language, speed of processing, executive, and psychomotor, just to name a few. A primary theory explaining such cognitive deficits is cognitive reserve theory; it posits that biological factors such as demyelination and oxidative stress interfere with neuronal communication which eventually produces observable deficits in cognitive functioning. Therefore, it is important to maintain or improve cognitive reserve in order to augment cognitive functioning in later life. This article provides a general overview of the principles of geroneuropsychology along with implications for nursing practice and research. PMID:22210304

Different motor tasks impact differently on cognitive performance of older persons during dual task tests.

PubMed

Simoni, David; Rubbieri, Gaia; Baccini, Marco; Rinaldi, Lucio; Becheri, Dimitri; Forconi, Tatiana; Mossello, Enrico; Zanieri, Samanta; Marchionni, Niccolò; Di Bari, Mauro

2013-07-01

Dual task paradigm states that the introduction of a second task during a cognitive or motor performance results in a decreased performance in either task. Treadmill walk, often used in clinical applications of dual task testing, has never been compared to overground walk, to ascertain its susceptibility to interference from a second task. We compared the effects of overground and treadmill gait on dual task performance. Gait kinematic parameters and cognitive performance were obtained in 29 healthy older adults (mean age 75 years, 14 females) when they were walking freely on a sensorized carpet or during treadmill walking with an optoelectronic system, in single task or dual task conditions, using alternate repetition of letters as a cognitive verbal task. During overground walking, speed, cadence, step length stride length, and double support time (all with P value<0.001) and cognitive performance (number of correct words, P<0.001) decreased substantially from single to dual task testing. When subjects walked at a fixed speed on the treadmill, cadence decreased significantly (P=0.005), whereas cognitive performance remained unaffected. Both motor and cognitive performances decline during dual task testing with overground walking. Conversely, cognitive performance remains unaffected in dual task testing on the treadmill. In the light of current dual task paradigm, these findings may have relevant implication for our understanding of motor control, as they suggest that treadmill walk does not involve brain areas susceptible to interference from the introduction of a cognitive task. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Developmental Window into Trade-offs in Executive Function: The Case of Task Switching versus Response Inhibition in 6-year-olds

PubMed Central

Chatham, Christopher H.; Wiseheart, Melody; Munakata, Yuko

2014-01-01

Good executive function has been linked to many positive outcomes in academic performance, health, and social competence. However, some aspects of executive function may interfere with other cognitive processes. Childhood provides a unique test case for investigating such cognitive trade-offs, given the dramatic failures and developments observed during this period. For example, most children categorically switch or perseverate when asked to switch between rules on a card-sorting task. To test potential trade-offs with the development of task switching abilities, we compared 6-year-olds who switched versus perseverated in a card-sorting task on two aspects of inhibitory control: response inhibition (via a stop signal task) and interference control (via a Simon task). Across two studies, switchers showed worse response inhibition than perseverators, consistent with the idea of cognitive trade-offs; however, switchers showed better interference control than perseverators, consistent with prior work documenting benefits associated with the development of executive function. This pattern of positive and negative associations may reflect aspects of working memory (active maintenance of current goals, and clearing of prior goals) that help children focused on a single task-goal but hurt in situations with conflicting goals. Implications for understanding components of executive function and their relationships across development are discussed. PMID:24791710

Optimal Periodic Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Based on Weight Fusion in Cognitive Radio Networks

PubMed Central

Liu, Xin; Jia, Min; Gu, Xuemai; Tan, Xuezhi

2013-01-01

The performance of cooperative spectrum sensing in cognitive radio (CR) networks depends on the sensing mode, the sensing time and the number of cooperative users. In order to improve the sensing performance and reduce the interference to the primary user (PU), a periodic cooperative spectrum sensing model based on weight fusion is proposed in this paper. Moreover, the sensing period, the sensing time and the searching time are optimized, respectively. Firstly the sensing period is optimized to improve the spectrum utilization and reduce the interference, then the joint optimization algorithm of the local sensing time and the number of cooperative users, is proposed to obtain the optimal sensing time for improving the throughput of the cognitive radio user (CRU) during each period, and finally the water-filling principle is applied to optimize the searching time in order to make the CRU find an idle channel within the shortest time. The simulation results show that compared with the previous algorithms, the optimal sensing period can improve the spectrum utilization of the CRU and decrease the interference to the PU significantly, the optimal sensing time can make the CRU achieve the largest throughput, and the optimal searching time can make the CRU find an idle channel with the least time. PMID:23604027

Lesions to the left lateral prefrontal cortex impair decision threshold adjustment for lexical selection.

PubMed

Anders, Royce; Riès, Stéphanie; Van Maanen, Leendert; Alario, F-Xavier

Patients with lesions in the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) have been shown to be impaired in lexical selection, especially when interference between semantically related alternatives is increased. To more deeply investigate which computational mechanisms may be impaired following left PFC damage due to stroke, a psychometric modelling approach is employed in which we assess the cognitive parameters of the patients from an evidence accumulation (sequential information sampling) modelling of their response data. We also compare the results to healthy speakers. Analysis of the cognitive parameters indicates an impairment of the PFC patients to appropriately adjust their decision threshold, in order to handle the increased item difficulty that is introduced by semantic interference. Also, the modelling contributes to other topics in psycholinguistic theory, in which specific effects are observed on the cognitive parameters according to item familiarization, and the opposing effects of priming (lower threshold) and semantic interference (lower drift) which are found to depend on repetition. These results are developed for the blocked-cyclic picture naming paradigm, in which pictures are presented within semantically homogeneous (HOM) or heterogeneous (HET) blocks, and are repeated several times per block. Overall, the results are in agreement with a role of the left PFC in adjusting the decision threshold for lexical selection in language production.

Functional connections between activated and deactivated brain regions mediate emotional interference during externally directed cognition.

PubMed

Di Plinio, Simone; Ferri, Francesca; Marzetti, Laura; Romani, Gian Luca; Northoff, Georg; Pizzella, Vittorio

2018-04-24

Recent evidence shows that task-deactivations are functionally relevant for cognitive performance. Indeed, higher cognitive engagement has been associated with higher suppression of activity in task-deactivated brain regions - usually ascribed to the Default Mode Network (DMN). Moreover, a negative correlation between these regions and areas actively engaged by the task is associated with better performance. DMN regions show positive modulation during autobiographical, social, and emotional tasks. However, it is not clear how processing of emotional stimuli affects the interplay between the DMN and executive brain regions. We studied this interplay in an fMRI experiment using emotional negative stimuli as distractors. Activity modulations induced by the emotional interference of negative stimuli were found in frontal, parietal, and visual areas, and were associated with modulations of functional connectivity between these task-activated areas and DMN regions. A worse performance was predicted both by lower activity in the superior parietal cortex and higher connectivity between visual areas and frontal DMN regions. Connectivity between right inferior frontal gyrus and several DMN regions in the left hemisphere was related to the behavioral performance. This relation was weaker in the negative than in the neutral condition, likely suggesting less functional inhibitions of DMN regions during emotional processing. These results show that both executive and DMN regions are crucial for the emotional interference process and suggest that DMN connections are related to the interplay between externally-directed and internally-focused processes. Among DMN regions, superior frontal gyrus may be a key node in regulating the interference triggered by emotional stimuli. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Auditory working memory impairments in individuals at familial high risk for schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Seidman, Larry J.; Meyer, Eric C.; Giuliano, Anthony J.; Breiter, Hans C.; Goldstein, Jill M.; Kremen, William S.; Thermenos, Heidi W.; Toomey, Rosemary; Stone, William S.; Tsuang, Ming T.; Faraone, Stephen V.

2012-01-01

Objectives The search for predictors of schizophrenia has accelerated with a growing focus on early intervention and prevention of psychotic illness. Studying nonpsychotic relatives of individuals with schizophrenia enables identification of markers of vulnerability for the illness independent of confounds associated with psychosis. The goal of these studies was to develop new auditory continuous performance tests (ACPTs) and evaluate their effects in individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives. Methods We carried out two studies of auditory vigilance with tasks involving working memory (WM) and interference control with increasing levels of cognitive load to discern the information processing vulnerabilities in a sample of schizophrenia patients, and two samples of nonpsychotic relatives of individuals with schizophrenia and controls. Study 1 assessed adults (mean age = 41), and Study 2 assessed teenagers and young adults age 13-25 (mean =19). Results Patients with schizophrenia were impaired on all five versions of the ACPTs, while relatives were impaired only on WM tasks, particularly the two interference tasks that maximize cognitive load. Across all groups, the interference tasks were more difficult to perform than the other tasks. Schizophrenia patients performed worse than relatives who performed worse than controls. For patients, the effect sizes were large (Cohen’s d =1.5), whereas for relatives, they were moderate (d = ~0.40-0.50). There was no age by group interaction in the relatives –control comparison except for participants <31 years of age. Conclusions Novel WM tasks that manipulate cognitive load and interference control index an important component of the vulnerability to schizophrenia. PMID:22563872

[Cognitive experimental approach to anxiety disorders].

PubMed

Azaïs, F

1995-01-01

Cognitive psychology is proposing a functional model to explain the mental organisation leading to emotional disorders. Among these disorders, anxiety spectrum represents a domain in which this model seems to be interesting for an efficient and comprehensive approach of the pathology. Number of behavioral or cognitive psychotherapeutic methods are relating to these cognitive references, but the theorical concepts of cognitive "shemata" or cognitive "processes" evoked to describe mental functioning in anxiety need an experimental approach for a better rational understanding. Cognitive function as perception, attention or memory can be explored in this domaine in an efficient way, allowing a more precise study of each stage of information processing. The cognitive model proposed in the psychopathology of anxiety suggests that anxious subjects are characterized by biases in processing of emotionally valenced information. This hypothesis suggests functional interference in information processing in these subjects, leading to an anxious response to the most of different stimuli. Experimental approach permit to explore this hypothesis, using many tasks for testing different cognitive dysfunction evoked in the anxious cognitive organisation. Impairments revealed in anxiety disorders seem to result from specific biases in threat-related information processing, involving several stages of cognitive processes. Semantic interference, attentional bias, implicit memory bias and priming effect are the most often disorders observed in anxious pathology, like simple phobia, generalised anxiety, panic disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. These results suggest a top-down organisation of information processing in anxious subjects, who tend to detect, perceive and label many situations as threatening experience. The processes of reasoning and elaboration are consequently impaired in their adaptative function to threat, leading to the anxious response observed in clinical condition. The cognitive, behavioral and emotional components of this anxious reaction maintain the stressful experience for the subject, in which the self cognitive competence remain pathologically decreased. Cognitive psychology proposes an interesting model for the understanding of anxiety, in a domain in which subjectivity could benefit from an experimental approach.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

An evaluation of deficits in semantic cueing and proactive and retroactive interference as early features of Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Crocco, Elizabeth; Curiel, Rosie E; Acevedo, Amarilis; Czaja, Sara J; Loewenstein, David A

2014-09-01

To determine the degree to which susceptibility to different types of semantic interference may reflect the initial manifestations of early Alzheimer's disease (AD) beyond the effects of global memory impairment. Normal elderly (NE) subjects (n = 47), subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI; n = 34), and subjects with probable AD (n = 40) were evaluated by using a unique cued recall paradigm that allowed for evaluation of both proactive and retroactive interference effects while controlling for global memory impairment (i.e., Loewenstein-Acevedo Scales of Semantic Interference and Learning [LASSI-L] procedure). Controlling for overall memory impairment, aMCI subjects had much greater proactive and retroactive interference effects than NE subjects. LASSI-L indices of learning by using cued recall revealed high levels of sensitivity and specificity, with an overall correct classification rate of 90%. These measures provided better discrimination than traditional neuropsychological measures of memory function. The LASSI-L paradigm is unique and unlike other assessments of memory in that items posed for cued recall are explicitly presented, and semantic interference and cueing effects can be assessed while controlling for initial level of memory impairment. This is a powerful procedure that allows the participant to serve as his or her own control. The high levels of discrimination between subjects with aMCI and normal cognition that exceeded traditional neuropsychological measures makes the LASSI-L worthy of further research in the detection of early AD. Copyright © 2014 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Negative Priming Effect after Inhibition of Weight/Number Interference in a Piaget-Like Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schirlin, Olivier; Houde, Olivier

2007-01-01

Piagetian tasks have more to do with the child's ability to inhibit interference than they do with the ability to grasp their underlying logic. Here we used a chronometric paradigm with 11-year-olds, who succeed in Piaget's conservation-of-weight task, to test the role of cognitive inhibition in a priming version of this classical task. The…

The external-internal loop of interference: two types of attention and their influence on the learning abilities of mice.

PubMed

Sauce, Bruno; Wass, Christopher; Smith, Andrew; Kwan, Stephanie; Matzel, Louis D

2014-12-01

Attention is a component of the working memory system, and is responsible for protecting task-relevant information from interference. Cognitive performance (particularly outside of the laboratory) is often plagued by interference, and the source of this interference, either external or internal, might influence the expression of individual differences in attentional ability. By definition, external attention (also described as "selective attention") protects working memory against sensorial distractors of all kinds, while internal attention (also called "inhibition") protects working memory against emotional impulses, irrelevant information from memory, and automatically-generated responses. At present, it is unclear if these two types of attention are expressed independently in non-human animals, and how they might differentially impact performance on other cognitive processes, such as learning. By using a diverse battery of four attention tests (with varying levels of internal and external sources of interference), here we aimed both to explore this issue, and to obtain a robust and general (less task-specific) measure of attention in mice. Exploratory factor analyses revealed two factors (external and internal attention) that in total, accounted for 73% of the variance in attentional performance. Confirmatory factor analyses found an excellent fit with the data of the model of attention that assumed an external and internal distinction (with a resulting correlation of 0.43). In contrast, a model of attention that assumed one source of variance (i.e., "general attention") exhibited a poor fit with the data. Regarding the relationship between attention and learning, higher resistance against external sources of interference promoted better new learning, but tended to impair performance when cognitive flexibility was required, such as during the reversal of a previously instantiated response. The present results suggest that there can be (at least) two types of attention that contribute to the common variance in attentional performance in mice, and that external and internal attentions might have opposing influences on the rate at which animals learn. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effects of single bouts of aerobic exercise, exergaming, and videogame play on cognitive control.

PubMed

O'Leary, Kevin C; Pontifex, Matthew B; Scudder, Mark R; Brown, Michael L; Hillman, Charles H

2011-08-01

The effects of single bouts of aerobic exercise, exergaming, and action videogame play on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and task performance indices of cognitive control were investigated using a modified flanker task that manipulated demands of attentional inhibition. Participants completed four counterbalanced sessions of 20 min of activity intervention (i.e., seated rest, seated videogame play, and treadmill-based and exergame-based aerobic exercise at 60% HR(max)) followed by cognitive testing once heart rate (HR) returned to within 10% of pre-activity levels. Results indicated decreased RT interference following treadmill exercise relative to seated rest and videogame play. P3 amplitude was increased following treadmill exercise relative to rest, suggesting an increased allocation of attentional resources during stimulus engagement. The seated videogame and exergame conditions did not differ from any other condition. The findings indicate that single bouts of treadmill exercise may improve cognitive control through an increase in the allocation of attentional resources and greater interference control during cognitively demanding tasks. However, similar benefits may not be derived following short bouts of aerobic exergaming or seated videogame participation. Although exergames may increase physical activity participation, they may not exert the same benefits to brain and cognition as more traditional physical activity behaviors. Copyright © 2011 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of Working Memory Load on Cognitive Control in Trait Anxiety: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Qi, Senqing; Zeng, Qinghong; Luo, Yangmei; Duan, Haijun; Ding, Cody; Hu, Weiping; Li, Hong

2014-01-01

Whether trait anxiety is associated with a general impairment of cognitive control is a matter of debate. This study investigated whether and how experimentally manipulated working memory (WM) load modulates the relation between trait anxiety and cognitive control. This question was investigated using a dual-task design in combination with event-related potentials. Participants were required to remember either one (low WM load) or six letters (high WM load) while performing a flanker task. Our results showed that a high WM load disrupted participants' ability to overcome distractor interference and this effect was exacerbated for the high trait-anxious (HTA) group. This exacerbation was reflected by larger interference effects (i.e., incongruent minus congruent) on reaction times (RTs) and N2 amplitudes for the HTA group than for the low trait-anxious group under high WM load. The two groups, however, did not differ in their ability to inhibit task-irrelevant distractors under low WM load, as indicated by both RTs and N2 amplitudes. These findings underscore the significance of WM-related cognitive demand in contributing to the presence (or absence) of a general cognitive control deficit in trait anxiety. Furthermore, our findings show that when limited WM resources are depleted by high WM load, HTA individuals exhibit less efficient recruitments of cognitive control required for the inhibition of distractors, therefore resulting in a greater degree of response conflict. PMID:25369121

Impact of working memory load on cognitive control in trait anxiety: an ERP study.

PubMed

Qi, Senqing; Zeng, Qinghong; Luo, Yangmei; Duan, Haijun; Ding, Cody; Hu, Weiping; Li, Hong

2014-01-01

Whether trait anxiety is associated with a general impairment of cognitive control is a matter of debate. This study investigated whether and how experimentally manipulated working memory (WM) load modulates the relation between trait anxiety and cognitive control. This question was investigated using a dual-task design in combination with event-related potentials. Participants were required to remember either one (low WM load) or six letters (high WM load) while performing a flanker task. Our results showed that a high WM load disrupted participants' ability to overcome distractor interference and this effect was exacerbated for the high trait-anxious (HTA) group. This exacerbation was reflected by larger interference effects (i.e., incongruent minus congruent) on reaction times (RTs) and N2 amplitudes for the HTA group than for the low trait-anxious group under high WM load. The two groups, however, did not differ in their ability to inhibit task-irrelevant distractors under low WM load, as indicated by both RTs and N2 amplitudes. These findings underscore the significance of WM-related cognitive demand in contributing to the presence (or absence) of a general cognitive control deficit in trait anxiety. Furthermore, our findings show that when limited WM resources are depleted by high WM load, HTA individuals exhibit less efficient recruitments of cognitive control required for the inhibition of distractors, therefore resulting in a greater degree of response conflict.

A cognitive dual task affects gait variability in patients suffering from chronic low back pain.

PubMed

Hamacher, Dennis; Hamacher, Daniel; Schega, Lutz

2014-11-01

Chronic pain and gait variability in a dual-task situation are both associated with higher risk of falling. Executive functions regulate (dual-task) gait variability. A possible cause explaining why chronic pain increases risk of falling in an everyday dual-task situation might be that pain interferes with executive functions and results in a diminished dual-task capability with performance decrements on the secondary task. The main goal of this experiment was to evaluate the specific effects of a cognitive dual task on gait variability in chronic low back pain (CLBP) patients. Twelve healthy participants and twelve patients suffering from CLBP were included. The subjects were asked to perform a cognitive single task, a walking single task and a motor-cognitive dual task. Stride variability of trunk movements was calculated. A two-way ANOVA was performed to compare single-task walking with dual-task walking and the single cognitive task performance with the motor-cognitive dual-task performance. We did not find any differences in both of the single-task performances between groups. However, regarding single-task walking and dual-task walking, we observed an interaction effect indicating that low back pain patients show significantly higher gait variability in the dual-task condition as compared to controls. Our data suggest that chronic pain reduces motor-cognitive dual-task performance capability. We postulate that the detrimental effects are caused by central mechanisms where pain interferes with executive functions which, in turn, might contribute to increased risk of falling.

On the Flexibility of Grammatical Advance Planning during Sentence Production: Effects of Cognitive Load on Multiple Lexical Access

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Valentin; Jescheniak, Jorg D.; Schriefers, Herbert

2010-01-01

Three picture-word interference experiments addressed the question of whether the scope of grammatical advance planning in sentence production corresponds to some fixed unit or rather is flexible. Subjects produced sentences of different formats under varying amounts of cognitive load. When speakers described 2-object displays with simple…

Cognitive Ability and Personality Variables as Predictors of School Grades and Test Scores in Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hofer, Manfred; Kuhnle, Claudia; Kilian, Britta; Fries, Stefan

2012-01-01

The predictive power of cognitive ability and self-control strength for self-reported grades and an achievement test were studied. It was expected that the variables use of time structure, academic procrastination, and motivational interference during learning further aid in predicting students' achievement because they are operative in situations…

Regulation of Brain Activity in the Fusiform Face and Parahippocampal Place Areas in 7-11-Year-Old Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vuontela, Virve; Jiang, Ping; Tokariev, Maksym; Savolainen, Petri; Ma, YuanYe; Aronen, Eeva T.; Fontell, Tuija; Liiri, Tiina; Ahlstrom, Matti; Salonen, Oili; Carlson, Synnove

2013-01-01

Developmental studies have demonstrated that cognitive processes such as attention, suppression of interference and memory develop throughout childhood and adolescence. However, little is currently known about the development of top-down control mechanisms and their influence on cognitive performance. In the present study, we used functional…

SimulatorToFMU v0.1

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nouidui, Thierry; Wetter, Michael

SimulatorToFMU is a software package written in Python which allows users to export a memoryless Python-driven simulation program or script as a Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU) for model exchange or co-simulation.In CyDER (Cyber Physical Co-simulation Platform for Distributed Energy Resources in Smart Grids), SimulatorToFMU will allow exporting OPAL-RT as an FMU. This will enable OPAL-RT to be linked to CYMDIST and GridDyn FMUs through a standardized open source interface.

Syndrome source coding and its universal generalization

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ancheta, T. C., Jr.

1975-01-01

A method of using error-correcting codes to obtain data compression, called syndrome-source-coding, is described in which the source sequence is treated as an error pattern whose syndrome forms the compressed data. It is shown that syndrome-source-coding can achieve arbitrarily small distortion with the number of compressed digits per source digit arbitrarily close to the entropy of a binary memoryless source. A universal generalization of syndrome-source-coding is formulated which provides robustly-effective, distortionless, coding of source ensembles.

Direct and reverse secret-key capacities of a quantum channel.

PubMed

Pirandola, Stefano; García-Patrón, Raul; Braunstein, Samuel L; Lloyd, Seth

2009-02-06

We define the direct and reverse secret-key capacities of a memoryless quantum channel as the optimal rates that entanglement-based quantum-key-distribution protocols can reach by using a single forward classical communication (direct reconciliation) or a single feedback classical communication (reverse reconciliation). In particular, the reverse secret-key capacity can be positive for antidegradable channels, where no forward strategy is known to be secure. This property is explicitly shown in the continuous variable framework by considering arbitrary one-mode Gaussian channels.

The effects of methylphenidate and propranolol on the interplay between induced-anxiety and working memory

PubMed Central

Ernst, Monique; Lago, Tiffany; Davis, Andrew; Grillon, Christian

2016-01-01

Rationale Research documents a reciprocal impact of anxiety on working memory (WM), although its strength and direction depend on factors like task difficulty. A better understanding of these factors may generate insights into cognitive mechanisms of action involved in anxiety, culminating into treatment implications. By blocking the physiological effects of anxiety, propranolol might also block anxiety interference on WM. Conversely, by improving task-directed attention, methylphenidate might reduce anxiety, or, alternatively, by improving cognitive efficiency and free up processing resources to compute anxiety. Objectives To investigate the interplay between induced anxiety and WM, we pharmacologically manipulated either anxiety or cognition, using single doses of 40 mg propranolol (PRO), 20 mg methylphenidate (MPH), or placebo (PLA). In this double-blind parallel-group design study, 60 healthy volunteers (20/drug group) performed a verbal WM task under three loads, 1-, 2- and 3-back, and in two conditions, threat of shock and safety. Startle electromyography (EMG) was used to measure anxiety. Results Findings were twofold: (1) MPH blocked anxiety interference only on the 3-back WM performance, while PRO or PLA had no effects on anxiety-WM interference, and (2) drugs had no effects on anxiety, but, after controlling for baseline anxiety, MPH enhanced anxiety-potentiated startle during the 3-back task. Conclusions These findings support that MPH-related improvement of cognitive efficiency permits anxiety to be processed and expressed. In conclusion, MPH may be a useful tool to investigate the mechanisms of interaction between anxiety and WM, particularly those under catecholaminergic control. PMID:27492789

The effects of methylphenidate and propranolol on the interplay between induced-anxiety and working memory.

PubMed

Ernst, Monique; Lago, Tiffany; Davis, Andrew; Grillon, Christian

2016-10-01

Research documents a reciprocal impact of anxiety on working memory (WM), although its strength and direction depend on factors like task difficulty. A better understanding of these factors may generate insights into cognitive mechanisms of action involved in anxiety, culminating into treatment implications. By blocking the physiological effects of anxiety, propranolol might also block anxiety interference on WM. Conversely, by improving task-directed attention, methylphenidate might reduce anxiety, or, alternatively, by improving cognitive efficiency and free up processing resources to compute anxiety. To investigate the interplay between induced anxiety and WM, we pharmacologically manipulated either anxiety or cognition, using single doses of 40 mg propranolol (PRO), 20 mg methylphenidate (MPH), or placebo (PLA). In this double-blind parallel-group design study, 60 healthy volunteers (20/drug group) performed a verbal WM task under three loads, 1-, 2- and 3-back, and in two conditions, threat of shock and safety. Startle electromyography (EMG) was used to measure anxiety. Findings were twofold: (1) MPH blocked anxiety interference only on the 3-back WM performance, while PRO or PLA had no effects on anxiety-WM interference, and (2) drugs had no effects on anxiety, but, after controlling for baseline anxiety, MPH enhanced anxiety-potentiated startle during the 3-back task. These findings support that MPH-related improvement of cognitive efficiency permits anxiety to be processed and expressed. In conclusion, MPH may be a useful tool to investigate the mechanisms of interaction between anxiety and WM, particularly those under catecholaminergic control.

The mediating role of pain acceptance during mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for headache.

PubMed

Day, Melissa A; Thorn, Beverly E

2016-04-01

This study aimed to determine if mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) engenders improvement in headache outcomes via the mechanisms specified by theory: (1) change in psychological process, (i.e., pain acceptance); and concurrently (2) change in cognitive content, (i.e., pain catastrophizing; headache management self-efficacy). A secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial comparing MBCT to a medical treatment as usual, delayed treatment (DT) control was conducted. Participants were individuals with headache pain who completed MBCT or DT (N=24) at the Kilgo Headache Clinic or psychology clinic. Standardized measures of the primary outcome (pain interference) and proposed mediators were administered at pre- and post-treatment; change scores were calculated. Bootstrap mediation models were conducted. Pain acceptance emerged as a significant mediator of the group-interference relation (p<.05). Mediation models examining acceptance subscales showed nuances in this effect, with activity engagement emerging as a significant mediator (p<.05), but pain willingness not meeting criteria for mediation due to a non-significant pathway from the mediator to outcome. Criteria for mediation was also not met for the catastrophizing or self-efficacy models as neither of these variables significantly predicted pain interference. Pain acceptance, and specifically engagement in valued activities despite pain, may be a key mechanism underlying improvement in pain outcome during a MBCT for headache pain intervention. The theorized mediating role of cognitive content factors was not supported in this preliminary study. A large, definitive trial is warranted to replicate and extend the findings in order to streamline and optimize MBCT for headache. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new cognitive rehabilitation programme for patients with multiple sclerosis: the 'MS-line! Project'.

PubMed

Gich, Jordi; Freixenet, Jordi; Garcia, Rafael; Vilanova, Joan Carles; Genís, David; Silva, Yolanda; Montalban, Xavier; Ramió-Torrentà, Lluís

2015-09-01

Cognitive rehabilitation is often delayed in multiple sclerosis (MS). To develop a free and specific cognitive rehabilitation programme for MS patients to be used from early stages that does not interfere with daily living activities. MS-line!, cognitive rehabilitation materials consisting of written, manipulative and computer-based materials with difficulty levels developed by a multidisciplinary team. Mathematical, problem-solving and word-based exercises were designed. Physical materials included spatial, coordination and reasoning games. Computer-based material included logic and reasoning, working memory and processing speed games. Cognitive rehabilitation exercises that are specific for MS patients have been successfully developed. © The Author(s), 2014.

Dissociating interference-control processes between memory and response.

PubMed

Bissett, Patrick G; Nee, Derek Evan; Jonides, John

2009-09-01

The ability to mitigate interference is of central importance to cognition. Previous research has provided conflicting accounts about whether operations that resolve interference are singular in character or form a family of functions. Here, the authors examined the relationship between interference-resolution processes acting on working memory representations versus responses. The authors combined multiple forms of interference into a single paradigm by merging a directed-forgetting task, which induces proactive interference, with a stop-signal task, which taps response inhibition processes. The results demonstrated that proactive interference and response inhibition produced distinct behavioral signatures that did not interact. By contrast, combining two different measures of response inhibition by merging a go/no-go task variant and a stop signal produced overadditive behavioral interference, demonstrating that different forms of response inhibition tap the same processes. However, not all forms of response conflict interacted, suggesting that inhibition-related functions acting on response selection are dissociable from those acting on response inhibition. These results suggest that inhibition-related functions for memory and responses are dissociable. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Bilingualism Enriches the Poor: Enhanced Cognitive Control in Low-Income Minority Children

PubMed Central

Engel de Abreu, Pascale M. J.; Cruz-Santos, Anabela; Tourinho, Carlos J.; Martin, Romain; Bialystok, Ellen

2014-01-01

This study explores whether the cognitive advantage associated with bilingualism in executive functioning extends to young immigrant children challenged by poverty and, if it does, which specific processes are most affected. In the study reported here, 40 Portuguese-Luxembourgish bilingual children from low-income immigrant families in Luxembourg and 40 matched monolingual children from Portugal completed visuospatial tests of working memory, abstract reasoning, selective attention, and interference suppression. Two broad cognitive factors of executive functioning—representation (abstract reasoning and working memory) and control (selective attention and interference suppression)—emerged from principal component analysis. Whereas there were no group differences in representation, the bilinguals performed significantly better than did the monolinguals in control. These results demonstrate, first, that the bilingual advantage is neither confounded with nor limited by socioeconomic and cultural factors and, second, that separable aspects of executive functioning are differentially affected by bilingualism. The bilingual advantage lies in control but not in visuospatial representational processes. PMID:23044796

Two languages, two minds: flexible cognitive processing driven by language of operation.

PubMed

Athanasopoulos, Panos; Bylund, Emanuel; Montero-Melis, Guillermo; Damjanovic, Ljubica; Schartner, Alina; Kibbe, Alexandra; Riches, Nick; Thierry, Guillaume

2015-04-01

People make sense of objects and events around them by classifying them into identifiable categories. The extent to which language affects this process has been the focus of a long-standing debate: Do different languages cause their speakers to behave differently? Here, we show that fluent German-English bilinguals categorize motion events according to the grammatical constraints of the language in which they operate. First, as predicted from cross-linguistic differences in motion encoding, bilingual participants functioning in a German testing context prefer to match events on the basis of motion completion to a greater extent than do bilingual participants in an English context. Second, when bilingual participants experience verbal interference in English, their categorization behavior is congruent with that predicted for German; when bilingual participants experience verbal interference in German, their categorization becomes congruent with that predicted for English. These findings show that language effects on cognition are context-bound and transient, revealing unprecedented levels of malleability in human cognition. © The Author(s) 2015.

Spectrum and power allocation in cognitive multi-beam satellite communications with flexible satellite payloads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zhihui; Wang, Haitao; Dong, Tao; Yin, Jie; Zhang, Tingting; Guo, Hui; Li, Dequan

2018-02-01

In this paper, the cognitive multi-beam satellite system, i.e., two satellite networks coexist through underlay spectrum sharing, is studied, and the power and spectrum allocation method is employed for interference control and throughput maximization. Specifically, the multi-beam satellite with flexible payload reuses the authorized spectrum of the primary satellite, adjusting its transmission band as well as power for each beam to limit its interference on the primary satellite below the prescribed threshold and maximize its own achievable rate. This power and spectrum allocation problem is formulated as a mixed nonconvex programming. For effective solving, we first introduce the concept of signal to leakage plus noise ratio (SLNR) to decouple multiple transmit power variables in the both objective and constraint, and then propose a heuristic algorithm to assign spectrum sub-bands. After that, a stepwise plus slice-wise algorithm is proposed to implement the discrete power allocation. Finally, simulation results show that adopting cognitive technology can improve spectrum efficiency of the satellite communication.

A QoS Optimization Approach in Cognitive Body Area Networks for Healthcare Applications.

PubMed

Ahmed, Tauseef; Le Moullec, Yannick

2017-04-06

Wireless body area networks are increasingly featuring cognitive capabilities. This work deals with the emerging concept of cognitive body area networks. In particular, the paper addresses two important issues, namely spectrum sharing and interferences. We propose methods for channel and power allocation. The former builds upon a reinforcement learning mechanism, whereas the latter is based on convex optimization. Furthermore, we also propose a mathematical channel model for off-body communication links in line with the IEEE 802.15.6 standard. Simulation results for a nursing home scenario show that the proposed approach yields the best performance in terms of throughput and QoS for dynamic environments. For example, in a highly demanding scenario our approach can provide throughput up to 7 Mbps, while giving an average of 97.2% of time QoS satisfaction in terms of throughput. Simulation results also show that the power optimization algorithm enables reducing transmission power by approximately 4.5 dBm, thereby sensibly and significantly reducing interference.

The costs of changing an intended action: movement planning, but not execution, interferes with verbal working memory.

PubMed

Spiegel, M A; Koester, D; Weigelt, M; Schack, T

2012-02-16

How much cognitive effort does it take to change a movement plan? In previous studies, it has been shown that humans plan and represent actions in advance, but it remains unclear whether or not action planning and verbal working memory share cognitive resources. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we combined in two experiments a grasp-to-place task with a verbal working memory task. Participants planned a placing movement toward one of two target positions and subsequently encoded and maintained visually presented letters. Both experiments revealed that re-planning the intended action reduced letter recall performance; execution time, however, was not influenced by action modifications. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that the action's interference with verbal working memory arose during the planning rather than the execution phase of the movement. Together, our results strongly suggest that movement planning and verbal working memory share common cognitive resources. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computerised training improves cognitive performance in chronic pain: a participant-blinded randomised active-controlled trial with remote supervision.

PubMed

Baker, Katharine S; Georgiou-Karistianis, Nellie; Lampit, Amit; Valenzuela, Michael; Gibson, Stephen J; Giummarra, Melita J

2018-04-01

Chronic pain is associated with reduced efficiency of cognitive performance, and few studies have investigated methods of remediation. We trialled a computerised cognitive training protocol to determine whether it could attenuate cognitive difficulties in a chronic pain sample. Thirty-nine adults with chronic pain (mean age = 43.3, 61.5% females) were randomised to an 8-week online course (3 sessions/week from home) of game-like cognitive training exercises, or an active control involving watching documentary videos. Participants received weekly supervision by video call. Primary outcomes were a global neurocognitive composite (tests of attention, speed, and executive function) and self-reported cognition. Secondary outcomes were pain (intensity; interference), mood symptoms (depression; anxiety), and coping with pain (catastrophising; self-efficacy). Thirty participants (15 training and 15 control) completed the trial. Mixed model intention-to-treat analyses revealed significant effects of training on the global neurocognitive composite (net effect size [ES] = 0.43, P = 0.017), driven by improved executive function performance (attention switching and working memory). The control group reported improvement in pain intensity (net ES = 0.65, P = 0.022). Both groups reported subjective improvements in cognition (ES = 0.28, P = 0.033) and catastrophising (ES = 0.55, P = 0.006). Depression, anxiety, self-efficacy, and pain interference showed no change in either group. This study provides preliminary evidence that supervised cognitive training may be a viable method for enhancing cognitive skills in persons with chronic pain, but transfer to functional and clinical outcomes remains to be demonstrated. Active control results suggest that activities perceived as relaxing or enjoyable contribute to improved perception of well-being. Weekly contact was pivotal to successful program completion.

A double-slit experiment for non-classical interference effects in decision making.

PubMed

La Mura, Pierfrancesco

2014-01-01

We discuss the possible nature and role of non-physical entanglement, and the classical vs. non-classical interface, in models of human decision-making. We also introduce an experimental setting designed after the double-slit experiment in physics, and discuss how it could be used to discriminate between classical and non-classical interference effects in human decisions. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Stress and binge drinking: A toxic combination for the teenage brain.

PubMed

Goldstein, Aaron; Déry, Nicolas; Pilgrim, Malcolm; Ioan, Miruna; Becker, Suzanna

2016-09-01

Young adult university students frequently binge on alcohol and have high stress levels. Based on findings in rodents, we predicted that heavy current alcohol use and elevated stress and depression scores would be associated with deficits on high interference memory tasks, while early onset, prolonged binge patterns would lead to broader cognitive deficits on tests of associative encoding and executive functions. We developed the Concentration Memory Task, a novel computerized version of the Concentration card game with a high degree of interference. We found that young adults with elevated stress, depression, and alcohol consumption scores were impaired in the Concentration Memory Task. We also analyzed data from a previous study, and found that higher alcohol consumption scores were associated with impaired performance on another high interference memory task, based on Kirwan and Stark's Mnemonic Similarity Test. On the other hand, adolescent onset of binge drinking predicted poorer performance on broader range of memory tests, including a more systematic test of spatial recognition memory, and an associative learning task. Our results are broadly consistent with findings in rodents that acute alcohol and stress exposure suppress neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus, which in turn impairs performance in high interference memory tasks, while adolescent onset binge drinking causes more extensive brain damage and cognitive deficits. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Verbal Serial List Learning in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Profile Analysis of Interference, Forgetting, and Errors

PubMed Central

Libon, David J.; Bondi, Mark W.; Price, Catherine C.; Lamar, Melissa; Eppig, Joel; Wambach, Denene M.; Nieves, Christine; Delano-Wood, Lisa; Giovannetti, Tania; Lippa, Carol; Kabasakalian, Anahid; Cosentino, Stephanie; Swenson, Rod; Penney, Dana L.

2012-01-01

Using cluster analysis Libon et al. (2010) found three verbal serial list-learning profiles involving delay memory test performance in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Amnesic MCI (aMCI) patients presented with low scores on delay free recall and recognition tests; mixed MCI (mxMCI) patients scored higher on recognition compared to delay free recall tests; and dysexecutive MCI (dMCI) patients generated relatively intact scores on both delay test conditions. The aim of the current research was to further characterize memory impairment in MCI by examining forgetting/savings, interference from a competing word list, intrusion errors/perseverations, intrusion word frequency, and recognition foils in these three statistically determined MCI groups compared to normal control (NC) participants. The aMCI patients exhibited little savings, generated more highly prototypic intrusion errors, and displayed indiscriminate responding to delayed recognition foils. The mxMCI patients exhibited higher saving scores, fewer and less prototypic intrusion errors, and selectively endorsed recognition foils from the interference list. dMCI patients also selectively endorsed recognition foils from the interference list but performed similarly compared to NC participants. These data suggest the existence of distinct memory impairments in MCI and caution against the routine use of a single memory test score to operationally define MCI. PMID:21880171

Effects of nicotine on response inhibition and interference control.

PubMed

Ettinger, Ulrich; Faiola, Eliana; Kasparbauer, Anna-Maria; Petrovsky, Nadine; Chan, Raymond C K; Liepelt, Roman; Kumari, Veena

2017-04-01

Nicotine is a cholinergic agonist with known pro-cognitive effects in the domains of alerting and orienting attention. However, its effects on attentional top-down functions such as response inhibition and interference control are less well characterised. Here, we investigated the effects of 7 mg transdermal nicotine on performance on a battery of response inhibition and interference control tasks. A sample of N = 44 healthy adult non-smokers performed antisaccade, stop signal, Stroop, go/no-go, flanker, shape matching and Simon tasks, as well as the attentional network test (ANT) and a continuous performance task (CPT). Nicotine was administered in a within-subjects, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, with order of drug administration counterbalanced. Relative to placebo, nicotine led to significantly shorter reaction times on a prosaccade task and on CPT hits but did not significantly improve inhibitory or interference control performance on any task. Instead, nicotine had a negative influence in increasing the interference effect on the Simon task. Nicotine did not alter inter-individual associations between reaction times on congruent trials and error rates on incongruent trials on any task. Finally, there were effects involving order of drug administration, suggesting practice effects but also beneficial nicotine effects when the compound was administered first. Overall, our findings support previous studies showing positive effects of nicotine on basic attentional functions but do not provide direct evidence for an improvement of top-down cognitive control through acute administration of nicotine at this dose in healthy non-smokers.

The influence of training on the attentional blink and psychological refractory period.

PubMed

Garner, K G; Tombu, M N; Dux, P E

2014-05-01

A growing body of research suggests that dual-task interference in sensory consolidation (e.g., the attentional blink, AB) and response selection (e.g., the psychological refractory period, PRP) stems from a common central bottleneck of information processing. With regard to response selection, it is well known that training reduces dual-task interference. We tested whether training that is known to be effective for response selection can also reduce dual-task interference in sensory consolidation. Over two experiments, performance on a PRP paradigm (Exp. 1) and on AB paradigms (differing in their stimuli and task demands, Exps. 1 and 2) was examined after participants had completed a relevant training regimen (T1 practice for both paradigms), an irrelevant training regimen (comparable sensorimotor training, not related to T1 for both tasks), a visual-search training regimen (Exp. 2 only), or after participants had been allocated to a no-training control group. Training that had shown to be effective for reducing dual-task interference in response selection was also found to be effective for reducing interference in sensory consolidation. In addition, we found some evidence that training benefits transferred to the sensory consolidation of untrained stimuli. Collectively, these findings show that training benefits can transfer across cognitive operations that draw on the central bottleneck in information processing. These findings have implications for theories of the AB and for the design of cognitive-training regimens that aim to produce transferable training benefits.

Comparison of cognitive functions between male and female medical students: a pilot study.

PubMed

Upadhayay, Namrata; Guragain, Sanjeev

2014-06-01

There are gender differences in cognitive abilities. The major enigma is whether males or females perform better in various cognitive tasks. The reports were found to be contradictory. Studies have shown that oestrogen and testosterone accentuate cognitive functions. But the effects of progesterone on cognitive functions are still contradictory. To assess and compare the cognitive functions between male and female students. This study was conducted on healthy male (n=21) and female (n=21) volunteers who were aged between 19-37 years. Cognitive functions which were assessed in males (one time) and females (two times: during preovulatory and postovulatory phases of the menstrual cycle) were attentional: visual reaction time (VRT) and Go/No-Go VRT; perceptual: fast counting (FC), executive: Erisken Flanker Test (EFT) and Stroop Test (ST), and working memory. Data were compared by using Mann-Whitney U-test. Cognitive functions in female preovulatory phase were comparable to male cognitive functions. In addition, the female postovulatory phase cognitive functions were also similar to those of males in all the tasks, except those seen in VRT and ST. Male performed better than females in VRT (M: 331.66 ms, IQR: 286.99-375.33 vs. M: 367.8 ms, IQR: 340.66-435.66; p=0.05). However, in ST, females showed higher accuracies in reading colour interferences than males (M: 100%, IQR: 95.12-100 vs. M: 95.24%, IQR: 86.36-100; p=0.04). In addition, males showed trend of a poorer performance than females in Go/No-Go VRT, ST colour reading normal time and interference time and in working-memory time. Male cognitive functions were comparable to female preovulatory phase cognitive functions. However, females, during postovulatory phase of their cycle, may have advantages in executive tasks (Stroop test) and disadvantages in attentional tasks (VRT), as compared to males.

Carving Executive Control At Its Joints: Working Memory Capacity Predicts Stimulus-Stimulus, But Not Stimulus-Response, Conflict

PubMed Central

Meier, Matt E.; Kane, Michael J.

2015-01-01

Three experiments examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and two different forms of cognitive conflict: stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (SR) interference. Our goal was to test whether WMC’s relation to conflict-task performance is mediated by stimulus-identification processes (captured by S-S conflict), response-selection processes (captured by S-R conflict), or both. In Experiment 1, subjects completed a single task presenting both S-S and S-R conflict trials, plus trials that combined the two conflict types. We limited ostensible goal-maintenance contributions to performance by requiring the same goal for all trial types and by presenting frequent conflict trials that reinforced the goal. WMC predicted resolution of S-S conflict as expected: Higher-WMC subjects showed reduced response time interference. Although WMC also predicted S-R interference, here, higher-WMC subjects showed increased error interference. Experiment 2A replicated these results in a version of the conflict task without combined S-S/S-R trials. Experiment 2B increased the proportion of congruent (non-conflict) trials to promote reliance on goal-maintenance processes. Here, higher-WMC subjects resolved both S-S and S-R conflict more successfully than did lower-WMC subjects. The results were consistent with Kane and Engle’s (2003) two-factor theory of cognitive control, according to which WMC predicts executive-task performance through goal-maintenance and conflict-resolution processes. However, the present results add specificity to the account by suggesting that higher-WMC subjects better resolve cognitive conflict because they more efficiently select relevant stimulus features against irrelevant, distracting ones. PMID:26120774

Carving executive control at its joints: Working memory capacity predicts stimulus-stimulus, but not stimulus-response, conflict.

PubMed

Meier, Matt E; Kane, Michael J

2015-11-01

Three experiments examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and 2 different forms of cognitive conflict: stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) interference. Our goal was to test whether WMC's relation to conflict-task performance is mediated by stimulus-identification processes (captured by S-S conflict), response-selection processes (captured by S-R conflict), or both. In Experiment 1, subjects completed a single task presenting both S-S and S-R conflict trials, plus trials that combined the 2 conflict types. We limited ostensible goal-maintenance contributions to performance by requiring the same goal for all trial types and by presenting frequent conflict trials that reinforced the goal. WMC predicted resolution of S-S conflict as expected: Higher WMC subjects showed reduced response time interference. Although WMC also predicted S-R interference, here, higher WMC subjects showed increased error interference. Experiment 2A replicated these results in a version of the conflict task without combined S-S/S-R trials. Experiment 2B increased the proportion of congruent (nonconflict) trials to promote reliance on goal-maintenance processes. Here, higher WMC subjects resolved both S-S and S-R conflict more successfully than did lower WMC subjects. The results were consistent with Kane and Engle's (2003) 2-factor theory of cognitive control, according to which WMC predicts executive-task performance through goal-maintenance and conflict-resolution processes. However, the present results add specificity to the account by suggesting that higher WMC subjects better resolve cognitive conflict because they more efficiently select relevant stimulus features against irrelevant, distracting ones. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Specific Interference between a Cognitive Task and Sensory Organization for Stance Balance Control in Healthy Young Adults: Visuospatial Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chong, Raymond K. Y.; Mills, Bradley; Dailey, Leanna; Lane, Elizabeth; Smith, Sarah; Lee, Kyoung-Hyun

2010-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that a computational overload results when two activities, one motor and the other cognitive that draw on the same neural processing pathways, are performed concurrently. Healthy young adult subjects carried out two seemingly distinct tasks of maintaining standing balance control under conditions of low (eyes closed),…

A New Diagnostic Mechanism of Instruction: A Dynamic, Real-Time and Non-Interference Quantitative Measurement Technique for Adaptive E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Pi-Shan; Chang, Te-Jeng; Wu, Ming-Hsiung

2009-01-01

The level of learners' expertise has been used as a metric and diagnostic mechanism of instruction. This metric influences mental effort directly according to the applications of cognitive load theory. Cognitive efficiency, an optimal measurement technique of expertise, was developed by Kalyuga and Sweller to replace instructional efficiency in…

Mechanisms in Chronic Multisympton Illnesses

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-10-01

Fibro-fog While cognition appears to modulate the experience of pain, it is also likely that pain interferes with the ability to think and process...the ability of exercise and/or cognitive behavioral therapies to alter patients’ locus of control for pain, the neurobiological mechanism(s) of...evaluate the ability of different measures to predict group membership (symptomatic vs. asymptomatic). Two abstracts reflecting preliminary results

Exergaming immediately enhances children's executive function.

PubMed

Best, John R

2012-09-01

The current study examined an important aspect of experience--physical activity--that may contribute to children's executive function. The design attempted to tease apart 2 important aspects of children's exercise by examining the separate and combined effects of acute physical activity and cognitive engagement on an aspect of children's executive functioning. In a 2 × 2 within-subject experimental design, children (N = 33, 6 to 10 years old) completed activities that varied systematically in both physical activity (physically active video games versus sedentary video activities) and cognitive engagement (challenging and interactive video games versus repetitive video activities). Cognitive functioning, including executive function, was assessed after each activity by a modified flanker task (Rueda et al., 2004). Whereas cognitive engagement had no effect on any aspect of task performance, physical activity (i.e., exergaming) enhanced children's speed to resolve interference from conflicting visuospatial stimuli. Age comparisons indicated improvements with age in the accuracy of resolving interference and in overall response time. The results extend past research by showing more precisely how physical activity influences executive function and how this effect differs from the improvements that occur with development. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Age-related changes in cognitive conflict processing: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Mager, Ralph; Bullinger, Alex H; Brand, Serge; Schmidlin, Maria; Schärli, Heinz; Müller-Spahn, Franz; Störmer, Robert; Falkenstein, Michael

2007-12-01

Cognitive tasks involving conflicting stimuli and responses are associated with an early age-related decline in performance. Conflict and conflict-induced interference can be stimulus- or response-related. In classical stimulus-response compatibility tasks, such as the Stroop task, the event-related potential (ERP) usually reveals a greater negativity on incongruent versus congruent trials which has often been linked with conflict processing. However, it is unclear whether this negativity is related to stimulus- or response-related conflict, thus rendering the meaning of age-related changes inconclusive. In the present study, a modified Stroop task was used to focus on stimulus-related interference processes while excluding response-related interference. Since we intended to study work-relevant effects ERPs and performance were determined in young (about 30 years old) and middle-aged (about 50 years old) healthy subjects (total n=80). In the ERP, a broad negativity developed after incongruent versus congruent stimuli between 350 and 650 ms. An age-related increase of the latency and amplitude of this negativity was observed. These results indicate age-related alterations in the processing of conflicting stimuli already in middle age.

Visual and spatial working memory are not that dissociated after all: a time-based resource-sharing account.

PubMed

Vergauwe, Evie; Barrouillet, Pierre; Camos, Valérie

2009-07-01

Examinations of interference between visual and spatial materials in working memory have suggested domain- and process-based fractionations of visuo-spatial working memory. The present study examined the role of central time-based resource sharing in visuo-spatial working memory and assessed its role in obtained interference patterns. Visual and spatial storage were combined with both visual and spatial on-line processing components in computer-paced working memory span tasks (Experiment 1) and in a selective interference paradigm (Experiment 2). The cognitive load of the processing components was manipulated to investigate its impact on concurrent maintenance for both within-domain and between-domain combinations of processing and storage components. In contrast to both domain- and process-based fractionations of visuo-spatial working memory, the results revealed that recall performance was determined by the cognitive load induced by the processing of items, rather than by the domain to which those items pertained. These findings are interpreted as evidence for a time-based resource-sharing mechanism in visuo-spatial working memory.

Rapid Automatized Naming in Children with Dyslexia: Is Inhibitory Control Involved?

PubMed

Bexkens, Anika; van den Wildenberg, Wery P M; Tijms, Jurgen

2015-08-01

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is widely seen as an important indicator of dyslexia. The nature of the cognitive processes involved in rapid naming is however still a topic of controversy. We hypothesized that in addition to the involvement of phonological processes and processing speed, RAN is a function of inhibition processes, in particular of interference control. A total 86 children with dyslexia and 31 normal readers were recruited. Our results revealed that in addition to phonological processing and processing speed, interference control predicts rapid naming in dyslexia, but in contrast to these other two cognitive processes, inhibition is not significantly associated with their reading and spelling skills. After variance in reading and spelling associated with processing speed, interference control and phonological processing was partialled out, naming speed was no longer consistently associated with the reading and spelling skills of children with dyslexia. Finally, dyslexic children differed from normal readers on naming speed, literacy skills, phonological processing and processing speed, but not on inhibition processes. Both theoretical and clinical interpretations of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aging, subjective experience, and cognitive control: dramatic false remembering by older adults.

PubMed

Jacoby, Larry L; Bishara, Anthony J; Hessels, Sandra; Toth, Jeffrey P

2005-05-01

Recent research suggests that older adults are more susceptible to interference effects than are young adults; however, that research has failed to equate differences in original learning. In 4 experiments, the authors show that older adults are more susceptible to interference effects produced by a misleading prime. Even when original learning was equated, older adults were 10 times as likely to falsely remember misleading information and were much less likely to increase their accuracy by opting not to answer under conditions of free responding. The results are well described by a multinomial model that postulates multiple modes of cognitive control. According to that model, older adults are likely to be captured by misleading information, a form of goal neglect or deficit in inhibitory functions. Copyright 2005 APA, all rights reserved.

The time-course of feature interference in agreement comprehension: Multiple mechanisms and asymmetrical attraction

PubMed Central

Tanner, Darren; Nicol, Janet; Brehm, Laurel

2014-01-01

Attraction interference in language comprehension and production may be as a result of common or different processes. In the present paper, we investigate attraction interference during language comprehension, focusing on the contexts in which interference arises and the time-course of these effects. Using evidence from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and sentence judgment times, we show that agreement attraction in comprehension is best explained as morphosyntactic interference during memory retrieval. This stands in contrast to attraction as a message-level process involving the representation of the subject NP's number features, which is a strong contributor to attraction in production. We thus argue that the cognitive antecedents of agreement attraction in comprehension are non-identical with those of attraction in production, and moreover, that attraction in comprehension is primarily a consequence of similarity-based interference in cue-based memory retrieval processes. We suggest that mechanisms responsible for attraction during language comprehension are a subset of those involved in language production. PMID:25258471

Neural mechanisms of proactive interference-resolution.

PubMed

Nee, Derek Evan; Jonides, John; Berman, Marc G

2007-12-01

The ability to mitigate interference from information that was previously relevant, but is no longer relevant, is central to successful cognition. Several studies have implicated left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) as a region tied to this ability, but it is unclear whether this result generalizes across different tasks. In addition, it has been suggested that left anterior prefrontal cortex (APFC) also plays a role in proactive interference-resolution although support for this claim has been limited. The present study used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the role of these regions in resolving proactive-interference across two different tasks performed on the same subjects. Results indicate that both left VLPFC and left APFC are involved in the resolution of proactive interference across tasks. However, different functional networks related to each region suggest dissociable roles for the two regions. Additionally, regions of the posterior cingulate gyrus demonstrated unique involvement in facilitation when short- and long-term memory converged. This pattern of results serves to further specify models of proactive interference-resolution.

The time-course of feature interference in agreement comprehension: Multiple mechanisms and asymmetrical attraction.

PubMed

Tanner, Darren; Nicol, Janet; Brehm, Laurel

2014-10-01

Attraction interference in language comprehension and production may be as a result of common or different processes. In the present paper, we investigate attraction interference during language comprehension, focusing on the contexts in which interference arises and the time-course of these effects. Using evidence from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and sentence judgment times, we show that agreement attraction in comprehension is best explained as morphosyntactic interference during memory retrieval. This stands in contrast to attraction as a message-level process involving the representation of the subject NP's number features, which is a strong contributor to attraction in production. We thus argue that the cognitive antecedents of agreement attraction in comprehension are non-identical with those of attraction in production, and moreover, that attraction in comprehension is primarily a consequence of similarity-based interference in cue-based memory retrieval processes. We suggest that mechanisms responsible for attraction during language comprehension are a subset of those involved in language production.

Long-term interference at the semantic level: Evidence from blocked-cyclic picture matching.

PubMed

Wei, Tao; Schnur, Tatiana T

2016-01-01

Processing semantically related stimuli creates interference across various domains of cognition, including language and memory. In this study, we identify the locus and mechanism of interference when retrieving meanings associated with words and pictures. Subjects matched a probe stimulus (e.g., cat) to its associated target picture (e.g., yarn) from an array of unrelated pictures. Across trials, probes were either semantically related or unrelated. To test the locus of interference, we presented probes as either words or pictures. If semantic interference occurs at the stage common to both tasks, that is, access to semantic representations, then interference should occur in both probe presentation modalities. Results showed clear semantic interference effects independent of presentation modality and lexical frequency, confirming a semantic locus of interference in comprehension. To test the mechanism of interference, we repeated trials across 4 presentation cycles and manipulated the number of unrelated intervening trials (zero vs. two). We found that semantic interference was additive across cycles and survived 2 intervening trials, demonstrating interference to be long-lasting as opposed to short-lived. However, interference was smaller with zero versus 2 intervening trials, which we interpret to suggest that short-lived facilitation counteracted the long-lived interference. We propose that retrieving meanings associated with words/pictures from the same semantic category yields both interference due to long-lasting changes in connection strength between semantic representations (i.e., incremental learning) and facilitation caused by short-lived residual activation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring adolescent cognitive control in a combined interference switching task.

PubMed

Mennigen, Eva; Rodehacke, Sarah; Müller, Kathrin U; Ripke, Stephan; Goschke, Thomas; Smolka, Michael N

2014-08-01

Cognitive control enables individuals to flexibly adapt to environmental challenges. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we investigated 185 adolescents at the age of 14 with a combined response interference switching task measuring behavioral responses (reaction time, RT and error rate, ER) and brain activity during the task. This task comprises two types of conflict which are co-occurring, namely, task switching and stimulus-response incongruence. Data indicated that already in adolescents an overlapping cognitive control network comprising the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is recruited by conflicts arising from task switching and response incongruence. Furthermore our study revealed higher blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) responses elicited by incongruent stimuli in participants with a pronounced incongruence effect, calculated as the RT difference between incongruent and congruent trials. No such correlation was observed for switch costs. Furthermore, increased activation of the default mode network (DMN) was only observed in congruent trials compared to incongruent trials, but not in task repetition relative to task switch trials. These findings suggest that even though the two processes of task switching and response incongruence share a common cognitive control network they might be processed differentially within the cognitive control network. Results are discussed in the context of a novel hypothesis concerning antagonistic relations between the DMN and the cognitive control network. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Altered emotional interference processing in affective and cognitive-control brain circuitry in major depression

PubMed Central

Fales, Christina L.; Barch, Deanna M.; Rundle, Melissa M.; Mintun, Mark A.; Snyder, Abraham Z.; Cohen, Jonathan D.; Mathews, Jose; Sheline, Yvette I.

2008-01-01

Background Major depression is characterized by a negativity bias: an enhanced responsiveness to, and memory for, affectively negative stimuli. However it is not yet clear whether this bias represents (1) impaired top-down cognitive control over affective responses, potentially linked to deficits in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex function; or (2) enhanced bottom-up responses to affectively-laden stimuli that dysregulate cognitive control mechanisms, potentially linked to deficits in amygdala and anterior cingulate function. Methods We used an attentional interference task using emotional distracters to test for top-down versus bottom-up dysfunction in the interaction of cognitive-control circuitry and emotion-processing circuitry. A total of 27 patients with major depression and 24 controls were tested. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was carried out as participants directly attended to, or attempted to ignore, fear-related stimuli. Results Compared to controls, patients with depression showed an enhanced amygdala response to unattended fear-related stimuli (relative to unattended neutral). By contrast, control participants showed increased activity in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann areas 46/9) when ignoring fear stimuli (relative to neutral), which the patients with depression did not. In addition, the depressed participants failed to show evidence of error-related cognitive adjustments (increased activity in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on post-error trials), but the control group did show them. Conclusions These results suggest multiple sources of dysregulation in emotional and cognitive control circuitry in depression, implicating both top-down and bottom-up dysfunction. PMID:17719567

[Cognitive impairment of alcohol-dependent subjects].

PubMed

Bernardin, Florent; Maheut-Bosser, Anne; Paille, François

2014-04-01

Chronic excessive alcohol consumption induces multiple brain damages. Secondary cognitive disorders include executive functions, episodic memory and visuospatial capacities. The severity of these alcohol induced disorders may vary between sub-clinical manifestations (that may, nevertheless, interfere with medical management) and more important ones like Korsakoff syndrome or dementia. The latter are usually irreversible but many of these manifestations are potentially reversible with persistent abstinence. It therefore appears of particular importance to clearly define neuropsychological management in order to identify and evaluate the type and severity of alcohol-related cognitive disorders. The patients may then be offered rehabilitation for these cognitive impairments. This is the first step of a complete addiction program based especially on cognitive behavioral therapies.

Cognitive Facilitation Following Intentional Odor Exposure

PubMed Central

Johnson, Andrew J.

2011-01-01

This paper reviews evidence that, in addition to incidental olfactory pollutants, intentional odor delivery can impact cognitive operations both positively and negatively. Evidence for cognitive facilitation/interference is reviewed alongside four potential explanations for odor-induced effects. It is concluded that the pharmacological properties of odors can induce changes in cognition. However, these effects can be accentuated/attenuated by the shift in mood following odor exposure, expectancy of cognitive effects, and cues to behavior via the contextual association with the odor. It is proposed that greater consideration is required in the intentional utilization of odors within both industrial and private locations, since differential effects are observed for odors with positive hedonic qualities. PMID:22163909

Anthropometric measures and cognition in middle-aged HIV-infected and uninfected women. The Women's Interagency HIV Study

PubMed Central

Gustafson, Deborah R.; Mielke, Michelle M.; Tien, Phyllis C.; Valcour, Victor; Cohen, Mardge; Anastos, Kathryn; Liu, Chenglong; Pearce, Leigh; Golub, Elizabeth T.; Minkoff, Howard; Crystal, Howard A.

2014-01-01

Objective To explore the relationship of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with cognition in women with (HIV+) and without HIV (HIV-) infection. Design/Methods 1690 participants (1196 HIV+, 494 HIV-) in the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) with data available on anthropometric measures comprise the analytical sample. Cross-sectional analyses using linear regression models estimated the relationship between anthropometric variables and Trails A, Trails B, Stroop interference time, Stroop word recall, Stroop color naming and reading, and Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) with consideration for age, HIV infection status, Wide Range Achievement Test score, CD4 count, insulin resistance, drug use, and race/ethnicity. Results Among HIV+ women, BMI < 18.5 kg/m2 was associated with poorer cognitive performance evidenced by longer Trails A and Trails B and shorter SDMT completion times. An obese BMI (30 kg/m2 or higher) was related to better performance on Trails B and worse performance on the Stroop Interference test. Among HIV- women, an obese BMI was related to worse performance on the Stroop – Color naming test. Few and inconsistent associations were observed between WC, WHR and cognition. Conclusion Among women at mid-life with chronic (at least 10 years) HIV infection, common anthropometric measures, primarily BMI, were differentially related to cognitive test performance by cognitive domain. Higher levels of BMI were associated with better cognitive function. In this era of antiretroviral therapies, restoration of health evidenced as higher BMI due to effective antiretroviral therapies, may improve cognitive function in middle-aged HIV infected women. PMID:24338243

Cognitive inhibition of number/length interference in a Piaget-like task in young adults: evidence from ERPs and fMRI.

PubMed

Leroux, Gaëlle; Joliot, Marc; Dubal, Stéphanie; Mazoyer, Bernard; Tzourio-Mazoyer, Nathalie; Houdé, Olivier

2006-06-01

We sought to determine whether the neural traces of a previous cognitive developmental stage could be evidenced in young adults. In order to do so, 12 young adults underwent two functional imaging acquisitions (EEG then fMRI). During each session, two experimental conditions were applied: a Piaget-like task with number/length interference (INT), and a reference task with number/length covariation (COV). To succeed at Piaget's numerical task, which children under the age of 7 years usually fail, the subjects had to inhibit a misleading strategy, namely, the visuospatial length-equals-number bias, a quantification heuristic that is often relevant and that continues to be used through adulthood. Behavioral data confirmed that although there was an automation in the young adult subjects as assessed by the very high number of accurate responses (>97%), the inhibition of the "length equals number strategy" had a cognitive cost, as the reaction times were significantly higher in INT than in COV (with a difference of 230 ms). The event-related potential results acquired during the first session showed electrophysiological markers of the cognitive inhibition of the number/length interference. Indeed, the frontal N2 was greater during INT than during COV, and a P3(late)/P6 was detected only during INT. During the fMRI session, a greater activation of unimodal areas (the right middle and superior occipital cortex) and in the ventral route (the left inferior temporal cortex) was observed in INT than in COV. These results seem to indicate that when fully automated in adults, inhibition processes might take place in unimodal areas. Copyright 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Resveratrol Supplementation Did Not Improve Cognition in Patients with Schizophrenia: Results from a Randomized Clinical Trial.

PubMed

Zortea, Karine; Franco, Viviane C; Guimarães, Paula; Belmonte-de-Abreu, Paulo S

2016-01-01

Schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with psychotic experiences and cognitive deficits. Therefore, cognitive function is one of the most critical determinants of quality of life in this pathology. Resveratrol has been related to neuroprotective action, but there are no studies evaluating resveratrol in SZ. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of resveratrol supplementation on cognition in individuals with SZ. This is a 1-month randomized, double-blind, and controlled trial (NCT 02062190), in which 19 men with diagnosis of SZ, aged 18-65 years, were assigned to a resveratrol supplementation group (200 mg) or placebo group (200 mg), with a 1-month follow-up. Applying a series of cognitive tests assessed neuropsychology performance (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test, Stroop Color and Word Test, and Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale) and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale assessed psychopathology severity. There were no significant improvement in neuropsychology performance (episodic memory, working memory, attention and concentration capacity, inhibitory control, interference measures, selective attention, and mental flexibility) and psychopathology severity after 1 month of resveratrol supplementation ( P  > 0.05). In conclusion, we have shown that 1 month of a resveratrol supplementation (200 mg/day) did not improve episodic memory, working memory, attention and concentration capacity, inhibitory control, interference measures, selective attention, and mental flexibility as compared with placebo in patients with SZ.

Comparing cognition by integrating concept learning, proactive interference, and list memory.

PubMed

Wright, Anthony A; Kelly, Debbie M; Katz, Jeffrey S

2018-06-01

This article describes an approach for training a variety of species to learn the abstract concept of same/different, which in turn forms the basis for testing proactive interference and list memory. The stimulus set for concept-learning training was progressively doubled from 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 . . . to 1,024 different pictures with novel-stimulus transfer following learning. All species fully learned the same/different abstract concept: capuchin and rhesus monkeys learned more readily than pigeons; nutcrackers and magpies were at least equivalent to monkeys and transferred somewhat better following initial training sets. A similar task using the 1,024-picture set plus delays was used to test proactive interference on occasional trials. Pigeons revealed greater interference with 10-s than with 1-s delays, whereas delay time had no effect on rhesus monkeys, suggesting that the monkeys' interference was event based. This same single-item same/different task was expanded to a 4-item list memory task to test animal list memory. Humans were tested similarly with lists of kaleidoscope pictures. Delays between the list and test were manipulated, resulting in strong initial recency effects (i.e., strong 4th-item memory) at short delays and changing to a strong primacy effect (i.e., strong 1st-item memory) at long delays (pigeons 0-s to 10-s delays; monkeys 0-s to 30-s delays; humans 0-s to 100-s delays). Results and findings are discussed in terms of these species' cognition and memory comparisons, evolutionary implications, and future directions for testing other species in these synergistically related tasks.

Decomposing interference during Stroop performance into different conflict factors: an event-related fMRI study.

PubMed

Melcher, Tobias; Gruber, Oliver

2009-02-01

In the current event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we sought to trace back Stroop-interference to circumscribed properties of task-irrelevant word information - response-incompatibility, semantic incongruency and task-reference - that we conceive as conflict factors. Thereby, we particularly wanted to disentangle intermingled contributions of semantic conflict and response conflict to the overall Stroop-interference effect. To delineate neural substrates of single factors, we referred to the logics of cognitive subtraction and cognitive conjunction. Moreover, in a second step, we conducted correlation analyses to determine the relationship between neural activations and behavioral interference costs (i.e., conflict-related reaction time (RT) slowing) so as to further elucidate the functional role of the respective brain regions in conflict processing. Response-incompatibility was associated with activation in the left premotor cortex which can be interpreted as indicating motor competition or conflict, i.e., the presence of competing response tendencies. Accordingly, this activation was positively correlated with behavioral conflict costs. Semantic incongruency exhibited specific activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the bilateral insula, and thalamus as well as in left somatosensory cortex. As supported by the consistent negative correlation with behavioral conflict costs, these activations most probably reflect strengthened control efforts to overcome interference and to ensure adequate task performance. Finally, task-reference elicited activation in the left temporo-polar cortex (TPC) and the right medial superior as well as in left rostroventral prefrontal cortex (rvPFC, sub-threshold activation). As strongly supported by prior studies' findings, this neural activation pattern may underlie residual semantic processing of the task-irrelevant word information.

Memory-less response and violation of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem in colloids suspended in an active bath.

PubMed

Maggi, Claudio; Paoluzzi, Matteo; Angelani, Luca; Di Leonardo, Roberto

2017-12-14

We investigate experimentally and numerically the stochastic dynamics and the time-dependent response of colloids subject to a small external perturbation in a dense bath of motile E. coli bacteria. The external field is a magnetic field acting on a superparamagnetic microbead suspended in an active medium. The measured linear response reveals an instantaneous friction kernel despite the complexity of the bacterial bath. By comparing the mean squared displacement and the response function we detect a clear violation of the fluctuation dissipation theorem.

General mechanism for the 1 /f noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yadav, Avinash Chand; Ramaswamy, Ramakrishna; Dhar, Deepak

2017-08-01

We consider the response of a memoryless nonlinear device that acts instantaneously, converting an input signal ξ (t ) into an output η (t ) at the same time t . For input Gaussian noise with power-spectrum 1 /fα , the nonlinearity can modify the spectral index of the output to give a spectrum that varies as 1 /fα ' with α'≠α . We show that the value of α' depends on the nonlinear transformation and can be tuned continuously. This provides a general mechanism for the ubiquitous 1 /f noise found in nature.

The effect of speed-accuracy strategy on response interference control in Parkinson's disease.

PubMed

Wylie, S A; van den Wildenberg, W P M; Ridderinkhof, K R; Bashore, T R; Powell, V D; Manning, C A; Wooten, G F

2009-07-01

Studies that used conflict paradigms such as the Eriksen Flanker task show that many individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) have pronounced difficulty resolving the conflict that arises from the simultaneous activation of mutually exclusive responses. This finding fits well with contemporary views that postulate a key role for the basal ganglia in action selection. The present experiment aims to specify the cognitive processes that underlie action selection deficits among PD patients in the context of variations in speed-accuracy strategy. PD patients (n=28) and healthy controls (n=17) performed an arrow version of the flanker task under task instructions that either emphasized speed or accuracy of responses. Reaction time (RT) and accuracy rates decreased with speed compared to accuracy instructions, although to a lesser extent for the PD group. Differences in flanker interference effects among PD and healthy controls depended on speed-accuracy strategy. Compared to the healthy controls, PD patients showed larger flanker interference effects under speed stress. RT distribution analyses suggested that PD patients have greater difficulty suppressing incorrect response activation when pressing for speed. These initial findings point to an important interaction between strategic and computational aspects of interference control in accounting for cognitive impairments of PD. The results are also compatible with recent brain imaging studies that demonstrate basal ganglia activity to co-vary with speed-accuracy adjustments.

Efficient Pricing Technique for Resource Allocation Problem in Downlink OFDM Cognitive Radio Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdulghafoor, O. B.; Shaat, M. M. R.; Ismail, M.; Nordin, R.; Yuwono, T.; Alwahedy, O. N. A.

2017-05-01

In this paper, the problem of resource allocation in OFDM-based downlink cognitive radio (CR) networks has been proposed. The purpose of this research is to decrease the computational complexity of the resource allocation algorithm for downlink CR network while concerning the interference constraint of primary network. The objective has been secured by adopting pricing scheme to develop power allocation algorithm with the following concerns: (i) reducing the complexity of the proposed algorithm and (ii) providing firm power control to the interference introduced to primary users (PUs). The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested for OFDM- CRNs. The simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm approached the performance of the optimal algorithm at a lower computational complexity, i.e., O(NlogN), which makes the proposed algorithm suitable for more practical applications.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Improves Executive Dysfunctions in ADHD: Implications for Inhibitory Control, Interference Control, Working Memory, and Cognitive Flexibility.

PubMed

Nejati, Vahid; Salehinejad, Mohammad Ali; Nitsche, Michael A; Najian, Asal; Javadi, Amir-Homayoun

2017-09-01

This study examined effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) on major executive functions (EFs), including response inhibition, executive control, working memory (WM), and cognitive flexibility/task switching in ADHD. ADHD children received (a) left anodal/right cathodal DLPFC tDCS and (b) sham stimulation in Experiment 1 and (a) left anodal DLPFC/right cathodal OFC tDCS, (b) left cathodal DLPFC/right anodal OFC tDCS, and (c) sham stimulation in Experiment 2. The current intensity was 1 mA for 15 min with a 72-hr interval between sessions. Participants underwent Go/No-Go task, N-back test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and Stroop task after each tDCS condition. Anodal left DLPFC tDCS most clearly affected executive control functions (e.g., WM, interference inhibition), while cathodal left DLPFC tDCS improved inhibitory control. Cognitive flexibility/task switching benefited from combined DLPFC-OFC, but not DLPFC stimulation alone. Task-specific stimulation protocols can improve EFs in ADHD.

Spanish normative studies in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults project): norms for Stroop Color-Word Interference and Tower of London-Drexel University tests.

PubMed

Rognoni, T; Casals-Coll, M; Sánchez-Benavides, G; Quintana, M; Manero, R M; Calvo, L; Palomo, R; Aranciva, F; Tamayo, F; Peña-Casanova, J

2013-03-01

The Stroop Color-Word Interference Test (Stroop) measures cognitive flexibility, selective attention, cognitive inhibition and information processing speed. The Tower of London-Drexel University version test (TOL) assesses higher-order problem solving and executive planning abilities. In this study, as part of the Spanish normative studies project in young adults (NEURONORMA young adults), we present normative data for the Stroop and young adults TOL tests. The sample consisted of 179 participants who are cognitively normal and range in age from 18 to 49 years. Tables are provided to convert raw scores to scaled scores. Scores adjusted for sociodemographic factors were obtained by applying linear regression techniques. No effects were found for age and sex in either test. Educational level impacted most of the Stroop test variables and some of the TOL scores (Total Moves score and Total Initiation Time score). The norms obtained will be extremely useful in the clinical evaluation of young Spanish adults. Copyright © 2011 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Does grammatical aspect affect motion event cognition? A cross-linguistic comparison of English and Swedish speakers.

PubMed

Athanasopoulos, Panos; Bylund, Emanuel

2013-03-01

In this article, we explore whether cross-linguistic differences in grammatical aspect encoding may give rise to differences in memory and cognition. We compared native speakers of two languages that encode aspect differently (English and Swedish) in four tasks that examined verbal descriptions of stimuli, online triads matching, and memory-based triads matching with and without verbal interference. Results showed between-group differences in verbal descriptions and in memory-based triads matching. However, no differences were found in online triads matching and in memory-based triads matching with verbal interference. These findings need to be interpreted in the context of the overall pattern of performance, which indicated that both groups based their similarity judgments on common perceptual characteristics of motion events. These results show for the first time a cross-linguistic difference in memory as a function of differences in grammatical aspect encoding, but they also contribute to the emerging view that language fine tunes rather than shapes perceptual processes that are likely to be universal and unchanging. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Joint subchannel pairing and power control for cognitive radio networks with amplify-and-forward relaying.

PubMed

Shen, Yanyan; Wang, Shuqiang; Wei, Zhiming

2014-01-01

Dynamic spectrum sharing has drawn intensive attention in cognitive radio networks. The secondary users are allowed to use the available spectrum to transmit data if the interference to the primary users is maintained at a low level. Cooperative transmission for secondary users can reduce the transmission power and thus improve the performance further. We study the joint subchannel pairing and power allocation problem in relay-based cognitive radio networks. The objective is to maximize the sum rate of the secondary user that is helped by an amplify-and-forward relay. The individual power constraints at the source and the relay, the subchannel pairing constraints, and the interference power constraints are considered. The problem under consideration is formulated as a mixed integer programming problem. By the dual decomposition method, a joint optimal subchannel pairing and power allocation algorithm is proposed. To reduce the computational complexity, two suboptimal algorithms are developed. Simulations have been conducted to verify the performance of the proposed algorithms in terms of sum rate and average running time under different conditions.

Parental involvement in homework: relations with parent and student achievement-related motivational beliefs and achievement.

PubMed

Gonida, Eleftheria N; Cortina, Kai S

2014-09-01

Parental involvement in homework is a home-based type of involvement in children's education. Research and theory suggest that it is beneficial for learning and achievement under certain conditions and for particular groups of individuals. The study examined whether different types of parents' involvement in homework (autonomy support, control, interference, cognitive engagement) (1) are predicted by their mastery and performance goals for their child and their beliefs of the child's academic efficacy, and (2) predict student achievement goal orientations, efficacy beliefs, and achievement. Grade-level differences were also investigated. The sample consisted of 282 elementary school (5th grade) and junior high school students (8th grade) and one of their parents. Surveys were used for data collection. Structural equation modelling was applied for data analysis. (1) Autonomy support during homework was predicted by parent mastery goal, parents' control and interference by their performance goal and perceptions of child efficacy, and cognitive engagement as supplementary to homework by parent perceptions of child efficacy. (2) Parental autonomy support, control, and interference were differentially associated with student mastery and performance goal orientations, whereas parent cognitive engagement was associated with student efficacy beliefs. (3) The structural model was the same for elementary and junior high school students but the latent means for a number of variables were different. Different types of parental involvement in homework were associated with different outcomes with parent autonomy support to be the most beneficial one. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Recovery from Proactive Semantic Interference in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Normal Aging: Relationship to Atrophy in Brain Regions Vulnerable to Alzheimer's Disease.

PubMed

Loewenstein, David A; Curiel, Rosie E; Wright, Clinton; Sun, Xiaoyan; Alperin, Noam; Crocco, Elzabeth; Czaja, Sara J; Raffo, Arlene; Penate, Ailyn; Melo, Jose; Capp, Kimberly; Gamez, Monica; Duara, Ranjan

2017-01-01

There is growing evidence that proactive semantic interference (PSI) and failure to recover from PSI may represent early features of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study investigated the association between PSI, recovery from PSI, and reduced MRI volumes in AD signature regions among cognitively impaired and unimpaired older adults. Performance on the LASSI-L (a novel test of PSI and recovery from PSI) and regional brain volumetric measures were compared between 38 cognitively normal (CN) elders and 29 older participants with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The relationship between MRI measures and performance on the LASSI-L as well as traditional memory and non-memory cognitive measures was also evaluated in both diagnostic groups. Relative to traditional neuropsychological measures, MCI patients' failure to recover from PSI was associated with reduced volumes in the hippocampus (rs = 0.48), precuneus (rs = 0.50); rostral middle frontal lobules (rs = 0.54); inferior temporal lobules (rs = 0.49), superior parietal lobules (rs = 0.47), temporal pole (rs = 0.44), and increased dilatation of the inferior lateral ventricle (rs = -0.49). For CN elders, only increased inferior lateral ventricular size was associated with vulnerability to PSI (rs = -0.49), the failure to recover from PSI (rs = -0.57), and delayed recall on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (rs = -0.48). LASSI-L indices eliciting failure to recover from PSI were more highly associated with more MRI regional biomarkers of AD than other traditional cognitive measures. These results as well as recent amyloid imaging studies with otherwise cognitively normal subjects, suggest that recovery from PSI may be a sensitive marker of preclinical AD and deserves further investigation.

Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Relation to Cognitive and Functional Outcome of Traumatic Brain Injury in Children

PubMed Central

Levin, Harvey S.; Wilde, Elisabeth A.; Chu, Zili; Yallampalli, Ragini; Hanten, Gerri R.; Li, Xiaoqi; Chia, Jon; Vasquez, Carmen; Hunter, Jill V.

2008-01-01

Objective To investigate the relation of white matter integrity using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to cognitive and functional outcome of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children. Design Prospective observational study of children who had sustained moderate to severe TBI and a comparison group of children who had sustained orthopedic injury (OI). Participants Thirty-two children who had sustained moderate to severe TBI and 36 children with OI were studied. Methods Fiber tracking analysis of DTI acquired at 3-month postinjury and assessment of global outcome and cognitive function within 2 weeks of brain imaging. Global outcome was assessed using the Glasgow Outcome Scale and the Flanker task was used to measure cognitive processing speed and resistance to interference. Results Fractional anisotropy and apparent diffusion coefficient values differentiated the groups and both cognitive and functional outcome measures were related to the DTI findings. Dissociations were present wherein the relation of Fractional anisotropy to cognitive performance differed between the TBI and OI groups. A DTI composite measure of white matter integrity was related to global outcome in the children with TBI. Conclusions DTI is sensitive to white matter injury at 3 months following moderate to severe TBI in children, including brain regions that appear normal on conventional magnetic resonance imaging. DTI measures reflecting diffusion of water parallel and perpendicular to white matter tracts as calculated by fiber tracking analysis are related to global outcome, cognitive processing speed, and speed of resolving interference in children with moderate to severe TBI. Longitudinal data are needed to determine whether these relations between DTI and neurobehavioral outcome of TBI in children persist at longer follow-up intervals. PMID:18650764

Effect of Yoga practice on reducing cognitive-motor interference for improving dynamic balance control in healthy adults.

PubMed

Subramaniam, Savitha; Bhatt, Tanvi

2017-02-01

The purpose of our study was to investigate the effects of Yoga on reducing cognitive-motor interference (CMI) for maintaining balance control during varied balance tasks. Yoga (N=10) and age-similar non-practitioners (N=10) performed three balance tasks including the Limits of Stability test (LOS - Intentional balance), Motor Control test (MCT - Reactive balance), and Sensory Organization Test (SOT -condition 6: inducing both somatosensory and visual conflicts) under single-task (ST) and dual-task (DT, addition of a cognitive working memory task) conditions. The motor performance was assessed by recording the response time (RT) and movement velocity (MV) of the center of pressure (CoP) on LOS test, weight symmetry (WS) of CoP on the MCT test and equilibrium (EQ) of CoP on the SOT test. Cognitive performance was recorded as the number of correct responses enumerated in sitting (ST) and under DT conditions. The Motor cost (MC) and cognitive cost (CC) were computed using the formula ([ST-DT]/ST)*100 for all the variables. Greater cost indicates lower performance under DT versus ST condition. The Yoga group showed a significantly lesser MC for both MCT and SOT tests (p<0.05) in comparison to their counterparts. The CC were significantly lower on LOS and MCT test for the Yoga group (p<0.05). Results suggest that Yoga practice can significantly reduce CMI by improving allocation and utilization of attentional resources for both balance control and executive cognitive functioning; thus resulting in better performance under DT conditions. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Sensitivity of subjective questionnaires to cognitive loading while driving with navigation aids: a pilot study.

PubMed

Smyth, Christopher C

2007-05-01

Developers of future forces are implementing automated aiding for driving tasks. In designing such systems, the effect of cognitive task interference on driving performance is important. The crew of such vehicles may have to occasionally perform communication and planning tasks while driving. Subjective questionnaires may aid researchers to parse out the sources of task interference in crew station designs. In this preliminary study, sixteen participants drove a vehicle simulator with automated road-turn cues (i.e., visual, audio, combined, or neither) along a course marked on a map display while replying to spoken test questions (i.e., repeating sentences, math and logical puzzles, route planning, or none) and reporting other vehicles in the scenario. Following each trial, a battery of subjective questionnaires was administered to determine the perceived effects of the loading on their cognitive functionality. Considering the performance, the participants drove significantly faster with the road-turn cues than with just the map. They recalled fewer vehicle sightings with the cognitive tests than without them. Questionnaire results showed that their reasoning was more straightforward, the quantity of information for understanding higher, and the trust greater with the combined cues than the map-only. They reported higher perceived workload with the cognitive tests. The capacity for maintaining situational awareness was reduced with the cognitive tests because of the increased division of attention and the increase in the instability, variability, and complexity of the demands. The association and intuitiveness of cognitive processing were lowest and the subjective stress highest for the route planning test. Finally, the confusability in reasoning was greater for the auditory cue with the route planning than the auditory cue without the cognitive tests. The subjective questionnaires are sensitive to the effects of the cognitive loading and, therefore, may be useful for guiding the development of automated aid designs.

Neural mechanisms of interference control in working memory capacity.

PubMed

Bomyea, Jessica; Taylor, Charles T; Spadoni, Andrea D; Simmons, Alan N

2018-02-01

The extent to which one can use cognitive resources to keep information in working memory is known to rely on (1) active maintenance of target representations and (2) downregulation of interference from irrelevant representations. Neurobiologically, the global capacity of working memory is thought to depend on the prefrontal and parietal cortices; however, the neural mechanisms involved in controlling interference specifically in working memory capacity tasks remain understudied. In this study, 22 healthy participants completed a modified complex working memory capacity task (Reading Span) with trials of varying levels of interference control demands while undergoing functional MRI. Neural activity associated with interference control demands was examined separately during encoding and recall phases of the task. Results suggested a widespread network of regions in the prefrontal, parietal, and occipital cortices, and the cingulate and cerebellum associated with encoding, and parietal and occipital regions associated with recall. Results align with prior findings emphasizing the importance of frontoparietal circuits for working memory performance, including the role of the inferior frontal gyrus, cingulate, occipital cortex, and cerebellum in regulation of interference demands. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Distributional analyses in the picture-word interference paradigm: Exploring the semantic interference and the distractor frequency effects.

PubMed

Scaltritti, Michele; Navarrete, Eduardo; Peressotti, Francesca

2015-01-01

The present study explores the distributional features of two important effects within the picture-word interference paradigm: the semantic interference and the distractor frequency effects. These two effects display different and specific distributional profiles. Semantic interference appears greatly reduced in faster response times, while it reaches its full magnitude only in slower responses. This can be interpreted as a sign of fluctuant attentional efficiency in resolving response conflict. In contrast, the distractor frequency effect is mediated mainly by a distributional shift, with low-frequency distractors uniformly shifting reaction time distribution towards a slower range of latencies. This finding fits with the idea that distractor frequency exerts its effect by modulating the point in time in which operations required to discard the distractor can start. Taken together, these results are congruent with current theoretical accounts of both the semantic interference and distractor frequency effects. Critically, distributional analyses highlight and further describe the different cognitive dynamics underlying these two effects, suggesting that this analytical tool is able to offer important insights about lexical access during speech production.

Inhibitory Control as a Moderator of Threat-related Interference Biases in Social Anxiety

PubMed Central

Gorlin, Eugenia I.; Teachman, Bethany A.

2014-01-01

Prior findings are mixed regarding the presence and direction of threat-related interference biases in social anxiety. The current study examined general inhibitory control (IC), measured by the classic color-word Stroop, as a moderator of the relationship between both threat interference biases (indexed by the emotional Stroop) and several social anxiety indicators. High socially anxious undergraduate students (N=159) completed the emotional and color-word Stroop tasks, followed by an anxiety-inducing speech task. Participants completed measures of trait social anxiety, state anxiety before and during the speech, negative task-interfering cognitions during the speech, and overall self-evaluation of speech performance. Speech duration was used to measure behavioral avoidance. In line with hypotheses, IC moderated the relationship between emotional Stroop bias and every anxiety indicator (with the exception of behavioral avoidance), such that greater social-threat interference was associated with higher anxiety among those with weak IC, whereas lesser social-threat interference was associated with higher anxiety among those with strong IC. Implications for the theory and treatment of threat interference biases in socially anxious individuals are discussed. PMID:24967719

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity relates to weak resistance to proactive interference.

PubMed

Smets, Jorien; Wessel, Ineke; Raes, Filip

2014-06-01

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity (rAMS), experiencing intrusive memories, and rumination appear to be risk factors for depression and depressive relapse. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether a weak resistance to proactive interference (PI) might underlie this trio of cognitive risk factors. Resistance to PI refers to being able to ignore cognitive distracters that were previously relevant but became irrelevant for current task goals. Students (N = 65) and depressed patients (N = 37) completed tasks measuring resistance to PI and AMS, and completed questionnaires on intrusive memories and rumination. In both samples, weaker resistance to PI was associated with rAMS. There was no evidence for a relationship between resistance to PI and intrusive memories or rumination. As we did not assess other measures of executive functioning, we cannot conclude whether the observed relationship between rumination and PI is due to unique qualities of PI. Difficulties to deliberately recall specific, rather than general or categoric autobiographical memories appear to be related to more general problems with the inhibition of interference of mental distracters. The results are in line with the executive control account of rAMS. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Proactive interference and concurrent inhibitory processes do not differentially affect item and associative recognition: Implication for the age-related associative memory deficit.

PubMed

Guez, Jonathan; Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe

2016-09-01

Previous studies have suggested an associative deficit hypothesis [Naveh-Benjamin, M. ( 2000 ). Adult age differences in memory performance: Tests of an associative deficit hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1170-1187] to explain age-related episodic memory declines. The hypothesis attributes part of the deficient episodic memory performance in older adults to a difficulty in creating and retrieving cohesive episodes. In this article, we further evaluate this hypothesis by testing two alternative processes that potentially mediate associative memory deficits in older adults. Four experiments are presented that assess whether failure of inhibitory processes (proactive interference in Experiments 1 and 2), and concurrent inhibition (in Experiments 3 and 4) are mediating factors in age-related associative deficits. The results suggest that creating conditions that require the operation of inhibitory processes, or that interfere with such processes, cannot simulate associative memory deficit in older adults. Instead, such results support the idea that associative memory deficits reflect a unique binding failure in older adults. This failure seems to be independent of other cognitive processes, including inhibitory and other resource-demanding processes.

A Subcarrier-Pair Based Resource Allocation Scheme Using Proportional Fairness for Cooperative OFDM-Based Cognitive Radio Networks

PubMed Central

Ma, Yongtao; Zhou, Liuji; Liu, Kaihua

2013-01-01

The paper presents a joint subcarrier-pair based resource allocation algorithm in order to improve the efficiency and fairness of cooperative multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MU-OFDM) cognitive radio (CR) systems. A communication model where one source node communicates with one destination node assisted by one half-duplex decode-and-forward (DF) relay is considered in the paper. An interference-limited environment is considered, with the constraint of transmitted sum-power over all channels and aggregate average interference towards multiple primary users (PUs). The proposed resource allocation algorithm is capable of maximizing both the system transmission efficiency and fairness among secondary users (SUs). Besides, the proposed algorithm can also keep the interference introduced to the PU bands below a threshold. A proportional fairness constraint is used to assure that each SU can achieve a required data rate, with quality of service guarantees. Moreover, we extend the analysis to the scenario where each cooperative SU has no channel state information (CSI) about non-adjacent links. We analyzed the throughput and fairness tradeoff in CR system. A detailed analysis of the performance of the proposed algorithm is presented with the simulation results. PMID:23939586

Are precues effective in proactively controlling taboo interference during speech production?

PubMed

White, Katherine K; Abrams, Lise; Hsi, Lisa R; Watkins, Emily C

2018-02-07

This research investigated whether precues engage proactive control to reduce emotional interference during speech production. A picture-word interference task required participants to name target pictures accompanied by taboo, negative, or neutral distractors. Proactive control was manipulated by presenting precues that signalled the type of distractor that would appear on the next trial. Experiment 1 included one block of trials with precues and one without, whereas Experiment 2 mixed precued and uncued trials. Consistent with previous research, picture naming was slowed in both experiments when distractors were taboo or negative compared to neutral, with the greatest slowing effect when distractors were taboo. Evidence that precues engaged proactive control to reduce interference from taboo (but not negative) distractors was found in Experiment 1. In contrast, mixing precued trials in Experiment 2 resulted in no taboo cueing benefit. These results suggest that item-level proactive control can be engaged under certain conditions to reduce taboo interference during speech production, findings that help to refine a role for cognitive control of distraction during speech production.

The effects of acute stress and perceptual load on distractor interference.

PubMed

Sato, Hirotsune; Takenaka, Ippei; Kawahara, Jun I

2012-01-01

Selective attention can be improved under conditions in which a high perceptual load is assumed to exhaust cognitive resources, leaving scarce resources for distractor processing. The present study examined whether perceptual load and acute stress share common attentional resources by manipulating perceptual and stress loads. Participants identified a target within an array of nontargets that were flanked by compatible or incompatible distractors. Attentional selectivity was measured by longer reaction times in response to the incompatible than to the compatible distractors. Participants in the stress group participated in a speech test that increased anxiety and threatened self-esteem. The effect of perceptual load interacted with the stress manipulation in that participants in the control group demonstrated an interference effect under the low perceptual load condition, whereas such interference disappeared under the high perceptual load condition. Importantly, the stress group showed virtually no interference under the low perceptual load condition, whereas substantial interference occurred under the high perceptual load condition. These results suggest that perceptual and stress related demands consume the same attentional resources.

Emotion Unchained: Facial Expression Modulates Gaze Cueing under Cognitive Load.

PubMed

Pecchinenda, Anna; Petrucci, Manuel

2016-01-01

Direction of eye gaze cues spatial attention, and typically this cueing effect is not modulated by the expression of a face unless top-down processes are explicitly or implicitly involved. To investigate the role of cognitive control on gaze cueing by emotional faces, participants performed a gaze cueing task with happy, angry, or neutral faces under high (i.e., counting backward by 7) or low cognitive load (i.e., counting forward by 2). Results show that high cognitive load enhances gaze cueing effects for angry facial expressions. In addition, cognitive load reduces gaze cueing for neutral faces, whereas happy facial expressions and gaze affected object preferences regardless of load. This evidence clearly indicates a differential role of cognitive control in processing gaze direction and facial expression, suggesting that under typical conditions, when we shift attention based on social cues from another person, cognitive control processes are used to reduce interference from emotional information.

Emotion Unchained: Facial Expression Modulates Gaze Cueing under Cognitive Load

PubMed Central

Petrucci, Manuel

2016-01-01

Direction of eye gaze cues spatial attention, and typically this cueing effect is not modulated by the expression of a face unless top-down processes are explicitly or implicitly involved. To investigate the role of cognitive control on gaze cueing by emotional faces, participants performed a gaze cueing task with happy, angry, or neutral faces under high (i.e., counting backward by 7) or low cognitive load (i.e., counting forward by 2). Results show that high cognitive load enhances gaze cueing effects for angry facial expressions. In addition, cognitive load reduces gaze cueing for neutral faces, whereas happy facial expressions and gaze affected object preferences regardless of load. This evidence clearly indicates a differential role of cognitive control in processing gaze direction and facial expression, suggesting that under typical conditions, when we shift attention based on social cues from another person, cognitive control processes are used to reduce interference from emotional information. PMID:27959925

Cognitive effects of exogenous melatonin administration in elderly persons: a pilot study.

PubMed

Peck, Joel S; LeGoff, Daniel B; Ahmed, Iqbal; Goebert, Deborah

2004-01-01

Given that circadian rhythm disruption is associated with impairments in cognitive performance similar to those found in age-related cognitive decline, the authors investigated whether exogenous melatonin administration would improve cognitive functioning in healthy elderly subjects. This double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study assigned 26 healthy elderly subjects to receive either melatonin 1 mg or placebo nightly for 4 weeks. Participants completed a sleep questionnaire and a battery of cognitive tests at baseline and at 4 weeks. Melatonin administration improved reported morning "restedness" and sleep latency after nocturnal awakening, and also improved scores on the California Verbal Learning Test-interference subtest. Melatonin administration at a dose of 1 mg nightly may be effective in improving certain aspects of cognitive functioning and subjective reports of sleep quality in elderly subjects. It may prove to be a useful therapeutic agent in the treatment of age-related cognitive decline.

Optimizing Cognitive Function in Persons With Chronic Pain.

PubMed

Baker, Katharine S; Georgiou-Karistianis, Nellie; Gibson, Stephen J; Giummarra, Melita J

2017-05-01

Cognitive functioning is commonly disrupted in people living with chronic pain, yet it is an aspect of pain that is often not routinely assessed in pain management settings, and there is a paucity of research on treatments or strategies to alleviate the problem. The purpose of this review is to outline recent research on cognitive deficits seen in chronic pain, to give an overview of the mechanisms involved, advocate cognitive functioning as an important target for treatment in pain populations, and discuss ways in which it may be assessed and potentially remediated. A narrative review. There are several options for remediation, including compensatory, restorative, and neuromodulatory approaches to directly modify cognitive functioning, as well as physical, psychological, and medication optimization methods to target secondary factors (mood, sleep, and medications) that may interfere with cognition. We highlight the potential to enhance cognitive functions and identify the major gaps in the research literature.

Anxiety and Threat-Related Attention: Cognitive-Motivational Framework and Treatment.

PubMed

Mogg, Karin; Bradley, Brendan P

2018-03-01

Research in experimental psychopathology and cognitive theories of anxiety highlight threat-related attention biases (ABs) and underpin the development of a computer-delivered treatment for anxiety disorders: attention-bias modification (ABM) training. Variable effects of ABM training on anxiety and ABs generate conflicting research recommendations, novel ABM training procedures, and theoretical controversy. This article summarises an updated cognitive-motivational framework, integrating proposals from cognitive models of anxiety and attention, as well as evidence of ABs. Interactions between motivational salience-driven and goal-directed influences on multiple cognitive processes (e.g., stimulus evaluation, inhibition, switching, orienting) underlie anxiety and the variable manifestations of ABs (orienting towards and away from threat; threat-distractor interference). This theoretical analysis also considers ABM training as cognitive skill training, describes a conceptual framework for evaluating/developing novel ABM training procedures, and complements network-based research on reciprocal anxiety-cognition relationships. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Parallel reduced-instruction-set-computer architecture for real-time symbolic pattern matching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parson, Dale E.

1991-03-01

This report discusses ongoing work on a parallel reduced-instruction- set-computer (RISC) architecture for automatic production matching. The PRIOPS compiler takes advantage of the memoryless character of automatic processing by translating a program's collection of automatic production tests into an equivalent combinational circuit-a digital circuit without memory, whose outputs are immediate functions of its inputs. The circuit provides a highly parallel, fine-grain model of automatic matching. The compiler then maps the combinational circuit onto RISC hardware. The heart of the processor is an array of comparators capable of testing production conditions in parallel, Each comparator attaches to private memory that contains virtual circuit nodes-records of the current state of nodes and busses in the combinational circuit. All comparator memories hold identical information, allowing simultaneous update for a single changing circuit node and simultaneous retrieval of different circuit nodes by different comparators. Along with the comparator-based logic unit is a sequencer that determines the current combination of production-derived comparisons to try, based on the combined success and failure of previous combinations of comparisons. The memoryless nature of automatic matching allows the compiler to designate invariant memory addresses for virtual circuit nodes, and to generate the most effective sequences of comparison test combinations. The result is maximal utilization of parallel hardware, indicating speed increases and scalability beyond that found for course-grain, multiprocessor approaches to concurrent Rete matching. Future work will consider application of this RISC architecture to the standard (controlled) Rete algorithm, where search through memory dominates portions of matching.

Interference Resolution in Emotional Working Memory as a Function of Alexithymia.

PubMed

Colligan, Sean M; Koven, Nancy S

2015-01-01

Although alexithymia is recognized as a set of traitlike deficits in emotion processing, research suggests there are concomitant cognitive issues as well, including what appears to be an unusual pattern of enhanced working memory (WM) despite broader executive dysfunction. It is unknown whether this enhancement includes the executive elements of WM and whether executive control of WM in alexithymia differs for emotional and neutral stimuli. This study examined how alexithymia moderates patterns of interference resolution in WM with valenced and nonvalenced stimuli. Participants (N = 93) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and a recency probes WM task containing positive, negative, and neutral stimuli, with some trials containing proactive interference from previous trials. The reaction time difference between interference and noninterference trials indexed degree of interference resolution. Toronto Alexithymia Scale score moderated a within-subject effect such that, when valenced probes were used, there was less proactive interference in the positive relative to negative valence condition; this valence-based interference discrepancy was significant for a subset of highly alexithymic participants. Alexithymia did not moderate proactive interference to negative or neutral stimuli or accuracy of responses. These results suggest that, although alexithymia does not influence executive control in WM for nonemotional items, alexithymic people demonstrate an idiosyncratic response to positive stimuli that might indicate blunted reactivity.

Domain-Specific Impairment in Cognitive Control among Remitted Youth with a History of Major Depression

PubMed Central

Peters, Amy T.; Jacobs, Rachel H.; Crane, Natania A.; Ryan, Kelly A.; Weisenbach, Sara L.; Ajilore, Olusola; Lamar, Melissa; Kassel, Michelle T.; Gabriel, Laura B.; West, Amy E.; Zubieta, Jon-Kar; Langenecker, Scott A.

2016-01-01

Aim Impairment in neuropsychological functioning is common in major depressive disorder (MDD), but it is not clear to what degree these deficits are related to risk (e.g., trait), scar, burden, or state effects of MDD. The objective of this study was to use neuropsychological measures, with factor scores in verbal fluency, processing speed, attention, set-shifting, and cognitive control in a unique population of young, remitted, un-medicated, early course individuals with a history of MDD in hopes of identifying putative trait markers of MDD. Methods Youth aged 18-23 in remission from MDD (rMDD; n = 62) and healthy controls (HC; n = 43) were assessed with neuropsychological tests at two time points. These were from four domains of executive functioning, consistent with previous literature as impaired in MDD; verbal fluency and processing speed, conceptual reasoning and set-shifting, processing speed with interference resolution, and cognitive control. Results rMDD youth performed comparably to healthy controls on verbal fluency and processing speed, processing speed with interference resolution, and conceptual reasoning and set-shifting, reliably over time. Individuals with rMDD demonstrated relative decrements in cognitive control at Time 1, with greater stability than HC participants. Conclusion MDD may be characterized by regulatory difficulties that do not pertain specifically to active mood state or fluctuations in symptoms. Deficient cognitive control may represent a trait vulnerability or early course scar of MDD that may prove a viable target for secondary prevention or early remediation PMID:26177674

Non-visual spatial tasks reveal increased interactions with stance postural control.

PubMed

Woollacott, Marjorie; Vander Velde, Timothy

2008-05-07

The current investigation aimed to contrast the level and quality of dual-task interactions resulting from the combined performance of a challenging primary postural task and three specific, yet categorically dissociated, secondary central executive tasks. Experiments determined the extent to which modality (visual vs. auditory) and code (non-spatial vs. spatial) specific cognitive resources contributed to postural interference in young adults (n=9) in a dual-task setting. We hypothesized that the different forms of executive n-back task processing employed (visual-object, auditory-object and auditory-spatial) would display contrasting levels of interactions with tandem Romberg stance postural control, and that interactions within the spatial domain would be revealed as most vulnerable to dual-task interactions. Across all cognitive tasks employed, including auditory-object (aOBJ), auditory-spatial (aSPA), and visual-object (vOBJ) tasks, increasing n-back task complexity produced correlated increases in verbal reaction time measures. Increasing cognitive task complexity also resulted in consistent decreases in judgment accuracy. Postural performance was significantly influenced by the type of cognitive loading delivered. At comparable levels of cognitive task difficulty (n-back demands and accuracy judgments) the performance of challenging auditory-spatial tasks produced significantly greater levels of postural sway than either the auditory-object or visual-object based tasks. These results suggest that it is the employment of limited non-visual spatially based coding resources that may underlie previously observed visual dual-task interference effects with stance postural control in healthy young adults.

Different Measures of Auditory and Visual Stroop Interference and Their Relationship to Speech Intelligibility in Noise

PubMed Central

Knight, Sarah; Heinrich, Antje

2017-01-01

Inhibition—the ability to suppress goal-irrelevant information—is thought to be an important cognitive skill in many situations, including speech-in-noise (SiN) perception. One way to measure inhibition is by means of Stroop tasks, in which one stimulus dimension must be named while a second, more prepotent dimension is ignored. The to-be-ignored dimension may be relevant or irrelevant to the target dimension, and the inhibition measure—Stroop interference (SI)—is calculated as the reaction time difference between the relevant and irrelevant conditions. Both SiN perception and inhibition are suggested to worsen with age, yet attempts to connect age-related declines in these two abilities have produced mixed results. We suggest that the inconsistencies between studies may be due to methodological issues surrounding the use of Stroop tasks. First, the relationship between SI and SiN perception may differ depending on the modality of the Stroop task; second, the traditional SI measure may not account for generalized slowing or sensory declines, and thus may not provide a pure interference measure. We investigated both claims in a group of 50 older adults, who performed two Stroop tasks (visual and auditory) and two SiN perception tasks. For each Stroop task, we calculated interference scores using both the traditional difference measure and methods designed to address its various problems, and compared the ability of these different scoring methods to predict SiN performance, alone and in combination with hearing sensitivity. Results from the two Stroop tasks were uncorrelated and had different relationships to SiN perception. Changing the scoring method altered the nature of the predictive relationship between Stroop scores and SiN perception, which was additionally influenced by hearing sensitivity. These findings raise questions about the extent to which different Stroop tasks and/or scoring methods measure the same aspect of cognition. They also highlight the importance of considering additional variables such as hearing ability when analyzing cognitive variables. PMID:28367129

Individuals with knee impairments identify items in need of clarification in the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) pain interference and physical function item banks - a qualitative study.

PubMed

Lynch, Andrew D; Dodds, Nathan E; Yu, Lan; Pilkonis, Paul A; Irrgang, James J

2016-05-11

The content and wording of the Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Function and Pain Interference item banks have not been qualitatively assessed by individuals with knee joint impairments. The purpose of this investigation was to identify items in the PROMIS Physical Function and Pain Interference Item Banks that are irrelevant, unclear, or otherwise difficult to respond to for individuals with impairment of the knee and to suggest modifications based on cognitive interviews. Twenty-nine individuals with knee joint impairments qualitatively assessed items in the Pain Interference and Physical Function Item Banks in a mixed-methods cognitive interview. Field notes were analyzed to identify themes and frequency counts were calculated to identify items not relevant to individuals with knee joint impairments. Issues with clarity were identified in 23 items in the Physical Function Item Bank, resulting in the creation of 43 new or modified items, typically changing words within the item to be clearer. Interpretation issues included whether or not the knee joint played a significant role in overall health and age/gender differences in items. One quarter of the original items (31 of 124) in the Physical Function Item Bank were identified as irrelevant to the knee joint. All 41 items in the Pain Interference Item Bank were identified as clear, although individuals without significant pain substituted other symptoms which interfered with their life. The Physical Function Item Bank would benefit from additional items that are relevant to individuals with knee joint impairments and, by extension, to other lower extremity impairments. Several issues in clarity were identified that are likely to be present in other patient cohorts as well.

Electrophysiological indices of interference resolution covary with individual fluid intelligence: investigating reactive control processes in a 3-back working memory task.

PubMed

Perfetti, Bernardo; Varanese, Sara; Mancino, Elisa; Mercuri, Pasqua; Tesse, Marcello; Franciotti, Raffaella; Bonanni, Laura; Thomas, Astrid; Onofrj, Marco

2014-06-01

It has been proposed that the well-established relationship between working memory (WM) and fluid intelligence (gf) is mediated by executive mechanisms underlying interference control. The latter relies upon the integrity of a frontoparietal brain network, whose activity is modulated by general cognition. In regards to the chronology of this activation, only few EEG studies investigated the topic, although none of them examined the regional interaction or the effects of individual differences in gf. The current investigation sought at extending previous research by characterizing the EEG markers (temporal activation and regional coupling) of interference control and the effects of the individual variation in gf. To this end, we recorded the EEG activity of 33 participants while performing verbal and spatial versions of a 3-back WM task. In a separate session, participants were administered with a test of fluid intelligence. Interference-inducing trials were associated with an increased negativity in the frontal scalp region occurring in two separate time windows and probably reflecting two different stages of the underlying cognitive process. In addition, we found that scalp distribution of such activity differed among individuals, being the strongest activation of the left and right frontolateral sites related to high gf level. Finally, high- and low-gf participants showed different patterns in the modulation of regional connectivity (electrodes coherence in the range of 4.5-7.5Hz) according to changes in attention load among types of trials. Our findings suggest that high-gf participants may rely upon effective engagement and modulation of attention resources to face interference. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Not all performance validity tests are created equal: The role of recollection and familiarity in the Test of Memory Malingering and Word Memory Test.

PubMed

Eglit, Graham M L; Lynch, Julie K; McCaffrey, Robert J

2017-03-01

The Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) and the Word Memory Test (WMT) are both performance validity tests (PVTs) that use a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) recognition memory format. Several studies have reported that these tests are susceptible to cognitive impairment and that the WMT is more susceptible than the TOMM. The current study explored components of recognition memory (i.e., conscious recollection and familiarity) underlying the TOMM and WMT to identify factors that make them susceptible and resilient to cognitive impairment. Fifty-four nonclinical undergraduate research participants were administered the TOMM and WMT while providing introspective judgments about their recognition memory using the remember/know/guess procedure. In addition, half of participants were administered dual-task interference, a manipulation intended to reduce recollection, during these tests, while the other half completed these tests without interference. Standard cutoffs on the TOMM and WMT were explored, as well as alternative cutoffs based on TOMM Trial 1 scores. The WMT was more impacted by dual-task interference than standard TOMM cutoff trials, while alternative TOMM cutoff trials were equally impacted by dual-task interference relative to the WMT. Dual-task interference reduced recollection on these tests, but spared familiarity. Standard TOMM trials and the WMT were relatively comparable on levels of recollection, but familiarity contributed more to the TOMM than to the WMT. Alternative TOMM trials possessed lower familiarity and recollection than standard TOMM trials and lower recollection than the WMT. Reduced recollection places examinees at risk of failing the TOMM and WMT, while familiarity contributes to the relative resilience of the standard TOMM. Future development of 2AFC recognition memory PVTs should attempt to maximize the contribution of familiarity to their completion.

Treating women with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) with a hybrid cognitive behavioural and art therapy treatment (CB-ART).

PubMed

Sarid, Orly; Cwikel, Julie; Czamanski-Cohen, Johanna; Huss, Ephrat

2017-02-01

This paper presents an overview of a combined, evaluated protocol, cognitive behavioural and art therapy treatment (CB-ART), for the treatment of women with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). The protocol integrates cognitive behavioural interventions and art therapy. CB-ART focuses on changing distressing image, symptom or memory (ISM) that interferes with functioning. The method directs clients to identify compositional elements that characterize their stressful ISM and to alter the element in their imagination, in bodily sensations and on the page. Examples are provided to illustrate the therapeutic process.

Reactions of religious fundamentalists to taboo images and words.

PubMed

Bates, Larry W; Hudiburg, Richard A; Lauderdale, Elizabeth P; Castillo, Joseph R

2013-08-01

Some view religious fundamentalism as inclusive of fear of the world as a dangerous place. Fundamentalists are known to have extensive taboo lists, but research concerning their reactions to taboo stimuli is sparse. If fear is a basic component of fundamentalism, then reactions to taboo stimuli should be somewhat similar to common fear reactions, including subjective appraisal of discomfort, psychophysiological arousal, cognitive interference, and behavioral avoidance. The current research addressed some of these questions with three studies to examine subjective discomfort to religiously-taboo and religiously-neutral words and photographs (N = 160), physiological arousal to these same photographs (N = 129), and attentional bias on a modified Stroop test of these same words (N = 182). Although subjective appraisals of discomfort to taboo words and photographs among fundamentalists were confirmed, this research did not find that physiological responses or cognitive interference to taboo stimuli were elevated in those scoring high in religious fundamentalism.

Positive and Negative Affect and Adolescent Adjustment: Moderation Effects of Prefrontal Functioning.

PubMed

Brieant, Alexis; Holmes, Christopher J; Maciejewski, Dominique; Lee, Jacob; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; King-Casas, Brooks; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen

2018-03-01

We examined whether cognitive control moderates the effects of emotion on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptomatology in a longitudinal study of 138 adolescents. Self-reported positive affect (PA) and negative affect and behavioral and neural indicators of cognitive control, indexed by performance and prefrontal hemodynamic response during a cognitive interference task, were collected at Time 1. Self-reported internalizing and externalizing symptomatology were collected at Time 1 and Time 2 (1 year later). Results indicated that higher PA predicted decreases in externalizing symptomatology, but only for adolescents with poor neural cognitive control. No moderation effects were found for behavioral cognitive control. Findings imply the beneficial effects of PA on the development of externalizing problems among adolescents with poor prefrontal functioning. © 2018 Society for Research on Adolescence.

The cognitive loci of the display and task-relevant set size effects on distractor interference: Evidence from a dual-task paradigm.

PubMed

Park, Bo Youn; Kim, Sujin; Cho, Yang Seok

2018-02-01

The congruency effect of a task-irrelevant distractor has been found to be modulated by task-relevant set size and display set size. The present study used a psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm to examine the cognitive loci of the display set size effect (dilution effect) and the task-relevant set size effect (perceptual load effect) on distractor interference. A tone discrimination task (Task 1), in which a response was made to the pitch of the target tone, was followed by a letter discrimination task (Task 2) in which different types of visual target display were used. In Experiment 1, in which display set size was manipulated to examine the nature of the display set size effect on distractor interference in Task 2, the modulation of the congruency effect by display set size was observed at both short and long stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOAs), indicating that the display set size effect occurred after the target was selected for processing in the focused attention stage. In Experiment 2, in which task-relevant set size was manipulated to examine the nature of the task-relevant set size effect on distractor interference in Task 2, the effects of task-relevant set size increased with SOA, suggesting that the target selection efficiency in the preattentive stage was impaired with increasing task-relevant set size. These results suggest that display set size and task-relevant set size modulate distractor processing in different ways.

Selective Attention to Emotion in the Aging Brain

PubMed Central

Samanez-Larkin, Gregory R.; Robertson, Elaine R.; Mikels, Joseph A.; Carstensen, Laura L.; Gotlib, Ian H.

2009-01-01

A growing body of research suggests that the ability to regulate emotion remains stable or improves across the adult life span. Socioemotional selectivity theory maintains that this pattern of findings reflects the prioritization of emotional goals. Given that goal-directed behavior requires attentional control, the present study was designed to investigate age differences in selective attention to emotional lexical stimuli under conditions of emotional interference. Both neural and behavioral measures were obtained during an experiment in which participants completed a flanker task that required them to make categorical judgments about emotional and non-emotional stimuli. Older adults showed interference in both the behavioral and neural measures on control trials, but not on emotion trials. Although older adults typically show relatively high levels of interference and reduced cognitive control during non-emotional tasks, they appear to be able successfully to reduce interference during emotional tasks. PMID:19739908

Individual differences in experiencing intrusive memories: the role of the ability to resist proactive interference.

PubMed

Verwoerd, Johan; Wessel, Ineke; de Jong, Peter J

2009-06-01

This study explored whether a relatively poor ability to resist or inhibit interference from irrelevant information in working memory is associated with experiencing undesirable intrusive memories. Non-selected participants (N=91) completed a self-report measure of intrusive memories, and carried out experimental tasks intended to measure two different types of inhibition: resistance to proactive interference and response inhibition (i.e., the ability to prevent automatically triggered responses). The results showed a significant relationship between inhibition at the cognitive level (i.e., resistance to proactive interference) and the frequency of intrusive memories (especially in the group of female participants) whereas no such relationship with measures of response inhibition emerged. These findings are consistent with the idea that deficient inhibitory control reflects a vulnerability factor for experiencing intrusive memories. Implications for research investigating risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are discussed.

Selective attention to emotion in the aging brain.

PubMed

Samanez-Larkin, Gregory R; Robertson, Elaine R; Mikels, Joseph A; Carstensen, Laura L; Gotlib, Ian H

2009-09-01

A growing body of research suggests that the ability to regulate emotion remains stable or improves across the adult life span. Socioemotional selectivity theory maintains that this pattern of findings reflects the prioritization of emotional goals. Given that goal-directed behavior requires attentional control, the present study was designed to investigate age differences in selective attention to emotional lexical stimuli under conditions of emotional interference. Both neural and behavioral measures were obtained during an experiment in which participants completed a flanker task that required them to make categorical judgments about emotional and nonemotional stimuli. Older adults showed interference in both the behavioral and neural measures on control trials but not on emotion trials. Although older adults typically show relatively high levels of interference and reduced cognitive control during nonemotional tasks, they appear to be able to successfully reduce interference during emotional tasks. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Below-baseline suppression of competitors during interference resolution by younger but not older adults.

PubMed

Healey, M Karl; Ngo, K W Joan; Hasher, Lynn

2014-01-01

Resolving interference from competing memories is a critical factor in efficient memory retrieval, and several accounts of cognitive aging suggest that difficulty resolving interference may underlie memory deficits such as those seen in the elderly. Although many researchers have suggested that the ability to suppress competitors is a key factor in resolving interference, the evidence supporting this claim has been the subject of debate. Here, we present a new paradigm and results demonstrating that for younger adults, a single retrieval attempt is sufficient to suppress competitors to below-baseline levels of accessibility even though the competitors are never explicitly presented. The extent to which individual younger adults suppressed competitors predicted their performance on a memory span task. In a second experiment, older adults showed no evidence of suppression, which supports the theory that older adults' memory deficits are related to impaired suppression.

Does an attention bias to appetitive and aversive words modulate interference control in youth with ADHD?

PubMed

Ma, Ili; Mies, Gabry W; Lambregts-Rommelse, Nanda N J; Buitelaar, Jan K; Cillessen, Antonius H N; Scheres, Anouk

2018-05-01

Interference control refers to the ability to selectively attend to certain information while ignoring distracting information. This ability can vary as a function of distractor relevance. Distractors that are particularly relevant to an individual may attract more attention than less relevant distractors. This is referred to as attention bias. Weak interference control and altered reward sensitivity are both important features of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, interference control is typically studied in isolation. This study integrates both. Youths (aged 9 to 17 years) with ADHD (n = 37, 25 boys) and typically-developing controls (n = 38, 20 boys) completed a Stroop task using appetitive words and matched neutral words to assess whether appetitive distractors diminished interference control more in youths with ADHD than controls. In order to test for specificity, aversive words were also included. As expected, appetitive words disrupted interference control but this effect was not stronger for youths with ADHD than the controls. Aversive words, on the other hand, facilitated interference control. Dimensional analyses revealed that this facilitation effect increased substantially as a function of ADHD symptom severity. Possible mechanisms for this effect include up-regulation of interference control as a function of induced negative mood, or as a function of increased effort. In conclusion, appetitive words do not lead to worse interference control in youths with ADHD compared with controls. Interference control was modulated in a valence-specific manner, concurrent with mood-induced effects on cognitive control.

Hyper-modulation of brain networks by the amygdala among women with Borderline Personality Disorder: Network signatures of affective interference during cognitive processing.

PubMed

Soloff, Paul H; Abraham, Kristy; Ramaseshan, Karthik; Burgess, Ashley; Diwadkar, Vaibhav A

2017-05-01

Emotion dysregulation is a core characteristic of patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and is often attributed to an imbalance in fronto-limbic network function. Hyperarousal of amygdala, especially in response to negative affective stimuli, results in affective interference with cognitive processing of executive functions. Clinical consequences include the impulsive-aggression, suicidal and self-injurious behaviors which characterize BPD. Dysfunctional interactions between amygdala and its network targets have not been well characterized during cognitive task performance. Using psychophysiological interaction analysis (PPI), we mapped network profiles of amygdala interaction with key regulatory regions during a Go No-Go task, modified to use negative, positive and neutral Ekman faces as targets. Fifty-six female subjects, 31 BPD and 25 healthy controls (HC), completed the affectively valenced Go No-Go task during fMRI scanning. In the negative affective condition, the amygdala exerted greater modulation of its targets in BPD compared to HC subjects in Rt. OFC, Rt. dACC, Rt. Parietal cortex, Rt. Basal Ganglia, and Rt. dlPFC. Across the spectrum of affective contrasts, hypermodulation in BPD subjects observed the following ordering: Negative > Neutral > Positive contrast. The amygdala seed exerted modulatory effects on specific target regions important in processing response inhibition and motor impulsiveness. The vulnerability of BPD subjects to affective interference with impulse control may be due to specific network dysfunction related to amygdala hyper-arousal and its effects on prefrontal regulatory regions such as the OFC and dACC. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Construct validity of the G-CPAQ and its mediating role in pain interference and adjustment.

PubMed

Vasiliou, Vasilis S; Karekla, Maria; Michaelides, Michalis P; Kasinopoulos, Orestis

2018-02-01

The Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (CPAQ) is a measure of pain acceptance comprised of pain willingness (PW) and activity engagement (AE; McCracken et al., 2004). Concerns about the factorial structure of the CPAQ exist, as it is not yet clear whether PW and AE constitute 2 independent constructs or 1, pain acceptance. Concerns also exist about the internal and predictive validity of test score interpretations of this measure. This study also presents that the choice of predictor variables has contributed to theoretical confusion regarding the impact of pain acceptance on pain-related adjustment. The purpose of this study was: (a) to examine the psychometric properties of both the long (20 items) and short (8 items) versions of the Greek-Chronic Pain Acceptance Questionnaire (G-CPAQ); (b) to examine the utility of a 2-factor solution in predicting psychosocial adjustment to pain using confirmatory factor analysis; and (c) to explore the mediating effects of pain acceptance and cognitive defusion, comprising the "open" response style to pain, between pain interference and pain related outcomes. One hundred and sixty chronic pain patients completed a questionnaire packet including pain indexes, pain acceptance, cognitive fusion, avoidance, and emotional distress. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the 2-factor solution, though a general good model fit was achieved only for the short G-CPAQ version. Structural equation modeling showed that PW and AE coupled with cognitive defusion partially mediated the influence of pain interference on pain severity, emotional distress, and avoidance of pain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Prevalence of at-risk drinking among Brazilian truck drivers and its interference on the performance of executive cognitive tasks.

PubMed

de Oliveira, Lucio Garcia; Leopoldo, Kae; Gouvea, Marcela Julio Cesar; Barroso, Lucia Pereira; Gouveia, Paula Adriana Rodrigues; Muñoz, Daniel Romero; Leyton, Vilma

2016-09-01

Binge drinking (BD) has been associated with an increase in the risk of alcohol-related injuries. Alcohol continues to be the main substance consumed by truck drivers, a population of special concern, since they are often involved in traffic accidents. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of BD and its interference in the executive functioning among truck drivers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A non-probabilistic sample of 684 truck drivers was requested to answer a structured research instrument on their demographic data and alcohol use. They performed cognitive tests to assess their executive functioning and inventories about confounding variables. The participants were then divided according to their involvement in BD. 17.5% of the interviewees have reported being engaged in BD. Binge drinkers showed a better performance on one test, despite having done so at the expense of more mistakes and lower accuracy. More interestingly, binge drinkers took three seconds longer than non-binge drinkers to inhibit an inadequate response, which is worrisome in the context of traffic. Overall, the deleterious effect of BD on performance remained after controlling for the effects of confounding variables in regression logistic models. As the use of alcohol among truck drivers may be as a way to get by with their work conditions, we believe that a negotiation between their work organization and public authorities would reduce such use, preventing negative interferences on truck drivers' cognitive functioning, which by its turn may also prevent traffic accidents. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cognitive impairment in COPD: should cognitive evaluation be part of respiratory assessment?

PubMed Central

Gloeckl, Rainer; Vogiatzis, Ioannis; Kenn, Klaus

2017-01-01

Cognitive impairment is highly prevalent in patients with COPD and demonstrates multiple detrimental effects on many aspects of patient state and therapeutic outcomes. It is attributed to several overlapping pathophysiological factors, with the most common being the low level of oxygen saturation due to respiratory insufficiency. Despite the impact of cognitive impairment on clinical outcomes, the screening for coexisting cognitive deficits which may interfere with the successful progress of respiratory treatment is yet neglected. There is a special consideration that cognitive deficits should be taken into account when developing respiratory therapy plans. Cognitively impaired patients are likely to require more support and have need of an individualised respiratory care plan which can also be beneficial for their cognitive deficits. Pulmonary rehabilitation as a multidisciplinary approach could be prioritised for COPD patients with cognitive impairment. Educational aims To illustrate the common signs of cognitive impairment and define potential associations between lung and cognitive dysfunction. To illustrate the potential influence of cognitive deficits on the optimal progress of respiratory therapy. To illustrate the importance of cognitive evaluation as part of a comprehensive clinical assessment for patients suspected of suffering cognitive impairment. PMID:29184593

Kurtosis Approach for Nonlinear Blind Source Separation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duong, Vu A.; Stubbemd, Allen R.

2005-01-01

In this paper, we introduce a new algorithm for blind source signal separation for post-nonlinear mixtures. The mixtures are assumed to be linearly mixed from unknown sources first and then distorted by memoryless nonlinear functions. The nonlinear functions are assumed to be smooth and can be approximated by polynomials. Both the coefficients of the unknown mixing matrix and the coefficients of the approximated polynomials are estimated by the gradient descent method conditional on the higher order statistical requirements. The results of simulation experiments presented in this paper demonstrate the validity and usefulness of our approach for nonlinear blind source signal separation.

Explicit construction of quadratic Lyapunov functions for the small gain, positivity, circle, and Popov theorems and their application to robust stability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haddad, Wassim M.; Bernstein, Dennis S.

1991-01-01

Lyapunov function proofs of sufficient conditions for asymptotic stability are given for feedback interconnections of bounded real and positive real transfer functions. Two cases are considered: (1) a proper bounded real (resp., positive real) transfer function with a bounded real (resp., positive real) time-varying memoryless nonlinearity; and (2) two strictly proper bounded real (resp., positive real) transfer functions. A similar treatment is given for the circle and Popov theorems. Application of these results to robust stability with time-varying bounded real, positive real, and sector-bounded uncertainty is discussed.

Cognitive characteristics of learning Java, an object-oriented programming language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

White, Garry Lynn

Industry and Academia are moving from procedural programming languages (e.g., COBOL) to object-oriented programming languages, such as Java for the Internet. Past studies in the cognitive aspects of programming have focused primarily on procedural programming languages. Some of the languages used have been Pascal, C, Basic, FORTAN, and COBOL. Object-oriented programming (OOP) represents a new paradigm for computing. Industry is finding that programmers are having difficulty shifting to this new programming paradigm. This instruction in OOP is currently starting in colleges and universities across the country. What are the cognitive aspects for this new OOP language Java? When is a student developmentally ready to handle the cognitive characteristics of the OOP language Java? Which cognitive teaching style is best for this OOP language Java? Questions such as the aforementioned are the focus of this research Such research is needed to improve understanding of the learning process and identify students' difficulties with OOP methods. This can enhance academic teaching and industry training (Scholtz, 1993; Sheetz, 1997; Rosson, 1990). Cognitive development as measured by the Propositional Logic Test, cognitive style as measured by the Hemispheric Mode Indicator, and physical hemispheric dominance as measured by a self-report survey were obtained from thirty-six university students studying Java programming. Findings reveal that physical hemispheric dominance is unrelated to cognitive and programming language variables. However, both procedural and object oriented programming require Piaget's formal operation cognitive level as indicated by the Propositional Logic Test. This is consistent with prior research A new finding is that object oriented programming also requires formal operation cognitive level. Another new finding is that object oriented programming appears to be unrelated to hemispheric cognitive style as indicated by the Hemispheric Mode Indicator (HMI). This research suggests that object oriented programming is hemispheric thinking style friendly, while procedural programming is left hemispheric cognitive style. The conclusion is that cognitive characteristics are not the cause for the difficulty in shifting from procedural to this new programming paradigm of object oriented programming. An alternative possibility to the difficulty is proactive interference. Prior learning of procedural programming makes it harder to learning object oriented programming. Further research is needed to determine if proactive interference is the cause for the difficulty in shifting from procedural programming to object oriented programming.

Neurocognitive correlates of the effects of yoga meditation practice on emotion and cognition: a pilot study

PubMed Central

Froeliger, Brett E.; Garland, Eric L.; Modlin, Leslie A.; McClernon, F. Joseph

2012-01-01

Mindfulness meditation involves attending to emotions without cognitive fixation of emotional experience. Over time, this practice is held to promote alterations in trait affectivity and attentional control with resultant effects on well-being and cognition. However, relatively little is known regarding the neural substrates of meditation effects on emotion and cognition. The present study investigated the neurocognitive correlates of emotion interference on cognition in Yoga practitioners and a matched control group (CG) underwent fMRI while performing an event-related affective Stroop task. The task includes image viewing trials and Stroop trials bracketed by neutral or negative emotional distractors. During image viewing trials, Yoga practitioners exhibited less reactivity in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) to negative as compared to neutral images; whereas the CG had the opposite pattern. A main effect of valence (negative > neutral) was observed in limbic regions (e.g., amygdala), of which the magnitude was inversely related to dlPFC activation. Exploratory analyses revealed that the magnitude of amygdala activation predicted decreased self-reported positive affect in the CG, but not among Yoga practitioners. During Stroop trials, Yoga practitioners had greater activation in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) during Stroop trials when negative, compared to neutral, emotional distractor were presented; the CG exhibited the opposite pattern. Taken together, these data suggest that though Yoga practitioners exhibit limbic reactivity to negative emotional stimuli, such reactivity does not have downstream effects on later mood state. This uncoupling of viewing negative emotional images and affect among Yoga practitioners may be occasioned by their selective implementation of frontal executive-dependent strategies to reduce emotional interference during competing cognitive demands and not during emotional processing per se. PMID:22855674

Reduced Cognitive-Motor Interference on Voluntary Balance Control in Older Tai Chi Practitioners.

PubMed

Varghese, Rini; Hui-Chan, Christina W Y; Bhatt, Tanvi

2016-01-01

Recent dual-task studies suggest that Tai Chi practitioners displayed better control of standing posture and maintained a quicker response time of postural muscle activation during a stepping down activity. Whether this effect extends to voluntary balance control, specifically the limits of excursion of the center of pressure, remains to be examined. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cognitive-motor interference pattern by examining the effects of a concurrently performed cognitive task on attention of voluntary balance control in older adults who are long-term practitioners of Tai Chi. Ten older Tai Chi practitioners and 10 age-matched nonpractitioners performed a voluntary balance task that required them to shift their weight to reach a preset target in the forward and backward directions, with (single task, ST) and without (dual task, DT) a secondary cognitive task, which was the counting backward task. The counting backward task required the individual to compute and verbalize a series of arithmetic differences between a given pair of randomly generated numbers. The cognitive task was also performed independently (cognitive-ST). All trials were performed in a random order. Balance outcomes included reaction time, movement velocity, and maximal excursion of the center of pressure provided by the NeuroCom system. Cognitive outcome was the number of correct responses generated within the 8-second trial during the ST and DT conditions. Outcome variables were analyzed using a 2-factor, group by task, analysis of variance. DT costs for the variables were calculated as the relative difference between ST and DT conditions and were compared between the 2 groups using independent t tests. Tai Chi practitioners displayed shorter reaction times (P < .001) and faster movement velocities (P < .05) of their center of pressure than older nonpractitioners for both directions; however, no difference was found between the maximal excursions of the 2 groups. Cost analyses revealed that reaction time and cognitive costs were significantly lower in the Tai Chi practitioners for both forward and backward directions (P < .05); however, similar findings for movement velocity costs were significant only in the backward direction (P < .05). Our results suggest that Tai Chi practitioners expended fewer motor and cognitive resources than older nonpractitioners during a fairly complex (dynamic) postural equilibrium task while performing a verbal working memory task. They exhibited lesser cognitive-motor interference and thus better allocation of attentional resources toward the voluntary balance control task. Given that dynamic balance is a crucial prerequisite for walking and dual-tasking ability is considered to be a significant predictor of falls in older adults, our results might point at the possible long-term benefits of Tai Chi practice to counteract age-related decline in dual-tasking ability. Findings present preliminary data for further investigation, especially related to potential benefits in fall prevention.

Nonlinear dynamics analysis of the human balance control subjected to physical and sensory perturbations.

PubMed

Ashtiani, Mohammed N; Mahmood-Reza, Azghani

2017-01-01

Postural control after applying perturbation involves neural and muscular efforts to limit the center of mass (CoM) motion. Linear dynamical approaches may not unveil all complexities of body efforts. This study was aimed at determining two nonlinear dynamics parameters (fractal dimension (FD) and largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE)) in addition to the linear standing metrics of balance in perturbed stance. Sixteen healthy young males were subjected to sudden rotations of the standing platform. The vision and cognition during the standing were also interfered. Motion capturing was used to measure the lower limb joints and the CoM displacements. The CoM path length as a linear parameter was increased by elimination of vision (p<0.01) and adding a cognitive load (p<0.01). The CoM nonlinear metric FD was decreased due to the cognitive loads (p<0.001). The visual interference increased the FD of all joints when the task included the cognitive loads (p<0.01). The slightly positive LLE values showed weakly-chaotic behavior of the whole body. The local joint rotations indicated higher LLEs. Results indicated weakly chaotic response of the whole body. Increase in the task difficulty by adding sensory interference had difference effects on parameters. Linear and nonlinear metrics of the perturbed stance showed that a combination of them may properly represent the body behavior.

Recovery from Proactive Semantic Interference and MRI Volume: A Replication and Extension Study.

PubMed

Loewenstein, David A; Curiel, Rosie E; DeKosky, Steven; Rosselli, Monica; Bauer, Russell; Grieg-Custo, Maria; Penate, Ailyn; Li, Chunfei; Lizagarra, Gabriel; Golde, Todd; Adjouadi, Malek; Duara, Ranjan

2017-01-01

The rise in incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has led to efforts to advance early detection of the disease during its preclinical stages. To achieve this, the field needs to develop more sensitive cognitive tests that relate to biological markers of disease pathology. Failure to recover from proactive interference (frPSI) is one such cognitive marker that is associated with volumetric reductions in the hippocampus, precuneus, and other AD-prone regions, and to amyloid load in the brain. The current study attempted to replicate and extend our previous findings that frPSI is a sensitive marker of early AD, and related to a unique pattern of volumetric loss in AD prone areas. Three different memory measures were examined relative to volumetric loss and cortical thickness among 45 participants with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. frPSI was uniquely associated with reduced volumes in the hippocampus (r = 0.50) precuneus (r = 0.41), and other AD prone regions, replicating previous findings. Strong associations between frPSI and lower entorhinal cortex volumes and cortical thickness (r≥0.60) and precuneus (r = 0.50) were also observed. Unique and strong associations between volumetric reductions and frPSI as observed by Loewenstein and colleagues were replicated. Together with cortical thickness findings, these results indicate that frPSI is worthy of further study as a sensitive and early cognitive marker of AD.

The Relationship Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Pain in People Seeking Treatment for Chronic Pain: The Mediating Role of Psychological Flexibility.

PubMed

Åkerblom, Sophia; Perrin, Sean; Rivano Fischer, Marcelo; McCracken, Lance M

2018-06-01

The symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain are thought to interact to increase the severity and impact of both conditions, but the mechanisms by which they interact remain unclear. This study examines the relationship between PTSD and chronic pain and whether indices of Psychological Flexibility mediate the relationship between these 2 conditions. Standardized self-report measures of PTSD, pain severity, pain interference, depression, and psychological flexibility (pain-related acceptance, committed action, cognitive fusion, and values-based action) were obtained from 315 people seeking treatment for chronic pain who also reported at least 1 traumatic experience. People seeking treatment for chronic pain and reporting symptoms consistent with a current diagnosis of PTSD had significantly higher levels of pain severity, pain interference, depression, and cognitive fusion and lower levels of pain-related acceptance and committed action than those reporting symptoms below the diagnostic threshold for PTSD. Pain-related acceptance, committed action, cognitive fusion, and depression mediated the relationship between PTSD and pain severity/interference, with pain-related acceptance being the strongest mediator from the Psychological Flexibility model. Processes from the Psychological Flexibility model were identified as mediators of the relationship between PTSD and chronic pain in people seeking treatment for chronic pain. The Psychological Flexibility model may be useful as an overarching model to help understand the relationship between PTSD and chronic pain. It is possible that targeting pain-related acceptance, committed action, and cognitive fusion (among other processes) in the treatment of chronic pain may produce corresponding improvements in comorbid symptoms of PTSD when these are present and may reduce impacts of PTSD on outcomes of chronic pain. Conversely, targeting of these processes in the treatment of PTSD may produce similar improvements for symptoms of chronic pain. Further research to evaluate these possibilities is needed.

Improved segregation of simultaneous talkers differentially affects perceptual and cognitive capacity demands for recognizing speech in competing speech.

PubMed

Francis, Alexander L

2010-02-01

Perception of speech in competing speech is facilitated by spatial separation of the target and distracting speech, but this benefit may arise at either a perceptual or a cognitive level of processing. Load theory predicts different effects of perceptual and cognitive (working memory) load on selective attention in flanker task contexts, suggesting that this paradigm may be used to distinguish levels of interference. Two experiments examined interference from competing speech during a word recognition task under different perceptual and working memory loads in a dual-task paradigm. Listeners identified words produced by a talker of one gender while ignoring a talker of the other gender. Perceptual load was manipulated using a nonspeech response cue, with response conditional upon either one or two acoustic features (pitch and modulation). Memory load was manipulated with a secondary task consisting of one or six visually presented digits. In the first experiment, the target and distractor were presented at different virtual locations (0 degrees and 90 degrees , respectively), whereas in the second, all the stimuli were presented from the same apparent location. Results suggest that spatial cues improve resistance to distraction in part by reducing working memory demand.

Conflict adaptation in positive and negative mood: Applying a success-failure manipulation.

PubMed

Schuch, Stefanie; Zweerings, Jana; Hirsch, Patricia; Koch, Iring

2017-05-01

Conflict adaptation is a cognitive mechanism denoting increased cognitive control upon detection of conflict. This mechanism can be measured by the congruency sequence effect, indicating the reduction of congruency effects after incongruent trials (where response conflict occurs) relative to congruent trials (without response conflict). Several studies have reported increased conflict adaptation under negative, as compared to positive, mood. In these studies, sustained mood states were induced by film clips or music combined with imagination techniques; these kinds of mood manipulations are highly obvious, possibly distorting the actual mood states experienced by the participants. Here, we report two experiments where mood states were induced in a less obvious way, and with higher ecological validity. Participants received success or failure feedback on their performance in a bogus intelligence test, and this mood manipulation proved highly effective. We largely replicated previous findings of larger conflict adaptation under negative mood than under positive mood, both with a Flanker interference paradigm (Experiment 1) and a Stroop-like interference paradigm (Experiment 2). Results are discussed with respect to current theories on affective influences on cognitive control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neural Mechanisms of Interference Control Underlie the Relationship Between Fluid Intelligence and Working Memory Span

PubMed Central

Burgess, Gregory C.; Gray, Jeremy R.; Conway, Andrew R. A.; Braver, Todd S.

2014-01-01

Fluid intelligence (gF) and working memory (WM) span predict success in demanding cognitive situations. Recent studies show that much of the variance in gF and WM span is shared, suggesting common neural mechanisms. This study provides a direct investigation of the degree to which shared variance in gF and WM span can be explained by neural mechanisms of interference control. We measured performance and fMRI activity in 102 participants during the n-back WM task, focusing on the selective activation effects associated with high-interference lure trials. Brain activity on these trials was correlated with gF, WM span, and task performance in core brain regions linked to WM and executive control, including bilateral dorsolateral PFC (middle frontal gyrus, BA9) and parietal cortex (inferior parietal cortex; BA 40/7). Interference-related performance and interference-related activity accounted for a significant proportion of the shared variance in gF and WM span. Path analyses indicate that interference control activity may affect gF through a common set of processes that also influence WM span. These results suggest that individual differences in interference control mechanisms are important for understanding the relationship between gF and WM span. PMID:21787103

Proactive Interference Does Not Meaningfully Distort Visual Working Memory Capacity Estimates in the Canonical Change Detection Task

PubMed Central

Lin, Po-Han; Luck, Steven J.

2012-01-01

The change detection task has become a standard method for estimating the storage capacity of visual working memory. Most researchers assume that this task isolates the properties of an active short-term storage system that can be dissociated from long-term memory systems. However, long-term memory storage may influence performance on this task. In particular, memory traces from previous trials may create proactive interference that sometimes leads to errors, thereby reducing estimated capacity. Consequently, the capacity of visual working memory may be higher than is usually thought, and correlations between capacity and other measures of cognition may reflect individual differences in proactive interference rather than individual differences in the capacity of the short-term storage system. Indeed, previous research has shown that change detection performance can be influenced by proactive interference under some conditions. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the canonical version of the change detection task – in which the to-be-remembered information consists of simple, briefly presented features – is influenced by proactive interference. Two experiments were conducted using methods that ordinarily produce substantial evidence of proactive interference, but no proactive interference was observed. Thus, the canonical version of the change detection task can be used to assess visual working memory capacity with no meaningful influence of proactive interference. PMID:22403556

Proactive interference does not meaningfully distort visual working memory capacity estimates in the canonical change detection task.

PubMed

Lin, Po-Han; Luck, Steven J

2012-01-01

The change detection task has become a standard method for estimating the storage capacity of visual working memory. Most researchers assume that this task isolates the properties of an active short-term storage system that can be dissociated from long-term memory systems. However, long-term memory storage may influence performance on this task. In particular, memory traces from previous trials may create proactive interference that sometimes leads to errors, thereby reducing estimated capacity. Consequently, the capacity of visual working memory may be higher than is usually thought, and correlations between capacity and other measures of cognition may reflect individual differences in proactive interference rather than individual differences in the capacity of the short-term storage system. Indeed, previous research has shown that change detection performance can be influenced by proactive interference under some conditions. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the canonical version of the change detection task - in which the to-be-remembered information consists of simple, briefly presented features - is influenced by proactive interference. Two experiments were conducted using methods that ordinarily produce substantial evidence of proactive interference, but no proactive interference was observed. Thus, the canonical version of the change detection task can be used to assess visual working memory capacity with no meaningful influence of proactive interference.

Event-related potentials dissociate facilitation and interference effects in the numerical Stroop paradigm.

PubMed

Szucs, Dénes; Soltész, Fruzsina

2007-11-05

In the numerical Stroop paradigm (NSP) participants compare simultaneously presented Arabic digits based on either their numerical or on their physical size dimension. Responses are faster when the numerical and size dimensions are congruent with each other (facilitation), and responses are slower when the numerical and size dimensions are incongruent with each other (interference). We aimed to find out whether facilitation and interference appears during the course of perceptual or response processing. To this end, facilitation and interference effects in the amplitude of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were examined. The onset of motor preparation was determined by monitoring the lateralized readiness potential. In numerical comparison one facilitation effect was related to perceptual processing at the level of the magnitude representation. A second facilitation effect and interference effects appeared during response processing. In size comparison facilitation and interference appeared exclusively during response processing. In both tasks, ERP interference effects were probably related to contextual analysis and to the conflict monitoring and selection for action activity of the anterior cingulate cortex. The results demonstrate that facilitation and interference effects in the NSP appear during multiple stages of processing, and that they are related to different cognitive processes. Therefore these effects should be clearly separated in studies of the NSP. A model of the processes involved in the NSP is provided and implications for studies of the NSP are drawn.

Reduced interference in working memory following mindfulness training is associated with increases in hippocampal volume.

PubMed

Greenberg, Jonathan; Romero, Victoria L; Elkin-Frankston, Seth; Bezdek, Matthew A; Schumacher, Eric H; Lazar, Sara W

2018-03-17

Proactive interference occurs when previously relevant information interferes with retaining newer material. Overcoming proactive interference has been linked to the hippocampus and deemed critical for cognitive functioning. However, little is known about whether and how this ability can be improved or about the neural correlates of such improvement. Mindfulness training emphasizes focusing on the present moment and minimizing distraction from competing thoughts and memories. It improves working memory and increases hippocampal density. The current study examined whether mindfulness training reduces proactive interference in working memory and whether such improvements are associated with changes in hippocampal volume. 79 participants were randomized to a 4-week web-based mindfulness training program or a similarly structured creative writing active control program. The mindfulness group exhibited lower proactive interference error rates compared to the active control group following training. No group differences were found in hippocampal volume, yet proactive interference improvements following mindfulness training were significantly associated with volume increases in the left hippocampus. These results provide the first evidence to suggest that (1) mindfulness training can protect against proactive interference, and (2) that these benefits are related to hippocampal volumetric increases. Clinical implications regarding the application of mindfulness training in conditions characterized by impairments to working memory and reduced hippocampal volume such as aging, depression, PTSD, and childhood adversity are discussed.

A qualitative study of interference with communicative participation across communication disorders in adults.

PubMed

Baylor, Carolyn; Burns, Michael; Eadie, Tanya; Britton, Deanna; Yorkston, Kathryn

2011-11-01

To explore the similarities and differences in self-reported restrictions in communicative participation across different communication disorders in community-dwelling adults. Interviews were conducted with 44 adults representing 7 different medical conditions: spasmodic dysphonia, multiple sclerosis, stroke, stuttering, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and laryngectomy. This article represents a secondary analysis of qualitative data collected in cognitive interviews during development of the Communicative Participation Item Bank. The data were analyzed to identify themes in participants' experiences related to communicative participation. Participants described many situations in which they experienced interference in communicative participation. Two themes emerged from the data. The first theme was Interference is both "functional" and "emotional," in which participants defined interference as limitations in accomplishing tasks and emotional consequences. The second theme was "It depends"-sources of interference, in which participants described many variables that contribute to interference in participation. Participants had limited control of some variables such as symptoms and environmental contexts, but personal decisions and priorities also influenced participation. Despite different impairments and activity limitations, participants described similar communicative participation restrictions. These similarities may have theoretical and clinical implications in terms of how we assess, treat, and study the participation restrictions associated with communication disorders.

Cognitive biases in binge eating disorder: the hijacking of decision making.

PubMed

Voon, Valerie

2015-12-01

Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common of eating disorders and is characterized by excessive, out-of-control, rapid food intake. This review focuses on cognitive impairments in BED, which represent an endophenotype that mediates brain function and behavior. Here we focus on reviewing impulsivity, compulsivity, attentional biases to food cues, and executive function. Behavioral regulation in BED appears to be influenced by the context of motivationally salient food cues and the degree of obesity. Deficits in delay discounting and risk taking under ambiguity are impaired in obesity irrespective of BED status. However, in BED subjects with milder obesity, greater risk seeking under explicit probabilistic risk is observed to monetary rewards, whereas this shifts to risk aversion and enhanced delay discounting in more severe obesity. Relative to non-BED obese subjects, BED is characterized by enhanced behavioral inflexibility or compulsivity across multiple domains, with subjects selecting the same choices despite change in relevance (set shifting), being no longer rewarding (habit formation), or irrespective of outcome (perseveration). The context of food cues was associated with multiple attentional and early and late inhibitory impairments and enhanced memory bias, although BED patients also have generalized cognitive interference in working memory. These findings may help explain the phenotype of binge eating. Motivationally salient food cues provoke attentional and memory biases along with impairing response inhibitory processes. Those with BED are also more susceptible to cognitive interference and have impaired decisional impulsivity, with the tendency to inflexibly stick with the same choices irrespective of changes in context. These findings suggest critical cognitive domains that may guide therapeutic interventions.

Building a Framework for a Dual Task Taxonomy

PubMed Central

McIsaac, Tara L.; Lamberg, Eric M.; Muratori, Lisa M.

2015-01-01

The study of dual task interference has gained increasing attention in the literature for the past 35 years, with six MEDLINE citations in 1979 growing to 351 citations indexed in 2014 and a peak of 454 cited papers in 2013. Increasingly, researchers are examining dual task cost in individuals with pathology, including those with neurodegenerative diseases. While the influence of these papers has extended from the laboratory to the clinic, the field has evolved without clear definitions of commonly used terms and with extreme variations in experimental procedures. As a result, it is difficult to examine the interference literature as a single body of work. In this paper we present a new taxonomy for classifying cognitive-motor and motor-motor interference within the study of dual task behaviors that connects traditional concepts of learning and principles of motor control with current issues of multitasking analysis. As a first step in the process we provide an operational definition of dual task, distinguishing it from a complex single task. We present this new taxonomy, inclusive of both cognitive and motor modalities, as a working model; one that we hope will generate discussion and create a framework from which one can view previous studies and develop questions of interest. PMID:25961027

Shared Processing of Language and Music.

PubMed

Atherton, Ryan P; Chrobak, Quin M; Rauscher, Frances H; Karst, Aaron T; Hanson, Matt D; Steinert, Steven W; Bowe, Kyra L

2018-01-01

The present study sought to explore whether musical information is processed by the phonological loop component of the working memory model of immediate memory. Original instantiations of this model primarily focused on the processing of linguistic information. However, the model was less clear about how acoustic information lacking phonological qualities is actively processed. Although previous research has generally supported shared processing of phonological and musical information, these studies were limited as a result of a number of methodological concerns (e.g., the use of simple tones as musical stimuli). In order to further investigate this issue, an auditory interference task was employed. Specifically, participants heard an initial stimulus (musical or linguistic) followed by an intervening stimulus (musical, linguistic, or silence) and were then asked to indicate whether a final test stimulus was the same as or different from the initial stimulus. Results indicated that mismatched interference conditions (i.e., musical - linguistic; linguistic - musical) resulted in greater interference than silence conditions, with matched interference conditions producing the greatest interference. Overall, these results suggest that processing of linguistic and musical information draws on at least some of the same cognitive resources.

Computational Constraints in Cognitive Theories of Forgetting

PubMed Central

Ecker, Ullrich K. H.; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2012-01-01

This article highlights some of the benefits of computational modeling for theorizing in cognition. We demonstrate how computational models have been used recently to argue that (1) forgetting in short-term memory is based on interference not decay, (2) forgetting in list-learning paradigms is more parsimoniously explained by a temporal distinctiveness account than by various forms of consolidation, and (3) intrusion asymmetries that appear when information is learned in different contexts can be explained by temporal context reinstatement rather than labilization and reconsolidation processes. PMID:23091467

Properties of centralized cooperative sensing in cognitive radio networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skokowski, Paweł; Malon, Krzysztof; Łopatka, Jerzy

2017-04-01

Spectrum sensing is a functionality that enables network creation in the cognitive radio technology. Spectrum sensing is use for building the situation awareness knowledge for better use of radio resources and to adjust network parameters in case of jamming, interferences from legacy systems, decreasing link quality caused e.g. by nodes positions changes. This paper presents results from performed tests to compare cooperative centralized sensing versus local sensing. All tests were performed in created simulator developed in Matlab/Simulink environment.

Gait, posture and cognition in Parkinson's disease

PubMed Central

Barbosa, Alessandra Ferreira; Chen, Janini; Freitag, Fernanda; Valente, Debora; Souza, Carolina de Oliveira; Voos, Mariana Callil; Chien, Hsin Fen

2016-01-01

Gait disorders and postural instability are the leading causes of falls and disability in Parkinson's disease (PD). Cognition plays an important role in postural control and may interfere with gait and posture assessment and treatment. It is important to recognize gait, posture and balance dysfunctions by choosing proper assessment tools for PD. Patients at higher risk of falling must be referred for rehabilitation as early as possible, because antiparkinsonian drugs and surgery do not improve gait and posture in PD. PMID:29213470

Computational constraints in cognitive theories of forgetting.

PubMed

Ecker, Ullrich K H; Lewandowsky, Stephan

2012-01-01

This article highlights some of the benefits of computational modeling for theorizing in cognition. We demonstrate how computational models have been used recently to argue that (1) forgetting in short-term memory is based on interference not decay, (2) forgetting in list-learning paradigms is more parsimoniously explained by a temporal distinctiveness account than by various forms of consolidation, and (3) intrusion asymmetries that appear when information is learned in different contexts can be explained by temporal context reinstatement rather than labilization and reconsolidation processes.

Analytical results for the statistical distribution related to a memoryless deterministic walk: dimensionality effect and mean-field models.

PubMed

Terçariol, César Augusto Sangaletti; Martinez, Alexandre Souto

2005-08-01

Consider a medium characterized by N points whose coordinates are randomly generated by a uniform distribution along the edges of a unitary d-dimensional hypercube. A walker leaves from each point of this disordered medium and moves according to the deterministic rule to go to the nearest point which has not been visited in the preceding mu steps (deterministic tourist walk). Each trajectory generated by this dynamics has an initial nonperiodic part of t steps (transient) and a final periodic part of p steps (attractor). The neighborhood rank probabilities are parametrized by the normalized incomplete beta function Id= I1/4 [1/2, (d+1) /2] . The joint distribution S(N) (mu,d) (t,p) is relevant, and the marginal distributions previously studied are particular cases. We show that, for the memory-less deterministic tourist walk in the euclidean space, this distribution is Sinfinity(1,d) (t,p) = [Gamma (1+ I(-1)(d)) (t+ I(-1)(d) ) /Gamma(t+p+ I(-1)(d)) ] delta(p,2), where t=0, 1,2, ... infinity, Gamma(z) is the gamma function and delta(i,j) is the Kronecker delta. The mean-field models are the random link models, which correspond to d-->infinity, and the random map model which, even for mu=0 , presents nontrivial cycle distribution [ S(N)(0,rm) (p) proportional to p(-1) ] : S(N)(0,rm) (t,p) =Gamma(N)/ {Gamma[N+1- (t+p) ] N( t+p)}. The fundamental quantities are the number of explored points n(e)=t+p and Id. Although the obtained distributions are simple, they do not follow straightforwardly and they have been validated by numerical experiments.

Transition Is Everyone's Job.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherman, Jill Z.; Osborn, Sandra R.

Vocationally at-risk students have one or a combination of handicaps affecting mobility, coordination, communication, self-care and/or cognition which may significantly interfere with the goals of successful student-to-adult transition, namely employment, productive work, and independent community living. A program for students with physical…

Intellectual Disabilities and Hearing Loss

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herer, Gilbert R.

2012-01-01

Undetected/untreated hearing loss imposes significant limitations upon individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). It can interfere with cognitive development, impede communicative and social interactions, and limit vocational aspirations. Over the past decade, the hearing of 9961 people with ID was evaluated at Special Olympics sports…

Psychology in the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jennings, Gretchen; Craig, Michelle L.

1997-01-01

Describes an exhibition-based activity set that teaches important psychological processes such as attention (Interference), communication (Pattern Talk), and cooperation versus competition (Do Nice Guys Finish Last?). Activities follow the scientific method, and teachers can observe varying levels of skill and cognitive development in students of…

Intermediate Cognitive Phenotypes in Bipolar Disorder

PubMed Central

Langenecker, Scott A.; Saunders, Erika F.H.; Kade, Allison M.; Ransom, Michael T.; McInnis, Melvin G.

2013-01-01

Background Intermediate cognitive phenotypes (ICPs) are measurable and quantifiable states that may be objectively assessed in a standardized method, and can be integrated into association studies, including genetic, biochemical, clinical, and imaging based correlates. The present study used neuropsychological measures as ICPs, with factor scores in executive functioning, attention, memory, fine motor function, and emotion processing, similar to prior work in schizophrenia. Methods Healthy control subjects (HC, n=34) and euthymic (E, n=66), depressed (D, n=43), or hypomanic/mixed (HM, n=13) patients with bipolar disorder (BD) were assessed with neuropsychological tests. These were from eight domains consistent with previous literature; auditory memory, visual memory, processing speed with interference resolution, verbal fluency and processing speed, conceptual reasoning and set-shifting, inhibitory control, emotion processing, and fine motor dexterity. Results Of the eight factor scores, the HC group outperformed the E group in three (Processing Speed with Interference Resolution, Visual Memory, Fine Motor Dexterity), the D group in seven (all except Inhibitory Control), and the HM group in four (Inhibitory Control, Processing Speed with Interference Resolution, Fine Motor Dexterity, and Auditory Memory). Limitations The HM group was relatively small, thus effects of this phase of illness may have been underestimated. Effects of medication could not be fully controlled without a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Conclusions Use of the factor scores can assist in determining ICPs for BD and related disorders, and may provide more specific targets for development of new treatments. We highlight strong ICPs (Processing Speed with Interference Resolution, Visual Memory, Fine Motor Dexterity) for further study, consistent with the existing literature. PMID:19800130

Modulations of the executive control network by stimulus onset asynchrony in a Stroop task

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Manipulating task difficulty is a useful way of elucidating the functional recruitment of the brain’s executive control network. In a Stroop task, pre-exposing the irrelevant word using varying stimulus onset asynchronies (‘negative’ SOAs) modulates the amount of behavioural interference and facilitation, suggesting disparate mechanisms of cognitive processing in each SOA. The current study employed a Stroop task with three SOAs (−400, -200, 0 ms), using functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate for the first time the neural effects of SOA manipulation. Of specific interest were 1) how SOA affects the neural representation of interference and facilitation; 2) response priming effects in negative SOAs; and 3) attentional effects of blocked SOA presentation. Results The results revealed three regions of the executive control network that were sensitive to SOA during Stroop interference; the 0 ms SOA elicited the greatest activation of these areas but experienced relatively smaller behavioural interference, suggesting that the enhanced recruitment led to more efficient conflict processing. Response priming effects were localized to the right inferior frontal gyrus, which is consistent with the idea that this region performed response inhibition in incongruent conditions to overcome the incorrectly-primed response, as well as more general action updating and response preparation. Finally, the right superior parietal lobe was sensitive to blocked SOA presentation and was most active for the 0 ms SOA, suggesting that this region is involved in attentional control. Conclusions SOA exerted both trial-specific and block-wide effects on executive processing, providing a unique paradigm for functional investigations of the cognitive control network. PMID:23902451

Acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions for the treatment of chronic pain: a meta-analytic review.

PubMed

Veehof, M M; Trompetter, H R; Bohlmeijer, E T; Schreurs, K M G

2016-01-01

The number of acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions for chronic pain, such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), increased in recent years. Therefore an update is warranted of our former systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that reported effects on the mental and physical health of chronic pain patients. Pubmed, EMBASE, PsycInfo and Cochrane were searched for eligible studies. Current meta-analysis only included randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Studies were rated for quality. Mean quality did not improve in recent years. Pooled standardized mean differences using the random-effect model were calculated to represent the average intervention effect and, to perform subgroup analyses. Outcome measures were pain intensity, depression, anxiety, pain interference, disability and quality of life. Included were twenty-five RCTs totaling 1285 patients with chronic pain, in which we compared acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions to the waitlist, (medical) treatment-as-usual, and education or support control groups. Effect sizes ranged from small (on all outcome measures except anxiety and pain interference) to moderate (on anxiety and pain interference) at post-treatment and from small (on pain intensity and disability) to large (on pain interference) at follow-up. ACT showed significantly higher effects on depression and anxiety than MBSR and MBCT. Studies' quality, attrition rate, type of pain and control group, did not moderate the effects of acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions. Current acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions, while not superior to traditional cognitive behavioral treatments, can be good alternatives.

Stroop performance, dissociation, and trauma exposure in a community sample of children.

PubMed

DePrince, Anne P; Weinzierl, Kristin M; Combs, Melody D

2008-01-01

Extending previous research with adults, the current study examined Stroop task performance under selective and divided attention demands in a community sample of school-age children (N = 97). Stroop interference scores in both attention conditions were calculated. Higher levels of child-reported dissociation were associated with better interference control under divided attention conditions and worse control under selective attention conditions; lower levels of dissociation were associated with the opposite pattern. Both family violence exposure and Stroop interaction scores explained unique variance in dissociation scores. Although research with adults has generally assumed or implied that cognitive correlates of dissociation are a consequence of dissociation, the current findings with school-age children suggest that future research should evaluate executive function performance (in this case, interference control) as a possible risk factor for dissociation.

Individual differences in control of language interference in late bilinguals are mainly related to general executive abilities

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Recent research based on comparisons between bilinguals and monolinguals postulates that bilingualism enhances cognitive control functions, because the parallel activation of languages necessitates control of interference. In a novel approach we investigated two groups of bilinguals, distinguished by their susceptibility to cross-language interference, asking whether bilinguals with strong language control abilities ("non-switchers") have an advantage in executive functions (inhibition of irrelevant information, problem solving, planning efficiency, generative fluency and self-monitoring) compared to those bilinguals showing weaker language control abilities ("switchers"). Methods 29 late bilinguals (21 women) were evaluated using various cognitive control neuropsychological tests [e.g., Tower of Hanoi, Ruff Figural Fluency Task, Divided Attention, Go/noGo] tapping executive functions as well as four subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. The analysis involved t-tests (two independent samples). Non-switchers (n = 16) were distinguished from switchers (n = 13) by their performance observed in a bilingual picture-naming task. Results The non-switcher group demonstrated a better performance on the Tower of Hanoi and Ruff Figural Fluency task, faster reaction time in a Go/noGo and Divided Attention task, and produced significantly fewer errors in the Tower of Hanoi, Go/noGo, and Divided Attention tasks when compared to the switchers. Non-switchers performed significantly better on two verbal subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (Information and Similarity), but not on the Performance subtests (Picture Completion, Block Design). Conclusions The present results suggest that bilinguals with stronger language control have indeed a cognitive advantage in the administered tests involving executive functions, in particular inhibition, self-monitoring, problem solving, and generative fluency, and in two of the intelligence tests. What remains unclear is the direction of the relationship between executive functions and language control abilities. PMID:20180956

Age-Related Differences in Dynamic Interactions Among Default Mode, Frontoparietal Control, and Dorsal Attention Networks during Resting-State and Interference Resolution.

PubMed

Avelar-Pereira, Bárbara; Bäckman, Lars; Wåhlin, Anders; Nyberg, Lars; Salami, Alireza

2017-01-01

Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) can identify large-scale brain networks, including the default mode (DMN), frontoparietal control (FPN) and dorsal attention (DAN) networks. Interactions among these networks are critical for supporting complex cognitive functions, yet the way in which they are modulated across states is not well understood. Moreover, it remains unclear whether these interactions are similarly affected in aging regardless of cognitive state. In this study, we investigated age-related differences in functional interactions among the DMN, FPN and DAN during rest and the Multi-Source Interference task (MSIT). Networks were identified using independent component analysis (ICA), and functional connectivity was measured during rest and task. We found that the FPN was more coupled with the DMN during rest and with the DAN during the MSIT. The degree of FPN-DMN connectivity was lower in older compared to younger adults, whereas no age-related differences were observed in FPN-DAN connectivity in either state. This suggests that dynamic interactions of the FPN are stable across cognitive states. The DMN and DAN were anti correlated and age-sensitive during the MSIT only, indicating variation in a task-dependent manner. Increased levels of anticorrelation from rest to task also predicted successful interference resolution. Additional analyses revealed that the degree of DMN-DAN anticorrelation during the MSIT was associated to resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) within the DMN. This suggests that reduced DMN neural activity during rest underlies an impaired ability to achieve higher levels of anticorrelation during a task. Taken together, our results suggest that only parts of age-related differences in connectivity are uncovered at rest and thus, should be studied in the functional connectome across multiple states for a more comprehensive picture.

Age-Related Differences in Dynamic Interactions Among Default Mode, Frontoparietal Control, and Dorsal Attention Networks during Resting-State and Interference Resolution

PubMed Central

Avelar-Pereira, Bárbara; Bäckman, Lars; Wåhlin, Anders; Nyberg, Lars; Salami, Alireza

2017-01-01

Resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) can identify large-scale brain networks, including the default mode (DMN), frontoparietal control (FPN) and dorsal attention (DAN) networks. Interactions among these networks are critical for supporting complex cognitive functions, yet the way in which they are modulated across states is not well understood. Moreover, it remains unclear whether these interactions are similarly affected in aging regardless of cognitive state. In this study, we investigated age-related differences in functional interactions among the DMN, FPN and DAN during rest and the Multi-Source Interference task (MSIT). Networks were identified using independent component analysis (ICA), and functional connectivity was measured during rest and task. We found that the FPN was more coupled with the DMN during rest and with the DAN during the MSIT. The degree of FPN-DMN connectivity was lower in older compared to younger adults, whereas no age-related differences were observed in FPN-DAN connectivity in either state. This suggests that dynamic interactions of the FPN are stable across cognitive states. The DMN and DAN were anti correlated and age-sensitive during the MSIT only, indicating variation in a task-dependent manner. Increased levels of anticorrelation from rest to task also predicted successful interference resolution. Additional analyses revealed that the degree of DMN-DAN anticorrelation during the MSIT was associated to resting cerebral blood flow (CBF) within the DMN. This suggests that reduced DMN neural activity during rest underlies an impaired ability to achieve higher levels of anticorrelation during a task. Taken together, our results suggest that only parts of age-related differences in connectivity are uncovered at rest and thus, should be studied in the functional connectome across multiple states for a more comprehensive picture. PMID:28588476

An Acute Bout of Exercise Improves the Cognitive Performance of Older Adults.

PubMed

Johnson, Liam; Addamo, Patricia K; Selva Raj, Isaac; Borkoles, Erika; Wyckelsma, Victoria; Cyarto, Elizabeth; Polman, Remco C

2016-10-01

There is evidence that an acute bout of exercise confers cognitive benefits, but it is largely unknown what the optimal mode and duration of exercise is and how cognitive performance changes over time after exercise. We compared the cognitive performance of 31 older adults using the Stroop test before, immediately after, and at 30 and 60 min after a 10 and 30 min aerobic or resistance exercise session. Heart rate and feelings of arousal were also measured before, during, and after exercise. We found that, independent of mode or duration of exercise, the participants improved in the Stroop Inhibition task immediately postexercise. We did not find that exercise influenced the performance of the Stroop Color or Stroop Word Interference tasks. Our findings suggest that an acute bout of exercise can improve cognitive performance and, in particular, the more complex executive functioning of older adults.

High Dynamic Range Cognitive Radio Front Ends: Architecture to Evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ashok, Arun; Subbiah, Iyappan; Varga, Gabor; Schrey, Moritz; Heinen, Stefan

2016-07-01

Advent of TV white space digitization has released frequencies from 470 MHz to 790 MHz to be utilized opportunistically. The secondary user can utilize these so called TV spaces in the absence of primary users. The most important challenge for this coexistence is mutual interference. While the strong TV stations can completely saturate the receiver of the cognitive radio (CR), the cognitive radio spurious tones can disturb other primary users and white space devices. The aim of this paper is to address the challenges for enabling cognitive radio applications in WLAN and LTE. In this process, architectural considerations for the design of cognitive radio front ends are discussed. With high-IF converters, faster and flexible implementation of CR enabled WLAN and LTE are shown. The effectiveness of the architecture is shown by evaluating the CR front ends for compliance of standards namely 802.11b/g (WLAN) and 3GPP TS 36.101 (LTE).

Leading-Edge Research or Lost Cause?: The Search for Interscriptual Stroop Effects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Philippa Jane

1991-01-01

Reviews studies on cross-orthographic Stroop interference tests. Critiques one of the first cross-orthographic Stroop studies to describe how such studies have been used to explore cognitive mechanisms involved in reading. Reviews conceptual and methodological flaws in the research. (PRA)

Age-related decline in cognitive control: the role of fluid intelligence and processing speed

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Research on cognitive control suggests an age-related decline in proactive control abilities whereas reactive control seems to remain intact. However, the reason of the differential age effect on cognitive control efficiency is still unclear. This study investigated the potential influence of fluid intelligence and processing speed on the selective age-related decline in proactive control. Eighty young and 80 healthy older adults were included in this study. The participants were submitted to a working memory recognition paradigm, assessing proactive and reactive cognitive control by manipulating the interference level across items. Results Repeated measures ANOVAs and hierarchical linear regressions indicated that the ability to appropriately use cognitive control processes during aging seems to be at least partially affected by the amount of available cognitive resources (assessed by fluid intelligence and processing speed abilities). Conclusions This study highlights the potential role of cognitive resources on the selective age-related decline in proactive control, suggesting the importance of a more exhaustive approach considering the confounding variables during cognitive control assessment. PMID:24401034

Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Mitigation Strategies of Cognitive Deficits in Aging with HIV: Implications for Practice and Research

PubMed Central

Vance, David E.

2013-01-01

Highly active antiretroviral therapy has given the chance to those living with HIV to keep on living, allowing them the opportunity to age and perhaps age successfully. Yet, there are severe challenges to successful aging with HIV, one of which is cognitive deficits. Nearly half of those with HIV experience cognitive deficits that can interfere with everyday functioning, medical decision making, and quality of life. Given that cognitive deficits develop with more frequency and intensity with increasing age, concerns mount that as people age with HIV, they may experience more severe cognitive deficits. These concerns become especially germane given that by 2015, 50% of those with HIV will be 50 and older, and this older cohort of adults is expected to grow. As such, this paper focuses on the etiologies of such cognitive deficits within the context of cognitive reserve and neuroplasticity. From this, evidence-based and hypothetical prevention (i.e., cognitive prescriptions), rehabilitation (i.e., speed of processing training), and mitigation (i.e., spaced retrieval method) strategies are reviewed. Implications for nursing practice and research are posited. PMID:23431469

Adaptive power allocation schemes based on IAFS algorithm for OFDM-based cognitive radio systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Shuying; Zhao, Xiaohui; Liang, Cong; Ding, Xu

2017-01-01

In cognitive radio (CR) systems, reasonable power allocation can increase transmission rate of CR users or secondary users (SUs) as much as possible and at the same time insure normal communication among primary users (PUs). This study proposes an optimal power allocation scheme for the OFDM-based CR system with one SU influenced by multiple PU interference constraints. This scheme is based on an improved artificial fish swarm (IAFS) algorithm in combination with the advantage of conventional artificial fish swarm (ASF) algorithm and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm. In performance comparison of IAFS algorithm with other intelligent algorithms by simulations, the superiority of the IAFS algorithm is illustrated; this superiority results in better performance of our proposed scheme than that of the power allocation algorithms proposed by the previous studies in the same scenario. Furthermore, our proposed scheme can obtain higher transmission data rate under the multiple PU interference constraints and the total power constraint of SU than that of the other mentioned works.

The wandering self: Tracking distracting self-generated thought in a cognitively demanding context.

PubMed

Huijser, Stefan; van Vugt, Marieke K; Taatgen, Niels A

2018-02-01

We investigated how self-referential processing (SRP) affected self-generated thought in a complex working memory task (CWM) to test the predictions of a computational cognitive model. This model described self-generated thought as resulting from competition between task- and distracting processes, and predicted that self-generated thought interferes with rehearsal, reducing memory performance. SRP was hypothesized to influence this goal competition process by encouraging distracting self-generated thinking. We used a spatial CWM task to examine if SRP instigated such thoughts, and employed eye-tracking to examine rehearsal interference in eye-movement and self-generated thinking in pupil size. The results showed that SRP was associated with lower performance and higher rates of self-generated thought. Self-generated thought was associated with less rehearsal and we observed a smaller pupil size for mind wandering. We conclude that SRP can instigate self-generated thought and that goal competition provides a likely explanation for how self-generated thoughts arises in a demanding task. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Spontaneous attentional fluctuations in impaired states and pathological conditions: a neurobiological hypothesis.

PubMed

Sonuga-Barke, Edmund J S; Castellanos, F Xavier

2007-01-01

In traditional accounts, fluctuations in sustained and focused attention and associated attentional lapses during task performance are regarded as the result of failures of top-down and effortful higher order processes. The current paper reviews an alternative hypothesis: that spontaneous patterns of very low frequency (<0.1 Hz) coherence within a specific brain network ('default-mode network') thought to support a pattern of generalized task-non-specific cognition during rest, can persist or intrude into periods of active task-specific processing, producing periodic fluctuations in attention that compete with goal-directed activity. We review recent studies supporting the existence of the resting state default network, examine the mechanism underpinning it, describe the consequent temporally distinctive effects on cognition and behaviour of default-mode interference into active processing periods, and suggest some factors that might predispose to it. Finally, we explore the putative role of default-mode interference as a cause of performance variability in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Towards a Cognitive Radar: Canada's Third-Generation High Frequency Surface Wave Radar (HFSWR) for Surveillance of the 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

PubMed

Ponsford, Anthony; McKerracher, Rick; Ding, Zhen; Moo, Peter; Yee, Derek

2017-07-07

Canada's third-generation HFSWR forms the foundation of a maritime domain awareness system that provides enforcement agencies with real-time persistent surveillance out to and beyond the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Cognitive sense-and-adapt technology and dynamic spectrum management ensures robust and resilient operation in the highly congested High Frequency (HF) band. Dynamic spectrum access enables the system to simultaneously operate on two frequencies on a non-interference and non-protected basis, without impacting other spectrum users. Sense-and-adapt technologies ensure that the system instantaneously switches to a new vacant channel on the detection of another user or unwanted jamming signal. Adaptive signal processing techniques mitigate against electrical noise, interference and clutter. Sense-and-adapt techniques applied at the detector and tracker stages maximize the probability of track initiation whilst minimizing the probability of false or otherwise erroneous track data.

An Investigation of the Reliability and Self-Regulatory Correlates of Conflict Adaptation.

PubMed

Feldman, Julia L; Freitas, Antonio L

2016-07-01

The study of the conflict-adaptation effect, in which encountering information-processing conflict attenuates the disruptive influence of information-processing conflicts encountered subsequently, is a burgeoning area of research. The present study investigated associations among performance measures on a Stroop-trajectory task (measuring Stroop interference and conflict adaptation), on a Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST; measuring cognitive flexibility), and on self-reported measures of self-regulation (including impulsivity and tenacity). We found significant reliability of the conflict-adaptation effects across a two-week period, for response-time and accuracy. Variability in conflict adaptation was not associated significantly with any indicators of performance on the WCST or with most of the self-reported self-regulation measures. There was substantial covariance between Stroop interference for accuracy and conflict adaptation for accuracy. The lack of evidence of covariance across distinct aspects of cognitive control (conflict adaptation, WCST performance, self-reported self-control) may reflect the operation of relatively independent component processes.

You don't have to believe everything you read: background knowledge permits fast and efficient validation of information.

PubMed

Richter, Tobias; Schroeder, Sascha; Wöhrmann, Britta

2009-03-01

In social cognition, knowledge-based validation of information is usually regarded as relying on strategic and resource-demanding processes. Research on language comprehension, in contrast, suggests that validation processes are involved in the construction of a referential representation of the communicated information. This view implies that individuals can use their knowledge to validate incoming information in a routine and efficient manner. Consistent with this idea, Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that individuals are able to reject false assertions efficiently when they have validity-relevant beliefs. Validation processes were carried out routinely even when individuals were put under additional cognitive load during comprehension. Experiment 3 demonstrated that the rejection of false information occurs automatically and interferes with affirmative responses in a nonsemantic task (epistemic Stroop effect). Experiment 4 also revealed complementary interference effects of true information with negative responses in a nonsemantic task. These results suggest the existence of fast and efficient validation processes that protect mental representations from being contaminated by false and inaccurate information.

Attentional adjustment to conflict strength: evidence from the effects of manipulating flanker-target SOA on response times and prestimulus pupil size.

PubMed

Wendt, Mike; Kiesel, Andrea; Geringswald, Franziska; Purmann, Sascha; Fischer, Rico

2014-01-01

Current models of cognitive control assume gradual adjustment of processing selectivity to the strength of conflict evoked by distractor stimuli. Using a flanker task, we varied conflict strength by manipulating target and distractor onset. Replicating previous findings, flanker interference effects were larger on trials associated with advance presentation of the flankers compared to simultaneous presentation. Controlling for stimulus and response sequence effects by excluding trials with feature repetitions from stimulus administration (Experiment 1) or from the statistical analyses (Experiment 2), we found a reduction of the flanker interference effect after high-conflict predecessor trials (i.e., trials associated with advance presentation of the flankers) but not after low-conflict predecessor trials (i.e., trials associated with simultaneous presentation of target and flankers). This result supports the assumption of conflict-strength-dependent adjustment of visual attention. The selective adaptation effect after high-conflict trials was associated with an increase in prestimulus pupil diameter, possibly reflecting increased cognitive effort of focusing attention.

Towards a Cognitive Radar: Canada’s Third-Generation High Frequency Surface Wave Radar (HFSWR) for Surveillance of the 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone

PubMed Central

Ponsford, Anthony; McKerracher, Rick; Ding, Zhen; Moo, Peter; Yee, Derek

2017-01-01

Canada’s third-generation HFSWR forms the foundation of a maritime domain awareness system that provides enforcement agencies with real-time persistent surveillance out to and beyond the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Cognitive sense-and-adapt technology and dynamic spectrum management ensures robust and resilient operation in the highly congested High Frequency (HF) band. Dynamic spectrum access enables the system to simultaneously operate on two frequencies on a non-interference and non-protected basis, without impacting other spectrum users. Sense-and-adapt technologies ensure that the system instantaneously switches to a new vacant channel on the detection of another user or unwanted jamming signal. Adaptive signal processing techniques mitigate against electrical noise, interference and clutter. Sense-and-adapt techniques applied at the detector and tracker stages maximize the probability of track initiation whilst minimizing the probability of false or otherwise erroneous track data. PMID:28686198

How personal earthquake experience impacts on the Stroop interference effect: an event-related potential study.

PubMed

Qiu, Jiang; Su, Yanhua; Li, Hong; Wei, Dongtao; Tu, Shen; Zhang, Qinglin

2010-11-01

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured when 24 Chinese subjects performed the classical Stroop task. All of subjects had experienced the great Sichuan earthquake (5/12), with 12 people in each of the Far (Chengdu city) and the Close (Deyang city) earthquake experience groups. The behavioral data showed that the Stroop task yielded a robust Stroop interference effect as indexed by longer RT for incongruent than congruent color words in both the Chengdu and Deyang groups. Scalp ERP data showed that incongruent stimuli elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N400-600; Stroop interference effect) than did congruent stimuli between 400-600 ms in the Chengdu group, while the Stroop interference ERP effect was not found in the Deyang group. Dipole source analysis localized the generator of the N400-600 in the right prefrontal cortex (PFC) and was possibly related to conflict monitoring and cognitive control. Copyright © 2010 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

Integrating cognitive bias modification into a standard cognitive behavioural treatment package for social phobia: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Rapee, Ronald M; MacLeod, Colin; Carpenter, Leigh; Gaston, Jonathan E; Frei, Jacqueline; Peters, Lorna; Baillie, Andrew J

2013-05-01

The aim of the current study was to integrate recent developments in the retraining of attentional biases towards threat into a standard cognitive behavioural treatment package for social phobia. 134 participants (M age-32.4: 53% female) meeting DSM-IV criteria for social phobia received a 12-week cognitive behavioural treatment program. They were randomly allocated to receive on a daily basis using home practice, either an additional computerised probe procedure designed to train attentional resource allocation away from threat, or a placebo variant of this procedure. Measures included diagnostic severity, social anxiety symptoms, life interference, and depression as well as state anxiety in response to a laboratory social threat. At the end of treatment there were no significant differences between groups in attentional bias towards threat or in treatment response (all p's>0.05). Both groups showed similar and highly significant reductions in diagnostic severity, social anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and life interference at post-treatment that was maintained and in most cases increased at 6 month follow-up (uncontrolled effect sizes ranged from d=0.34 to d=1.90). The current results do not indicate that integration of information processing-derived attentional bias modification procedures into standard treatment packages as conducted in this study augments attentional change or enhances treatment efficacy. Further refinement of bias modification techniques, and better methods of integrating them with conventional approaches, may be needed to produce better effects. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reactive and proactive interference control in adults with autism spectrum disorder across the lifespan.

PubMed

Lever, Anne G; Ridderinkhof, K Richard; Marsman, Maarten; Geurts, Hilde M

2017-02-01

As a large heterogeneity is observed across studies on interference control in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), research may benefit from the use of a cognitive framework that models specific processes underlying reactive and proactive control of interference. Reactive control refers to the expression and suppression of responses and proactive control refers to the adjustment of response to previous situations. We administered a Simon conflict task in 2 independent adult samples (IQ >80) and applied distributional analyses to examine temporal dynamics of interference control in ASD. Along comparable interference effects in both reactive and proactive control, young men (n = 23, 18-36 years) diagnosed with ASD made as many fast errors on conflict trials as neurotypical controls (n = 19) and showed similar suppression on slow responses (Study 1). However, over the adult life span (19-79 years), individuals with ASD (n = 118) made fewer fast errors on conflict trials, and had overall slower and more accurate responses than controls (n = 160; Study 2). These results converge to the idea that individuals with ASD adopt a more cautious response bias over the adult life span, which is not yet observed among young adults. Our findings suggest that it is fruitful to distinguish different processes involved in interference control and contribute to an increased understanding of interference control mechanisms in adults with ASD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Time Correlations in Mode Hopping of Coupled Oscillators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heltberg, Mathias L.; Krishna, Sandeep; Jensen, Mogens H.

2017-05-01

We study the dynamics in a system of coupled oscillators when Arnold Tongues overlap. By varying the initial conditions, the deterministic system can be attracted to different limit cycles. Adding noise, the mode hopping between different states become a dominating part of the dynamics. We simplify the system through a Poincare section, and derive a 1D model to describe the dynamics. We explain that for some parameter values of the external oscillator, the time distribution of occupancy in a state is exponential and thus memoryless. In the general case, on the other hand, it is a sum of exponential distributions characteristic of a system with time correlations.

Kurtosis Approach Nonlinear Blind Source Separation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duong, Vu A.; Stubbemd, Allen R.

2005-01-01

In this paper, we introduce a new algorithm for blind source signal separation for post-nonlinear mixtures. The mixtures are assumed to be linearly mixed from unknown sources first and then distorted by memoryless nonlinear functions. The nonlinear functions are assumed to be smooth and can be approximated by polynomials. Both the coefficients of the unknown mixing matrix and the coefficients of the approximated polynomials are estimated by the gradient descent method conditional on the higher order statistical requirements. The results of simulation experiments presented in this paper demonstrate the validity and usefulness of our approach for nonlinear blind source signal separation Keywords: Independent Component Analysis, Kurtosis, Higher order statistics.

Some practical universal noiseless coding techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rice, R. F.

1979-01-01

Some practical adaptive techniques for the efficient noiseless coding of a broad class of such data sources are developed and analyzed. Algorithms are designed for coding discrete memoryless sources which have a known symbol probability ordering but unknown probability values. A general applicability of these algorithms to solving practical problems is obtained because most real data sources can be simply transformed into this form by appropriate preprocessing. These algorithms have exhibited performance only slightly above all entropy values when applied to real data with stationary characteristics over the measurement span. Performance considerably under a measured average data entropy may be observed when data characteristics are changing over the measurement span.

A qualitative study of interference with communicative participation across communication disorders in adults

PubMed Central

Baylor, Carolyn; Burns, Michael; Eadie, Tanya; Britton, Deanna; Yorkston, Kathryn

2012-01-01

Purpose To explore the similarities and differences in self-reported restrictions in communicative participation across different communication disorders in community-dwelling adults. Methods Interviews were conducted with 44 adults representing seven different medical conditions: spasmodic dysphonia, multiple sclerosis, stroke, stuttering, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and laryngectomy. This paper represents a secondary analysis of qualitative data collected in cognitive interviews during development of the Communicative Participation Item Bank. The data were analyzed to identify themes in participants’ experiences related to communicative participation. Results Participants described many situations in which they experienced interference in communicative participation. Two themes emerged from the data. The first theme was Interference is both “functional” and “emotional” in which participants defined interference as limitations in accomplishing tasks and emotional consequences. The second theme was “It depends” - Sources of interference in which participants described many variables that contribute to interference in participation. Participants had limited control of some variables such as symptoms and environmental contexts, but personal decisions and priorities also influenced participation. Conclusions Despite different impairments and activity limitations, participants described similar communicative participation restrictions. These similarities may have theoretical and clinical implications in terms of how we assess, treat and study the participation restrictions associated with communication disorders. PMID:21813820

Social reinforcement can regulate localized brain activity.

PubMed

Mathiak, Krystyna A; Koush, Yury; Dyck, Miriam; Gaber, Tilman J; Alawi, Eliza; Zepf, Florian D; Zvyagintsev, Mikhail; Mathiak, Klaus

2010-11-01

Social learning is essential for adaptive behavior in humans. Neurofeedback based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) trains control over localized brain activity. It can disentangle learning processes at the neural level and thus investigate the mechanisms of operant conditioning with explicit social reinforcers. In a pilot study, a computer-generated face provided a positive feedback (smiling) when activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) increased and gradually returned to a neutral expression when the activity dropped. One female volunteer without previous experience in fMRI underwent training based on a social reinforcer. Directly before and after the neurofeedback runs, neural responses to a cognitive interference task (Simon task) were recorded. We observed a significant increase in activity within ACC during the neurofeedback blocks, correspondent with the a-priori defined anatomical region of interest. In the course of the neurofeedback training, the subject learned to regulate ACC activity and could maintain the control even without direct feedback. Moreover, ACC was activated significantly stronger during Simon task after the neurofeedback training when compared to before. Localized brain activity can be controlled by social reward. The increased ACC activity transferred to a cognitive task with the potential to reduce cognitive interference. Systematic studies are required to explore long-term effects on social behavior and clinical applications.

Effects of concurrent cognitive processing on the fluency of word repetition: comparison between persons who do and do not stutter.

PubMed

Bosshardt, Hans-Georg

2002-01-01

This study investigated how silent reading and word memorization may affect the fluency of concurrently repeated words. The words silently read or memorized were phonologically similar or dissimilar to the words of the repetition task. Fourteen adults who stutter and 16 who do not participated in the experiment. The two groups were matched for age, education, sex, forward and backward memory span and vocabulary. It was found that the disfluencies of persons who stutter significantly increased during word repetition when similar words were read or memorized concurrently. In contrast, the disfluencies of persons who do not stutter were not significantly affected by either secondary task. These results indicate that the speech of persons who stutter is more sensitive to interference from concurrently performed cognitive processing than that of nonstuttering persons. It is proposed that the phonological and articulatory systems of persons who stutter are protected less efficiently from interference by attention-demanding processing within the central executive system. Alternative interpretations are also discussed. Readers will learn how modern speech production theories and the concept of modularity can account for stuttering, and will be able to explain the greater vulnerability of stutterer's speech fluency to concurrent cognitive processing.

Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) enhances conflict-triggered adjustment of cognitive control.

PubMed

Fischer, Rico; Ventura-Bort, Carlos; Hamm, Alfons; Weymar, Mathias

2018-04-24

Response conflicts play a prominent role in the flexible adaptation of behavior as they represent context-signals that indicate the necessity for the recruitment of cognitive control. Previous studies have highlighted the functional roles of the affectively aversive and arousing quality of the conflict signal in triggering the adaptation process. To further test this potential link with arousal, participants performed a response conflict task in two separate sessions with either transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS), which is assumed to activate the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NE) system, or with neutral sham stimulation. In both sessions the N2 and P3 event-related potentials (ERP) were assessed. In line with previous findings, conflict interference, the N2 and P3 amplitude were reduced after conflict. Most importantly, this adaptation to conflict was enhanced under tVNS compared to sham stimulation for conflict interference and the N2 amplitude. No effect of tVNS on the P3 component was found. These findings suggest that tVNS increases behavioral and electrophysiological markers of adaptation to conflict. Results are discussed in the context of the potentially underlying LC-NE and other neuromodulatory (e.g., GABA) systems. The present findings add important pieces to the understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms of conflict-triggered adjustment of cognitive control.

Emotional conflict processing in adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome: A pilot study using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

PubMed

Wortinger, Laura Anne; Endestad, Tor; Melinder, Annika Maria D; Øie, Merete Glenne; Sulheim, Dag; Fagermoen, Even; Wyller, Vegard Bruun

2017-05-01

Studies of neurocognition suggest that abnormalities in cognitive control contribute to the pathophysiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in adolescents, yet these abnormalities remain poorly understood at the neurobiological level. Reports indicate that adolescents with CFS are significantly impaired in conflict processing, a primary element of cognitive control. In this study, we examine whether emotional conflict processing is altered on behavioral and neural levels in adolescents with CFS and a healthy comparison group. Fifteen adolescent patients with CFS and 24 healthy adolescent participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an emotional conflict task that involved categorizing facial affect while ignoring overlaid affect labeled words. Adolescent CFS patients were less able to engage the left amygdala and left midposterior insula (mpINS) in response to conflict than the healthy comparison group. An association between accuracy interference and conflict-related reactivity in the amygdala was observed in CFS patients. A relationship between response time interference and conflict-related reactivity in the mpINS was also reported. Neural responses in the amygdala and mpINS were specific to fatigue severity. These data demonstrate that adolescent CFS patients displayed deficits in emotional conflict processing. Our results suggest abnormalities in affective and cognitive functioning of the salience network, which might underlie the pathophysiology of adolescent CFS.

Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children in Different Sociolinguistic Contexts.

PubMed

Blom, Elma; Boerma, Tessel; Bosma, Evelyn; Cornips, Leonie; Everaert, Emma

2017-01-01

Many studies have shown that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tasks testing executive functioning, but other studies have not revealed any effect of bilingualism. In this study we compared three groups of bilingual children in the Netherlands, aged 6-7 years, with a monolingual control group. We were specifically interested in testing whether the bilingual cognitive advantage is modulated by the sociolinguistic context of language use. All three bilingual groups were exposed to a minority language besides the nation's dominant language (Dutch). Two bilingual groups were exposed to a regional language (Frisian, Limburgish), and a third bilingual group was exposed to a migrant language (Polish). All children participated in two working memory tasks (verbal, visuospatial) and two attention tasks (selective attention, interference suppression). Bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on selective attention. The cognitive effect of bilingualism was most clearly present in the Frisian-Dutch group and in a subgroup of migrant children who were relatively proficient in Polish. The effect was less robust in the Limburgish-Dutch sample. Investigation of the response patterns of the flanker test, testing interference suppression, suggested that bilingual children more often show an effect of response competition than the monolingual children, demonstrating that bilingual children attend to different aspects of the task than monolingual children. No bilingualism effects emerged for verbal and visuospatial working memory.

Waveguide Modulator for Interference Tolerant Functional Near Infrared Spectrometer (fNIRS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Walton, Joanne; Tin, Padetha; Mackey, Jeffrey

2017-01-01

Many crew-related errors in aviation and astronautics are caused by hazardous cognitive states including overstress, disengagement, high fatigue and ineffective crew coordination. Safety can be improved by monitoring and predicting these cognitive states in a non-intrusive manner and designing mitigation strategies. Measuring hemoglobin concentration changes in the brain with functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy is a promising technique for monitoring cognitive state and optimizing human performance during both space and aviation operations. A compact, wearable fNIRS system would provide an innovative early warning system during long duration missions to detect and prevent vigilance decrements in pilots and astronauts. This effort focused on developing a waveguide modulator for use in a fNIRS system.

Auditory working memory load impairs visual ventral stream processing: toward a unified model of attentional load.

PubMed

Klemen, Jane; Büchel, Christian; Bühler, Mira; Menz, Mareike M; Rose, Michael

2010-03-01

Attentional interference between tasks performed in parallel is known to have strong and often undesired effects. As yet, however, the mechanisms by which interference operates remain elusive. A better knowledge of these processes may facilitate our understanding of the effects of attention on human performance and the debilitating consequences that disruptions to attention can have. According to the load theory of cognitive control, processing of task-irrelevant stimuli is increased by attending in parallel to a relevant task with high cognitive demands. This is due to the relevant task engaging cognitive control resources that are, hence, unavailable to inhibit the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli. However, it has also been demonstrated that a variety of types of load (perceptual and emotional) can result in a reduction of the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli, suggesting a uniform effect of increased load irrespective of the type of load. In the present study, we concurrently presented a relevant auditory matching task [n-back working memory (WM)] of low or high cognitive load (1-back or 2-back WM) and task-irrelevant images at one of three object visibility levels (0%, 50%, or 100%). fMRI activation during the processing of the task-irrelevant visual stimuli was measured in the lateral occipital cortex and found to be reduced under high, compared to low, WM load. In combination with previous findings, this result is suggestive of a more generalized load theory, whereby cognitive load, as well as other types of load (e.g., perceptual), can result in a reduction of the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli, in line with a uniform effect of increased load irrespective of the type of load.

Load-Dependent Interference of Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus with Switching from Automatic to Controlled Processing During Random Number Generation in Parkinson's Disease.

PubMed

Williams, Isobel Anne; Wilkinson, Leonora; Limousin, Patricia; Jahanshahi, Marjan

2015-01-01

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN DBS) ameliorates the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, some aspects of executive control are impaired with STN DBS. We tested the prediction that (i) STN DBS interferes with switching from automatic to controlled processing during fast-paced random number generation (RNG) (ii) STN DBS-induced cognitive control changes are load-dependent. Fifteen PD patients with bilateral STN DBS performed paced-RNG, under three levels of cognitive load synchronised with a pacing stimulus presented at 1, 0.5 and 0.33 Hz (faster rates require greater cognitive control), with DBS on or off. Measures of output randomness were calculated. Countscore 1 (CS1) indicates habitual counting in steps of one (CS1). Countscore 2 (CS2) indicates a more controlled strategy of counting in twos. The fastest rate was associated with an increased CS1 score with STN DBS on compared to off. At the slowest rate, patients had higher CS2 scores with DBS off than on, such that the differences between CS1 and CS2 scores disappeared. We provide evidence for a load-dependent effect of STN DBS on paced RNG in PD. Patients could switch to more controlled RNG strategies during conditions of low cognitive load at slower rates only when the STN stimulators were off, but when STN stimulation was on, they engaged in more automatic habitual counting under increased cognitive load. These findings are consistent with the proposal that the STN implements a switch signal from the medial frontal cortex which enables a shift from automatic to controlled processing.

Load-Dependent Interference of Deep Brain Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus with Switching from Automatic to Controlled Processing During Random Number Generation in Parkinson’s Disease

PubMed Central

Williams, Isobel Anne; Wilkinson, Leonora; Limousin, Patricia; Jahanshahi, Marjan

2015-01-01

Background: Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN DBS) ameliorates the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, some aspects of executive control are impaired with STN DBS. Objective: We tested the prediction that (i) STN DBS interferes with switching from automatic to controlled processing during fast-paced random number generation (RNG) (ii) STN DBS-induced cognitive control changes are load-dependent. Methods: Fifteen PD patients with bilateral STN DBS performed paced-RNG, under three levels of cognitive load synchronised with a pacing stimulus presented at 1, 0.5 and 0.33 Hz (faster rates require greater cognitive control), with DBS on or off. Measures of output randomness were calculated. Countscore 1 (CS1) indicates habitual counting in steps of one (CS1). Countscore 2 (CS2) indicates a more controlled strategy of counting in twos. Results: The fastest rate was associated with an increased CS1 score with STN DBS on compared to off. At the slowest rate, patients had higher CS2 scores with DBS off than on, such that the differences between CS1 and CS2 scores disappeared. Conclusions: We provide evidence for a load-dependent effect of STN DBS on paced RNG in PD. Patients could switch to more controlled RNG strategies during conditions of low cognitive load at slower rates only when the STN stimulators were off, but when STN stimulation was on, they engaged in more automatic habitual counting under increased cognitive load. These findings are consistent with the proposal that the STN implements a switch signal from the medial frontal cortex which enables a shift from automatic to controlled processing. PMID:25720447

Sensory neural pathways revisited to unravel the temporal dynamics of the Simon effect: A model-based cognitive neuroscience approach.

PubMed

Salzer, Yael; de Hollander, Gilles; Forstmann, Birte U

2017-06-01

The Simon task is one of the most prominent interference tasks and has been extensively studied in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Despite years of research, the underlying mechanism driving the phenomenon and its temporal dynamics are still disputed. Within the framework of the review, we adopt a model-based cognitive neuroscience approach. We first go over key findings in the literature of the Simon task, discuss competing qualitative cognitive theories and the difficulty of testing them empirically. We then introduce sequential sampling models, a particular class of mathematical cognitive process models. Finally, we argue that the brain architecture accountable for the processing of spatial ('where') and non-spatial ('what') information, could constrain these models. We conclude that there is a clear need to bridge neural and behavioral measures, and that mathematical cognitive models may facilitate the construction of this bridge and work towards revealing the underlying mechanisms of the Simon effect. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cerebrospinal fluid norepinephrine and cognition in subjects across the adult age span

PubMed Central

Wang, Lucy Y.; Murphy, Richard R.; Hanscom, Brett; Li, Ge; Millard, Steven P.; Petrie, Eric C.; Galasko, Douglas R.; Sikkema, Carl; Raskind, Murray A.; Wilkinson, Charles W.; Peskind, Elaine R.

2013-01-01

Adequate central nervous system noradrenergic activity enhances cognition, but excessive noradrenergic activity may have adverse effects on cognition. Previous studies have also demonstrated that noradrenergic activity is higher in older than younger adults. We aimed to determine relationships between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) norepinephrine (NE) concentration and cognitive performance by using data from a CSF bank that includes samples from 258 cognitively normal participants aged 21–100 years. After adjusting for age, gender, education, and ethnicity, higher CSF NE levels (units of 100 pg/mL) are associated with poorer performance on tests of attention, processing speed, and executive function (Trail Making A: regression coefficient 1.5, standard error [SE] 0.77, p = 0.046; Trail Making B: regression coefficient 5.0, SE 2.2, p = 0.024; Stroop Word-Color Interference task: regression coefficient 6.1, SE 2.0, p = 0.003). Findings are consistent with the earlier literature relating excess noradrenergic activity with cognitive impairment. PMID:23639207

Cerebrospinal fluid norepinephrine and cognition in subjects across the adult age span.

PubMed

Wang, Lucy Y; Murphy, Richard R; Hanscom, Brett; Li, Ge; Millard, Steven P; Petrie, Eric C; Galasko, Douglas R; Sikkema, Carl; Raskind, Murray A; Wilkinson, Charles W; Peskind, Elaine R

2013-10-01

Adequate central nervous system noradrenergic activity enhances cognition, but excessive noradrenergic activity may have adverse effects on cognition. Previous studies have also demonstrated that noradrenergic activity is higher in older than younger adults. We aimed to determine relationships between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) norepinephrine (NE) concentration and cognitive performance by using data from a CSF bank that includes samples from 258 cognitively normal participants aged 21-100 years. After adjusting for age, gender, education, and ethnicity, higher CSF NE levels (units of 100 pg/mL) are associated with poorer performance on tests of attention, processing speed, and executive function (Trail Making A: regression coefficient 1.5, standard error [SE] 0.77, p = 0.046; Trail Making B: regression coefficient 5.0, SE 2.2, p = 0.024; Stroop Word-Color Interference task: regression coefficient 6.1, SE 2.0, p = 0.003). Findings are consistent with the earlier literature relating excess noradrenergic activity with cognitive impairment. Published by Elsevier Inc.

[Subjective cognition in schizophrenia].

PubMed

Potvin, S; Aubin, G; Stip, E

2017-02-01

Given the extent, magnitude and functional significance of the neurocognitive deficits of schizophrenia, growing attention has been paid recently to patients' self-awareness of their own deficits. Thus far, the literature has shown either that patients fail to recognize their cognitive deficits or that the association between subjective and objective cognition is weak in schizophrenia. The reasons for this lack of consistency remain unexplained but may have to do, among others, with the influence of potential confounding clinical variables and the choice of the scale used to measure self-awareness of cognitive deficits. In the current study, we sought to examine the relationships between subjective and objective cognitive performance in schizophrenia, while controlling for the influence of sociodemographic and psychiatric variables. Eighty-two patients with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder (DSM-IV criteria) were recruited. Patients' subjective cognitive complaints were evaluated with the Subjective Scale to Investigate Cognition in Schizophrenia (SSTICS), the most frequently used scale to measure self-awareness of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Neurocognition was evaluated with working memory, planning and visual learning tasks taken from Cambridge Neuropsychological Tests Automated Battery. The Stroop Color-Word test was also administered. Psychiatric symptoms were evaluated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia. The relationships between subjective and objective cognition were evaluated with multivariate hierarchic linear regression analyses, taking into consideration potential confounders such as sociodemographic and psychiatric variables. Finally, a factor analysis of the SSTICS was performed. For the SSTICS total score, the regression analysis produced a model including two predictors, namely visual learning and Stoop interference performance, explaining a moderate portion of the variance. Visual learning performance was the most consistent predictor of most SSTICS subscores (e.g. episodic memory, attention, executive functioning, language and praxis). Modest associations were found between the PANSS cognitive factor and objective cognition (e.g. Stroop interference, visual learning, and working memory). Finally, the factor analysis revealed a 6-factor solution that echoes the classification of the items of the SSTICS based on the neuropsychological literature. Using a scale having good internal validity, as shown by the factor analysis, the current study highlighted modest associations between subjective and objective cognitive performance, which suggests that schizophrenia patients are only partially aware of their own cognitive deficits. The results also showed a lack of correspondence between the impaired cognitive domain and the domain of cognitive awareness. It should be noted that clinicians were not better than patients at evaluating their cognitive deficits. Future research will need to determine if the observations reported here are schizophrenia-specific or not. Copyright © 2016 L'Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Cognitive-Motor Interference during Walking in Older Adults with Probable Mild Cognitive Impairment

PubMed Central

Klotzbier, Thomas J.; Schott, Nadja

2017-01-01

Although several studies have shown that dual-tasking (DT) mobility is impaired in Alzheimer's disease, studies on the effects of DT conditions in probable Mild Cognitive Impairment (pMCI) have not yielded unequivocal results. The objectives of the study were to (1) examine the effect of a concurrent task on a complex walking task in adults with cognitive impairment; and (2) determine whether the effect varied with different difficulty levels of the concurrent task. Furthermore, the study was designed to evaluate the Trail-Walking Test (TWT) as a potential detection tool for MCI. We examined DT performance in 42 young adults (mean age 23.9 ± 1.98), and 43 older adults (mean age 68.2 ± 6.42). The MoCA was used to stratify the subjects into those with and without pMCI. DT was assessed using the TWT: participants completed 5 trials each of walking along a fixed pathway, stepping on targets with increasing sequential numbers (i.e., 1-2-…-15), and increasing sequential numbers and letters (i.e., 1-A-2-B-3-…-8). Motor and cognitive DT effects (DTE) were calculated for each task. ROC curves were used to distinguish younger and healthy older adults from older adults with pMCI. The TWT showed excellent test-retest reliability across all conditions and groups (ICC : 0.83–0.97). SEM% was also low (<11%) as was the MDC95% (<30%). Within the DT conditions, the pMCI group showed significantly longer durations for all tasks regardless of the cognitive load compared to the younger and the healthy older adults. The motor DTEs were greatest for the complex condition in older adults with pMCI more so than in comparison with younger and healthy older adults. ROC analyses confirmed that only the tasks with higher cognitive load could differentiate older adults with pMCI from controls (area under the curve >0.7, p < 0.05). The TWT is a reliable DT mobility measure in people with pMCI. However, the condition with high cognitive load is more sensitive than the condition with low cognitive load in identifying pMCI. The TWT-3 thus could serve as a screening tool for early detection of individuals with pMCI. Future studies need to determine the neural correlates for cognitive-motor interference in older adults with pMCI. PMID:29321738

Cognitive-Motor Interference during Walking in Older Adults with Probable Mild Cognitive Impairment.

PubMed

Klotzbier, Thomas J; Schott, Nadja

2017-01-01

Although several studies have shown that dual-tasking (DT) mobility is impaired in Alzheimer's disease, studies on the effects of DT conditions in probable Mild Cognitive Impairment (pMCI) have not yielded unequivocal results. The objectives of the study were to (1) examine the effect of a concurrent task on a complex walking task in adults with cognitive impairment; and (2) determine whether the effect varied with different difficulty levels of the concurrent task. Furthermore, the study was designed to evaluate the Trail-Walking Test (TWT) as a potential detection tool for MCI. We examined DT performance in 42 young adults (mean age 23.9 ± 1.98), and 43 older adults (mean age 68.2 ± 6.42). The MoCA was used to stratify the subjects into those with and without pMCI. DT was assessed using the TWT: participants completed 5 trials each of walking along a fixed pathway, stepping on targets with increasing sequential numbers (i.e., 1-2-…-15), and increasing sequential numbers and letters (i.e., 1-A-2-B-3-…-8). Motor and cognitive DT effects (DTE) were calculated for each task. ROC curves were used to distinguish younger and healthy older adults from older adults with pMCI. The TWT showed excellent test-retest reliability across all conditions and groups (ICC : 0.83-0.97). SEM% was also low (<11%) as was the MDC95% (<30%). Within the DT conditions, the pMCI group showed significantly longer durations for all tasks regardless of the cognitive load compared to the younger and the healthy older adults. The motor DTEs were greatest for the complex condition in older adults with pMCI more so than in comparison with younger and healthy older adults. ROC analyses confirmed that only the tasks with higher cognitive load could differentiate older adults with pMCI from controls (area under the curve >0.7, p < 0.05). The TWT is a reliable DT mobility measure in people with pMCI. However, the condition with high cognitive load is more sensitive than the condition with low cognitive load in identifying pMCI. The TWT-3 thus could serve as a screening tool for early detection of individuals with pMCI. Future studies need to determine the neural correlates for cognitive-motor interference in older adults with pMCI.

The Role of Cognitive Content and Cognitive Processes in Chronic Pain: An Important Distinction?

PubMed

Jensen, Mark P; Thorn, Beverly E; Carmody, James; Keefe, Francis J; Burns, John W

2018-05-01

Pain-related cognitive content (what people think about pain) and cognitive processes (how people think about pain; what they do with their pain-related thoughts) and their interaction are hypothesized to play distinct roles in patient function. However, questions have been raised regarding whether it is possible or practical to assess cognitive content and cognitive process as distinct domains. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which measures that seem to assess mostly pain-related cognitive content, cognitive processes, and content and process, are relatively independent from each other and contribute unique variance to the prediction of patient function. Individuals with chronic low back pain (N=165) participating in an ongoing RCT were administered measures of cognitions, pain, and function (depressive symptoms and pain interference) pretreatment. Analyses provided support for the hypothesis that cognitive content and cognitive process, while related, can be assessed as distinct components. However, the measure assessing a cognitive process-mindfulness-evidenced relatively weak associations with function, especially compared with the stronger and more consistent findings for the measures of content (catastrophizing and self-efficacy). The results provide preliminary evidence for the possibility that mindfulness could have both benefits and costs. Research to evaluate this possibility is warranted.

Environmental Toxicants and Developmental Disabilities: A Challenge for Psychologists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koger, Susan M.; Schettler, Ted; Weiss, Bernard

2005-01-01

Developmental, learning, and behavioral disabilities are a significant public health problem. Environmental chemicals can interfere with brain development during critical periods, thereby impacting sensory, motor, and cognitive function. Because regulation in the United States is based on limited testing protocols and essentially requires proof of…

Cognitive Dissonance as an Instructional Tool for Understanding Chemical Representations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corradi, David; Clarebout, Geraldine; Elen, Jan

2015-01-01

Previous research on multiple external representations (MER) indicates that sequencing representations (compared with presenting them as a whole) can, in some cases, increase conceptual understanding if there is interference between internal and external representations. We tested this mechanism by sequencing different combinations of scientific…

Representation of the contextual statistical model by hyperbolic amplitudes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Khrennikov, Andrei

We continue the development of a so-called contextual statistical model (here context has the meaning of a complex of physical conditions). It is shown that, besides contexts producing the conventional trigonometric cos-interference, there exist contexts producing the hyperbolic cos-interference. Starting with the corresponding interference formula of total probability we represent such contexts by hyperbolic probabilistic amplitudes or in the abstract formalism by normalized vectors of a hyperbolic analogue of the Hilbert space. There is obtained a hyperbolic Born's rule. Incompatible observables are represented by noncommutative operators. This paper can be considered as the first step towards hyperbolic quantum probability. Wemore » also discuss possibilities of experimental verification of hyperbolic quantum mechanics: in physics of elementary particles, string theory as well as in experiments with nonphysical systems, e.g., in psychology, cognitive sciences, and economy.« less

Representation of the contextual statistical model by hyperbolic amplitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khrennikov, Andrei

2005-06-01

We continue the development of a so-called contextual statistical model (here context has the meaning of a complex of physical conditions). It is shown that, besides contexts producing the conventional trigonometric cos-interference, there exist contexts producing the hyperbolic cos-interference. Starting with the corresponding interference formula of total probability we represent such contexts by hyperbolic probabilistic amplitudes or in the abstract formalism by normalized vectors of a hyperbolic analogue of the Hilbert space. There is obtained a hyperbolic Born's rule. Incompatible observables are represented by noncommutative operators. This paper can be considered as the first step towards hyperbolic quantum probability. We also discuss possibilities of experimental verification of hyperbolic quantum mechanics: in physics of elementary particles, string theory as well as in experiments with nonphysical systems, e.g., in psychology, cognitive sciences, and economy.

Cognitive capacity limitations and Need for Cognition differentially predict reward-induced cognitive effort expenditure.

PubMed

Sandra, Dasha A; Otto, A Ross

2018-03-01

While psychological, economic, and neuroscientific accounts of behavior broadly maintain that people minimize expenditure of cognitive effort, empirical work reveals how reward incentives can mobilize increased cognitive effort expenditure. Recent theories posit that the decision to expend effort is governed, in part, by a cost-benefit tradeoff whereby the potential benefits of mental effort can offset the perceived costs of effort exertion. Taking an individual differences approach, the present study examined whether one's executive function capacity, as measured by Stroop interference, predicts the extent to which reward incentives reduce switch costs in a task-switching paradigm, which indexes additional expenditure of cognitive effort. In accordance with the predictions of a cost-benefit account of effort, we found that a low executive function capacity-and, relatedly, a low intrinsic motivation to expend effort (measured by Need for Cognition)-predicted larger increase in cognitive effort expenditure in response to monetary reward incentives, while individuals with greater executive function capacity-and greater intrinsic motivation to expend effort-were less responsive to reward incentives. These findings suggest that an individual's cost-benefit tradeoff is constrained by the perceived costs of exerting cognitive effort. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Chang of cognitions and feelings during the process of procrastination].

PubMed

Kohama, Shun

2010-10-01

This study investigated change of cognitions and feelings before, during, and after the process of procrastination. A questionnaire was administered to 358 undergraduate students asking them to recall and rate their experience of procrastinating. The results revealed that negative feelings which take place during procrastination interfere with task performance. Planning before procrastination is associated with positive feelings after procrastination, and these positive feelings assist task performance. Optimistic thinking is positively related to both positive and negative feelings; the former take place during procrastination, and the latter take place after procrastination.

Understanding decimal proportions: discrete representations, parallel access, and privileged processing of zero.

PubMed

Varma, Sashank; Karl, Stacy R

2013-05-01

Much of the research on mathematical cognition has focused on the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, with considerably less attention paid to more abstract number classes. The current research investigated how people understand decimal proportions--rational numbers between 0 and 1 expressed in the place-value symbol system. The results demonstrate that proportions are represented as discrete structures and processed in parallel. There was a semantic interference effect: When understanding a proportion expression (e.g., "0.29"), both the correct proportion referent (e.g., 0.29) and the incorrect natural number referent (e.g., 29) corresponding to the visually similar natural number expression (e.g., "29") are accessed in parallel, and when these referents lead to conflicting judgments, performance slows. There was also a syntactic interference effect, generalizing the unit-decade compatibility effect for natural numbers: When comparing two proportions, their tenths and hundredths components are processed in parallel, and when the different components lead to conflicting judgments, performance slows. The results also reveal that zero decimals--proportions ending in zero--serve multiple cognitive functions, including eliminating semantic interference and speeding processing. The current research also extends the distance, semantic congruence, and SNARC effects from natural numbers to decimal proportions. These findings inform how people understand the place-value symbol system, and the mental implementation of mathematical symbol systems more generally. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Aversive emotional interference impacts behavior and prefronto-striatal activity during increasing attentional control.

PubMed

Papazacharias, Apostolos; Taurisano, Paolo; Fazio, Leonardo; Gelao, Barbara; Di Giorgio, Annabella; Lo Bianco, Luciana; Quarto, Tiziana; Mancini, Marina; Porcelli, Annamaria; Romano, Raffaella; Caforio, Grazia; Todarello, Orlando; Popolizio, Teresa; Blasi, Giuseppe; Bertolino, Alessandro

2015-01-01

Earlier studies have demonstrated that emotional stimulation modulates attentional processing during goal-directed behavior and related activity of a brain network including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the caudate nucleus. However, it is not clear how emotional interference modulates behavior and brain physiology during variation in attentional control, a relevant question for everyday life situations in which both emotional stimuli and cognitive load vary. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of negative emotions on behavior and activity in IFG and caudate nucleus during increasing levels of attentional control. Twenty two healthy subjects underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a task in which neutral or fearful facial expressions were displayed before stimuli eliciting increasing levels of attentional control processing. Results indicated slower reaction time (RT) and greater right IFG activity when fearful compared with neutral facial expressions preceded the low level of attentional control. On the other hand, fearful facial expressions preceding the intermediate level of attentional control elicited faster behavioral responses and greater activity in the right and left sides of the caudate. Finally, correlation analysis indicated a relationship between behavioral correlates of attentional control after emotional interference and right IFG activity. All together, these results suggest that the impact of negative emotions on attentional processing is differentially elicited at the behavioral and physiological levels as a function of cognitive load.

Aversive emotional interference impacts behavior and prefronto-striatal activity during increasing attentional control

PubMed Central

Papazacharias, Apostolos; Taurisano, Paolo; Fazio, Leonardo; Gelao, Barbara; Di Giorgio, Annabella; Lo Bianco, Luciana; Quarto, Tiziana; Mancini, Marina; Porcelli, Annamaria; Romano, Raffaella; Caforio, Grazia; Todarello, Orlando; Popolizio, Teresa; Blasi, Giuseppe; Bertolino, Alessandro

2015-01-01

Earlier studies have demonstrated that emotional stimulation modulates attentional processing during goal-directed behavior and related activity of a brain network including the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the caudate nucleus. However, it is not clear how emotional interference modulates behavior and brain physiology during variation in attentional control, a relevant question for everyday life situations in which both emotional stimuli and cognitive load vary. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of negative emotions on behavior and activity in IFG and caudate nucleus during increasing levels of attentional control. Twenty two healthy subjects underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a task in which neutral or fearful facial expressions were displayed before stimuli eliciting increasing levels of attentional control processing. Results indicated slower reaction time (RT) and greater right IFG activity when fearful compared with neutral facial expressions preceded the low level of attentional control. On the other hand, fearful facial expressions preceding the intermediate level of attentional control elicited faster behavioral responses and greater activity in the right and left sides of the caudate. Finally, correlation analysis indicated a relationship between behavioral correlates of attentional control after emotional interference and right IFG activity. All together, these results suggest that the impact of negative emotions on attentional processing is differentially elicited at the behavioral and physiological levels as a function of cognitive load. PMID:25954172

Motivational salience and genetic variability of dopamine D2 receptor expression interact in the modulation of interference processing

PubMed Central

Richter, Anni; Richter, Sylvia; Barman, Adriana; Soch, Joram; Klein, Marieke; Assmann, Anne; Libeau, Catherine; Behnisch, Gusalija; Wüstenberg, Torsten; Seidenbecher, Constanze I.; Schott, Björn H.

2013-01-01

Dopamine has been implicated in the fine-tuning of complex cognitive and motor function and also in the anticipation of future rewards. This dual function of dopamine suggests that dopamine might be involved in the generation of active motivated behavior. The DRD2 TaqIA polymorphism of the dopamine D2 receptor gene (rs1800497) has previously been suggested to affect striatal function with carriers of the less common A1 allele exhibiting reduced striatal D2 receptor density and increased risk for addiction. Here we aimed to investigate the influences of DRD2 TaqIA genotype on the modulation of interference processing by reward and punishment. Forty-six young, healthy volunteers participated in a behavioral experiment, and 32 underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants performed a flanker task with a motivation manipulation (monetary reward, monetary loss, neither, or both). Reaction times (RTs) were shorter in motivated flanker trials, irrespective of congruency. In the fMRI experiment motivation was associated with reduced prefrontal activation during incongruent vs. congruent flanker trials, possibly reflecting increased processing efficiency. DRD2 TaqIA genotype did not affect overall RTs, but interacted with motivation on the congruency-related RT differences, with A1 carriers showing smaller interference effects to reward alone and A2 homozygotes exhibiting a specific interference reduction during combined reward (REW) and punishment trials (PUN). In fMRI, anterior cingulate activity showed a similar pattern of genotype-related modulation. Additionally, A1 carriers showed increased anterior insula activation relative to A2 homozygotes. Our results point to a role for genetic variations of the dopaminergic system in individual differences of cognition-motivation interaction. PMID:23760450

Validation and Application of the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory for Traditional Chinese Medicine (MDASI-TCM).

PubMed

Li, Zhandong; Shi, Qiuling; Liu, Meng; Jia, Liqun; He, Bin; Yang, Yufei; Liu, Jie; Lin, Hongsheng; Lin, Huei-Kai; Li, Pingping; Wang, Xin Shelley

2017-11-01

The MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI) is a brief, yet thorough, patient-reported outcomes measure for assessing the severity of common cancer-related symptoms and their interference with daily functioning. We report the development of an MDASI version tailored for use with Traditional Chinese Medicine in China (the MDASI-TCM). Chinese-speaking patients with mixed cancer types (n = 317) participated in the study. The development and validation process included four steps: 1) identify candidate TCM-specific items, with input from patients, oncologists, and TCM specialists; 2) eliminate candidate TCM items lacking relevance, based on patient report; 3) psychometrically examine the MDASI-TCM's validity and reliability in cancer patients receiving TCM-based care; and 4) cognitively debrief patients to assess the MDASI-TCM's relevance, understandability, and acceptability. Seven TCM-specific symptom items (sweating, feeling cold, constipation, bitter taste, coughing, palpitations, and heat in palms/soles) were clinically and psychometrically meaningful to add to the core MDASI. Approximately 61% of patients had moderate to severe symptoms (rated ≥5 on the MDASI-TCM's 0-10 scale). Cronbach α coefficients were .90 for symptom-severity items and .93 for interference items, indicating internal consistency reliability. Known-group validity was substantiated by the MDASI-TCM's detection of differences in symptom severity according to performance status (P < .001) and interference levels by cancer stage (P < .05). Cognitive debriefing indicated that patients found the MDASI-TCM to be an understandable, easy-to-use tool. The Chinese MDASI-TCM is a valid, reliable, and concise measure of symptom severity and interference that can be used to assess Chinese cancer patients and survivors receiving TCM-based care. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Understanding the mechanisms of cognitive impairments in developmental coordination disorder.

PubMed

Deng, Shining; Li, Wei-Guang; Ding, Jing; Wu, Jinlin; Zhang, Yuanyuan; Li, Fei; Shen, Xiaoming

2014-01-01

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD), a neurodevelopmental disability in which a child's motor coordination difficulties significantly interfere with activities of daily life or academic achievement, together with additional symptoms of diseases with childhood sensorimotor impairments, increases the risk of many cognitive problems. This exhibits the dynamic interplay between sensorimotor and cognition systems. However, the brain structures and pathways involved have remained unknown over the past decades. Here, we review developments in recent years that elucidate the neural mechanisms involved in the sensorimotor-cognitive difficulties. First, we briefly address the clinical and epidemiological discoveries in DCD as well as its comorbidities. Subsequently, we group the growing evidence including our findings that support the notion that sensorimotor manipulation indeed affects the cognition development at systematic, circuitry, cellular, and molecular levels. This corresponds to changes in diverse brain regions, synaptic plasticity, and neurotransmitter and receptor activity during development under these effects. Finally, we address the treatment potentials of task-oriented sensorimotor enhancement, as a new therapeutic strategy for cognitive rehabilitation, based on our current understanding of the neurobiology of cognitive-sensorimotor interaction.

Extreme cognitions are associated with diminished ability to use disconfirming evidence.

PubMed

Haigh, Matthew; Dodd, Alyson L

2017-03-01

An Integrative Cognitive Model of mood swings and bipolar disorder proposes that cognitive styles characterized by extreme self-referent appraisals of internal states (e.g., 'If I have a bad night's sleep it means that I am about to have a breakdown') interfere with mood regulation. The aim of this study is to determine whether strong endorsement of such appraisals is predicted by a diminished ability to access disconfirming counterexamples. We examined whether the ability to access two different categories of counterexample (known as Disabling Conditions and Alternative Causes) would predict endorsement of extreme appraisals (measured by the Hypomanic Attitudes and Positive Predictions Inventory; HAPPI) and mania risk (measured by the Hypomanic Personality Scale; HPS). A non-clinical sample of 150 students completed the HAPPI, the HPS and a conditional reasoning task that indexed the ability to access Disabling Conditions and Alternative Causes. Current mood was controlled for using the Internal States Scale. The ability to make use of disabling counterexamples during the reasoning task was inversely related with scores on the HAPPI (r = -.19, p < .05); participants that were less able to make use of disabling counterexamples endorsed extreme self-referent appraisals to a greater extent. There was no association between the use of alternative cause counterexamples and the HAPPI, and no association between either measure of counterexample generation and the HPS. A diminished ability to use disconfirming evidence when reasoning about the world may reinforce problematic cognitive styles such as extreme, personalized appraisals of experience, which can interfere with mood regulation. Problematic cognitive styles such as extreme, personalized appraisals of experience may be reinforced by the inability to produce or access evidence that disconfirms these maladaptive beliefs. This reasoning bias may be associated with cognitive styles underlying psychopathology. There may be clinical utility in exploring the use of disabler generation in psychological interventions, to help disconfirm maladaptive beliefs. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Atypical performance patterns on Delis-Kaplan Executive Functioning System Color-Word Interference Test: Cognitive switching and learning ability in older adults.

PubMed

Berg, Jody-Lynn; Swan, Natasha M; Banks, Sarah J; Miller, Justin B

2016-09-01

Cognitive set shifting requires flexible application of lower level processes. The Delis-Kaplan Executive Functioning System (DKEFS) Color-Word Interference Test (CWIT) is commonly used to clinically assess cognitive set shifting. An atypical pattern of performance has been observed on the CWIT; a subset of individuals perform faster, with equal or fewer errors, on the more difficult inhibition/switching than the inhibition trial. This study seeks to explore the cognitive underpinnings of this atypical pattern. It is hypothesized that atypical patterns on CWIT will be associated with better performance on underlying cognitive measures of attention, working memory, and learning when compared to typical CWIT patterns. Records from 239 clinical referrals (age: M = 68.09 years, SD = 10.62; education: M = 14.87 years, SD = 2.73) seen for a neuropsychological evaluation as part of diagnostic work up in an outpatient dementia and movement disorders clinic were sampled. The standard battery of tests included measures of attention, learning, fluency, executive functioning, and working memory. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted to compare the cognitive performance of those with typical versus atypical CWIT patterns. An atypical pattern of performance was confirmed in 23% of our sample. Analyses revealed a significant group difference in acquisition of information on both nonverbal (Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised, BVMT-R total recall), F(1, 213) = 16.61, p < .001, and verbal (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised, HVLT-R total recall) learning tasks, F(1, 181) = 6.43, p < .01, and semantic fluency (Animal Naming), F(1, 232) = 7.57, p = .006, with the atypical group performing better on each task. Effect sizes were larger for nonverbal (Cohen's d = 0.66) than verbal learning (Cohen's d = 0.47) and semantic fluency (Cohen's d = 0.43). Individuals demonstrating an atypical pattern of performance on the CWIT inhibition/switching trial also demonstrated relative strengths in semantic fluency and learning.

Effect of Behavioral Activation Treatment on Fibromyalgia-Related Pain Anxiety Cognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lundervold, Duane A.; Talley, Chris; Buermann, Michael

2006-01-01

Effects of Behavioral Activation Treatment (BAT) on pain anxiety, depression, and pain interference on a 43-year-old female with an 11-year history of chronic fibromyalgia pain are described. Analgesic, anxyiolytic, and antidepressant medications were stabilized prior to participation. Dependent measures were the Behavioral Relaxation Scale, a…

The Natural World as Understood by Selected College Students: A World View Methodological Exploration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cobern, William W.

World view variations potentially interfere with science education, particularly when instruction proceeds unaware of the importance of fundamental epistemological structure of learning. The research reported here specifically addresses the cognitive culture of women college students with respect to conceptualizations of nature, a delimitation of…

Multisensory Interference in Early Deaf Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heimler, Benedetta; Baruffaldi, Francesca; Bonmassar, Claudia; Venturini, Marta; Pavani, Francesco

2017-01-01

Multisensory interactions in deaf cognition are largely unexplored. Unisensory studies suggest that behavioral/neural changes may be more prominent for visual compared to tactile processing in early deaf adults. Here we test whether such an asymmetry results in increased saliency of vision over touch during visuo-tactile interactions. About 23…

Creating Workplaces Where People Can Think: Cognitive Ergonomics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kearny, Lynn; Smith, Phyl

1999-01-01

Presents ideas about how the workplace affects job performance, how to diagnose workplace-related problems, and how to make modest improvements. Highlights include: workplace-imposed limits on performance; the mental and physical steps of work; screening behavior; how adaptation interferes with performance; task- and human-based workspaces;…

Second-Language Learning in Early Childhood: Some Thoughts for Practitioners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLaughlin, Barry

There is much that can be done in early childhood education programs to foster second language learning in young children. The research literature on early childhood bilingualism clearly indicates that children can learn two languages simultaneously without apparent effort, without cognitive strain or interference in learning either language…

Different Levels of Learning Interact to Shape the Congruency Sequence Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weissman, Daniel H.; Hawks, Zoë W.; Egner, Tobias

2016-01-01

The congruency effect in distracter interference tasks is often reduced after incongruent relative to congruent trials. Moreover, this "congruency sequence effect" (CSE) is influenced by learning related to concrete stimulus and response features as well as by learning related to abstract cognitive control processes. There is an ongoing…

Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions: Steven F. Maier

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Psychologist, 2009

2009-01-01

Steven F. Maier, winner of the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions, is cited for his work in the fields of learned helplessness; cytokines, depressed mood, and cognitive interference; and the brain structures that produce and counteract learned helplessness. In addition to the citation, a biography and selected bibliography of Maier's…

The Metacognitive Model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Children and Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Danielle M.; Hudson, Jennifer L.

2010-01-01

Worry is a common phenomenon in children and adolescents, with some experiencing excessive worries that cause significant distress and interference. The metacognitive model of generalized anxiety disorder (Wells 1995, 2009) was developed to explain cognitive processes associated with pathological worry in adults, particularly the role of positive…

Machine Learning-Aided, Robust Wideband Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radios

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-12

to even Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. 2 on the order of a giga -Hertz (GHz). Due to wide bandwidth and noncontiguous...Frequency Band CS Compressive Sampling DFT Discrete Fourier Transform EMI Electro Magnetic Interference FFT Fast Fourier Transform GHz Giga Hertz Hz Hertz

Does Anthropogenic Noise in National Parks Impair Memory?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benfield, Jacob A.; Bell, Paul A.; Troup, Lucy J.; Soderstrom, Nick

2010-01-01

Research on noise shows that a variety of effects including stress, annoyance, and performance decrements exist for certain types of sounds. Noise interferes with cognitive ability by overloading the attentional system or simply distracting from efficient encoding or rehearsal, but very little research has extended those findings to recreation or…

The Spatial Focus of Attention Is Controlled at Perceptual and Cognitive Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caparos, Serge; Linnell, Karina J.

2010-01-01

Selective attention has been hypothesized to reduce distractor interference at both perceptual and postperceptual levels (Lavie, 2005), respectively, by focusing perceptual resources on the attended location and by blocking at postperceptual levels distractors that survive perceptual selection. This study measured the impact of load on these…

Poor Stroop performances in 15-year-old dyslexic teenagers.

PubMed

Kapoula, Zoï; Lê, Thanh-Thuan; Bonnet, Audrey; Bourtoire, Pauline; Demule, Emilie; Fauvel, Caroline; Quilicci, Catherine; Yang, Qing

2010-06-01

The Stroop test enables interference between color naming and reading to be studied. Protopapas et al. (2007) reported more errors in an interference task and longer reaction times in 12.5-year-old dyslexics; also more Stroop interference with lower reading skills. The present study uses a version of the Stroop with four color cards and aims to test interference and flexibility in older dyslexic teenagers. The four cards are: color naming, reading, interference and flexibility. In the latter, subjects have to name the color of the word inhibiting reading except when the word is inside a box. This flexibility task enables the testing of the capacity for cognitive switching between tasks. Ten dyslexics (15.1 +/- 0.7 years old) and fourteen controls (14.3 +/- 1.6 years old) participated in the study. All performed the color naming, the reading, the interference and the flexibility tasks in the same order. Subsequently, they performed a sequence of 60 saccades left-right followed by the interference task. Generally, dyslexic teenagers behaved similarly to non-dyslexics as they showed fewer errors in reading and color than in the interference and flexibility tasks. However, they made more errors and needed more time to accomplish each task than non-dyslexics. The results suggest that the inhibitory and attention processes required by the Stroop test are dysfunctioning even in older dyslexics. In contrast, the study shows no evidence for particular difficulty in the flexibility task, which would constitute an argument against problems with mental switching. Following the execution of saccades, errors in the interference test were significantly reduced for dyslexics, while the time was reduced for both groups. The effects are attributed to visual attention training via saccades.

Long-term habitual physical activity is associated with lower distractibility in a Stroop interference task in aging: Behavioral and ERP evidence.

PubMed

Gajewski, Patrick D; Falkenstein, Michael

2015-08-01

Aging is associated with compromised executive control functions. Several lines of evidence point to beneficial effects of physical activity on cognition which indicate that regular physical activity may counteract the age-related decline of some executive functions. Here, we investigate the effects of lifelong physical activity (about 50 years) on interference processing in two matched groups of 20 physically high active and 20 low active healthy older men using event-related potentials (ERPs). In a low interference block of the Stroop task, participants had to indicate the meaning of color-words, while color was either compatible or incompatible with the meaning. In the high interference block, participants were asked to respond according to the ink color of the word and to ignore its meaning. Physically active seniors showed faster reaction times, lower individual variability in reaction times, and higher accuracy compared to low active seniors, particularly in the high interference block. This result was confirmed in the classic paper-and-pencil version of the Stroop task showing higher interference score in the low active than high active individuals. ERPs revealed a shorter latency of the P2 and generally more negative amplitudes of the fronto-central N2 and N450 components in the high active group compared to the low active group. The amount of interference was negatively correlated with objectively measured fitness and self-reported physical activity. The positive effect of physical fitness on interference processing in the behavioral data was related to N2 and N450 amplitudes. Taken together, this suggests that seniors reporting long-term physical activity may exhibit generally enhanced activity in the frontal cortex which enables more efficient interference resolution in the Stroop task. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Habitual exercise is associated with cognitive control and cognitive reappraisal success.

PubMed

Giles, Grace E; Cantelon, Julie A; Eddy, Marianna D; Brunyé, Tad T; Urry, Heather L; Mahoney, Caroline R; Kanarek, Robin B

2017-12-01

Habitual exercise is associated with enhanced domain-general cognitive control, such as inhibitory control, selective attention, and working memory, all of which rely on the frontal cortex. However, whether regular exercise is associated with more specific aspects of cognitive control, such as the cognitive control of emotion, remains relatively unexplored. The present study employed a correlational design to determine whether level of habitual exercise was related to performance on the Stroop test measuring selective attention and response inhibition, the cognitive reappraisal task measuring cognitive reappraisal success, and associated changes in prefrontal cortex (PFC) oxygenation using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. 74 individuals (24 men, 50 women, age 18-32 years) participated. Higher habitual physical activity was associated with lower Stroop interference (indicating greater inhibitory control) and enhanced cognitive reappraisal success. Higher habitual exercise was also associated with lower oxygenated hemoglobin (O 2 Hb) in the PFC in response to emotional information. However, NIRS data indicated that exercise was not associated with cognitive control-associated O 2 Hb in the PFC. Behaviorally, the findings support and extend the previous findings that habitual exercise relates to more successful cognitive control of neutral information and cognitive reappraisal of emotional information. Future research should explore whether habitual exercise exerts causal benefits to cognitive control and PFC oxygenation, as well as isolate specific cognitive control processes sensitive to change through habitual exercise.

Sleep deprivation selectively disrupts top-down adaptation to cognitive conflict in the Stroop test.

PubMed

Gevers, Wim; Deliens, Gaetane; Hoffmann, Sophie; Notebaert, Wim; Peigneux, Philippe

2015-12-01

Sleep deprivation is known to exert detrimental effects on various cognitive domains, including attention, vigilance and working memory. Seemingly at odds with these findings, prior studies repeatedly failed to evidence an impact of prior sleep deprivation on cognitive interference in the Stroop test, a hallmark paradigm in the study of cognitive control abilities. The present study investigated further the effect of sleep deprivation on cognitive control using an adapted version of the Stroop test that allows to segregate top-down (attentional reconfiguration on incongruent items) and bottom-up (facilitated processing after repetitions in responses and/or features of stimuli) components of performance. Participants underwent a regular night of sleep or a night of total sleep deprivation before cognitive testing. Results disclosed that sleep deprivation selectively impairs top-down adaptation mechanisms: cognitive control no longer increased upon detection of response conflict at the preceding trial. In parallel, bottom-up abilities were found unaffected by sleep deprivation: beneficial effects of stimulus and response repetitions persisted. Changes in vigilance states due to sleep deprivation selectively impact on cognitive control in the Stroop test by affecting top-down, but not bottom-up, mechanisms that guide adaptive behaviours. © 2015 European Sleep Research Society.

A pilot study of a nurse-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy intervention (Ziphamandla) for adherence and depression in HIV in South Africa.

PubMed

Andersen, Lena S; Magidson, Jessica F; O'Cleirigh, Conall; Remmert, Jessica E; Kagee, Ashraf; Leaver, Matthew; Stein, Dan J; Safren, Steven A; Joska, John

2018-05-01

Depression is prevalent among people living with HIV in South Africa and interferes with adherence to antiretroviral therapy. This study evaluated a nurse-delivered, cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for adherence and depression among antiretroviral therapy users with depression in South Africa ( n = 14). Primary outcomes were depression, antiretroviral therapy adherence, feasibility, and acceptability. Findings support robust improvements in mood through a 3-month follow up. Antiretroviral therapy adherence was maintained during the intervention period. Participant retention supports acceptability; however, modest provider fidelity despite intensive supervision warrants additional attention to feasibility. Future effectiveness research is needed to evaluate this nurse-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for adherence and depression in this context.

Quantum-Like Models for Decision Making in Psychology and Cognitive Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khrennikov, Andrei.

2009-02-01

We show that (in contrast to rather common opinion) the domain of applications of the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics is not restricted to physics. This formalism can be applied to the description of various quantum-like (QL) information processing. In particular, the calculus of quantum (and more general QL) probabilities can be used to explain some paradoxical statistical data which was collected in psychology and cognitive science. The main lesson of our study is that one should sharply distinguish the mathematical apparatus of QM from QM as a physical theory. The domain of application of the mathematical apparatus is essentially wider than quantum physics. Quantum-like representation algorithm, formula of total probability, interference of probabilities, psychology, cognition, decision making.

Impaired inhibition of proactive interference in abstinent individuals with alcoholism.

PubMed

Noël, Xavier; Billieux, Joël; Van der Linden, Martial; Dan, Bernard; Hanak, Catherine; de Bournonville, Stéphanie; Baurain, Céline; Verbanck, Paul

2009-01-01

Cognitive impairment has been associated with higher risk of alcoholism and relapse. Recent theoretical refinements have separated inhibition of dominant response and inhibition of proactive interference. We assessed the latter using a directed-forgetting procedure in 38 recently detoxified individuals with alcoholism and in 26 controls. On this task, memory performance of letter trigrams was compared when presented alone, followed by a second trigram to be recalled, then a second trigram to be forgotten (directed-forgetting condition). Individuals with alcoholism recalled more letters to be forgotten and performed worse than controls in the directed-forgetting condition, which significantly correlated with the duration of alcoholism.

Regional gray and white matter volume associated with Stroop interference: evidence from voxel-based morphometry.

PubMed

Takeuchi, Hikaru; Taki, Yasuyuki; Sassa, Yuko; Hashizume, Hiroshi; Sekiguchi, Atsushi; Nagase, Tomomi; Nouchi, Rui; Fukushima, Ai; Kawashima, Ryuta

2012-02-01

During Stroop tasks, subjects experience cognitive interference when they resolve interferences such as identifying the ink color of a printed word while ignoring the word's identity. Stroop paradigms are commonly used as an index of attention deficits and a tool for investigating the functions of the frontal lobes and other associated structures. Despite these uses and the vast amount of attention given to Stroop paradigms, the regional gray matter volume/regional white matter volume (rGMV/rWMV) correlates of Stroop interference have not yet been identified at the whole brain level in normal adults. We examined this issue using voxel-based morphometry in right-handed healthy young adults. We found significant negative relationships between the Stroop interference rate and rGMV in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right inferior frontal gyrus, and cerebellum. Furthermore, we found relationships between the Stroop interference rate and rWMV in bilateral anatomical clusters that extended around extensive WM regions in the dorsal part of the frontal lobe. These findings are the first to reveal rGMV/rWMV that underlie the performance of the Stroop task, a widely used psychological paradigm at the whole brain level. Of note, our findings support the notion that ACC contributes to Stroop performance and show the involvement of regions that have been implicated in response inhibition and attention. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The contribution of disengagement to temporal discriminability.

PubMed

Shipstead, Zach; Nespodzany, Ashley

2018-05-01

The present study examines the idea that time-based forgetting of outdated information can lead to better memory of currently relevant information. This was done using the visual arrays task, along with a between-subjects manipulation of both the retention interval (1 s vs. 4 s) and the time between two trials (1 s vs. 4 s). Consistent with prior work [Shipstead, Z., & Engle, R. W. (2013). Interference within the focus of attention: Working memory tasks reflect more than temporary maintenance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39, 277-289; Experiment 1], longer retention intervals did not lead to diminished memory of currently relevant information. However, we did find that longer periods of time between two trials improved memory for currently relevant information. This replicates findings that indicate proactive interference affects visual arrays performance and extends previous findings to show that reduction of proactive interference can occur in a time-dependent manner.

Contrasting single and multi-component working-memory systems in dual tasking.

PubMed

Nijboer, Menno; Borst, Jelmer; van Rijn, Hedderik; Taatgen, Niels

2016-05-01

Working memory can be a major source of interference in dual tasking. However, there is no consensus on whether this interference is the result of a single working memory bottleneck, or of interactions between different working memory components that together form a complete working-memory system. We report a behavioral and an fMRI dataset in which working memory requirements are manipulated during multitasking. We show that a computational cognitive model that assumes a distributed version of working memory accounts for both behavioral and neuroimaging data better than a model that takes a more centralized approach. The model's working memory consists of an attentional focus, declarative memory, and a subvocalized rehearsal mechanism. Thus, the data and model favor an account where working memory interference in dual tasking is the result of interactions between different resources that together form a working-memory system. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Individual Differences in Children's Corepresentation of Self and Other in Joint Action.

PubMed

Milward, Sophie J; Kita, Sotaro; Apperly, Ian A

2017-05-01

Previous research has shown that children aged 4-5 years, but not 2-3 years, show adult-like interference from a partner when performing a joint task (Milward, Kita, & Apperly, 2014). This raises questions about the cognitive skills involved in the development of such "corepresentation (CR)" of a partner (Sebanz, Knoblich, & Prinz, 2003). Here, individual differences data from one hundred and thirteen 4- to 5-year-olds showed theory of mind (ToM) and inhibitory control (IC) as predictors of ability to avoid CR interference, suggesting that children with better ToM abilities are more likely to succeed in decoupling self and other representations in a joint task, while better IC is likely to help children avoid interference from a partner's response when selecting their own response on the task. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.

Specifying the role of the left prefrontal cortex in word selection

PubMed Central

Ries, S. K; Karzmark, C. R.; Navarrete, E.; Knight, R. T.; Dronkers, N. F.

2015-01-01

Word selection allows us to choose words during language production. This is often viewed as a competitive process wherein a lexical representation is retrieved among semantically-related alternatives. The left prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is thought to help overcome competition for word selection through top-down control. However, whether the LPFC is always necessary for word selection remains unclear. We tested 6 LPFC-injured patients and controls in two picture naming paradigms varying in terms of item repetition. Both paradigms elicited the expected semantic interference effects (SIE), reflecting interference caused by semantically-related representations in word selection. However, LPFC patients as a group showed a larger SIE than controls only in the paradigm involving item repetition. We argue that item repetition increases interference caused by semantically-related alternatives, resulting in increased LPFC-dependent cognitive control demands. The remaining network of brain regions associated with word selection appears to be sufficient when items are not repeated. PMID:26291289

The Price of Fame: The Impact of Stimulus Familiarity on Proactive Interference Resolution

PubMed Central

Prabhakaran, Ranjani; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L.

2013-01-01

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution processes. In two behavioral experiments and one event-related fMRI experiment, long-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of famous and nonfamous stimuli, and short-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of recent and nonrecent probe items in an item recognition task. The right middle frontal gyrus demonstrated greater sensitivity to famous stimuli, suggesting that long-term stimulus familiarity plays a role in influencing PI resolution processes. Further examination of the effect of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution revealed a larger behavioral interference effect for famous stimuli, but only under speeded response conditions. Thus, models of memory retrieval—and of the cognitive control mechanisms that guide retrieval processes—should consider the impact of and interactions among sources of familiarity on multiple time scales. PMID:20429858

The price of fame: the impact of stimulus familiarity on proactive interference resolution.

PubMed

Prabhakaran, Ranjani; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

2011-04-01

Interference from previously learned information, known as proactive interference (PI), limits our memory retrieval abilities. Previous studies of PI resolution have focused on the role of short-term familiarity, or recency, in causing PI. In the present study, we investigated the impact of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution processes. In two behavioral experiments and one event-related fMRI experiment, long-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of famous and nonfamous stimuli, and short-term familiarity was manipulated through the use of recent and nonrecent probe items in an item recognition task. The right middle frontal gyrus demonstrated greater sensitivity to famous stimuli, suggesting that long-term stimulus familiarity plays a role in influencing PI resolution processes. Further examination of the effect of long-term stimulus familiarity on PI resolution revealed a larger behavioral interference effect for famous stimuli, but only under speeded response conditions. Thus, models of memory retrieval--and of the cognitive control mechanisms that guide retrieval processes--should consider the impact of and interactions among sources of familiarity on multiple time scales.

The inhibition of proactive interference among adults with Internet gaming disorder.

PubMed

Ko, Chih-Hung; Wang, Peng-Wei; Liu, Tai-Ling; Yen, Cheng-Fang; Chen, Cheng-Sheng; Yen, Ju-Yu

2015-06-01

Cognitive control plays a pivotal role in the mechanism of addictive behavior. The aim of the study was to evaluate the deficit in inhibition of proactive interference of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) using a directed forgetting task among young adults. A total of 64 participants with IGD and 69 controls were recruited on a university campus. They completed the directed forgetting task for online gaming words and neutral words. The results demonstrated that the IGD group had a poorer performance on the directed forgetting task, and this represented a deficit in inhibition of proactive interference. They also had a higher tendency to remember online gaming words rather than neutral words in comparison with the control group. This demonstrated memory bias toward online gaming words. These results suggested that more attention should be paid to deficits in inhibition of proactive interference and memory bias toward gaming content when treating subjects with IGD. Furthermore, it is essential and practical to prevent exposure to online gaming-related cues when endeavoring to control online gaming behavior. © 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Response Inhibition and Interference Control in Obsessive–Compulsive Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

van Velzen, Laura S.; Vriend, Chris; de Wit, Stella J.; van den Heuvel, Odile A.

2014-01-01

Over the past 20 years, motor response inhibition and interference control have received considerable scientific effort and attention, due to their important role in behavior and the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. Results of neuroimaging studies indicate that motor response inhibition and interference control are dependent on cortical–striatal–thalamic–cortical (CSTC) circuits. Structural and functional abnormalities within the CSTC circuits have been reported for many neuropsychiatric disorders, including obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and related disorders, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, and trichotillomania. These disorders also share impairments in motor response inhibition and interference control, which may underlie some of their behavioral and cognitive symptoms. Results of task-related neuroimaging studies on inhibitory functions in these disorders show that impaired task performance is related to altered recruitment of the CSTC circuits. Previous research has shown that inhibitory performance is dependent upon dopamine, noradrenaline, and serotonin signaling, neurotransmitters that have been implicated in the pathophysiology of these disorders. In this narrative review, we discuss the common and disorder-specific pathophysiological mechanisms of inhibition-related dysfunction in OCD and related disorders. PMID:24966828

The Intention Interference Effect: The Difficulty of Ignoring What You Intend to Do

PubMed Central

Cohen, Anna-Lisa; Kantner, Justin; Dixon, Roger A.; Lindsay, D. Stephen

2013-01-01

Intentions have been shown to be more accessible (e.g., more quickly and accurately recalled) compared to other sorts of to-be-remembered information; a result termed an intention superiority effect (Goschke & Kuhl, 1993). In the current study, we demonstrate an intention interference effect (IIE) in which colour-naming performance in a Stroop task was slower for words belonging to an intention that participants had to remember to carry out (Do the Task condition) versus an intention that did not have to be executed (Ignore the Task condition). In previous work (e.g., Cohen et al., 2005), having a prospective intention in mind was confounded with carrying a memory load. In Experiment 1, we added a digit-retention task to control for effects of cognitive load. In Experiment 2, we eliminated the memory confound in a new way, by comparing intention-related and control words within each trial. Results from both Experiments 1 and 2 revealed an intention interference effect suggesting that interference is very specific to the intention, not just to a memory load. PMID:21592940

High body mass index is associated with impaired cognitive control.

PubMed

Sellaro, Roberta; Colzato, Lorenza S

2017-06-01

The prevalence of weight problems is increasing worldwide. There is growing evidence that high body mass index (BMI) is associated with frontal lobe dysfunction and cognitive deficits concerning mental flexibility and inhibitory control efficiency. The present study aims at replicating and extending these observations. We compared cognitive control performance of normal weight (BMI < 25) and overweight (BMI ≥ 25) university students on a task tapping either inhibitory control (Experiment 1) or interference control (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 replicated previous findings that found less efficient inhibitory control in overweight individuals. Experiment 2 complemented these findings by showing that cognitive control impairments associated with high BMI also extend to the ability to resolve stimulus-induced response conflict and to engage in conflict-driven control adaptation. The present results are consistent with and extend previous literature showing that high BMI in young, otherwise healthy individuals is associated with less efficient cognitive control functioning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How does cognitive load influence speech perception? An encoding hypothesis.

PubMed

Mitterer, Holger; Mattys, Sven L

2017-01-01

Two experiments investigated the conditions under which cognitive load exerts an effect on the acuity of speech perception. These experiments extend earlier research by using a different speech perception task (four-interval oddity task) and by implementing cognitive load through a task often thought to be modular, namely, face processing. In the cognitive-load conditions, participants were required to remember two faces presented before the speech stimuli. In Experiment 1, performance in the speech-perception task under cognitive load was not impaired in comparison to a no-load baseline condition. In Experiment 2, we modified the load condition minimally such that it required encoding of the two faces simultaneously with the speech stimuli. As a reference condition, we also used a visual search task that in earlier experiments had led to poorer speech perception. Both concurrent tasks led to decrements in the speech task. The results suggest that speech perception is affected even by loads thought to be processed modularly, and that, critically, encoding in working memory might be the locus of interference.

Schizotypal traits and cognitive performance in siblings of patients with psychosis.

PubMed

Moreno-Samaniego, L; Gaviria, Ana M; Vilella, E; Valero, J; Labad, A

2017-12-01

Schizotypy has been proposed to be the expression of genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia. The available literature shows cognitive similarities between schizotypy and schizophrenia, with mildly impaired performance being associated with schizotypy. This study aims to determine the relationship between schizotypy and cognitive performance in siblings of patients with psychosis. Schizotypal features and cognitive performance on a neuropsychological battery were compared between 48 siblings of patients with psychosis and 44 healthy controls. The relationships between schizotypy and cognitive performance were analysed by controlling the condition of being a sibling. Siblings showed poorer performance on vigilance/sustained attention (M = 37.6; SD = 7.1) and selective attention/interference control/working memory (M = 23.28; SD = 2.7) tasks. The variance in vigilance/sustained attention performance was explained, at 30%, by the interpersonal factor of schizotypy on the suspiciousness dimension and the condition of being a sibling. Interpersonal features of schizotypy in siblings of patients with psychosis are associated with deficits in vigilance/sustained attention performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reconfigurable Antenna and Cognitive Radio for Space Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hwu, Shian U.

2012-01-01

This presentation briefly discusses a research effort on mitigation techniques of radio frequency interference (RFI) on communication systems for possible space applications. This problem is of considerable interest in the context of providing reliable communications to the space vehicle which might suffer severe performance degradation due to RFI sources such as visiting spacecrafts and various ground radar systems. This study proposes a communication system with Reconfigurable Antenna (RA) and Cognitive Radio (CR) to mitigate the RFI impact. A cognitive radio is an intelligent radio that is able to learn from the environment and adapt to the variations in its surrounding by adjusting the transmit power, carrier frequency, modulation strategy or transmission data rate. Therefore, the main objective of a cognitive radio system is to ensure highly reliable communication whenever and wherever needed. To match the intelligent adaptability of the cognitive radio, a reconfigurable antenna system will be required to ensure the system performance. The technical challenges in design such a system will be discussed in this presentation.

Multipath search coding of stationary signals with applications to speech

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fehn, H. G.; Noll, P.

1982-04-01

This paper deals with the application of multipath search coding (MSC) concepts to the coding of stationary memoryless and correlated sources, and of speech signals, at a rate of one bit per sample. Use is made of three MSC classes: (1) codebook coding, or vector quantization, (2) tree coding, and (3) trellis coding. This paper explains the performances of these coders and compares them both with those of conventional coders and with rate-distortion bounds. The potentials of MSC coding strategies are demonstrated by illustrations. The paper reports also on results of MSC coding of speech, where both the strategy of adaptive quantization and of adaptive prediction were included in coder design.

Robustness of the non-Markovian Alzheimer walk under stochastic perturbation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cressoni, J. C.; da Silva, L. R.; Viswanathan, G. M.; da Silva, M. A. A.

2012-12-01

The elephant walk model originally proposed by Schütz and Trimper to investigate non-Markovian processes led to the investigation of a series of other random-walk models. Of these, the best known is the Alzheimer walk model, because it was the first model shown to have amnestically induced persistence —i.e. superdiffusion caused by loss of memory. Here we study the robustness of the Alzheimer walk by adding a memoryless stochastic perturbation. Surprisingly, the solution of the perturbed model can be formally reduced to the solutions of the unperturbed model. Specifically, we give an exact solution of the perturbed model by finding a surjective mapping to the unperturbed model.

Classical capacity of Gaussian thermal memory channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Palma, G.; Mari, A.; Giovannetti, V.

2014-10-01

The classical capacity of phase-invariant Gaussian channels has been recently determined under the assumption that such channels are memoryless. In this work we generalize this result by deriving the classical capacity of a model of quantum memory channel, in which the output states depend on the previous input states. In particular we extend the analysis of Lupo et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 030501 (2010), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.030501 and Phys. Rev. A 82, 032312 (2010), 10.1103/PhysRevA.82.032312] from quantum limited channels to thermal attenuators and thermal amplifiers. Our result applies in many situations in which the physical communication channel is affected by nonzero memory and by thermal noise.

An Optimized Integrator Windup Protection Technique Applied to a Turbofan Engine Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Watts, Stephen R.; Garg, Sanjay

1995-01-01

This paper introduces a new technique for providing memoryless integrator windup protection which utilizes readily available optimization software tools. This integrator windup protection synthesis provides a concise methodology for creating integrator windup protection for each actuation system loop independently while assuring both controller and closed loop system stability. The individual actuation system loops' integrator windup protection can then be combined to provide integrator windup protection for the entire system. This technique is applied to an H(exp infinity) based multivariable control designed for a linear model of an advanced afterburning turbofan engine. The resulting transient characteristics are examined for the integrated system while encountering single and multiple actuation limits.

Protograph-Based Raptor-Like Codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Divsalar, Dariush; Chen, Tsung-Yi; Wang, Jiadong; Wesel, Richard D.

2014-01-01

Theoretical analysis has long indicated that feedback improves the error exponent but not the capacity of pointto- point memoryless channels. The analytic and empirical results indicate that at short blocklength regime, practical rate-compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes achieve low latency with the use of noiseless feedback. In 3GPP, standard rate-compatible turbo codes (RCPT) did not outperform the convolutional codes in the short blocklength regime. The reason is the convolutional codes for low number of states can be decoded optimally using Viterbi decoder. Despite excellent performance of convolutional codes at very short blocklengths, the strength of convolutional codes does not scale with the blocklength for a fixed number of states in its trellis.

An Isomorphism between Lyapunov Exponents and Shannon's Channel Capacity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Friedland, Gerald; Metere, Alfredo

We demonstrate that discrete Lyapunov exponents are isomorphic to numeric overflows of the capacity of an arbitrary noiseless and memoryless channel in a Shannon communication model with feedback. The isomorphism allows the understanding of Lyapunov exponents in terms of Information Theory, rather than the traditional definitions in chaos theory. The result also implies alternative approaches to the calculation of related quantities, such as the Kolmogorov Sinai entropy which has been linked to thermodynamic entropy. This work provides a bridge between fundamental physics and information theory. It suggests, among other things, that machine learning and other information theory methods can bemore » employed at the core of physics simulations.« less

Do I Know What I'm Doing? Cognitive Dissonance and Action Identification Theory.

PubMed

Fointiat, Valérie; Pelt, Audrey

2015-11-27

Our main purpose was to explore hypotheses derived from the Identification of Action Theory in a particular situation that is, a dissonant situation. Thus, we varied the identification (low versus high-level) of a problematic behavior (to stop speaking for 24 hours) in the forced compliance paradigm. Two modes of dissonance reduction were presented: cognitive rationalization (classical attitude-change) and behavioral rationalization (target behavior: to stop speaking for 48 hours). As predicted, the results showed that high-level identity of action leads to cognitive rationalization whereas low-level identity leads to behavioural rationalization. Thus, participants identifying the problematic behavior at a low-level were more inclined to accept the target behavior, compared with participants identifying their problematic behavior at a higher-level. These results are of particular interest for understanding the extent to which the understanding of the discrepant act interferes with the cognitive processes of dissonance reduction.

Threaded cognition: an integrated theory of concurrent multitasking.

PubMed

Salvucci, Dario D; Taatgen, Niels A

2008-01-01

The authors propose the idea of threaded cognition, an integrated theory of concurrent multitasking--that is, performing 2 or more tasks at once. Threaded cognition posits that streams of thought can be represented as threads of processing coordinated by a serial procedural resource and executed across other available resources (e.g., perceptual and motor resources). The theory specifies a parsimonious mechanism that allows for concurrent execution, resource acquisition, and resolution of resource conflicts, without the need for specialized executive processes. By instantiating this mechanism as a computational model, threaded cognition provides explicit predictions of how multitasking behavior can result in interference, or lack thereof, for a given set of tasks. The authors illustrate the theory in model simulations of several representative domains ranging from simple laboratory tasks such as dual-choice tasks to complex real-world domains such as driving and driver distraction. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved

The consequences of tinnitus and tinnitus severity on cognition: A review of the behavioural evidence.

PubMed

Mohamad, Najibah; Hoare, Derek J; Hall, Deborah A

2016-02-01

People with tinnitus report anecdotal difficulties in mental concentration and psychological treatments for tinnitus advise on concentration difficulties and how to manage them. Yet the literature lacks any coherent discussion about what precise theoretical cognitive constructs might be mediating reported concentration problems. This review addresses this gap by describing and critically appraising the behavioural evidence for the effects of tinnitus on cognitive performance (namely working memory and attention). Empirical evidence is somewhat limited, but there is some support that tinnitus interferes with executive attention, and mixed support that it impairs working memory and selective attention. We highlight a number of methodological considerations to help drive the field forward and we propose a putative model of the complex inter-relationships between tinnitus, cognition and confounding factors. This model provides a basis for hypothesis testing. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of Emotion on Writing Processes in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fartoukh, Michael; Chanquoy, Lucile; Piolat, Annie

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to analyze the consequences of emotion during narrative writing in accordance with Hayes's model. In this model, motivation and affect have an important role during the writing process. Moreover, according to the emotion-cognition literature, emotions are thought to create interferences in working memory, resulting in an…

Identifying Maths Anxiety in Student Nurses and Focusing Remedial Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bull, Heather

2009-01-01

Maths anxiety interferes with maths cognition and thereby increases the risk of maths errors. To initiate strategies for preventing anxiety-related errors progressing into nursing practice, this study explored the hypothesis that student nurses experience high maths anxiety in association with poor maths performance, and that high maths anxiety is…

Discrimination Performance in Aging Is Vulnerable to Interference and Dissociable from Spatial Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Sarah A.; Sacks, Patricia K.; Turner, Sean M.; Gaynor, Leslie S.; Ormerod, Brandi K.; Maurer, Andrew P.; Bizon, Jennifer L.; Burke, Sara N.

2016-01-01

Hippocampal-dependent episodic memory and stimulus discrimination abilities are both compromised in the elderly. The reduced capacity to discriminate between similar stimuli likely contributes to multiple aspects of age-related cognitive impairment; however, the association of these behaviors within individuals has never been examined in an animal…

The Function of Semantics in Automated Language Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pacak, Milos; Pratt, Arnold W.

This paper is a survey of some of the major semantic models that have been developed for automated semantic analysis of natural language. Current approaches to semantic analysis and logical interference are based mainly on models of human cognitive processes such as Quillian's semantic memory, Simmon's Protosynthex III and others. All existing…

An Investigation into the Psychometric Properties of the Test Anxiety Measure for College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowe, Patricia A.

2018-01-01

The psychometric properties of a new, multidimensional measure of test anxiety, the Test Anxiety Measure for College Students (TAM-C), were examined in a sample of 720 undergraduate students. Results of confirmatory factor analyses provided support for a six-factor (Cognitive Interference, Physiological Hyperarousal, Social Concerns,…

Cognitive Advantages of Bilingual Children in Different Sociolinguistic Contexts

PubMed Central

Blom, Elma; Boerma, Tessel; Bosma, Evelyn; Cornips, Leonie; Everaert, Emma

2017-01-01

Many studies have shown that bilingual children outperform monolinguals on tasks testing executive functioning, but other studies have not revealed any effect of bilingualism. In this study we compared three groups of bilingual children in the Netherlands, aged 6–7 years, with a monolingual control group. We were specifically interested in testing whether the bilingual cognitive advantage is modulated by the sociolinguistic context of language use. All three bilingual groups were exposed to a minority language besides the nation’s dominant language (Dutch). Two bilingual groups were exposed to a regional language (Frisian, Limburgish), and a third bilingual group was exposed to a migrant language (Polish). All children participated in two working memory tasks (verbal, visuospatial) and two attention tasks (selective attention, interference suppression). Bilingual children outperformed monolinguals on selective attention. The cognitive effect of bilingualism was most clearly present in the Frisian-Dutch group and in a subgroup of migrant children who were relatively proficient in Polish. The effect was less robust in the Limburgish-Dutch sample. Investigation of the response patterns of the flanker test, testing interference suppression, suggested that bilingual children more often show an effect of response competition than the monolingual children, demonstrating that bilingual children attend to different aspects of the task than monolingual children. No bilingualism effects emerged for verbal and visuospatial working memory. PMID:28484403

Intrusive images and voluntary memory for affective pictures: contextualization and dual-task interference.

PubMed

Krans, Julie; Langner, Oliver; Reinecke, Andrea; Pearson, David G

2013-12-01

The present study addressed the role of context information and dual-task interference during the encoding of negative pictures on intrusion development and voluntary recall. Healthy participants were shown negative pictures with or without context information. Pictures were either viewed alone or concurrently with a visuospatial or verbal task. Participants reported their intrusive images of the pictures in a diary. At follow-up, perceptual and contextual memory was tested. Participants in the context group reported more intrusive images and perceptual voluntary memory than participants in the no context group. No effects of the concurrent tasks were found on intrusive image frequency, but perceptual and contextual memory was affected according to the cognitive load of the task. The analogue method cannot be generalized to real-life trauma and the secondary tasks may differ in cognitive load. The findings challenge a dual memory model of PTSD but support an account in which retrieval strategy, rather than encoding processes, accounts for the experience of involuntary versus voluntary recall. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impaired prefrontal cognitive control over interference by food images in binge-eating disorder and bulimia nervosa.

PubMed

Lee, Jung Eun; Namkoong, Kee; Jung, Young-Chul

2017-06-09

Binge-eating disorder (BED)characterized by recurrent episodes of binge-eating without inappropriate compensatory behaviors is classified as an official diagnosis in DSM-5. However, the neural bases that differentiate BED from other eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa (BN), are still under debate. Thirty-nine participants (HC, n=14; BN, n=13; BED, n=12) underwent functional MRI while performing a Stroop-Match-to-Sample task. This pilot study investigated how food images interfered with the behavioral performances and blood-oxygenation-level-dependent neuronal activity. Compared to healthy controls, participants with BN showed lower accuracy indicating impaired cognitive control over interference. Compared to healthy controls, participants with BED demonstrated stronger activations in the ventral striatum in response to food images. By contrast, participants with BN exhibited stronger activations in the premotor cortex and dorsal striatum. These aberrant ventral and dorsal frontostriatal activations in response to food images are associated with increased reward sensitivity and habitual binge-eating/purging behaviors in BED and BN. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Elaborative rehearsal of nontemporal information interferes with temporal processing of durations in the range of seconds but not milliseconds.

PubMed

Rammsayer, Thomas; Ulrich, Rolf

2011-05-01

The distinct timing hypothesis suggests a sensory mechanism for processing of durations in the range of milliseconds and a cognitively controlled mechanism for processing of longer durations. To test this hypothesis, we employed a dual-task approach to investigate the effects of maintenance and elaborative rehearsal on temporal processing of brief and long durations. Unlike mere maintenance rehearsal, elaborative rehearsal as a secondary task involved transfer of information from working to long-term memory and elaboration of information to enhance storage in long-term memory. Duration discrimination of brief intervals was not affected by a secondary cognitive task that required either maintenance or elaborative rehearsal. Concurrent elaborative rehearsal, however, impaired discrimination of longer durations as compared to maintenance rehearsal and a control condition with no secondary task. These findings endorse the distinct timing hypothesis and are in line with the notion that executive functions, such as continuous memory updating and active transfer of information into long-term memory interfere with temporal processing of durations in the second, but not in the millisecond range. 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effectiveness of Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Symptoms of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) ‎.

PubMed

Maddineshat, Maryam; Keyvanloo, Sodabe; Lashkardoost, Hossein; Arki, Mina; Tabatabaeichehr, Mahbubeh

2016-01-01

Standards of care and treatment of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) vary. Non-drug ‎psychosocial intervention therapy is recommended for women with any kind of ‎discomfort or distress caused by PMS. The current study examined the effectiveness of ‎group cognitive-behavioral therapy on the symptoms of PMS at a girls' dormitory of ‎North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences. In this quasi-experimental study, 32 female students with PMS who were majoring in ‎nursing and midwifery and residing in the dormitory were selected using the ‎convenience sampling method and were assigned to experimental and control groups. ‎The Standardized Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool was used as the research ‎tool. Eight sessions of cognitive-behavioral group therapy were held for the students Results: There was a significant difference in psychological symptoms before and after ‎cognitive-behavioral therapy (p=0.012). Furthermore, cognitive-behavioral therapy was ‎effective on social interferences caused by PMS symptoms (p=0.012).‎ Group cognitive-behavioral therapy effectively alleviates PMS symptoms in female ‎college students.‎.

Working memory training may increase working memory capacity but not fluid intelligence.

PubMed

Harrison, Tyler L; Shipstead, Zach; Hicks, Kenny L; Hambrick, David Z; Redick, Thomas S; Engle, Randall W

2013-12-01

Working memory is a critical element of complex cognition, particularly under conditions of distraction and interference. Measures of working memory capacity correlate positively with many measures of real-world cognition, including fluid intelligence. There have been numerous attempts to use training procedures to increase working memory capacity and thereby performance on the real-world tasks that rely on working memory capacity. In the study reported here, we demonstrated that training on complex working memory span tasks leads to improvement on similar tasks with different materials but that such training does not generalize to measures of fluid intelligence.

Computational Models of Cognitive Control

PubMed Central

O’Reilly, Randall C.; Herd, Seth A.; Pauli, Wolfgang M.

2010-01-01

Cognitive control refers to the ability to perform task-relevant processing in the face of other distractions or other forms of interference, in the absence of strong environmental support. It depends on the integrity of the prefrontal cortex and associated biological structures (e.g., the basal ganglia). Computational models have played an influential role in developing our understanding of this system, and we review current developments in three major areas: dynamic gating of prefrontal representations, hierarchies in the prefrontal cortex, and reward, motivation, and goal-related processing in prefrontal cortex. Models in these and other areas are advancing the field further forward. PMID:20185294

[Cognition - the core of major depressive disorder].

PubMed

Polosan, M; Lemogne, C; Jardri, R; Fossati, P

2016-02-01

Cognitive deficits have been only recently recognized as a major phenotype determinant of major depressive disorder, although they are an integral part of the definition of the depressive state. Congruent evidence suggest that these cognitive deficits persist beyond the acute phase and may be identified at all ages. The aim of the current study was to review the main meta-analyses on cognition and depression, which encompasses a large range of cognitive domains. Therefore, we discuss the "cold" (attention, memory, executive functions) and "hot" (emotional bias) cognitive impairments in MDD, as well as those of social cognition domains (empathy, theory of mind). Several factors interfere with cognition in MDD such as clinical (melancholic, psychotic...) features, age, age of onset, illness severity, medication and comorbid condition. As still debated in the literature, the type of relationship between the severity of cognitive symptoms and functioning in depression is detailed, thus highlighting their predictive value of functional outcome, independently of the affective symptoms. A better identification of the cognitive deficits in MDD and a monitoring of the effects of different treatments require appropriate instruments, which may be developed by taking advantage of the increasing success of computing tools. Overall, current data suggest a core role for different cognitive deficits in MDD, therefore opening new perspectives for optimizing the treatment of depression. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A consideration of cognitive factors in the learning and education of older adults

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fry, Prem S.

1992-07-01

The purpose of this paper is to consider the unique cognitive and intellectual factors that influence the learning and education of older adults. With this objective in mind, the paper reviews the empirical literature on patterns of intellectual and cognitive aging, and ends by discussing the implications and applications of these patterns for the practical and effective education of our elderly citizenry. When we consider the aging of intellectual abilities we are concerned with studying the development of fluid, crystallized and practical intelligence and variations in these abilities from adulthood into advanced old age. We are also concerned with looking at changes in cognitive functions such as attention, memory, information retrieval and tolerance for interference in learning capacity. Much recent work has been successful in showing that intellectual and cognitive decline in old age is not necessarily irreversible. While many elderly persons are very able learners, are highly self-directed, and have ample educational and intellectual resources available, others may benefit from assistance or suggestions about how to compensate for some of the cognitive declines in old age. With this objective the implications are discussed for educators and practitioners who must formulate cognitive training programs for older adults.

Effects of Lacunar Infarctions on Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Cerebral Autosomal-Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy

PubMed Central

Choi, Jay Chol; Kang, Sa-Yoon; Kang, Ji-Hoon; Na, Hae Ri; Park, Ji-Kang

2011-01-01

Background and Purpose Cerebral autosomal-dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is an inherited microangiopathy caused by mutations in the Notch3 gene. Although previous studies have shown an association between lacunar infarction and cognitive impairment, the relationship between MRI parameters and cognition remains unclear. In this study we investigated the influence of MRI parameters on cognitive impairment in CADASIL. Methods We applied a prospective protocol to 40 patients. MRI analysis included the normalized volume of white-matter hyperintensities (nWMHs), number of lacunes, and number of cerebral microbleeds. Cognition was assessed with the aid of psychometric tests [Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognition (ADAS-cog), Trail-Making Test, and Stroop interference (Stroop IF)]. Results A multivariate regression analysis revealed that the total number of lacunes influenced the performance in the MMSE, ADAS-cog, and Stroop IF, while nWMHs had a strong univariate association with ADAS-cog and Stroop IF scores. However, this association disappeared in the multivariate analysis. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that the number of lacunes is the main predictive factor of cognitive impairment in CADASIL. PMID:22259617

Frequent video game players resist perceptual interference.

PubMed

Berard, Aaron V; Cain, Matthew S; Watanabe, Takeo; Sasaki, Yuka

2015-01-01

Playing certain types of video games for a long time can improve a wide range of mental processes, from visual acuity to cognitive control. Frequent gamers have also displayed generalized improvements in perceptual learning. In the Texture Discrimination Task (TDT), a widely used perceptual learning paradigm, participants report the orientation of a target embedded in a field of lines and demonstrate robust over-night improvement. However, changing the orientation of the background lines midway through TDT training interferes with overnight improvements in overall performance on TDT. Interestingly, prior research has suggested that this effect will not occur if a one-hour break is allowed in between the changes. These results have suggested that after training is over, it may take some time for learning to become stabilized and resilient against interference. Here, we tested whether frequent gamers have faster stabilization of perceptual learning compared to non-gamers and examined the effect of daily video game playing on interference of training of TDT with one background orientation on perceptual learning of TDT with a different background orientation. As a result, we found that non-gamers showed overnight performance improvement only on one background orientation, replicating previous results with the interference in TDT. In contrast, frequent gamers demonstrated overnight improvements in performance with both background orientations, suggesting that they are better able to overcome interference in perceptual learning. This resistance to interference suggests that video game playing not only enhances the amplitude and speed of perceptual learning but also leads to faster and/or more robust stabilization of perceptual learning.

Individual differences in emotionality and peri-traumatic processing.

PubMed

Logan, Shanna; O'Kearney, Richard

2012-06-01

Recent cognitive models propose that intrusive trauma memories arise and persist because high levels of emotional arousal triggered by the trauma disrupt conceptual processing of elements of the event, while enhancing sensory/perceptual processing. A trauma film analogue design was used to investigate if the predicted facilitating effects on intrusions from inhibiting conceptual processing and predicted attenuating effects on intrusions from inhibiting sensory processing are moderated by individual differences in emotionality. One hundred and five non-clinical participants viewed a traumatic film while undertaking a conceptual interference task, a sensory interference task, or no interference task. Participants recorded the frequency and intensity of intrusions over the following week. There was no facilitating effect for the conceptual interference task compared to no interference task. A significant attenuation of the frequency of intrusions was evident for those undertaking sensory interference (ŋ(2) = .04). This effect, however, was only present for those with high trait anxiety (d = .82) and not for those with low trait anxiety (d = .08). Relative to high trait anxious controls, high anxious participants who undertook sensory interference also reported lower intensity of intrusions (d = .66). This is the first trauma film analogue study to show that the attenuating effect of concurrent sensory/perceptual processing on the frequency and intensity of subsequent intrusions is evident only for people with high trait anxiety. The results have implications for conceptual models of intrusion development and for their application to the prevention of post traumatic distress. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unconscious emotional reasoning and the therapeutic misconception.

PubMed

Charuvastra, A; Marder, S R

2008-03-01

The "therapeutic misconception" describes a process whereby research volunteers misinterpret the intentions of researchers and the nature of clinical research. This misinterpretation leads research volunteers to falsely attribute a therapeutic potential to clinical research, and compromises informed decision making, therefore compromising the ethical integrity of a clinical experiment. We review recent evidence from the neurobiology of social cognition to provide a novel framework for thinking about the therapeutic misconception. We argue that the neurobiology of social cognition should be considered in any ethical analysis of how people make decisions about participating in clinical trials. The neurobiology of social cognition also suggests how the complicated dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship may unavoidably interfere with the process of obtaining informed consent. Following this argument we suggest new ways to prevent or at least mitigate the therapeutic misconception.

A neuropastoral care and counseling assessment of glossolalia: a theosocial cognitive study.

PubMed

Johnson, Kyle D

2010-01-01

This paper provides an example of the application of neuropastoral care and counseling using neuroscience research on glossolalia, that is, speaking in tongues as practiced in Pentecostal Christianity. The paper is based in part on a 2006 article by Andrew Newberg and assesses glossolalia's biogenic, psychogenic, and theogenic dimensions. The assessment concludes glossolalia is an implicitly learned sacred behavior. Unconsciously learned fears may interfere with the practice of glossolalia. A person, from a Pentecostal Christian background, might see this inability as an act of disobedience or a lack of faith. In such cases, verbal counseling would be of limited assistance. Neuropastoral care and counseling responses begin with reassurance followed by cognitive behavioral interventions such as passive extinction, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and guided imagery.

[Emotional processing in patients with a dissocial personality disorder subtype "psychopathy" according to PCL-R].

PubMed

Weber, Tatjana; Sommer, Monika; Hajak, Göran; Müller, Jürgen

2004-11-01

Functional MRI was used to test the effects of the deficient emotional responsiveness of psychopathic patients on cognitive processes. We used a Simon-paradigm, in which ten healthy volunteers and ten patients with a diagnosis of "psychopathy" (defined by Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised) have to select their spatially defined responses on the basis of a nonspatial stimuli feature. For the emotion induction pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) were selected. At the beginning and intermediated by the Simon-paradigm blocks of positive, negative or neutral pictures were presented. Patients with "psychopathy" exhibited untypical activation patterns in amygdala and prefrontal regions during interferences between negative or positive stimulations and cognitive tasks. These results demonstrated disturbed regulation of emotion-cognition-interaction in "psychopathy" according to PCL-R.

Successful cognitive and emotional aging

PubMed Central

JESTE, DILIP V.; DEPP, COLIN A.; VAHIA, IPSIT V.

2010-01-01

We review the definitions, determinants, and ways of enhancing successful cognitive and emotional aging. Objective definitions of successful aging based on physical health emphasize outcomes including freedom from disability and disease, whereas subjective definitions center on well-being, social connectedness, and adaptation. Most older people do not meet objective criteria for successful aging, while a majority meet the subjective criteria. Older people with severe mental illness are not excluded from successful aging. The determinants of successful aging include complex interactions of lifestyle behaviors and social environment with genes. Depression interferes with nearly all determinants of successful aging. Evidence-based means of enhancing successful aging include calorie restriction, physical exercise, cognitive stimulation, social support, and optimization of stress. Future directions for successful aging research and implications for geriatric psychiatry are discussed. PMID:20671889

Movement Interferes with Visuospatial Working Memory during the Encoding: An ERP Study

PubMed Central

Gunduz Can, Rumeysa; Schack, Thomas; Koester, Dirk

2017-01-01

The present study focuses on the functional interactions of cognition and manual action control. Particularly, we investigated the neurophysiological correlates of the dual-task costs of a manual-motor task (requiring grasping an object, holding it, and subsequently placing it on a target) for working memory (WM) domains (verbal and visuospatial) and processes (encoding and retrieval). Thirty participants were tested in a cognitive-motor dual-task paradigm, in which a single block (a verbal or visuospatial WM task) was compared with a dual block (concurrent performance of a WM task and a motor task). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were analyzed separately for the encoding and retrieval processes of verbal and visuospatial WM domains both in single and dual blocks. The behavioral analyses show that the motor task interfered with WM and decreased the memory performance. The performance decrease was larger for the visuospatial task compared with the verbal task, i.e., domain-specific memory costs were obtained. The ERP analyses show the domain-specific interference also at the neurophysiological level, which is further process-specific to encoding. That is, comparing the patterns of WM-related ERPs in the single block and dual block, we showed that visuospatial ERPs changed only for the encoding process when a motor task was performed at the same time. Generally, the present study provides evidence for domain- and process-specific interactions of a prepared manual-motor movement with WM (visuospatial domain during the encoding process). This study, therefore, provides an initial neurophysiological characterization of functional interactions of WM and manual actions in a cognitive-motor dual-task setting, and contributes to a better understanding of the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of motor action control. PMID:28611714

Comparison of Cognitive Impairment between Patients having Epilepsy and Psychogenic Nonepileptic Seizures.

PubMed

Özer Çelik, Ayşegül; Kurt, Pınar; Yener, Görsev; Alkin, Tunç; Öztura, İbrahim; Baklan, Barış

2015-06-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate cognitive impairment in patients having epilepsy or psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNESs) using selected neuropsychological tests at different time periods related to the seizure. In this study, selected neurocognitive tests were administered to the patients. Within 24 h, the previously applied neurocognitive tests were repeated within 24 h following the observation of typical seizures when monitoring and normalizing electroencephalography (EEG) activity. Basal neurocognitive tests were also administered to the healthy control group, and repeat neurocognitive evaluation was performed within 24-96 h. The basal neurocognitive evaluation revealed that verbal learning and memory scores as well as Stroop test interference time were significantly lower in the PNES group compared with those in the controls. In the basal cognitive tests administered to the patients with epilepsy, verbal learning and memory scores, long-term memory, and total recognition test scores were significantly lower than those of the controls. Following the repeat cognitive tests, significant progress was found in the verbal categorical fluency score of the PNES group. No significant difference was determined in the epilepsy group. Significant contraction was determined in the Stroop interference time in the control group, but no similar change was recorded in the epilepsy or PNES groups. While memory problems seemed to be most prominent in the assessed patients with epilepsy, attention and executive function problems were more dominant in the patients with PNESs. These findings are probably related to numerous factors such duration of disease, mood disorders, and specific drug use. No deterioration in attention and executive functions was reported in the early post-seizure period in either patient group.

Executive function in fibromyalgia: Comparing subjective and objective measures.

PubMed

Gelonch, Olga; Garolera, Maite; Valls, Joan; Rosselló, Lluís; Pifarré, Josep

2016-04-01

There is evidence to suggest the existence of an executive dysfunction in people diagnosed with fibromyalgia, although there are certain inconsistencies between studies. Here, we aim to compare executive performance between patients with fibromyalgia and a control group by using subjective and objective cognitive tests, analyzing the influence of patient mood on the results obtained, and studying associations between the two measures. 82 patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia and 42 healthy controls, matched by age and years of education, were assessed using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Adult Version (BRIEF-A) as a subjective measure of executive functioning. A selection of objective cognitive tests were also used to measure a series of executive functions and to identify symptoms of depression and anxiety. Patients with fibromyalgia perceived greater difficulties than the control group on all of the BRIEF-A scales. However, after adjustments were made for depression and anxiety the only differences that remained were those associated with the working memory scale and the Metacognition and Global Executive Composite index. In the case of the objective cognitive tests, a significantly worse overall performance was evidenced for the fibromyalgia patients. However, this also disappeared when adjustments were made for depression and anxiety. After this adjustment, fibromyalgia patients only performed significantly worse for the interference effect in the Stroop Test. Although there were no significant associations between most of the objective cognitive tests and the BRIEF-A scales, depression and anxiety exhibited strong associations with almost all of the BRIEF-A scales and with several of the objective cognitive tests. Patients with fibromyalgia showed executive dysfunction in subjective and objective measures, although most of this impairment was associated with mood disturbances. Exceptions to this general rule were observed in the impairment of working memory evidenced on the BRIEF-A scale and the inhibition impairment exhibited by the interference effect from the Stroop Test. The two types of measurement provide different yet complementary information. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dietary fiber is positively associated with cognitive control among prepubertal children.

PubMed

Khan, Naiman A; Raine, Lauren B; Drollette, Eric S; Scudder, Mark R; Kramer, Arthur F; Hillman, Charles H

2015-01-01

Converging evidence now indicates that aerobic fitness and adiposity are key correlates of childhood cognitive function and brain health. However, the evidence relating dietary intake to executive function/cognitive control remains limited. The current study assessed cross-sectional associations between performance on an attentional inhibition task and dietary fatty acids (FAs), fiber, and overall diet quality among children aged 7-9 y (n = 65). Attentional inhibition was assessed by using a modified flanker task. Three-day food records were used to conduct nutrient-level analyses and to calculate diet quality (Healthy Eating Index-2005) scores. Bivariate correlations revealed that socioeconomic status and sex were not related to task performance or diet measures. However, age, intelligence quotient (IQ), pubertal staging, maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max), and percentage of fat mass (%fat mass) correlated with task accuracy. Hierarchical regression models were used to determine the relation between diet variables and task accuracy and reaction time across both congruent and incongruent trials of the flanker task. After adjustment of confounding variables (age, IQ, pubertal staging, V̇O2max, and %fat mass), congruent accuracy was positively associated with insoluble fiber (β = 0.26, P = 0.03) and total dietary fiber (β = 0.23, P = 0.05). Incongruent response accuracy was positively associated with insoluble fiber (β = 0.35, P < 0.01), pectins (β = 0.25, P = 0.04), and total dietary fiber (β = 0.32, P < 0.01). Higher diet quality was related to lower accuracy interference (β = -0.26, P = 0.03), whereas higher total FA intake was related to greater accuracy interference (β = 0.24, P = 0.04). No statistically significant associations were observed between diet variables and reaction time measures. These results demonstrate that children's diet quality, specifically dietary fiber, is an important correlate of performance on a cognitive task requiring variable amounts of cognitive control. © 2015 American Society for Nutrition.

Dietary Fiber Is Positively Associated with Cognitive Control among Prepubertal Children12

PubMed Central

Khan, Naiman A; Raine, Lauren B; Drollette, Eric S; Scudder, Mark R; Kramer, Arthur F; Hillman, Charles H

2015-01-01

Background: Converging evidence now indicates that aerobic fitness and adiposity are key correlates of childhood cognitive function and brain health. However, the evidence relating dietary intake to executive function/cognitive control remains limited. Objective: The current study assessed cross-sectional associations between performance on an attentional inhibition task and dietary fatty acids (FAs), fiber, and overall diet quality among children aged 7–9 y (n = 65). Methods: Attentional inhibition was assessed by using a modified flanker task. Three-day food records were used to conduct nutrient-level analyses and to calculate diet quality (Healthy Eating Index–2005) scores. Results: Bivariate correlations revealed that socioeconomic status and sex were not related to task performance or diet measures. However, age, intelligence quotient (IQ), pubertal staging, maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max), and percentage of fat mass (%fat mass) correlated with task accuracy. Hierarchical regression models were used to determine the relation between diet variables and task accuracy and reaction time across both congruent and incongruent trials of the flanker task. After adjustment of confounding variables (age, IQ, pubertal staging, V̇O2max, and %fat mass), congruent accuracy was positively associated with insoluble fiber (β = 0.26, P = 0.03) and total dietary fiber (β = 0.23, P = 0.05). Incongruent response accuracy was positively associated with insoluble fiber (β = 0.35, P < 0.01), pectins (β = 0.25, P = 0.04), and total dietary fiber (β = 0.32, P < 0.01). Higher diet quality was related to lower accuracy interference (β = −0.26, P = 0.03), whereas higher total FA intake was related to greater accuracy interference (β = 0.24, P = 0.04). No statistically significant associations were observed between diet variables and reaction time measures. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that children’s diet quality, specifically dietary fiber, is an important correlate of performance on a cognitive task requiring variable amounts of cognitive control. PMID:25527669

Obesity, metabolic profile, and inhibition failure: Young women under scrutiny.

PubMed

Catoira, N P; Tapajóz, F; Allegri, R F; Lajfer, J; Rodríguez Cámara, M J; Iturry, M L; Castaño, G O

2016-04-01

The prevalence of obesity, as well as evidence about this pathology as a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia in the elderly, is increasing worldwide. Executive functions have been found to be compromised in most studies, although the specific results are dissimilar. Obese young women constitute an interesting study and intervention group, having been found to be unaffected by age and hormonal negative effects on cognition and considering that their health problems affect not only themselves but their families and offspring. The objective of the present study was to compare the executive performance of obese young women with that of a healthy control group. A cross-sectional study was done among premenopausal women from a public hospital in Buenos Aires. The sample comprised 113 participants (32 healthy controls and 81 obese women), who were evaluated for depressive and anxiety symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-II and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and executive functioning (Trail-Making Test B, Stroop Color and Word Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and verbal fluency test). Statistical analysis was done by using the SPSS version 20.0 software. Among executive functions, a significant difference was found between groups in inhibition (p<0.01). No correlation was found between psychopathologic measures and Stroop Test Interference results. We found slight correlations between Stroop Test Interference results, waist circumference, fat mass and HDL-cholesterol. In obese group, there was a negative slightly correlation between this cognitive test and 2h post-load glucose level. Inhibition was decreased in our obese young women group, and glucose/lipid metabolism may be involved in this association. The cognitive impairment is comparable with that described in addictive conditions. Our conclusions support the concept of multidisciplinary management of obese patients from the time of diagnosis. Detecting and understanding cognitive dysfunction in this population is essential to providing appropriate treatment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Little More than Personality: Dispositional Determinants of Test Anxiety (the Big Five, Core Self-Evaluations, and Self-Assessed Intelligence)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas; Ahmetoglu, Gorkan; Furnham, Adrian

2008-01-01

This study attempted a hierarchical integration of several dispositional determinants of test anxiety (TA) [Sarason, I.G. (1984). "Stress, anxiety and cognitive interference: Reactions to tests." "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology," 46, 929-938.], namely the Big Five personality traits [Costa, P.T. Jr., & McCrae,…

What are the mechanics of quantum cognition?

PubMed

Navarro, Daniel Joseph; Fuss, Ian

2013-06-01

Pothos & Busemeyer (P&B) argue that quantum probability (QP) provides a descriptive model of behavior and can also provide a rational analysis of a task. We discuss QP models using Marr's levels of analysis, arguing that they make most sense as algorithmic level theories. We also highlight the importance of having clear interpretations for basic mechanisms such as interference.

CBT for Medication Adherence and Depression (CBT-AD) in HIV-Infected Patients Receiving Methadone Maintenance Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soroudi, Nafisseh; Perez, Giselle K.; Gonzalez, Jeffrey S.; Greer, Joseph A.; Pollack, Mark H.; Otto, Michael W.; Safren, Steven A.

2008-01-01

For individuals with HIV who are current or former injection drug users, depression is a common, distressing condition that can interfere with a critical self-care behavior--adherence to antiretroviral therapy. The present study describes the feasibility and outcome, in a case series approach, of cognitive behavioral therapy to improve adherence…

A Neural Network Model of Individual Differences in Task Switching Abilities (Author’s Manuscript)

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-04-30

risk for schizophrenia . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2001; 98:6917–6922. [PubMed: 11381111] Engle, RW...interference in verbal working memory. Neuropsychology . 2006; 20:511–528. [PubMed: 16938014] Herd SA, Banich MT, O’Reilly RC. Neural mechanisms of cognitive

Handing a Tool to Someone Can Take More Time than Using It

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osiurak, Francois; Roche, Kevin; Ramone, Jennifer; Chainay, Hanna

2013-01-01

Jax and Buxbaum [Jax and Buxbaum (2010). Response interference between functional and structural actions linked to the same familiar object. "Cognition, 115", 350-355] demonstrated that grasp-to-transport actions (handing an object to someone, i.e., a receiver) are initiated more quickly than grasp-to-use actions. A possible interpretation of…

Evaluation of the Japanese Version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire as a Screening Tool for Clumsiness of Japanese Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakai, Akio; Miyachi, Taishi; Okada, Ryo; Tani, Iori; Nakajima, Shunji; Onishi, Masafumi; Fujita, Chikako; Tsujii, Masatsugu

2011-01-01

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is characterized by clumsiness and coordination difficulties. DCD interferes with academic performance and participation in physical activities and psychosocial functions, such as self-esteem, cognition, or emotion, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. DCD is a common pediatric condition and…

Opportunistic Access in Frequency Hopping Cognitive Radio Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-03-27

thresholding MA multiple access MFSK M-ary frequency shift keying MIMO multiple-input/multiple-output OFDM orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing x...adaptive BER performance as a function of ISR with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing ( OFDM ) interference present. . . . . . . . . . 41 4.15 Non...adaptive BER performance as a function of EB/N0 with OFDM interfer- ence present

Neuropragmatics: Extralinguistic Pragmatic Ability is Better Preserved in Left-Hemisphere-Damaged Patients than in Right-Hemisphere-Damaged Patients

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cutica, Ilaria; Bucciarelli, Monica; Bara, Bruno G.

2006-01-01

The aim of the present study is to compare the pragmatic ability of right- and left-hemisphere-damaged patients excluding the possible interference of linguistic deficits. To this aim, we study extralinguistic communication, that is communication performed only through gestures. The Cognitive Pragmatics Theory provides the theoretical framework:…

Incongruent Abstract Stimulus-Response Bindings Result in Response Interference: fMRI and EEG Evidence from Visual Object Classification Priming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horner, Aidan J.; Henson, Richard N.

2012-01-01

Stimulus repetition often leads to facilitated processing, resulting in neural decreases (repetition suppression) and faster RTs (repetition priming). Such repetition-related effects have been attributed to the facilitation of repeated cognitive processes and/or the retrieval of previously encoded stimulus-response (S-R) bindings. Although…

Individual Differences in Children's Corepresentation of Self and Other in Joint Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milward, Sophie J.; Kita, Sotaro; Apperly, Ian A.

2017-01-01

Previous research has shown that children aged 4-5 years, but not 2-3 years, show adult-like interference from a partner when performing a joint task (Milward, Kita, & Apperly, 2014). This raises questions about the cognitive skills involved in the development of such "corepresentation (CR)" of a partner (Sebanz, Knoblich, &…

Assessing and Treating Aggression and Conduct Problems in Schools: Implications from the Coping Power Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Nicole P.; Boxmeyer, Caroline L.; Baden, Rachel; Stromeyer, Sara; Minney, Jessica A.; Mushtaq, Asia; Lochman, John E.

2011-01-01

Children with high levels of aggressive behavior and conduct problems create major management problems in school settings and interfere with the learning environment of their classmates and with their own academic achievement. A contextual social-cognitive model can provide a framework for understanding risk factors involved in the development and…

Too (mentally) busy to chill: Cognitive load and inhibitory cues interact to moderate triggered displaced aggression.

PubMed

Vasquez, Eduardo A; Howard-Field, Joanna

2016-11-01

Inhibitory information can be expected to reduce triggered displaced aggression by signaling the potential for negative consequences as a result of acting aggressively. We examined how cognitive load might interfere with these aggression-reducing effects of inhibitory cues. Participants (N = 80) were randomly assigned to a condition in a 2 (cognitive load: high/low) × 2 (inhibiting cues: yes/no) between-subjects design. Following procedures in the TDA paradigm, participants received an initial provocation from the experimenter and a subsequent triggering annoyance from another individual. In the inhibitory cue condition, participants were told, before they had the opportunity to aggress, that others would learn of their aggressive responses. In the high cognitive load condition, participants rehearsed a 10-digit number while aggressing. Those in the low cognitive load condition rehearsed a three digit number. We found significant main effects of cognitive load and inhibitory cue, which were qualified by the expected load × inhibitory cue interaction. Thus, inhibitory cues reduced displaced aggression under low-cognitive load. However, when participants in the inhibitory cue condition were under cognitive load, aggression increased, suggesting that mental busyness interfered with the full use of inhibitory information. Aggr. Behav. 42:598-604, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Spatial release of cognitive load measured in a dual-task paradigm in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners.

PubMed

Xia, Jing; Nooraei, Nazanin; Kalluri, Sridhar; Edwards, Brent

2015-04-01

This study investigated whether spatial separation between talkers helps reduce cognitive processing load, and how hearing impairment interacts with the cognitive load of individuals listening in multi-talker environments. A dual-task paradigm was used in which performance on a secondary task (visual tracking) served as a measure of the cognitive load imposed by a speech recognition task. Visual tracking performance was measured under four conditions in which the target and the interferers were distinguished by (1) gender and spatial location, (2) gender only, (3) spatial location only, and (4) neither gender nor spatial location. Results showed that when gender cues were available, a 15° spatial separation between talkers reduced the cognitive load of listening even though it did not provide further improvement in speech recognition (Experiment I). Compared to normal-hearing listeners, large individual variability in spatial release of cognitive load was observed among hearing-impaired listeners. Cognitive load was lower when talkers were spatially separated by 60° than when talkers were of different genders, even though speech recognition was comparable in these two conditions (Experiment II). These results suggest that a measure of cognitive load might provide valuable insight into the benefit of spatial cues in multi-talker environments.

Impairments in social cognition following severe traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

McDonald, Skye

2013-03-01

Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) leads to physical, neuropsychological, and emotional deficits that interfere with the individual’s capacity to return to his or her former lifestyle. This review focuses on social cognition, that is, the capacity to attend to, recognize and interpret interpersonal cues that guide social behavior. Social cognition entails ‘‘hot’’ processes, that is, emotion perception and emotional empathy and ‘‘cold’’ processes, that is, the ability to infer the beliefs, feelings, and intentions of others (theory of mind: ToM) to see their point of view (cognitive empathy) and what they mean when communicating (pragmatic inference). This review critically examines research attesting to deficits in each of these domains and also examines evidence for theorized mechanisms including specific neural networks, the role of simulation, and non-social cognition. Current research is hampered by small, heterogeneous samples and the inherent complexity of TBI pathology. Nevertheless, there is evidence that facets of social cognition are impaired in this population. New assessment tools to measure social cognition following TBI are required that predict everyday social functioning. In addition, research into remediation needs to be guided by the growing empirical base for understanding social cognition that may yet reveal how deficits dissociate following TBI.

What Klein's "Semantic Gradient" Does and Does Not Really Show: Decomposing Stroop Interference into Task and Informational Conflict Components.

PubMed

Levin, Yulia; Tzelgov, Joseph

2016-01-01

The present study suggests that the idea that Stroop interference originates from multiple components may gain theoretically from integrating two independent frameworks. The first framework is represented by the well-known notion of "semantic gradient" of interference and the second one is the distinction between two types of conflict - the task and the informational conflict - giving rise to the interference (MacLeod and MacDonald, 2000; Goldfarb and Henik, 2007). The proposed integration led to the conclusion that two (i.e., orthographic and lexical components) of the four theoretically distinct components represent task conflict, and the other two (i.e., indirect and direct informational conflict components) represent informational conflict. The four components were independently estimated in a series of experiments. The results confirmed the contribution of task conflict (estimated by a robust orthographic component) and of informational conflict (estimated by a strong direct informational conflict component) to Stroop interference. However, the performed critical review of the relevant literature (see General Discussion), as well as the results of the experiments reported, showed that the other two components expressing each type of conflict (i.e., the lexical component of task conflict and the indirect informational conflict) were small and unstable. The present analysis refines our knowledge of the origins of Stroop interference by providing evidence that each type of conflict has its major and minor contributions. The implications for cognitive control of an automatic reading process are also discussed.

What Klein’s “Semantic Gradient” Does and Does Not Really Show: Decomposing Stroop Interference into Task and Informational Conflict Components

PubMed Central

Levin, Yulia; Tzelgov, Joseph

2016-01-01

The present study suggests that the idea that Stroop interference originates from multiple components may gain theoretically from integrating two independent frameworks. The first framework is represented by the well-known notion of “semantic gradient” of interference and the second one is the distinction between two types of conflict – the task and the informational conflict – giving rise to the interference (MacLeod and MacDonald, 2000; Goldfarb and Henik, 2007). The proposed integration led to the conclusion that two (i.e., orthographic and lexical components) of the four theoretically distinct components represent task conflict, and the other two (i.e., indirect and direct informational conflict components) represent informational conflict. The four components were independently estimated in a series of experiments. The results confirmed the contribution of task conflict (estimated by a robust orthographic component) and of informational conflict (estimated by a strong direct informational conflict component) to Stroop interference. However, the performed critical review of the relevant literature (see General Discussion), as well as the results of the experiments reported, showed that the other two components expressing each type of conflict (i.e., the lexical component of task conflict and the indirect informational conflict) were small and unstable. The present analysis refines our knowledge of the origins of Stroop interference by providing evidence that each type of conflict has its major and minor contributions. The implications for cognitive control of an automatic reading process are also discussed. PMID:26955363

Stimulus-level interference disrupts repetition benefit during task switching in middle childhood

PubMed Central

Karayanidis, Frini; Jamadar, Sharna; Sanday, Dearne

2013-01-01

The task-switching paradigm provides a powerful tool to measure the development of core cognitive control processes. In this study, we use the alternating runs task-switching paradigm to assess preparatory control processes involved in flexibly preparing for a predictable change in task and stimulus-driven control processes involved in controlling stimulus-level interference. We present three experiments that examine behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures of task-switching performance in middle childhood and young adulthood under low and high stimulus interference conditions. Experiment 1 confirms that our new child-friendly tasks produce similar behavioral and electrophysiological findings in young adults as those previously reported. Experiment 2 examines task switching with univalent stimuli across a range of preparation intervals in middle childhood. Experiment 3 compares task switching with bivalent stimuli across the same preparation intervals in children and young adults. Children produced a larger RT switch cost than adults with univalent stimuli and a short preparation interval. Both children and adults showed significant reduction in switch cost with increasing preparation interval, but in children this was caused by greater increase in RT for repeat than switch trials. Response-locked ERPs showed intact preparation for univalent, but less efficient preparation for bivalent stimulus conditions. Stimulus-locked ERPs confirmed that children showed greater stimulus-level interference for repeat trials, especially with bivalent stimuli. We conclude that children show greater stimulus-level interference especially for repeat trials under high interference conditions, suggesting weaker mental representation of the current task set. PMID:24367317

Communication skills and thalamic lesion: Strategies of rehabilitation.

PubMed

Amaddii, Luisa; Centorrino, Santi; Cambi, Jacopo; Passali, Desiderio

2014-01-01

To describe the speech rehabilitation history of patients with thalamic lesions. Thalamic lesions can affect speech and language according to diverse thalamic nuclei involved. Because of the strategic functional position of the thalamus within the cognitive networks, its lesion can also interfere with other cognitive processes, such as attention, memory and executive functions. Alterations of these cognitive domains contribute significantly to language deficits, leading to communicative inefficacy. This fact must be considered in the rehabilitation efforts. Whereas evaluation of cognitive functions and communicative efficiency is different from that of aphasic disorder, treatment should also be different. The treatment must be focused on specific cognitive deficits with belief in the regaining of communicative ability, as well as it occurs in therapy of pragmatic disorder in traumatic brain injury: attention process training, mnemotechnics and prospective memory training. According to our experience: (a) there is a close correlation between cognitive processes and communication skills; (b) alterations of attention, memory and executive functions cause a loss of efficiency in the language use; and (c) appropriate cognitive treatment improves pragmatic competence and therefore the linguistic disorder. For planning a speech-therapy it is important to consider the relationship between cognitive functions and communication. The cognitive/behavioral treatment confirms its therapeutic efficiency for thalamic lesions. Copyright © 2014 Polish Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Society. Published by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z.o.o. All rights reserved.

Performance evaluation of cognitive radio in advanced metering infrastructure communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiew, Yik-Kuan; Mohd Aripin, Norazizah; Din, Norashidah Md

2016-03-01

Smart grid is an intelligent electricity grid system. A reliable two-way communication system is required to transmit both critical and non-critical smart grid data. However, it is difficult to locate a huge chunk of dedicated spectrum for smart grid communications. Hence, cognitive radio based communication is applied. Cognitive radio allows smart grid users to access licensed spectrums opportunistically with the constraint of not causing harmful interference to licensed users. In this paper, a cognitive radio based smart grid communication framework is proposed. Smart grid framework consists of Home Area Network (HAN) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), while AMI is made up of Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN). In this paper, the authors only report the findings for AMI communication. AMI is smart grid domain that comprises smart meters, data aggregator unit, and billing center. Meter data are collected by smart meters and transmitted to data aggregator unit by using cognitive 802.11 technique; data aggregator unit then relays the data to billing center using cognitive WiMAX and TV white space. The performance of cognitive radio in AMI communication is investigated using Network Simulator 2. Simulation results show that cognitive radio improves the latency and throughput performances of AMI. Besides, cognitive radio also improves spectrum utilization efficiency of WiMAX band from 5.92% to 9.24% and duty cycle of TV band from 6.6% to 10.77%.

Color-word matching stroop task: separating interference and response conflict.

PubMed

Zysset, S; Müller, K; Lohmann, G; von Cramon , D Y

2001-01-01

The Stroop interference task requires a person to respond to a specific dimension of a stimulus while suppressing a competing stimulus dimension. Previous PET and fMRI studies using the Color Stroop paradigm have shown increased activity in the "cognitive division" of the cingulate cortex. In our fMRI study with nine subjects, we used a Color-Word Matching Stroop task. A frontoparietal network, including structures in the lateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar region, the intraparietal sulcus, as well as the lateral occipitotemporal gyrus, was activated when contrasting the incongruent vs the neutral condition. However, no substantial activation in either the right or left hemisphere of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) was detected. In accordance with a series of recent articles, we argue that the ACC is not specifically involved in interference processes. The ACC seems rather involved in motor preparation processes which were controlled in the present Color-Word Matching Stroop task. We argue that the region around the banks of the inferior frontal sulcus is required to solve interference problems, a concept which can also be seen as a component of task set management. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Convolutional code performance in planetary entry channels

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Modestino, J. W.

1974-01-01

The planetary entry channel is modeled for communication purposes representing turbulent atmospheric scattering effects. The performance of short and long constraint length convolutional codes is investigated in conjunction with coherent BPSK modulation and Viterbi maximum likelihood decoding. Algorithms for sequential decoding are studied in terms of computation and/or storage requirements as a function of the fading channel parameters. The performance of the coded coherent BPSK system is compared with the coded incoherent MFSK system. Results indicate that: some degree of interleaving is required to combat time correlated fading of channel; only modest amounts of interleaving are required to approach performance of memoryless channel; additional propagational results are required on the phase perturbation process; and the incoherent MFSK system is superior when phase tracking errors are considered.

Information transmission over an amplitude damping channel with an arbitrary degree of memory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Arrigo, Antonio; Benenti, Giuliano; Falci, Giuseppe; Macchiavello, Chiara

2015-12-01

We study the performance of a partially correlated amplitude damping channel acting on two qubits. We derive lower bounds for the single-shot classical capacity by studying two kinds of quantum ensembles, one which allows us to maximize the Holevo quantity for the memoryless channel and the other allowing the same task but for the full-memory channel. In these two cases we also show the amount of entanglement which is involved in achieving the maximum of the Holevo quantity. For the single-shot quantum capacity we discuss both a lower and an upper bound, achieving a good estimate for high values of the channel transmissivity. We finally compute the entanglement-assisted classical channel capacity.

Localization Transition Induced by Learning in Random Searches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falcón-Cortés, Andrea; Boyer, Denis; Giuggioli, Luca; Majumdar, Satya N.

2017-10-01

We solve an adaptive search model where a random walker or Lévy flight stochastically resets to previously visited sites on a d -dimensional lattice containing one trapping site. Because of reinforcement, a phase transition occurs when the resetting rate crosses a threshold above which nondiffusive stationary states emerge, localized around the inhomogeneity. The threshold depends on the trapping strength and on the walker's return probability in the memoryless case. The transition belongs to the same class as the self-consistent theory of Anderson localization. These results show that similarly to many living organisms and unlike the well-studied Markovian walks, non-Markov movement processes can allow agents to learn about their environment and promise to bring adaptive solutions in search tasks.

Simulation program of nonlinearities applied to telecommunication systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thomas, C.

1979-01-01

In any satellite communication system, the problems of distorsion created by nonlinear devices or systems must be considered. The subject of this paper is the use of the Fast Fourier Transform (F.F.T.) in the prediction of the intermodulation performance of amplifiers, mixers, filters. A nonlinear memory-less model is chosen to simulate amplitude and phase nonlinearities of the device in the simulation program written in FORTRAN 4. The experimentally observed nonlinearity parameters of a low noise 3.7-4.2 GHz amplifier are related to the gain and phase coefficients of Fourier Service Series. The measured results are compared with those calculated from the simulation in the cases where the input signal is composed of two, three carriers and noise power density.

Efficient Polar Coding of Quantum Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Renes, Joseph M.; Dupuis, Frédéric; Renner, Renato

2012-08-01

Polar coding, introduced 2008 by Arıkan, is the first (very) efficiently encodable and decodable coding scheme whose information transmission rate provably achieves the Shannon bound for classical discrete memoryless channels in the asymptotic limit of large block sizes. Here, we study the use of polar codes for the transmission of quantum information. Focusing on the case of qubit Pauli channels and qubit erasure channels, we use classical polar codes to construct a coding scheme that asymptotically achieves a net transmission rate equal to the coherent information using efficient encoding and decoding operations and code construction. Our codes generally require preshared entanglement between sender and receiver, but for channels with a sufficiently low noise level we demonstrate that the rate of preshared entanglement required is zero.

Spectrum sensing and resource allocation for multicarrier cognitive radio systems under interference and power constraints

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dikmese, Sener; Srinivasan, Sudharsan; Shaat, Musbah; Bader, Faouzi; Renfors, Markku

2014-12-01

Multicarrier waveforms have been commonly recognized as strong candidates for cognitive radio. In this paper, we study the dynamics of spectrum sensing and spectrum allocation functions in cognitive radio context using very practical signal models for the primary users (PUs), including the effects of power amplifier nonlinearities. We start by sensing the spectrum with energy detection-based wideband multichannel spectrum sensing algorithm and continue by investigating optimal resource allocation methods. Along the way, we examine the effects of spectral regrowth due to the inevitable power amplifier nonlinearities of the PU transmitters. The signal model includes frequency selective block-fading channel models for both secondary and primary transmissions. Filter bank-based wideband spectrum sensing techniques are applied for detecting spectral holes and filter bank-based multicarrier (FBMC) modulation is selected for transmission as an alternative multicarrier waveform to avoid the disadvantage of limited spectral containment of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based multicarrier systems. The optimization technique used for the resource allocation approach considered in this study utilizes the information obtained through spectrum sensing and knowledge of spectrum leakage effects of the underlying waveforms, including a practical power amplifier model for the PU transmitter. This study utilizes a computationally efficient algorithm to maximize the SU link capacity with power and interference constraints. It is seen that the SU transmission capacity depends critically on the spectral containment of the PU waveform, and these effects are quantified in a case study using an 802.11-g WLAN scenario.

Specific interference between a cognitive task and sensory organization for stance balance control in healthy young adults: visuospatial effects.

PubMed

Chong, Raymond K Y; Mills, Bradley; Dailey, Leanna; Lane, Elizabeth; Smith, Sarah; Lee, Kyoung-Hyun

2010-07-01

We tested the hypothesis that a computational overload results when two activities, one motor and the other cognitive that draw on the same neural processing pathways, are performed concurrently. Healthy young adult subjects carried out two seemingly distinct tasks of maintaining standing balance control under conditions of low (eyes closed), normal (eyes open) or high (eyes open, sway-referenced surround) visuospatial processing load while concurrently performing a cognitive task of either subtracting backwards by seven or generating words of the same first letter. A decrease in the performance of the balance control task and a decrement in the speed and accuracy of responses were noted during the subtraction but not the word generation task. The interference in the subtraction task was isolated to the first trial of the high but not normal or low visuospatial conditions. Balance control improvements with repeated exposures were observed only in the low visuospatial conditions while performance in the other conditions remained compromised. These results suggest that sensory organization for balance control appear to draw on similar visuospatial computational resources needed for the subtraction but not the word generation task. In accordance with the theory of modularity in human performance, the contrast in results between the subtraction and word generation tasks suggests that the neural overload is related to competition for similar visuospatial processes rather than limited attentional resources. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conversion disorder in children and adolescents: a disorder of cognitive control.

PubMed

Kozlowska, Kasia; Palmer, Donna M; Brown, Kerri J; Scher, Stephen; Chudleigh, Catherine; Davies, Fiona; Williams, Leanne M

2015-03-01

To assess cognitive function in children and adolescents presenting with acute conversion symptoms. Fifty-seven participants aged 8.5-18 years (41 girls and 16 boys) with conversion symptoms and 57 age- and gender-matched healthy controls completed the IntegNeuro neurocognitive battery, an estimate of intelligence, and self-report measures of subjective emotional distress. Participants with conversion symptoms showed poorer performance within attention, executive function, and memory domains. Poorer performance was reflected in more errors on specific tests: Switching of Attention (t(79) = 2.17, p = .03); Verbal Interference (t(72) = 2.64, p = .01); Go/No-Go (t(73) = 2.20, p = .03); Memory Recall and Verbal Learning (interference errors for memory recall; t(61) = 3.13, p < .01); and short-delay recall (t(75) = 2.05, p < .01) and long-delay recall (t(62) = 2.24, p = .03). Poorer performance was also reflected in a reduced span of working memory on the Digit Span Test for both forward recall span (t(103) = -3.64, p < .001) and backward recall span (t(100) = -3.22, p < .01). There was no difference between participants and controls on IQ estimate (t(94) = -589, p = .56), and there was no correlation between cognitive function and perceived distress. Children and adolescents with acute conversion symptoms have a reduced capacity to manipulate and retain information, to block interfering information, and to inhibit responses, all of which are required for effective attention, executive function, and memory. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Optimal Power Allocation for CC-HARQ-based Cognitive Radio with Statistical CSI in Nakagami Slow Fading Channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Ding; Li, Qun

2017-01-01

This paper addresses the power allocation problem for cognitive radio (CR) based on hybrid-automatic-repeat-request (HARQ) with chase combining (CC) in Nakagamimslow fading channels. We assume that, instead of the perfect instantaneous channel state information (CSI), only the statistical CSI is available at the secondary user (SU) transmitter. The aim is to minimize the SU outage probability under the primary user (PU) interference outage constraint. Using the Lagrange multiplier method, an iterative and recursive algorithm is derived to obtain the optimal power allocation for each transmission round. Extensive numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithm.

Digital technologies for cognitive assessment to accelerate drug development in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Leurent, C; Ehlers, M D

2015-11-01

For many neurological and psychiatric diseases, novel therapeutics have been elusive for decades. By focusing on attention interference in Alzheimer's disease (AD), we provide a future vision on how emerging mobile, computer, and device-based cognitive tools are converting classically noisy, subjective, data-poor clinical endpoints associated with neuropsychiatric disease assessment into a richer, scalable, and objective set of measurements. Incorporation of such endpoints into clinical drug trials holds promise for more quickly and efficiently developing new medicines. © 2015 The Authors. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Developing an effective multimedia in education for special education (MESE): An introduction to arithmetic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Munir, Kusnendar, Jajang; Rahmadhani

2016-02-01

This research aims to develop and test the effectiveness of multimedia in education for special education (MESE) of students with cognitive disabilities in introducing Arithmetic. Students with cognitive disabilities are those who have a level of intelligence under the normal ones. They think concretely and tend to have a very limited memory, switched concentration and forgot easily. The mastery of words is minimal, and also requires a long time to learn. These limitations will interfere in introduction learning to Arithmetic, with the material of numbers 1 to 10. The study resulted that MESE is worth to be used and enhanced the ability of the students.

A cognitive characterization of dyscalculia in Turner syndrome.

PubMed

Bruandet, Marie; Molko, Nicolas; Cohen, Laurent; Dehaene, Stanislas

2004-01-01

Current theories of number processing postulate that the human abilities for arithmetic are based on cerebral circuits that are partially laid down under genetic control and later modified by schooling and education. This view predicts the existence of genetic diseases that interfere specifically with components of the number system. Here, we investigate whether Turner syndrome (TS) corresponds to this definition. TS is a genetic disorder which affects one woman in 2500 and is characterized by partial or complete absence of one X chromosome. In addition to well-characterized physical and hormonal dysfunction, TS patients exhibit cognitive deficits including dyscalculia. We tested 12 women with Turner syndrome and 13 control subjects on a cognitive battery including arithmetical tests (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) as well as tests of the understanding of numerosity and quantity (cognitive estimation, estimation, comparison, bisection, subitizing/counting). Impairments were observed in cognitive estimation, subitizing, and calculation. We examine whether these deficits can be attributed to a single source, and discuss the possible implications of hormonal and genetic factors in the neuropsychological profile of TS patients.

Evaluating cognition in individuals with Huntington disease: Neuro-QoL cognitive functioning measures.

PubMed

Lai, Jin-Shei; Goodnight, Siera; Downing, Nancy R; Ready, Rebecca E; Paulsen, Jane S; Kratz, Anna L; Stout, Julie C; McCormack, Michael K; Cella, David; Ross, Christopher; Russell, Jenna; Carlozzi, Noelle E

2018-03-01

Cognitive functioning impacts health-related quality of life (HRQOL) for individuals with Huntington disease (HD). The Neuro-QoL includes two patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures of cognition-Executive Function (EF) and General Concerns (GC). These measures have not previously been validated for use in HD. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Neuro-QoL Cognitive Function measures for use in HD. Five hundred ten individuals with prodromal or manifest HD completed the Neuro-QoL Cognition measures, two other PRO measures of HRQOL (WHODAS 2.0 and EQ5D), and a depression measure (PROMIS Depression). Measures of functioning The Total Functional Capacity and behavior (Problem Behaviors Assessment) were completed by clinician interview. Objective measures of cognition were obtained using clinician-administered Symbol Digit Modalities Test and the Stroop Test (Word, Color, and Interference). Self-rated, clinician-rated, and objective composite scores were developed. We examined the Neuro-QoL measures for reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and known-groups validity. Excellent reliabilities (Cronbach's alphas ≥ 0.94) were found. Convergent validity was supported, with strong relationships between self-reported measures of cognition. Discriminant validity was supported by less robust correlations between self-reported cognition and other constructs. Prodromal participants reported fewer cognitive problems than manifest groups, and early-stage HD participants reported fewer problems than late-stage HD participants. The Neuro-QoL Cognition measures provide reliable and valid assessments of self-reported cognitive functioning for individuals with HD. Findings support the utility of these measures for assessing self-reported cognition.