Response inhibition in problematic social network sites use: an ERP study.

Given the current literature debate on whether or not Problematic Social Network Sites Use (PSNSU) can be considered a behavioral addiction, the present study was designed to test whether, similarly to addictive behaviors, PSNSU is characterized by a deficit in inhibitory control in emotional and addiction-related contexts. Twenty-two problematic Facebook users and 23 nonproblematic users were recruited based on their score on the Problematic Facebook Use Scale. The event-related potentials were recorded during an emotional Go/Nogo Task, including Facebook-related, unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral pictures. The amplitudes of the Nogo-N2 and the Nogo-P3 were computed as measures of the detection of response conflict and response inhibition, respectively. Reaction times and accuracy also were measured. The results showed that problematic users were less accurate on both Go and Nogo trials than nonproblematic users, irrespective of picture content. For problematic users only, the Nogo-P3 amplitude was lower to Facebook-related, pleasant, and neutral than to unpleasant stimuli, suggesting less efficient inhibition with natural and Facebook-related rewards. Of note, all participants were slower to respond to Facebook-related and pleasant Go trials compared with unpleasant and neutral pictures. Consistently, the Nogo-N2 amplitude was larger to Facebook-related than all other picture contents in both groups. Overall, the findings suggest that PSNSU is associated with reduced inhibitory control. These results should be considered in the debate about the neural correlates of PSNSU, suggesting more similarities than differences between PSNSU and addictive behaviors.

Verbal suppression and strategy use: a role for the right lateral prefrontal cortex?

Verbal initiation, suppression and strategy generation/use are cognitive processes widely held to be supported by the frontal cortex. The Hayling Test was designed to tap these cognitive processes within the same sentence completion task. There are few studies specifically investigating the neural correlates of the Hayling Test but it has been primarily used to detect frontal lobe damage. This study investigates the components of the Hayling Test in a large sample of patients with unselected focal frontal (n = 60) and posterior (n = 30) lesions. Patients and controls (n = 40) matched for education, age and sex were administered the Hayling Test as well as background cognitive tests. The standard Hayling Test clinical measures (initiation response time, suppression response time, suppression errors and overall score), composite errors scores and strategy-based responses were calculated. Lesions were analysed by classical frontal/posterior subdivisions as well as a finer-grained frontal localization method and a specific contrast method that is somewhat analogous to voxel-based lesion mapping methods. Thus, patients with right lateral, left lateral and superior medial lesions were compared to controls and patients with right lateral lesions were compared to all other patients. The results show that all four standard Hayling Test clinical measures are sensitive to frontal lobe damage although only the suppression error and overall scores were specific to the frontal region. Although all frontal patients produced blatant suppression errors, a specific right lateral frontal effect was revealed for producing errors that were subtly wrong. In addition, frontal patients overall produced fewer correct responses indicative of developing an appropriate strategy but only the right lateral group showed a significant deficit. This problem in strategy attainment and implementation could explain, at least in part, the suppression error impairment. Contrary to previous studies there was no specific frontal effect for verbal initiation. Overall, our results support a role for the right lateral frontal region in verbal suppression and, for the first time, in strategy generation/use.

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

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.

Inhibitory processes in visual perception: a bilingual advantage.

Bilingual inhibitory control advantages are well established. An open question is whether inhibitory superiority also extends to visual perceptual phenomena that involve inhibitory processes. This research used ambiguous figures to assess inhibitory bilingual superiority in 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old mono- and bilingual children (N=141). Findings show that bilinguals across all ages are superior in inhibiting a prevalent interpretation of an ambiguous figure to perceive the alternative interpretation. In contrast, mono- and bilinguals revealed no differences in understanding that an ambiguous figure can have two distinct referents. Together, these results suggest that early bilingual inhibitory control superiority is also evident in visual perception. Bilinguals' conceptual understanding of figure ambiguity is comparable to that of their monolingual peers.

Workload-dependent hemispheric asymmetries during the emotion-cognition interaction: a close-to-naturalistic fNIRS study.

Introduction: We investigated brain activation patterns of interacting emotional distractions and cognitive processes in a close-to-naturalistic functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study. Methods: Eighteen participants engaged in a monitoring-control task, mimicking common air traffic controller requirements. The scenario entailed experiencing both low and high workload, while concurrently being exposed to emotional speech distractions of positive, negative, and neutral valence. Results: Our investigation identified hemispheric asymmetries in prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during the presentation of negative and positive emotional speech distractions at different workload levels. Thereby, in particular, activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) seems to play a crucial role. Brain activation patterns revealed a cross-over interaction indicating workload-dependent left hemispheric inhibition processes during negative distractions and high workload. For positive emotional distractions under low workload, we observed left-hemispheric PFC recruitment potentially associated with speech-related processes. Furthermore, we found a workload-independent negativity bias for neutral distractions, showing brain activation patterns similar to those of negative distractions. Discussion: In conclusion, lateralized hemispheric processing, regulating emotional speech distractions and integrating emotional and cognitive processes, is influenced by workload levels and stimulus characteristics. These findings advance our understanding of the factors modulating hemispheric asymmetries during the processing and inhibition of emotional distractions, as well as the interplay between emotion and cognition. Moreover, they emphasize the significance of exploring emotion-cognition interactions in more naturalistic settings to gain a deeper understanding of their implications in real-world application scenarios (e.g., working and learning environments).

The role of inhibitory processes in the relationship between subsyndromal PTSD symptoms and aggressive behaviour.

The issue of aggressive behaviours among military populations is important for a number of reasons, including the potential associated occupational, social and functional impacts. Controlled aggressive behaviour is an adaptive requirement of some military roles, however, this aggression can become maladaptive when uncontrolled, or contextually inappropriate. Elevated aggression among deployed veterans has been identified in a number of studies, although the reasons for it are not well understood. Deployed populations have elevated levels of stress and trauma exposure, have higher rates of childhood and other lifetime trauma exposures and have a heightened risk for subsyndromal or full PTSD. Both trauma exposure and PTSD have been found to be associated with executive function deficits, and increased anger and aggressive behaviours. The purpose of this paper was to explore the contribution of both early PTSD symptoms and cognitive disinhibition in predicting increased aggressive behaviour following deployment in a healthy active serving cohort. After controlling for pre-deployment PTSD symptoms and cognitive function, there were significant main effects of both PTSD symptoms and cognitive function on increased aggression at post-deployment. Furthermore, the positive association between PTSD symptoms and post-deployment aggression was moderated by response inhibition deficits in the domains of false positive errors as well as faster reaction times. Subsidiary analyses showed that the effects of increased reaction time in particular increased the likelihood of PTSD symptoms being coupled with increased aggression. These findings highlight the potential effects of repeated occupational stress exposure and point to possible cognitive adaptations and long-term risk for disorder.

Perceptual Inhibition Is Not a Specific Component of the Sensory Integration Process Necessary for a Rapid Voluntary Step Initiation in Healthy Older Adults.

OBJECTIVES: We investigated whether performing step initiation during a proprioceptive perturbation would require greater perceptual or motor inhibitory control in older adults. METHOD: Fifty-two healthy adults (young: n = 26, mean age 22.5 years vs. older: n = 26, mean age 70.1 years) performed a stepping reaction time task, with different inhibition requirements (i.e., perceptual vs. motor inhibitory conflict), with two proprioceptive configurations: with and without application of Achilles tendon vibrations. RESULTS: Beyond a systematically greater stepping reaction time in older adults (p < .01), no difference was found between the perceptual versus motor inhibitory conflict resolution, regardless of age and proprioceptive configuration. Furthermore, slower reaction time was observed for young participants in the presence of Achilles tendon vibrations unlike older adults, who showed the same reactive stepping performance with or without vibrations (p < .05). DISCUSSION: These findings show that perceptual inhibition cannot be considered as specifically involved in the central processing of proprioceptive signals, at least not in active older adults. Rather than motor system malfunctioning or a reduced amount of proprioceptive afference, we propose that cortical-proprioceptive processing in older adults remains as effective as in young adults, regardless of the high attentional requirements for step responses.

Negation markers inhibit motor routines during typing of manual action verbs.

We explored whether negation markers recruit inhibitory mechanisms during keyboard-based action-verb typing. In each trial, participants read two sentences: the first featured a context (There is a contract) and the second ended with a relevant verb which had to be immediately typed. Crucially, the verb could describe manual actions, non-manual actions or non-motor processes, with either affirmative (You do sign it) or negative (You don't sign it) polarity. We assessed the impact of verb type and polarity on two typing dimensions: motor programming (lapse between target onset and first keystroke) and motor execution (lapse between first and last keystroke). Negation yielded no effect on motor planning, but it selectively delayed typing execution for manual-action verbs, irrespective of the subjects' typing skills. This suggests that processing negations during comprehension of manual-action sentences recruits inhibitory mechanisms acting on same-effector movements. Our novel finding extends embodied models of language and effector-specific motor-language integration.

Examination of reactive motor responses to Achilles tendon vibrations during an inhibitory stepping reaction time task.

Inhibition is known to influence balance, step initiation and gait control. A specific subcomponent of inhibition, the perceptual inhibition process, has been suggested to be specifically involved in the integration of proprioceptive information that is necessary for efficient postural responses. This study aimed to investigate the inhibition requirements of planning and executing a choice step initiation task in young adults following experimental perturbation of proprioceptive information using Achilles tendon vibrations. We developed an inhibitory stepping reaction time task in which participants had to step in response to visual arrows that manipulated specific perceptual or motor inhibition according to two proprioceptive configurations: without or with application of vibrations. Performance of twenty-eight participants (mean age 21 years) showed that Achilles tendon vibrations induced an increase in attentional demands (higher reaction time and longer motor responses). Further, this increase in attentional demands did not affect specifically the different inhibitory processes tested in this reactive stepping task. It suggests that attentional demands associated with the vibratory perturbation to postural control do not lead to a shift from automatic to more attentional inhibition processes, at least in young adults.

The availability of attentional resources modulates the inhibitory strength related to weakly activated priming.

The current study investigated the role of attention in inhibitory processes (the inhibitory processes described in the current study refer only to those associated with masked or flanked priming) using a mixed paradigm involving the negative compatibility effect (NCE) and object-based attention. Accumulating evidence suggests that attention can be spread more easily within the same object, which increases the availability of attentional resources, than across different objects. Accordingly, we manipulated distractor location (with primes presented in the same object versus presented in different objects) together with prime/target compatibility (compatible versus incompatible) and prime-distractor stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA, 23 ms vs 70 ms). The aim was to investigate whether inhibitory processes related to weakly activated priming, which have been previously assumed to be automatic, depend on the availability of attentional resources. The results of Experiment 1 showed a significant NCE for the 70-ms SOA when the prime and distractor were presented in the same object (greater attentional resource availability); however, reversed NCEs were obtained for all other conditions. Experiment 2 was designed to disentangle whether the results of Experiment 1 were affected by the prime position, and the results indicated that the prime position did not modulate the NCE in Experiment 1. Together, these results are consistent with the claim that the availability of attentional resources modulates the inhibitory strength related to weakly activated priming. Specifically, if attentional resources are assigned to the distractor when it is presented in the same object as the prime, the strength of the inhibition elicited by the distractor may increase and reverse the activation elicited by the prime, which could lead to a significant NCE.

Inhibition deficit in OCD patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) suffer from intrusive thoughts, which are assumed to be due to diminished inhibitory processes. The spatial cueing task indicates that a deficit in the inhibition of return (IOR) can be used as a marker for inhibitory deficits. METHOD: The present study served to replicate previous findings with this task in OCD patients and, additionally, to control for the effects of the probability of valid cues. A supplementary experiment with phobic patients served to test the specificity of these effects. The task was performed in two versions: with equal and with unequal probability of valid and invalid cues. RESULTS: No IOR was observed in the task with unequal probability of valid and invalid cues. An IOR did occur in the task with equal probability, but it was not generally diminished in OCD patients, but depended on the visual hemifield of the stimulus. IOR in patients with specific phobias was not affected. LIMITATIONS: The negative result may be due to the relative small sample size. CONCLUSIONS: The results do not support the notion of generally diminished inhibitory process in OCD patients, but only lateralized effects. They further indicate that a reliable IOR is only visible in a spatial cueing task with equal probability of valid and invalid cues.

Resistencia a la Interferencia de Distractores: Diseño y Aplicación de una Tarea de Entrenamiento para Niños / Resistance to Interference Distractor: Design and Application of a Training Task for Children

Resumen Desde la perspectiva no unitaria de la inhibición, la resistencia a la interferencia de los distractores refiere al proceso inhibitorio que participa en la atención selectiva; experimenta durante la infancia importantes cambios en su desarrollo y resulta fundamental para el desempeño de los niños en diversas actividades. Este trabajo se propuso diseñar una tarea de entrenamiento -informatizada, con un abordaje basado en procesos y a partir del paradigma de Flancos (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974)- de este proceso inhibitorio, para niños con desarrollo típico de 6 a 8 años de edad; administrarla y analizar los efectos del entrenamiento sobre el proceso entrenado y otros no entrenados. Se trabajó con 54 niños, en 1º, 2º y 3º año de la escolaridad primaria. Se aplicó un diseño experimental con medidas pre y post-test (donde se administraron tareas de evaluación de resistencia a la interferencia de los distractores, inhibición de la respuesta y memoria de trabajo viso-espacial), un grupo experimental (que recibió el entrenamiento de la resistencia a la interferencia de distractores) y un grupo control activo. Luego de la intervención el grupo experimental presentó un mejor desempeño en una tarea que demanda el proceso entrenado. No se encontraron efectos sobre el rendimiento en otras tareas. Los efectos hallados son bajos, pudiendo deberse a la baja intensidad y duración de la intervención. Sin embargo, podrían constituir un aporte a la diferenciación de procesos inhibitorios, específicamente de la resistencia a la interferencia de distractores respecto y de la inhibición de la respuesta, en tanto el entrenamiento genera efectos en el proceso entrenado pero no el otro.

Abstract From the non-unitary perspective of inhibition, resistance to distractor interference is an inhibitory process related to selective attention, has developmental improvements throughout childhood and plays an important role in the children's performance in multiple activities. This work is aimed to design and administrate a resistance to interference distractor training task for children with typical development, between 6 and 8 years of age (a processes-based computerized flanker task). Also, this work is aimed to analyze the effects of the intervention on trained process and non-trained processes. We recruited children (n= 54) in the first three years of primary-school education. The study consisted of an experimental pre-test, post-test design (resistance to distractor interference, response inhibition and visuospatial working memory were administered), with experimental group (training resistance to distractor interference group) and active control group. After intervention, experimental group performed better in a resistance to distractor interference task. No effects on performance in other tasks were found. These small effects could be explained by the duration and the intensity of the intervention. However, these results contribute to non-unitary perspective about the differentiation of inhibitory processes, especially, to differentiation of resistance to distractor interference and response inhibition, because effects on trained process and absence of transfer to non-trained process were observed.

The intentionality bias in schizophrenia.

The tendency to over-interpret events of daily life as resulting from voluntary or intentional actions is one of the key aspects of schizophrenia with persecutory delusions. Here, we ask whether this characteristic may emerge from the abnormal activity of a basic cognitive process found in healthy adults and children: the intentionality bias, which refers to the implicit and automatic inclination to interpret human actions as intentional (Rosset, 2008, Cognition 108, 771-780). In our experiment, patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls were shown sentences describing human actions in various linguistic contexts, and were asked to indicate whether the action was intentional or not. The results indicated that people with schizophrenia exhibited a striking bias to over attribute intentionality regardless of linguistic context, contrary to healthy controls who did not exhibit such a general intentionality bias. Moreover, this study provides some insight into the cognitive mechanisms underlying this bias: an inability to inhibit the automatic attribution of intentionality.

Inhibitory processes in toddlers: a latent-variable approach.

The aim of this study was to investigate the nature of inhibitory processes in early childhood. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the latent structure of inhibitory processes in day-care center children aged 24-32 months and in preschool children aged 36-48 months. The best fit to the data for the younger sample was a single undifferentiated inhibition factor model; in older children, a two-factor model was differently identified in which response inhibition and interference suppression were distinguished.

The influence of expertise in simultaneous interpreting on non-verbal executive processes.

This study aimed to explore non-verbal executive processes in simultaneous interpreters. Simultaneous interpreters, bilinguals without any training in simultaneous interpreting, and control monolinguals performed the Wisconsin card sorting task (WCST; Experiment 1) and the Simon task (Experiment 2). Performance on WCST was thought to index cognitive flexibility while Simon task performance was considered an index of inhibitory processes. Simultaneous interpreters outperformed bilinguals and monolinguals on the WCST by showing reduced number of attempts to infer the rule, few errors, and few previous-category perseverations. However, simultaneous interpreters presented Simon effects similar to those found in bilinguals and monolinguals. Together, these results suggest that experience in interpreting is associated with changes in control processes required to perform interpreting tasks.

Rol de las funciones inhibitorias en la memoria de trabajo: evidencia en niños y adolescentes / Role of Inhibitory Functions in Working Memory: Evidence in Children and Adolescents / Rol das funções inibitórias na memória de trabalho: evidencia em crianças e adolescentes

Objetivo. Distintas posturas teóricas han planteado una relación estrecha entre memoria de trabajo (MT) e inhibición. Por ello, el objeto del presente estudio fue analizar el rol que juegan los procesos inhibitorios de inhibición perceptual o acceso, inhibición cognitiva o borrado e inhibición de restricción en el desarrollo de la MT entre los 8 y los 18 años de edad. Método. La muestra estuvo conformada por 277 participantes de la ciudad de Mar del Plata, divididos en tres grupos de edad (8-9 años, 10-12 años y 17-18 años). Los participantes fueron evaluados con una tarea compleja de MT (amplitud de oraciones) que permite obtener, además de la amplitud verbal de la MT, distintos indicadores sobre las funciones inhibitorias. Resultados. Los resultados del estudio mostraron que el desempeño en MT es más elevado en los participantes de mayor edad, siendo significativo el efecto diferencial de la edad sobre la MT. En cuanto a las funciones inhibitorias, se observaron efectos significativos en relación con el tipo de inhibición y grupo de edad. Conclusión. En concordancia con estudios previos, se encontraron relaciones entre la MT y las funciones inhibitorias de acceso y restricción no siendo esta relación influida por la edad.

Objective. Different theoretical positions have posted a close relationship between working memory (WM) and inhibition. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the role played by inhibitory processes or perceptual inhibition, cognitive inhibition and restraint inhibition in the development of WM between 8 and 18 years. Method. The sample consisted of 277 participants from the city of Mar del Plata divided into three age groups (8-9 years, 10-12 years and 17-18 years). Participants were assessed with a task of WM that provide several indicators of inhibitory functions. Results. Study results showed that performance in WM is higher in older participants, with significant differential effect of age on WM. Significant effects were observed in relation to the type of inhibition and the age group. Conclusion. Consistent with previous studies, a small relationship between WM perceptual inhibition and restraint inhibition, this relationship is mediated by age.

Escopo. Diferentes posturas teóricas tem planteado uma relação estreita entre memória de trabalho (MT) e inibição. Por isto, o objetivo do presente estudo foi analisar o papel desempenhado pelos processos inibitórios de inibição perceptual ou acesso, inibição cognitiva ou apagado e inibição de restrição no desenvolvimento da MT entre os 8 e os 18 anos de idade. Metodologia. A amostra foi conformada por 277 participantes da cidade de Mar del Plata, divididos em três grupos de idade (8-9 anos, 10-12 anos e 17-18 anos). Os participantes foram avaliados com uma tarefa complexa do MT (amplitude de orações) que permite obter, além da amplitude verbal da MT, distintos indicadores sobre funções inibitórias. Resultados. Os resultados do estudo mostraram que o desempenho em MT é mais elevado nos participantes de maior idade, sendo significativo o efeito diferencial da idade sobre a MT. Em quanto às funções inibitórias, foram observados efeitos significativos em relação com o tipo de inibição e grupo de idade. Conclusão. Em concordância com estudos prévios, foram encontradas relações entre a MT e as funções inibitórias de acesso e restrição não sendo esta relação influída pela idade.

Memoria de trabajo, mecanismos inhibitorios y rendimiento lecto-comprensivo en grupos de comprendedores de secundaria básica / Working Memory, inhibitory processes and reading comprehension performance in groups of comprehenders of secondary school

La comprensión lectora es un proceso complejo que supone la intervención de un conjunto de variables interrelacionadas. Diversos estudios han planteado el rol de la memoria de trabajo y los mecanismos inhibitorios en la habilidad de comprender un texto. El propósito del presente trabajo es doble: por un lado, se propone evaluar las relaciones entre memoria de trabajo, mecanismos inhibitorios y comprensión lectora en adolescentes de primer año de la Educación Secundaria Básica (E.S.B.) de 12 y 13 años de edad, distribuidos en dos grupos de desempeño en comprensión lectora; y por otro, analizar las diferencias en los rendimientos ejecutivos de memoria de trabajo y mecanismos inhibitorios en función del nivel de comprensión lectora (alto y bajo rendimiento). Para ello, se administraron un conjunto de tareas para evaluar: comprensión de textos, fluidez lectora, habilidades verbales, memoria de trabajo y mecanismos inhibitorios. Los resultados señalan correlaciones entre rendimiento lecto-comprensivo, memoria de trabajo, mecanismos inhibitorios (supresión y restricción) y habilidades verbales. A su vez, la evidencia señala que los grupos de desempeño en comprensión lectora presentan diferencias estadísticamente significativas en sus correspondientes rendimientos en memoria de trabajo e inhibición.

The process of reading comprehension involves a group of interrelated variables. Several studies have presented the role of working memory and the inhibition process in reading comprehension skills. The aim of this research is double, on one side to assess the relationship between working memory, inhibitory processes and reading comprehension in adolescents belonging to the first year of secondary school of 12 and 13 years old, in two groups of comprehension levels; and on the other hand, to analyze the differences in executive performance of working memory and inhibitory processes in different levels of reading comprehension (high and poor performance). A number of tests were carried out to assess the level of reading comprehension, verbal skills, reading fluency, working memory and inhibitory processes. Results show that levels of reading comprehension, working memory, inhibitory processes (deletion and restraint) and verbal skills are related. The evidence suggests that the groups of different levels of reading comprehension show significant differences in their working memory, inhibitory processes and verbal skills performance.