Executive functions in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Some studies suggest that patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis have problems in the functioning of working memory, and more specifically in executive functions, but the available results are still inconsistent. The aim of the present study was to examine executive functioning in multiple sclerosis using classical and representative tasks for divided attention, updating, attentional shifting, and inhibition. The sample was composed of 48 participants aged between 18 and 59 years (24 persons living with multiple sclerosis and 24 healthy participants matched in age and education level). The executive functions of divided attention, updating, attentional shifting, and inhibition were analyzed through the Dual-Task Paradigm, the N-Back task, the Trail Making Test (TMT), and the Stroop test, respectively. The analyses of the data showed that the functioning of working memory was impaired in multiple sclerosis in the executive functions of divided attention and updating when the group of persons living with MS and the control group were compared. In addition, the performance in the four executive functions analyzed did not show the same profile across the persons living with MS in the sample, as no deficit in attentional shifting or inhibition was observed. It can be concluded that the presence of deficits was observed only in the executive functions of divided attention and updating under the condition of greater cognitive demand. The clinical implications of these results are underlined due to their impact on daily life.

Executive-function tasks in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's Disease: Effects of decline and gender.

It is exceedingly rare to find studies that analyze the effect of gender differences in executive-function tasks in normal cognitive aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The objective of the present study was to analyze the mean differences in performance in four executive-function tasks, the Clock Drawing Test verbal-command, Clock Drawing Test-copy, Phonetic Fluency Test and Trail Making Test-A, according to the gender and impairment group variables. A total of 90 participants (30 patients with Alzheimer's Disease, 30 patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, and 30 healthy elderly participants; 50% men and 50% women in each group) took part in the study. As expected, the results showed a main effect of the group in most tasks, with a progressively worse performance according to cognitive impairment. Regarding the effect of gender, there were no significant differences in the Mild Cognitive Impairment and healthy elderly groups, but a significantly higher performance of women compared to men was found in the Alzheimer's group. The clinical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed. In particular, the abnormal performance of women with Alzheimer's in the sample may be related to a possible cognitive reserve due to social and educational background in their sociocultural and generational context.

Developmental differences between 1st and 3rd year of Early Childhood Education (preschool) in mental rotation and its training.

Research has shown that mental rotation (MR) can be improved through training. However, studies with preschool children are very scarce, due in part to the lack of consensus as to the age at which this ability arises and can be trained, and due to the difficulties of working on the understanding of this ability when it begins to develop. The present study was designed to observe the effect of an MR training on 1st (3-4-year-old children) and 3rd year (5-6-year-old children) of Early Childhood Education (preschool), as well as the development of this ability between both courses. Finally, this study aimed to analyze the differential increase of the training effect in relation to the initial MR ability of the participants. The results showed a significant improvement in the participants who underwent training in 3rd year of preschool, with the trained group showing a marginal improvement in 1st year of preschool. The older group showed lower error rates in training performance than the younger group, the latter having a linear decrease in performance as the angular disparity increased. In addition, in relation to training, a greater increase of MR was observed in the 3rd year preschoolers with lower scores in the pretest. These results suggest that MR is in full development and that it is a spatial ability that can be trained at preschool ages. In addition, the possibility of enhancing this ability to a greater extent in preschoolers who exhibit lower initial MR level is especially relevant.

From What Age Is Mental Rotation Training Effective? Differences in Preschool Age but Not in Sex.

Currently, there is evidence that spatial skills training leads to an improvement of such skills, although studies with children in the Preschool stage are very scarce. This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of mental rotation (MR) training and sex differences in preschool children. Two experiments were carried out. Experiment 1 included 59 children of 1st course (aged between 3 and 4 years) and Experiment 2, 61 children of 2nd course (aged between 4 and 5 years) of Preschool Education, distributed into control and training groups. The results showed a significant improvement in the MR ability of the training group (measured through a different test than the one used for training) only in the older children, and a tendency toward significance in the younger participants. Moreover, no sex differences in MR or group differences across age groups were found. These results regarding MR training support the malleability of spatial skills approach, particularly in 4-5 year-old preschoolers. This malleability should be enhanced in our educational system, as well as the implementation of educational and social policies that tend toward equality between sexes in the development of spatial skills. This can promote an equitable access to academic careers requiring high spatial skills such as engineering, science, technology or mathematics, in which nowadays women are underrepresented.

Spatial Visualization ability improves with and without studying Technical Drawing.

The results of several studies suggest that spatial ability can be improved through direct training with tasks similar to those integrated in the tests used to measure the ability. However, there is a greater interest in analyzing the effectiveness of indirect training such as games or of learning subjects that involve spatial processes to a certain extent. Thus, the objective of the present study was to analyze whether the indirect training in Technical Drawing improved the Spatial Visualization ability of Architecture students. For this purpose, a group of students enrolled in Fundamentals of Architecture were administered two tests, a Spatial Visualization task and an Abstract Reasoning task, at the beginning and the end of a semester, after having received training through the subjects "Technical Drawing I: Geometry and Perception" and "Projects I." The results of this group were compared with those of a control group of students enrolled in a Mathematics degree, who were also pre-post evaluated but had not received the training in Technical Drawing. The study showed a significant pre-post improvement in both, Visualization and reasoning. However, this improvement occurred in both groups, thereby concluding that this improvement was not due to indirect training. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between men and women in any of the groups or conditions. These results clarify those of an earlier study where improvement in Visualization after training in Technical Drawing was found but did not include a comparison with a control condition. The control condition has proved to be important in order to consider the limitations of the effect of Technical Drawing on said improvement.

Differences in Executive Functioning in Children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

In recent years, the interest in Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its relation to deficits in working memory (WM) and more specifically the different executive functions (EFs) has grown, to the point of confirming that these are quite frequent in this disorder. The aim of this study was precisely to explore differences in executive functioning of WM in fourth grade Primary school children with and without ADHD (26 and 29 children, respectively), introducing rigorous control measures in the tests used. Four EFs were analyzed: divided attention, updating, attentional shifting and inhibition, measured through four tasks, the dual-task paradigm (digits and box-crossing), the N-Back task, the Trail Making Test and the Stroop task, respectively. The results showed that participants with ADHD, compared to children with typical development (TD), exhibited a smaller verbal memory span as well as deficits in the attentional shifting and updating functions. However, a similar performance for the EF of inhibition was found for both groups of participants. Finally, an unexpected result was obtained with regard to the role of divided attention, as children with ADHD were less impaired when performing the double task than participants in the TD group.

Gender Differences in Verbal and Visuospatial Working Memory Tasks in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To date, there are few studies on gender differences in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD). In the present study, the existence of differences between sexes in verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks in the evolution of cognitive and pathological aging was examined. METHOD: Ninety participants took part in this study: 30 AD, 30 MCI, and 30 healthy elderly participants (50% men and 50% women). RESULTS: There were no significant differences between men and women with AD in visuospatial tasks, whereas these differences were found within the MCI group, with the average of men achieving significantly higher results than women. In verbal tasks, there were no differences between sexes for any of the groups. CONCLUSION: Execution in visuospatial tasks tends to depend on gender, whereas this does not occur for verbal tasks.

Lifetime psychopathological dimensions, cognitive impairment and functional outcome in psychosis.

Psychopathological symptoms and cognitive impairment are related to psychosocial functioning. However, the nature of the association of cognitive impairment with psychosocial functioning still remains under scrutiny. We aimed to examine the relationships of premorbid adjustment, lifetime psychopathological dimensions, and cognitive performance with the typical level of psychosocial functioning during the previous year. We assessed ninety patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and affective disorders with psychotic symptoms to collect data on premorbid adjustment, lifetime psychopathological dimensions, cognitive performance and psychosocial functioning. Sixty-five healthy volunteers were included as controls. Pearson's correlations and hierarchical regression analyses were performed to ascertain to what extent the aforementioned variables predicted psychosocial functioning. Functional domains were significantly correlated with most of the premorbid features, lifetime psychopathological dimensions and cognitive domains. However, lifetime negative symptoms were the best predictors of psychosocial functioning in the hierarchical regression analyses (explaining between 47 and 64% of the variance). For psychosocial outcome in patients with psychoses, lifetime negative symptoms showed a stronger predictive validity than cognitive impairment or premorbid adjustment.

The suppression effect in visuospatial and verbal working memory span tasks in patients with Alzheimer's disease: a 2-year follow-up study.

This study adapted a new task to assess visuospatial and verbal working memory impairments in patients with Alzheimer Disease (AD), including an executive strategy of information suppression. The aim was to examine the visuospatial and verbal difficulties, and additionally to explore the average sex differences, during a 2-year follow-up study. The results indicated that patients with AD showed a significantly lower performance, compared with healthy elderly controls, especially with the suppression of information required in this new task. However, suppression did not lead to a significantly greater decline in the performance of patients when compared with the control group.

Experimental But Not Sex Differences of a Mental Rotation Training Program on Adolescents.

Given the importance of visuospatial processing in areas related to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines, where there is still a considerable gap in the area of sex differences, the interest in the effects of visuospatial skills training continues to grow. Therefore, we have evaluated the visuospatial improvement of adolescents after performing a computerized mental rotation training program, as well as the relationship of this visuospatial ability with other cognitive, emotional factors and those factors based on the experience with videogames. The study, which was performed on students aged 14 and 15 years old, showed a significant improvement in this visuospatial skill for a training group (n = 21) compared to a control group (n = 24). Furthermore, no significant sex differences were obtained for spatial ability or for any of the other tasks evaluated, either before or after training. Regarding the relationship between skills, a significant correlation between experience with video games and spatial ability was found, as well as between mathematical reasoning and intelligence and with spatial ability in the initial phase for the total sample. These findings are discussed from a cognitive point of view and within the current sociocultural context, where the equal use of new technologies could help reduce the visuospatial gap between sexes.

Normative data on the n-back task for children and young adolescents.

The n-back task is a frequently used measure of working memory (WM) in cognitive neuroscience research contexts, and it has become widely adopted in other areas over the last decade. This study aimed to obtain normative data for the n-back task from a large sample of children and adolescents. To this end, a computerized verbal n-back task with three levels of WM load (1-back, 2-back, and 3-back) was administered to 3722 Spanish school children aged 7-13 years. Results showed an overall age-related increase in performance for the different levels of difficulty. This trend was less pronounced at 1-back than at 2-back when hits were considered. Gender differences were also observed, with girls outperforming boys although taking more time to respond. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed. Normative data stratified by age and gender for the three WM load levels are provided.

A comparative study of the working memory multicomponent model in psychosis and healthy controls.

Working memory deficits are considered nuclear deficits in psychotic disorders. However, research has not found a generalized impairment in all of the components of working memory. We aimed to assess the components of the Baddeley and Hitch working memory model: the temporary systems-the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer (introduced later by Baddeley)-and the central executive system, which includes four executive functions: divided attention, updating, shifting and inhibition. We assessed working memory performance in a sample of 21 patients with a psychotic disorder and 21 healthy controls. Patients also underwent a clinical assessment. Both univariate and repeated measures ANOVAs were applied to analyze performance in the working memory components between groups. Patients with a psychotic disorder underperformed compared to the controls in all of the working memory tasks, but after controlling for age and premorbid IQ, we only found a difference in performance in the N-Back task. Repeated measures ANCOVAs showed that patients also underperformed compared to the controls in the Digit span test and the TMT task. Not all of the components of working memory were impaired in the patients. Specifically, patients' performance was impaired in the tasks selected to assess the phonological loop and the shifting executive function. Patients' also showed worse performance than controls in the N-Back task, representative of the updating executive function. However, we did not find higher impairment in the patients' performance respect to controls when increasing the loading of the task.

Improving reading comprehension: From metacognitive intervention on strategies to the intervention on working memory executive processes / Mejorando la comprensión lectora: Desde la intervención metacognitiva en estrategias a la intervención en los procesos ejecutivos de la memoria operativa

Many students may read fluently but have difficulties constructing meaning from texts. Difficulties with reading comprehension have many implications at school. In particular, problems understanding texts interfere with studying and learning from text. Reading comprehension has improved in the last 30 years focusing on intervention programs that work with strategies in which metacog-nition plays a crucial role. However, recent years have seen relevant advances in the study of the relationship between working memory (WM), particularly executive processes, and reading comprehension. In this paper, we present how the last 20 years of our research has evolved regarding metacognitive intervention from text comprehension strategies, as the main idea and summarization to the intervention on WM's executive processes during reading. Thus, our more recent empirical data has shown that text comprehension can be improved after specific training on the executive functions of working memory (e.g., focusing, switching, connecting and updating mental representations, and the inhibition of irrelevant information) in Primary school students.

Muchos estudiantes pueden leer de forma fluida pero presentan dificultades para construir significados a partir de los textos. Las dificultades de compresión lectora tienen varias implicaciones en la escuela. En particular, los problemas de comprensión de textos interfieren con el estudio y el aprendizaje desde el texto. La comprensión de lectura se ha mejorado en los últimos 30 años enfocándose en los programas de intervención que trabajan con estrategias en las cuales la metacognición juega un papel crucial. Sin embargo, en años recientes han sido relevantes los avances en el estudio de las relaciones entre la memoria de trabajo (WM), particularmente el proceso ejecutivo, y la comprensión de lectura. En este artículo presentamos la manera como se ha desarrollado nuestra investigación en los últimos 20 años, en relación con intervención metacognitiva desde las estrategias de comprensión de textos, tales como la idea principal y el resumen en la intervención sobre el proceso ejecutivo de WM durante la lectura. Así, nuestros datos empíricos recientes han mostrado que la comprensión de textos puede ser mejorada después del tratamiento específico sobre las funciones ejecutivas de memoria de trabajo (e.g., enfocándose, cambiando, conectando y actualizando las representaciones mentales y la inhibición de información irrelevante) en niños de escuela primaria.

Conditions for positive and negative recencies in running memory-span recognition.

A positive recency effect in a running-span recognition procedure was obtained in Experiment 1 for hits and for intratrial false alarms. In running recall procedures, recency does not fit well with an active updating hypothesis. In Experiment 2, in which the beginning of the target set was marked with a cue upon presentation, the recency effects disappeared. In Experiments 3 and 4 participants were forced to maintain 2 items in memory until the last one was presented for recognition. These three items were the target set. When the last item presentation was uncertain-because of the variable length list-an unexpected negative recency effect appeared. An explanation for this change from positive to negative recency is offered based on the sharing of attentional resources put forward by others for similar procedures.

Working memory, text comprehension, and propositional reasoning: a new Semantic Anaphora WM test.

The aim of this study was to present a new working memory test following the line of work started by García-Madruga et al. (2007) and to examine its relation to reading comprehension and propositional reasoning measures. In that study we designed a new working memory span test--based on Daneman & Carpenter's (1980) Reading Span Test (RST)--in which the processing task called for an inferential decision--to resolve a pronominal anaphora based on Morpho-Syntactic cues and had people recall the result of this inference. In the current study, besides the RST and the Morpho-Syntactic Anaphora test, we presented a new Semantic Anaphora measure. In order to check the validity of this new Working Memory (WM) task, we used the same reasoning task used in the previous study as well as a new reading comprehension test. The results show the tight relationship amongst working memory, reading comprehension and reasoning, and confirm the validity of the new WM measure.

Working memory, text comprehension, and propositional reasoning: a new semantic anaphora WM test

The aim of this study was to present a new working memory test following the line of work started by García- Madruga et al. (2007) and to examine its relation to reading comprehension and propositional reasoning measures. In that study we designed a new working memory span test -based on Daneman & Carpenter's (1980) Reading Span Test (RST)- in which the processing task called for an inferential decision -to resolve a pronominal anaphora based on Morpho-Syntactic cues- and had people recall the result of this inference. In the current study, besides the RST and the Morpho-Syntactic Anaphora test, we presented a new Semantic Anaphora measure. In order to check the validity of this new Working Memory (WM) task, we used the same reasoning task used in the previous study as well as a new reading comprehension test. The results show the tight relationship amongst working memory, reading comprehension and reasoning, and confirm the validity of the new WM measure (AU)

El propósito de este trabajo es presentar una nueva prueba de memoria operativa y examinar su relación con la comprensión lectora y el razonamiento, en la línea comenzada por el estudio de García-Madruga et al. (2007). En ese estudio se diseñó una nueva medida de amplitud de memoria operativa -basada en Reading Span Test (RST) de Daneman & Carpenter (1980)- en la que la tarea de procesamiento exigía la realización de una inferencia -resolver una anáfora pronominal a partir de los rasgos Morfosintácticos- y los participantes debían recordar el resultado de esta inferencia. Además del RST y la prueba de Anáforas Morfosintácticas, en el presente estudio presentamos una nueva medida de Anáforas Semánticas. Para comprobar la validez de esta nueva tarea de Memoria Operativa (MO) hemos utilizado la misma tarea de razonamiento que en el estudio anterior, así como una nueva tarea de comprensión lectora. Los resultados muestran la estrecha relación entre memoria operativa, comprensión lectora y razonamiento, y confirman la validez de la nueva medida de MO (AU)

Absence of hardly pursued updating in a running memory task.

In a running memory span task, the participants are presented with a list of items (e.g. numbers or words) of an unknown length, because this length varies from trial to trial. In one variation of the procedure the participants must report a certain fixed number of items (e.g. four) from the end of the list. According to Morris and Jones (British Journal of Psychology, 81, 111-121, 1990), the recalled items must be updated in memory as the presentation of the list progresses. Ruiz, Elosúa and Lechuga (The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 5, 887-905, 2005) noted that an active strategy implies an inhibition in memory of the final discarded items, and did not find results which supported this hypothesis. The aim of this study is to check whether or not participants adopt an active processing strategy in extreme conditions. Experiment 1 uses catch trials, which induce the participants not to discard the first items of the lists, and also short lists (of 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10 items); these could be considered optimal conditions for updating. However, it should also be pointed out that with an upper limit of 10 items per list, participants could try to memorise the whole list in most of the trials. One way to discourage this strategy is including lists well over span (e.g. 14-26 items). The purpose of Experiment 2 was to analyse the 10-item lists in two conditions: within a context of much longer lists (well over span) in most of the trials and within a context of shorter lists (data of Experiment 1). Results in both experiments, from the analysis of location errors, indicate that even in these conditions the participants do not seem to carry out the supposed active updating of the memory set.

Old-fashioned responses in an updating memory task.

Errors in a running memory task are analysed. Participants were presented with a variable-length list of items and were asked to report the last four items. It has been proposed (Morris & Jones, 1990) that this task requires two mechanisms: the temporal storage of the target set by the articulatory loop and its updating by the central executive. Two implicit assumptions in this proposal are (a) the preservation of serial order, and (b) participants' capacity to discard earlier items from the target subset as list presentation is running, and new items are appended. Order preservation within the updated target list and the inhibition of the outdated list items should imply a relatively higher rate of location errors for items from the medial positions of the target list and a lower rate of intrusion errors from the outdated and inhibited items from the pretarget positions. Contrary to these expectations, for both consonants (Experiment 1) and words (Experiment 2) we found recency effects and a relatively high rate of intrusions from the final pretarget positions, most of them from the very last. Similar effects were apparent with the embedded four-item lists for catch trials. These results are clearly at odds with the presumed updating by the central executive.