week 10

Neuropsychology: Executive Function & Higher-Order Thinking

Overview
  • Course Code: PSYC-3220
  • Instructor: Sebastien Paquette
  • Year: 2026
Session Topics
  • Today’s focus: Executive Function and Higher-Order Thinking
Executive Function
  • Definition: Executive function refers to the cognitive skills used to manage everyday tasks, such as:
    • Making plans
    • Solving problems
    • Adapting to new situations
  • Development: These skills develop throughout a person's lifetime and may decline with age.
Purpose of Executive Function in Evolution
  • Reflective Question: Consider why the human brain has evolved to have executive functioning skills.
The Human Lateral Prefrontal Cortex
  • Key region involved in executive functions, specifically for managing behavior and controlling tasks.
  • Specific areas include:
    • Rostral
    • Dorsolateral
    • Ventrolateral
    • Caudal
    • Orbitofrontal
Theoretical Perspectives of Executive Function
  • Control Behavior: Controlling behavior towards a goal is a central aspect of executive function.
  • Frontal Lobe's Role: The frontal lobe is integral as executive function is also termed cognitive control, which guides thoughts and actions.
  • Control Mechanism: The concept of control is essential in understanding executive functions.
Shallice's Two-Component System (1982)
  1. Contention Scheduling:
    • A cognitive system that enables learned automatic processing over time.
  2. Supervisory Attentional System:
    • A cognitive system that requires effort to direct attention and guide decisions.
  • Difference: Distinction between controlled processes and automatic processes.
Impact of Frontal Lobe Damage on Executive Function
  • Damage affects the supervisory attentional system, leading to:
    • Disinhibited behavior
    • Inability to control actions or social urges
  • Environmental Dependency Syndrome:
    • Behavior may be triggered by external stimuli.
  • Perseveration: Repetitive actions or thoughts due to lack of control.
Executive Function and Nonroutine Situations
  • Stuss and Benson (1986):
    • The frontal lobes help regulate behavior in nonroutine scenarios where careful constraint is needed.
    • Hierarchical model of control:
    • Lowest Level: Simple tasks processed by posterior brain regions.
    • Frontal Lobe Control: Adjusting sensory information towards goals.
    • Highest Level: Self-reflection and metacognition.
Goal-Centered Processing
  • Executive control facilitates:
    • Guiding behavior towards goals, potentially through subgoal computations.
    • The role of the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) in maintaining task goals.
Unity and Diversity Model of Executive Function
  • Components:
    1. Maintaining task goals amidst distractions.
    2. Task switching ability.
    3. Resetting working memory for new subgoals.
  • Three types of executive abilities:
    1. Initiating and sustaining responses (medial frontal).
    2. Task-setting (left lateral regions).
    3. Monitoring (right lateral regions).
Goal-Directed Behaviors
  • Executing goal-oriented behavior can be complex due to:
    • Staying on task
    • Sequencing information
    • Modifying strategies
    • Utilizing knowledge
    • Monitoring actions
Executive Dysfunction
  • Consequences of executive dysfunction include:
    • Psychological inertia, which complicates initiating or stopping action.
    • Associated with damage to medial frontal regions including:
    • Supplementary motor area
    • Anterior cingulate
  • Research shows medial prefrontal cortex influences effort exertion towards goals.
Inhibitory Control and the Frontal Lobe
  • Right inferior frontal cortex plays a role in:
    • Overriding or terminating responses, especially habitual ones.
  • Task Examples:
    • Go/No-Go Task: Responding or withholding response based on stimulus.
    • Functional neural network for response inhibition includes:
    • Right middle and inferior frontal cortex
    • Pre-SMA and parietal cortex.
Stop-Signal Task
  • Description:
    • Respond to stimuli but abort response upon hearing a signal shortly after stimulus.
  • Engages an extensive network inclusive of:
    • Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
    • Anterior cingulate
    • SMA and parietal regions.
Creation and Maintenance of Goals
  • Required to stay on task, heavily reliant on the PFC, particularly dorsolateral regions.
  • Sequencing tasks hinges on understanding task order and dependencies.
Self-Ordered Pointing Task
  • This task identifies deficits in sequencing, particularly due to lateral frontal lobe damage.
Choosing a Sequencing Strategy
  • Assessment through the Tower of London task, which evaluates how individuals generate strategies to achieve goals.
Integrating Hemispheric Functions in Planning
  • Each hemisphere contributes uniquely to planning:
    • Left Hemisphere: More involved in subgoal creation.
    • Right Hemisphere: Focused on relationships between subgoals.
Task-Switching Ability
  • Assessed via the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), necessitating flexibility in thought and behavior.
  • Activation observed in multiple brain areas during WCST, including DLPFC and basal ganglia.
Self-Monitoring and Error Evaluation
  • Frontal lobe lesions can impair metacognitive awareness, affecting:
    • Detection of errors
    • Correction of behaviors.
  • Error-Related Negativity (ERN):
    • Occurs soon after an error, indicating error detection processes.
Conflict Monitoring and Decision Making
  • Medial prefrontal regions monitor conflicts and assess control exertion worth.
  • The anterior cingulate is implicated in error detection and response evaluation.
Higher-Order Thinking
  • Defined as:
    • Abstract conceptualization
    • Deduction of rules or regularities
    • Response flexibility to novel situations.
  • Deficits: Patients with executive dysfunction struggle with abstract processing.
Reasoning and Brain Activation
  • Different brain regions are activated in analogical reasoning tasks, indicating specific neural mechanisms based on task type.
Making Rules and Inferences
  • Several PFC regions work interdependently for rule retrieval and application during inference tasks.
Response to Novelty
  • Novelty requires attention capture and cognitive flexibility, influenced by the ventral attentional system and frontal regions.
Judgment and Decision-Making Challenges
  • Executive dysfunction can impair decision-making, affecting:
    • Strategy abandonment.
    • Evaluation of present versus future rewards.
Working Memory and Executive Function
  • Working memory is crucial for:
    • Keeping goals in mind
    • Understanding relationships and timings between tasks and events.
Models of Executive Function Organization in the Lateral PFC
  • Conceptual models emphasize hierarchical control based on action selection dimensions.