BBB - Chapter 15: The executive brain

Tower of London task

DLPFC activated in functional imaging during task

Cognitive estimates test

How heavy is a full grown elephant? Patients with LPF lesions impaired

FAS test

generating sequence of words starting with...

Perseveration

repeating an action that has already been performed and is no longer relevant / Failure to switch from previous task and response

Utilization behaviour

impulsive actions on irrelevant objects in the environment

Multi-tasking

Carrying out several tasks in succession; requires both task-switching and maintaining future goals while current goals are being dealt with.

Duncan et al. (1995) patient tests

lesions in PFC impact fluid (not crystallised) intelligence

Frontal pole

neither holding in mind a goal, nor switching between alternate goals activates this region, ONLY when combined: multitasking

Executive functions

Control processes that enable an individual to optimize performance in situations requiring the operation and coordination of several more basic cognitive processes.

Self-ordered pointing task

A task in which participants must point to a new object on each trial and thus maintain a working memory for previously selected items.

FAS Test

A test of verbal fluency in which participants must generate words beginning with a letter (e.g., “F”) in a limited amount of time.

Stroop Test

Response interference from naming the ink color of a written color name (e.g., the word BLUE is printed in red ink and participants are asked to say the ink color, i.e., “red”).

Go/No-Go Test

A test of response inhibition in which participants must respond to a frequent stimulus (go trials) but withhold a response to another stimulus (no go trials).

Impulsivity

A behavioural tendency to make immediate responses or seek immediate rewards.

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

A test of executive functions involving rule induction and rule use.

Perseveration

Failure to shift away from a previous response.

Task-switching

Discarding a previous schema and establishing a new one.

Switch cost

A slowing of response time due to discarding a previous schema and setting up a new one.

Reversal learning

Learning that a previously rewarded stimulus or response is no longer rewarded.

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

A proposal that emotional and bodily states associated with previous behaviours are used to influence decision making.

Iowa Gambling Task

A task in which participants must learn to avoid risky choices (generating a net loss) in favour of less risky (and more rewarding) choices.

Sociopathy

A personality disorder (now called Anti-Social Personality Disorder) associated with irresponsible and unreliable behaviour that is not personally advantageous; an inability to form lasting commitments or relationships; egocentric thinking; and a marked degree of impulsivity.

Delay discounting (or temporal discounting)

The tendency for future rewards to have less subjective value than the same reward received now (or in the nearer future).

Multiple-demand network

A set of brain regions in the lateral prefrontal and parietal lobes activated by a large range of tasks relative to baseline.

Neuroeconomics

The use of neuroscientific methods and theories to account for economic decision making.

Ultimatum Game

A two-player game in which one player proposes a split of money and a responder either accepts the money (and obtains the agreed split) or rejects it (and both players get nothing).

Fluid intelligence

Flexible thinking and problem-solving in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge

Crystallized intelligence

The ability to use prior expertise and knowledge.

Monitoring

The process of relating information currently held in mind back to the task requirements.

Sustained attention

Maintaining focus on the task requirements over a period of time.

Error-related negativity

An event-related potential component in EEG that can be detected at the scalp when an error is made.

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)

A lateral prefrontal region strongly involved in planning, working memory and executive control.

Lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC)

A prefrontal region associated with cognitive aspects of executive functions and behavioural control.

Pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA)

A medial frontal region involved in reassigning stimulus–response pairings and task switching.

Supervisory Attentional System (SAS)

A proposed executive control system that intervenes when routine actions are insufficient and novel behaviour is required.

Automatic behaviour

Behaviour that can be performed with minimal attention or executive control.

Controlled behaviour

Behaviour that requires conscious attention and executive control.

Multiple-demand network (MDN)

A network of frontal, parietal and cingulate regions activated across many cognitive control tasks.

Task setting

The process of establishing the rules and responses required for a task.

Response conflict

Competition between multiple possible responses that requires executive control to resolve.

Error detection

The process of identifying when a mistake has been made during task performance.

Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)

A region involved in error detection, conflict monitoring and performance adjustment.

Free choice task

A task in which participants generate responses without external specification, often activating left dorsal PFC.

Sustained attention

The ability to maintain focus on task demands over time.

Uncertainty monitoring

Monitoring performance under conditions of low confidence or ambiguity, associated with right dorsal PFC activity.

Task monitoring

Tracking ongoing performance relative to task goals and requirements.

Response inhibition

The suppression of an inappropriate or prepotent response.

Rule induction

Discovering a rule from feedback, as required in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

Schema

An organized cognitive procedure or rule used to guide behaviour.

Homunculus problem

think of a little man inside your head making your decisions, and then imagine another little man in his head making his decisions, and so on.

Prefrontal cortex (PFC)

The frontal-lobe region most strongly associated with executive functions and behavioural control.

Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)

A prefrontal region involved in reward, punishment, emotion-based decision-making and reversal learning.

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)

A medial prefrontal region involved in emotional decision-making and somatic markers.

Cognitive control

The ability to guide thoughts and actions according to current goals rather than automatic responses.

Goal maintenance

Keeping a future goal active while performing current tasks.

Planning

Organizing a sequence of actions in order to achieve a goal.

Verbal fluency

The ability to generate words according to a rule, often tested with the FAS task.

Set-shifting

The ability to shift flexibly from one rule, task or mental set to another.

Dysexecutive syndrome

A pattern of impairments in planning, inhibition, flexibility and goal-directed behaviour after frontal-lobe damage.

Environmental dependency syndrome

A tendency to be overly controlled by stimuli in the environment, including utilization behaviour.

Hot executive functions

Executive functions involving emotion, reward, punishment and social decision-making.

Cold executive functions

Executive functions involving abstract, logical or cognitive control without strong emotional content.

Conflict monitoring

The detection of competition between possible responses or task demands.

Performance adjustment

Changing behaviour after errors or conflict to improve future performance.