Behavioral and brain dynamics of executive control in relation to children's fluid intelligence

Attention: The grounds of self‐regulated cognition

“…Likewise, the deliberated and conscious mode of processing characteristic of the attentive state enables superior executive processes such as fluid reasoning. We have demonstrated that children with higher fluid intelligence use proactive control for context monitoring to a greater extent and display greater activation of sustained and executive attention networks (Rico‐Picó et al, 2021). Attention is the platform for executive processes enabling deliberated goal‐directed actions, and the core function of intelligent behavior (Rueda, 2018).…”

Improving fluid intelligence of children through working memory training: The role of inhibition control

“…Finally, the trials in which amplitude values exceeding ±75 μV were obtained for any electrode were excluded from the analysis. The channels and time windows for the analyses were selected on the basis of the literature regarding developmental samples (Wessel, 2018;Rico-Picó et al, 2021;Fu et al, 2022). Imperative No-go stimuli typically produce a negative deflection in the ERP around 200-300 milliseconds, the N2, that is maximal over fronto-central regions (Van Veen and Carter, 2002).…”

“…Chein and Morrison (2010) argued that working memory training transfers the training effect to fluid intelligence by improving inhibition control (Kane et al, 2001;Engle, 2002;Klingberg et al, 2002;Klingberg, 2010;Greenwood and Parasuraman, 2015;Au et al, 2016;Ye et al, 2018), which is a core component of the executive function of working memory. Furthermore, inhibition control is a top-down ability that enables an individual to actively interrupt or delay their behavior (Clark, 1996;DeWall et al, 2011;Brydges et al, 2012;Diamond, 2013) and engage in the purposeful detection and monitoring of targetoriented behaviors (Cattell, 1963;Kane and Engle, 2002;Rueda, 2018;Rico-Picó et al, 2021). Children and adults with higher fluid intelligence exhibit higher inhibition control and efficiency (Burgess et al, 2011); this suggests that inhibition control is a core component of fluid intelligence, possibly because of their shared neural mechanisms (Duncan and Owen, 2000;Cowan et al, 2006;Jung and Haier, 2007).…”

“…However, developmental studies have reported that N2 amplitude decreases with age, which can be interpreted as an increase in conflict monitoring efficiency (Lo, 2018). P3 components are related to the inhibition control process, and studies have reported that individuals with high fluid intelligence exhibited higher P3 amplitude after completing an inhibition control task, which could reflect a greater degree of mature inhibition control (Wessel, 2018;Rico-Picó et al, 2021).…”

Spatio-Temporal Brain Dynamic Differences in Fluid Intelligence

“…Time-resolved information is needed to tell whether frontal and parietal parts operate sequentially or in parallel across time. In combined electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) source measurements, differential activation dynamics have been observed across MD regions during early stages (200–300 ms) of complex cognition ( Tschentscher and Hauk, 2015 , 2016 ), and evidence from EEG evoked potentials suggests that N2 and P3 components are specifically predictive for individual differences in fluid intelligence ( Amin et al, 2015 ; Luo and Zhou, 2020 ; Rico-Picó et al, 2021 ). More specifically, the P3b component, a positive wave that peaks around 250–300 ms at parietal cortical regions, has been associated with individual differences in fluid intelligence ( Amin et al, 2015 ; Teixeira-Santos et al, 2020 ).…”