Executive control training from middle childhood to adolescence

Abstract

Executive functions (EFs) include a number of higher-level cognitive control abilities, such as cognitive flexibility, inhibition, and working memory, which are instrumental in supporting action control and the flexible adaptation changing environments. These control functions are supported by the prefrontal cortex and therefore develop rapidly across childhood and mature well into late adolescence. Given that executive control is a strong predictor for various life outcomes, such as academic achievement, socioeconomic status, and physical health, numerous training interventions have been designed to improve executive functioning across the lifespan, many of them targeting children and adolescents. Despite the increasing popularity of these trainings, their results are neither robust nor consistent, and the transferability of training-induced performance improvements to untrained tasks seems to be limited. In this review, we provide a selective overview of the developmental literature on process-based cognitive interventions by discussing (1) the concept and the development of EFs and their neural underpinnings, (2) the effects of different types of executive control training in normally developing children and adolescents, (3) individual differences in training-related performance gains as well as (4) the potential of cognitive training interventions for the application in clinical and educational contexts. Based on recent findings, we consider how transfer of process-based executive control trainings may be supported and how interventions may be tailored to the needs of specific age groups or populations.

The ABCD Study of Neurodevelopment: Identifying Neurocircuit Targets for Prevention and Treatment of Adolescent Substance Abuse

“…This is in line with speculation that cognitive impairment in many psychiatric disorders stems from aberrant “toggling” between task-on and task-off (DMN) networks [66]. Finally, review of executive control training interventions in middle childhood and adolescence [5] indicates that whereas strategy-based training (such as using visual cues in the environment to remember oratory) does not benefit more distal cognitive skills, process-based training of fine-grained executive skills (such as maintaining information in working memory) is more likely to improve performance in unrelated tasks. This also argues for the utility of targeting nodes of a cross-cutting executive control network, such that enhancement of one component of this network could indirectly lower impulsivity conducive to SUD [67,68].…”

“…Behavioral [5] and psychopharmacological [6][7] interventions have been shown to normalize functioning of brain circuits for behavior and emotion control. Accordingly, we contend that state-of-the-art neuroimaging in a large longitudinal study of youth will have the statistical power to identify additional subgroups for whom certain interventions may be more likely to be beneficial in either preventing or treating SUD.…”

Who Benefits the Most? Individual Differences in the Transfer of Executive Control Training Across the Lifespan

“…Considering the large age range in our sample, we included age as linear and quadratic predictors in both models (see Fig. 1a, b) because there is ample evidence for both types of age effects on general and specific switch costs (e.g., Cepeda et al 2001;Kray et al 2008;Reimers and Maylor 2005;see Karbach andUnger 2014 andCerella 2002, for a reviews). Thus, the correlations of the other variables (working memory, perceptual speed, reasoning, and semantic knowledge) with pretraining switch costs and gain are controlled for age.…”

Development of a Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Program for Executive Functions in Students with Developmental Dyslexia

“…We chose the term neuropsychological rehabilitation because of its wide reach regarding the use of different techniques to help patients deal with their deficits (Cicerone et al, 2011). In this context, the current program can be differentiated from cognitive trainings aimed at the systematic stimulation of a single EF component (Karbach & Unger, 2014;Holmes & Gathercole, 2013;Karbach, Strobach, & Schubert, 2015). Moreover, based on the international classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF) of the World Health Organization (WHO), rehabilitation should reduce the functional consequences of neurological losses.…”