Not EF skills but play with real toys prevents screen time tantrums in children.

Limiting children's screen time has become a new parenting challenge. Due to the high attractiveness of media and digital devices, many children experience painful transitions in screen time to other activities. Screen time tantrums is a new concept that describes children's negative affect screen time limits. Knowing the factors that increase children's negative reactions will be helpful in parents and educators practice to prevent screen time tantrums or enrich children's nondigital activities, making them attractive alternatives to the media. Based on theoretical insights into the coping mechanisms of frustration and anger in preschool children, this study was aimed to explore the effects of executive functions skills, family activities, and children's play behavior with real toys on screen time tantrums. Sample included 654 caregiver-child pairs (M children age = 70.3 months, SD = 4.02). Results confirmed the hypothesis that play behavior with real toys is a stronger preventor of screen time tantrum than EF skills. The findings suggest that supporting play activity in preschool children might help them to avoid strong negative affects due to screen time limitation. The results of this study may be also considered as a support for the theoretical assumptions that play can be considered as a universal way of coping with frustration and anger in childhood.

H-coil repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation does not improve executive function in patients with chronic peripheral neuropathic pain: a randomized sham-controlled crossover study.

Introduction: Deep rTMS is an increasingly popular noninvasive brain stimulation technique which has shown promise for treating cognitive impairments. However, few studies have investigated the cognitive effects it could exert in patients with chronic peripheral neuropathic pain. Therefore, we aimed to assess the effects of deep rTMS on executive functioning in patients with peripheral neuropathic pain, in a randomized, double-blind crossover trial. Methods: In total, 17 patients were randomly assigned to receive both active and sham deep H-coil rTMS targeting the primary motor cortex. Each treatment period consisted of five daily rTMS sessions. Selected tests of executive functioning from the CANTAB test battery (paired associates learning, stop signal task, spatial working memory and multitasking test) were performed at baseline, and at 1 week and 3 weeks follow-ups. Results: We did not find any significant interactions between time and treatment for the measures of executive functioning for the patient group, or for patients with reduced cognition compared to normative means. Conclusion: High-frequency deep H-coil rTMS targeting the hand area of the primary motor cortex and delivered over 5 consecutive days did not improve executive functioning in patients with chronic peripheral neuropathic pain. Clinical trial registration: https://clinicaltrials.gov/, identifier NCT05488808.

Executive functions and their relationship with age: Insights from a novel neuropsychological Assessment Battery in Children-a pilot study.

Executive functions (EFs) are a set of cognitive processes that enable individuals to manage and coordinate their thoughts and actions toward achieving specific goals. EFs include planning, organizing, initiating, and monitoring actions, and have been found to improve with age due to the maturation of the brain, especially during childhood. Therefore, our correlational study sought to determine the relationship between the performance in executive functions and age in 79 children (36 girls, 45.6%) throughout development, between the ages of 6 and 12 (mean = 9.25; SD = 2.05), using a battery designed in Chile: BEFE (Batería de Evaluación de las Funciones Ejecutivas: Executive Function Assessment Battery) based on traditional neuropsychological tests to evaluate Working Memory, Inhibitory Control, Cognitive Flexibility, and Planning skills. Our results showed various correlations between the variables age and performance in various behavioral parameters, demonstrating an increase in the number of correct responses (positive correlation) and/or a decrease in errors (negative correlation) with age (6-12) in the subtests that correspond to dimensions of Cognitive Flexibility (Semantic and Phonological Fluency, Card Sorting Game, and Tracing Tasks), Inhibitory Control (ENA-F and Sentence Completion), Working Memory (Audio-verbal WM Forward and Ordering, and Visuospatial WM Forward and Backward), and Planning (La Portada de Antofagasta and FISA Maps). These results are consistent with previous empirical evidence and support the notion of a developmental relationship between EF performance and age. Additionally, this study contributes to understanding EF development in culturally specific contexts, highlighting the importance of contextually relevant assessment tools in evaluating cognitive development.

Decoding Cognitive Control and Cognitive Flexibility as Concomitants for Experiential Avoidance in Social Anxiety.

Background and objectives: Avoidance is regarded as a central hallmark of social anxiety. Experiential avoidance is perilous for social anxiety, specifically among university students (young adults). Additionally, cognitive control and cognitive flexibility are crucial components of executive functions for a fulfilling and healthy lifestyle. The current research is a modest attempt to understand how cognitive flexibility and cognitive control affect the emergence of experiential avoidance in social anxiety in young adults. Methods: Using an ex-post facto design, the Social Phobia Inventory was employed to screen university students with social anxiety based on which one hundred and ninety-five were identified. Thereafter, participants completed the standardized measures on experiential avoidance, cognitive control and cognitive flexibility. Results: A stepwise multiple regression analysis was computed wherein the cognitive control predicts an amount of 5% of variance towards experiential avoidance, whereas a 10% of additional variance has been contributed by cognitive flexibility. Interpretation and Conclusions: The statistical outcome indicated that cognitive control is positively associated with experiential avoidance which is a negative correlate to cognitive flexibility among university students. Both also emerged as significant predictors of experiential avoidance and add a cumulative variance of 15% towards the same. This conclusion supports the need for improved and efficient management techniques in counseling and clinical settings.

Visual attention and processing function in relation to executive functioning in very preterm-born children aged 3 years: a prospective cohort study.

The ability to orient attention to one's environment is a prerequisite for developing executive functions (EF) from preschool age. Very preterm children are vulnerable for delays in visual orienting function (VOF) and EF deficits. This study aimed to investigate associations between objective VOF and subjective parent-reported EF in very preterm-born children at 3 years corrected age (CA). In a prospective cohort study (BOND) involving 90 children born < 30 weeks, VOF and EF were assessed using an eye tracking-based method and BRIEF-P questionnaire. Associations between abnormal VOF (viewing reaction times) and EF scores (BRIEF-P scores) were studied using multivariable regression. Using a modified Delphi method, a subset of eight items related to VOF and EF was explored. Abnormal VOF was observed in 31% of the children and abnormal global EF composite scores in 41%. Abnormal VOF was not associated with global or domain-level EF scores. However, children with abnormal VOF more frequently had EF problems related to attentional behavior: "easily sidetracked" (OR 4.18 (CI: 1.21-14.41), p = 0.02) and "short attention span" (OR 4.52 (CI: 1.34-15.22), p = 0.02). Conclusion: Although abnormal VOF was not associated with global, parent-reported, EF at 3 years CA, secondary analyses did show a relation to specific attention and concentration span items. Further research is needed to study the role of VOF in objectifying preschool EF assessments in very preterm born children. What is known: • Very preterm children are vulnerable for executive function (EF) deficits and for delays in visual orienting function, as compared to term-born children • The ability to orient attention to one's visual environment is an important prerequisite for EF early in life and is easy to measure objectively with visual orienting function (VOF) assessment What is new: • VOF measurement at 3 years of age relates to parent-reported attention and concentration span items, important aspects of executive functions • Future work should explore the clinical additional value of early VOF measurement in children at risk for EF deficits.

Executive functions and addictions: a Structural Equation Modeling Approach and the Italian validation of the Adult Executive Functioning Inventory (ADEXI).

INTRODUCTION: the work aims to observe the associations between psychoactive substance use and gambling and executive functioning as well as to validate the Italian version of the "Adult Executive Functioning Inventory" (ADEXI) scale. METHODS: data were collected through a representative cross-sectional study among 5,160 people (18-84 years old) called IPSAD® (Italian Population Survey on Alcohol and Other Drugs). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed to explore the associations between ADEXI and other behaviors measured with standardized questionnaires. Cronbach α has been performed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the ADEXI scale. RESULTS: SEM showed that both WM and INH were correlated with problematic cannabis use (WM r = 0.112; INH r = 0.251) and gambling (WM r = 0.101; INH r = 0.168), while problematic alcohol use was correlated only with INH (r = 0.233). Cronbach α for the WM subscale was 0.833 (CI 0.826-0.840), while for INH was 0.694 (CI 0.680-0.708). CONCLUSION: results pointed out a strong correlation between addictions (substance-related and non-substance-related) and WM and INH impairments among the adult general population. Moreover, the ADEXI scale could be considered a valuable tool for general population surveys to detect working memory and inhibition characteristics.

Identifying conflict monitoring as a specific executive component that contributes to impaired self-awareness in patients with acquired brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: Impaired self-awareness (SA) after acquired brain injury (ABI) has traditionally been linked to deficits in executive functions. However, conflicting findings about this relationship have been reported in the literature. This inconsistency is probably due to the multicomponent nature of both constructs, as not all aspects of executive functions may be equally relevant to all components of self-awareness. This study explored whether offline SA (i.e. metacognitive knowledge) and online SA (i.e. error detection) relate to a less studied executive component, conflict monitoring/resolution. METHOD: Twenty-six patients with ABI performed the Three-Conflict Cognitive Control Task (3CCT), an experimental task that allowed to measure the ability to monitor and solve three different types of conflicts (Distractors-filtering, Spatial Stroop and Simon). Measures of SA were collected: offline SA was based on self-informant discrepancy about patient's everyday functional difficulties, and online SA was based on error detection abilities during a performance-based naturalistic task (The Breakfast Conflict Task). RESULTS: After controlling for global cognition, the conflict monitoring measure of 3CCT demonstarted incremental validity in predicting offline and online SA measured in naturalistic tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Conflict monitoring/resolution seems to be an important component of SA. This finding contributes to further understand the relationship between executive functions and SA. In addition, conflict monitoring/resolution is an executive component that should be considered when designing assessment and intervention strategies to deal with ISA.

Co-production of the 'EPIC' multidimensional tool-kit to support neurodivergent children and young people at home and school: a feasibility and pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Interventions focused on cognitive function in neurodivergent children typically focus on single functions, e.g. working memory training. They are often focused on 'deficit' models and lack an emphasis on understanding areas of individual strengths and difficulties as a prerequisite to appropriate support. The multidimensional nature and phenotypic variability of cognitive profiles in these children indicate a need for a multicomponent-tailored intervention programme focused on understanding and supporting an individual child's cognitive functioning. AIMS: The 'EPIC' intervention (Edinburgh Psychoeducation Intervention for Children and Young People) is focused on improving cognition, learning and behaviour in neurodivergent children such as those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or who are autistic. Building on our previous co-production work, this study aimed to use a participatory methods approach to develop EPIC practices and materials in relation to our key principles which include psychoeducation, multicomponent, individualised approach, strengths and difficulties profiling and pairing of a child's individual strengths and difficulties with internal and external strategies. We also set out to assess the feasibility and acceptability of EPIC, and pilot this novel tool-kit intervention with neurodivergent children and their parents and teachers. METHODS: The intervention practices, materials and strategies of EPIC were co-produced with neurodivergent children, their parents, teachers and clinicians taking a strengths and difficulties approach. Identification of psychoeducation activities and strategy practices (e.g. mind-maps, chunking), testing of feasibility and collection of pilot data were conducted over a bi-weekly 8-week programme. Eleven neurodivergent children aged 7 to 12 completed the 16-session individualised programme. Acceptability and feasibility were ascertained via qualitative reports elicited within child and teacher interviews and child ratings of enjoyment. Pilot evaluation data was collected pre- and post-intervention participation, and across cognitive assessments (CANTAB, BRIEF), educational attainment (WIAT) and parent and teacher questionnaires measuring clinical symptoms and behaviour (Conners, AQ, SDQ, self-perception). Data was compared with a matched neurodivergent treatment-as-usual control group (N = 9). RESULTS: The co-produced EPIC intervention was both feasible to deliver and acceptable to children, parents and their teachers. Pilot data identified that the 8-week intervention improved cognition (short-term and working memory) and literacy (receptive vocabulary, oral word fluency, listening comprehension). Improvements in the intervention group were also found for parent-reported child behavioural difficulties and aggression, and teacher-reported scholastic competence. Effect sizes generated (Cohen's d) ranged from 0.65 to 2.83. Parents reported continuing to use EPIC strategies when interviewed over a year after participating in the programme. CONCLUSION: The current study met our objectives fully. 'EPIC' (Edinburgh Psychoeducation Intervention for Children and Young People) is feasible in home and school contexts and improves a range of aspects of cognition, learning and behaviour in neurodivergent children. Our findings show EPIC is suitable to be assessed within a full-scale trial.

Cognitive Alterations Associated with Remission and Alcohol Dependence Severity in Ethnically Diverse Patients of Siberia.

Background: Impaired cognition in individuals with alcohol dependence may be associated with increased relapse risk. It has been recorded in more than half of patients during six months after treatment. In certain ethnic groups, for example, Tuvinians, the indigenous people of Siberia, relapses occur in extremely short periods of one to three months after treatment. An approach currently used to alcohol dependence treatment may be less effective for these patients. Objective: The study aimed to investigate cognitive sequelae in indigenous Tuvinian patients with alcohol dependence. Methods: The sample included 166 patients, 74 of indigenous ethnicity (Tuvinians) and 92 non-indigenous white patients. Data on inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, attention, and working memory were collected from all the patients and processed using cluster analysis. The clustering data were then complemented by indicators of disorder dynamics, impulsivity, and emotion regulation. Results: The clustering procedure revealed groups with severe cognitive sequelae. More than four-fold attention decrease was found in 43.5% of non-indigenous patients, and more impaired cognitive flexibility was revealed among 60.8% of indigenous patients. Groups with severe cognitive sequelae had higher impulsivity, maladaptive emotion regulation, more hospitalizations, faster disease progression, and shorter remissions. The latter was significantly reduced to 90 days on average in the severe group of indigenous patients versus 135 days of remission in the non-indigenous severe group. Conclusion: Results obtained may advance tailored intervention in alcohol-dependent patients of the indigenous Tuvinian ethnicity. While little is still known about the alcohol dependence course and consequences in the indigenous Tuvinians of Siberia, this study contributes to the global mental health data on alcohol abuse and dependence in indigenous communities.

Discriminative ability of instrumented cognitive-motor assessments to distinguish fallers from non-fallers.

In older populations, sensitive fall risk assessment tools are important to timely intervene and prevent falls. Instrumented assessments have shown to be superior to standardized fall risk assessments such as the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) and should capture both motor and cognitive functions. Therefore, the aim was to test novel instrumented assessments with and without a cognitive component. One hundred thirty-seven older adults aged 73.1 ± 7.3 years, 38 categorized as fallers and 99 as non-fallers, conducted five instrumented assessments on the Dividat Senso, a pressure sensitive stepping platform, and three standardized geriatric assessments (TUG, TUG-dual task, 30-s Sit-to-Stand Test (STS)). T-tests were applied to compare the test performance of fallers versus non-fallers. Furthermore, logistic regression analyses and area under the curve (AUC) analyses were performed. Statistically significant differences between fallers and non-fallers were found in the Go/No-Go test (p = .001, d = .72), the TUG (p = .014, d = .48), and the STS (p = .008, d = .51). Only the Go/No-Go test contributed significantly to all regression models. Significant AUC values were found for the Reaction Time Test (RTT) (AUC = .628, p = .023), Go/No-Go (AUC = .673, p = .002), TUG (AUC = .642, p = .012), and STS (AUC = .690, p = .001). The Go/No-Go test measuring inhibition showed the best discriminative ability suggesting added value of instrumented assessments with a cognitive component for clinical fall risk assessment in relatively healthy older adults. The study should be extended with a frailer population, in which TUG and the other instrumented assessments are possibly good predictors as well.

The role of executive functions in long-term memory: case report.

The role of executive functions in long-term memory has been studied. We describe a single-case study, consisting of a 45-year-old male patient, hospitalized for right frontal stroke. After the stroke, the patient had memory alterations in everyday activities. However, performance in short-term memory tests was not significantly altered. Long-term memory assessments included pre- and post-stroke episodic, semantic, and procedural memories. Specific skills involved in the acquisition of new learning (auditory-verbal and visual reproduction) were also evaluated, as well as executive functions. The results evidence that short-term memory was not affected. Regarding long-term memory, significant differences were observed between pre- and post-stroke knowledge, the former being better preserved, which reveals anterograde amnesia. Pre-stroke long-term memory was also affected, but only with respect to episodic knowledge, with semantic and procedural memories preserved (episodic retrograde amnesia). Executive functions were altered as well, which could have been a factor affecting the acquisition and consolidation of new learning, despite the fact that short-term memory was not significantly altered. Therefore, executive functions might be a determinant factor in the acquisition of new learning, regardless of short-term memory processes, at least partially. According to the results of the present study, alterations in these functions might lead to anterograde amnesia. This entails the need to evaluate executive functions as an intrinsic part of memory evaluation.

Presentation of multiple task instructional sets impacts auditory Stroop performance during dual task locomotion.

The auditory Stroop is a modification of the classic Stroop paradigm commonly used in dual-task research when the motor task requires the visual system. Despite its use, there are gaps in our understanding of this tool. For example, in visual/auditory Stroop paradigms, neutral cues irrelevant to the required response, which theoretically cause less interference/facilitation, are used to elucidate effects of visual/auditory demands on neural processes. Specifically, in auditory Stroop paradigms the use and choice of neutral cue words is inconsistent. To address these gaps, we instrumented participants with kinematic markers and a digital microphone and asked them to respond to auditory Stroop cues and neutral cue words consisting of either one or two syllables, while simultaneously performing an unobstructed locomotor task. Two blocks of trials were collected. In one block, participants had prior knowledge that either an auditory Stroop or a neutral word stimulus would be presented (Known); a second block presented both types of cognitive cues in a random order to participants (Mixed). We observed main effects of cognitive task (neutral, incongruent, congruent) and instructional set (Known, Mixed) on response times, but not on center of mass velocity. Also, more time was required to verbally respond to an incongruent compared to congruent or neutral task across all conditions, and neutral task words with one syllable resulted in longer response times compared to two syllable neutral words. We recommend that researchers include neutral cues when using the auditory Stroop test and to carefully consider their neutral word choice.

Metaphor comprehension and production in verbally able children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Research in the field of figurative language processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has demonstrated that autistic individuals experience systematic difficulties in the comprehension of different types of metaphors. However, there is scarce evidence regarding metaphor production skills in ASD. Importantly, the exact source of metaphor processing difficulties in ASD remains largely controversial. The debate has mainly focused on the mediating role of structural language skills (i.e., lexical knowledge) and cognitive abilities (i.e., Theory of Mind and executive functions) in ASD individuals' ability to comprehend and generate metaphors. The present study examines metaphor comprehension and production in 18 Greek-speaking verbally able children with ASD and 31 typically-developing (TD) controls. Participants completed two tasks, namely, a low-verbal multiple-choice sentence-picture matching task that tested their ability to comprehend conventional predicate metaphors, and a sentence continuation task that assessed their ability to generate metaphors. The study also included measures of fluid intelligence, expressive vocabulary, and working memory within the sample. The results show that the ASD group had significantly lower performance than the TD group in both metaphor comprehension and production. The findings also reveal that expressive vocabulary skills were a key factor in the metaphor comprehension and production performance of the children with ASD. Working memory capacity was also found to correlate significantly with metaphor comprehension performance in the ASD group. Conversely, no correlations were found in the TD group with neither of the above factors. Of note, children with ASD generated significantly more inappropriate responses and no-responses to the metaphor production task compared with the control group. The overall results reveal that children with ASD had difficulty with both comprehending and using metaphorical language. The findings also indicate that TD children may employ diverse cognitive strategies or rely on different underlying skills when processing metaphors compared with children with ASD.

Cognitive Symptoms Are Not Associated with Cognitive Performance in Post-Acute mTBI.

OBJECTIVE: Subjective cognitive symptoms are commonly reported after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) but are often not associated with objective cognitive performance. This may be due to limitations in traditional cognitive performance measures, which may not be sensitive to subtle variations in cognition in post-acute mTBI. This study explored associations between objective and subjective cognition using computer-based tasks of increasing cognitive load, proposed to be more sensitive to subtle differences in performance. METHOD: Individuals with mTBI (n = 68) and trauma controls (n = 40) were prospectively recruited and assessed approximately 8 weeks post-injury. Participants completed measures of subjective symptom reporting, objective cognitive performance (including two computer-based tasks of increasing cognitive load), and psychological distress. RESULTS: There were no significant associations between subjective and objective cognition reporting in the mTBI group, both in bivariate correlations (|r| = 0.01-0.20, p > .05) and when controlling for psychological distress (|r| = 0.00-0.17, p > .05). A similar pattern of results was observed in trauma controls, suggesting that the limited relationships between objective and subjective cognition in mTBI may not be specific to this population. CONCLUSIONS: Despite employing measures of cognitive performance proposed to be more sensitive than traditional tasks, no significant relationships were observed between objective and subjective cognition in post-acute mTBI, and estimated effect sizes were small to negligible. This provides further evidence that at a group level 8 weeks after mTBI subjective cognitive symptoms primarily reflect factors aside from objective cognition.

Are we ready to cure post-stroke cognitive impairment? Many key prerequisites can be achieved quickly and easily.

PURPOSE: Post-stroke (PS) cognitive impairment (CI) is frequent and its devastating functional and vital consequences are well known. Despite recent guidelines, they are still largely neglected. A large number of recent studies have re-examined the epidemiology, diagnosis, imaging determinants and management of PSCI. The aim of this update is to determine whether these new data answer the questions that are essential to reducing PSCI, the unmet needs, and steps still to be taken. METHODS: Literature review of stroke unit-era studies examining key steps in the management of PSCI: epidemiology and risk factors, diagnosis (cognitive profile and assessments), imaging determinants (quantitative measures, voxelwise localization, the disconnectome and associated Alzheimer's disease [AD]) and treatment (secondary prevention, symptomatic drugs, rehabilitation and noninvasive brain stimulation) of PSCI. FINDINGS: (1) the prevalence of PSCI of approximately 50% is probably underestimated; (2) the sensitivity of screening tests should be improved to detect mild PSCI; (3) comprehensive assessment is now well-defined and should include apathy; (4) easily available factors can identify patients at high risk of PSCI; (5) key imaging determinants are the location and volume of the lesion and the resulting disconnection, associated AD and brain atrophy; WMH, ePVS, microhemorrhages, hemosiderosis, and cortical microinfarcts may contribute to cognitive impairment but are more likely to be markers of brain vulnerability or associated AD that reduce PS recovery; (6) remote and online assessment is a promising approach for selected patients; (7) secondary stroke prevention has not been proven to prevent PSCI; (8) symptomatic drugs are ineffective in treating PSCI and apathy; (9) in addition to cognitive rehabilitation, the benefits of training platforms and computerized training are yet to be documented; (10) the results and the magnitude of improvement of noninvasive brain stimulation, while very promising, need to be substantiated by large, high-quality, sham-controlled RCTs. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: These major advances pave the way for the reduction of PSCI. They include (1) the development of more sensitive screening tests applicable to all patients and (2) online remote assessment; crossvalidation of (3) clinical and (4) imaging factors to (5) identify patients at risk, as well as (6) factors that prompt a search for associated AD; (7) the inclusion of cognitive outcome as a secondary endpoint in acute and secondary stroke prevention trials; and (8) the validation of the benefit of noninvasive brain stimulation through high-quality, randomized, sham-controlled trials. Many of these objectives can be rapidly and easily attained.

Exploring the Potential of a Tailored Executive Functioning Training Program for Children with Congenital Heart Disease: A Brief Report.

The aim of this pilot study was to explore whether executive functioning (EF) problems of children with severe congenital heart disease (CHD) could be improved through a personalized EF-training program. Eleven preschool-aged children (mean age = 62 months, SD = 6) received a standardized test battery. Eight children were eligible for training and six children participated in the training and posttest. Due to the small sample size, only effect sizes were analyzed. Clinically relevant improvements were found with large effect sizes. Findings indicate that a personalized EF-training program could be effective in improving EF of children with severe CHD. Further research is needed.

Reduced P300 amplitude in children and adolescents with autism is associated with slowed processing speed, executive difficulties, and social-communication problems.

LAY ABSTRACT: Selective attention to auditory input is reflected in the brain by an electric amplitude called the P3b amplitude, which is measured using electroencephalography. Previous research has shown that children and adolescents with autism have an attenuated P3b amplitude when they have to attend specific sounds while ignoring other sounds. However, it is unknown whether a reduced P3b amplitude in autistic children and adolescents is associated with their autism features, daily functioning and/or cognitive functions. This study aimed to examine these questions. Therefore, we assessed selective attention to auditory input in 57 children with autism aged 7-14 years and 57 neurotypically developing controls while measuring their brain activity with electroencephalography. Participants further underwent cognitive assessment, and parents reported on autistic traits and daily functioning. As expected, children with autism had lower P3b amplitude compared to their neurotypical peers. Importantly, an attenuated P3b amplitude was associated with more parent-reported social-communication problems and difficulties with daily functioning. Children with autism further had reduced processing speed of visual input, which also was coupled to a lower P3b amplitude. In conclusion, we found attenuated P3b amplitude in children with autism performing an auditory selective attention task, which was related to difficulties with processing visual input and allocating attentional resources critical for social and daily functioning. The results suggest that autistic children are more vulnerable to being disturbed when the environment is filled with conflicting sensory input.

Bilingualism and second-order theory of mind development in autistic children over time: Longitudinal relations with language, executive functions, and intelligence.

Theory of Mind has long been studied as a core weakness in autism spectrum disorder due to its relationship with social reciprocity, while bilingualism has been shown to compensate for autistic individuals' mentalizing weaknesses. However, our knowledge of the Theory of Mind developmental trajectories of bilingual and monolingual autistic children, as well as of the factors related to Theory of Mind development in autism spectrum disorder is still limited. The current study has examined first- and second-order Theory of Mind skills in 21 monolingual and 21 bilingual autistic children longitudinally across three time points, specifically at ages 6, 9, and 12, and also investigated associations between Theory of Mind trajectories and trajectories of the children's language, intelligence and executive function skills. The results reveal that bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual peers in second-order Theory of Mind at ages 9 and 12, and that intelligence and, especially, expressive vocabulary skills played a pivotal role in advancing bilingual autistic children's second-order Theory of Mind development. On the other hand, monolingual autistic children only managed to capitalize on their language and intelligence resources at age 12. The findings highlight the importance of investigating bilingualism effects on autistic children's advanced cognitive abilities longitudinally.

The Impact of Virtual Reality Intervention on Emotion Regulation and Executive Functions in Autistic Children.

Introduction: Autistic children may encounter difficulties in managing emotions and executive functions (EFs), which can contribute to mental and health challenges. Recognizing physical activities as a potential strategy for enhancing emotion regulation (ER), this study aims to investigate the efficacy of a virtual reality (VR)-based physical exercise program in improving ER and EFs among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Materials and Methods: Forty boys diagnosed with ASD, aged 7 to 10 years, were randomly assigned to two groups: a VR intervention group (n = 20) and a control group (n = 20). The intervention group participated in a VR program, while the control group solely concentrated on engaging in sedentary and inactive video gaming. EFs were evaluated through the utilization of both the flanker task and the Wisconsin card sorting task, both administered initially at baseline and subsequently after an 8-week interval. In addition, the parents of the children completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist to evaluate their ER skills. Results: According to the results, a significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of EFs and the ability to regulate emotion (P < 0.05). The intervention group demonstrated a notable improvement in ER skills and exhibited superior executive functioning abilities compared with the control group. Conclusion: It appears that VR exercises can serve as a preliminary trial to enhance EFs and ER in children with autism. In addition, they may prove effective as complementary interventions to traditional educational strategies in preventing future challenges associated with ASD.

New functional dissociations between prefrontal and parietal cortex during task switching: A combined fMRI and TMS study.

Preparatory control in task-switching has been suggested to rely upon a set of distributed regions within a frontoparietal network, with frontal and parietal cortical areas cooperating to implement switch-specific preparation processes. Although recent causal evidence using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have generally supported this model, alternative results from both functional neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies have questioned the switch-specific role of both frontal and parietal cortices. The aim of the present study was to clarify the involvement of prefrontal and parietal areas in preparatory cognitive control. With this purpose, an fMRI study was conducted to identify the brain areas activated during cue events in a task-switching paradigm, indicating whether to switch or to repeat among numerical tasks. Then, TMS was applied over the specific coordinates previously identified through fMRI, that is, the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and right intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Results revealed that TMS over the right IFG disrupted performance in both switch and repeat trails in terms of delayed responses as compared to Sham condition. In contrast, TMS over the right IPS selectively interfered performance in switch trials. These findings support a multi-component model of executive control with the IFG being involved in more general switch-unspecific process such as the episodic retrieval of goals, and the IPS being related to the implementation of switch-specific preparation mechanisms for activating stimulus-response mappings. The results are discussed within the framework of contemporary hierarchical models of prefrontal cortex organization, suggesting that distinct prefrontal areas may carry out coordinated functions in preparatory control.