Executive functions are a group of cognitive processes including control, mental flexibility, planning, inhibition, decision-making, initiation, abstraction, self-monitoring, and pursuit of goals. Executive functions are important in situations involving error correction and behaviour evaluation in response to environmental feedback.

What is the evidence for executive functioning?

Moderate to high quality evidence found poorer executive functioning in adults and children with PTSD compared to people without the disorder who were, or who were not, exposed to trauma. There were no significant associations between symptom severity and executive functioning.

August 2021

Image: ©Gajus – stock.adobe.com

The post Executive functioning appeared first on NeuRA Library.

Executive functions are a group of cognitive processes including control, mental flexibility, planning, inhibition, decision-making, initiation, abstraction, self-monitoring and pursuit of goals. Executive functions are important in situations involving error correction and behaviour evaluation in response to environmental feedback

Executive functioning is most commonly measured using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST). This task requires the ability to shift cognitive sets. Study participants are told to match stimulus cards containing varying coloured shapes, based first on colour, then quantity, then design. The participant is then given additional cards and asked to match each one without being told any matching rules, so participants usually match according to the previous rule. Feedback is provided as to whether their match was correct or incorrect, based on a new and undisclosed matching rule that changes during the task. Other common tasks assessing executive functioning include the Trail Making Test (TMT), which requires participants to connect, in order, letters and/or numbers as quickly as possible. Also, the Stroop Colour Word Test (SCWT), presents colour names printed in an ink congruent to the colour name (e.g. blue), or incongruent to the colour name (e.g. blue). Participants are asked to either read the word or name the ink colour. Any impairment in executive functioning can also reflect impairments in other cognitive functions such as processing speed, attention and memory.

What is the evidence on executive functioning in people with bipolar disorder?

Moderate to high quality evidence finds a medium-sized effect of poorer executive functioning in people with bipolar I or II disorder compared to controls. Poor executive functioning was associated with poor general functioning. There were no changes in performance on executive functioning tasks over time (~4-7 years), indicating a lack of relevant neurodegeneration.

High quality evidence finds a small effect of poorer executive functioning in people with bipolar disorder and a history of psychotic symptoms compared to people with bipolar disorder and no history of psychotic symptoms. There were also small effects of poorer executive functioning in people with bipolar I disorder compared to people with bipolar II disorder, and in overweight people with bipolar disorder compared to normal weight people with bipolar disorder

Moderate quality evidence found no differences in executive functioning between people with bipolar disorder and people with major depression.

High quality evidence finds a small effect of poorer performance on the Stroop test, but not the WCST, in young relatives of people with bipolar disorder compared to controls.

September 2021

©Gajus – stock.adobe.com

The post Executive functioning appeared first on NeuRA Library.

Executive functions are a group of cognitive processes involving control, mental flexibility, planning, inhibition, decision-making, initiation, abstraction, self-monitoring and pursuit of goals. Any impairment in executive functioning can also reflect impairments in other cognitive functions such as processing speed, attention, and memory. Executive functioning is most commonly measured using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST). This task requires the ability to shift cognitive sets. Other common tasks include the Trail Making Test (TMT), which requires participants to connect, in order, letters and/or numbers as quickly as possible, and the Stroop Colour Word Test (SCWT), which presents colour names printed in an ink congruent to the colour name (e.g. blue), or incongruent to the colour name (e.g. blue); participants are asked to either read the word or name the ink colour. Verbal fluency tests involve participants naming as many words as possible from a particular category in a given time, and Go/No-Go tasks involve presenting participants stimuli in a continuous stream and asking them to make a ‘go’ or a ‘no-go’ response to each stimulus.

What is the evidence for executive functioning in schizophrenia?

Compared to people without schizophrenia, moderate to high quality evidence found people with schizophrenia show medium-sized impairments on the WCST, verbal fluency tasks, inhibition tasks, planning tasks, the TMT, the SCWT, and the Go/No-Go task. Compared to people with affective psychoses (including bipolar disorder) there were small impairments on verbal fluency tasks, the TMT, and the WCST. There were small to medium-sized impairments on the WCST in first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia and in people at clinical high-risk of psychosis compared to people without schizophrenia. There was poorer executive functioning in individuals at clinical high-risk of psychosis who made the transition to psychosis compared to individuals at clinical high-risk of psychosis who did not make the transition to psychosis. There were similar, small improvements on executive functioning tasks over time (1 to 5 years) in people at clinical high-risk of psychosis and in people with first-episode psychosis.

Moderate to high quality evidence shows a medium-sized association between higher levels of executive functioning and higher levels of insight and lower levels of negative or disorganised symptoms (including formal thought disorder). Moderate quality evidence found no association between executive functioning and positive symptoms.

There were greater improvements in verbal fluency in people receiving second-generation antipsychotics compared to people receiving first-generation antipsychotics. People receiving quetiapine, olanzapine, or clozapine may show improvements on verbal fluency tasks post-treatment, however people receiving risperidone may show no improvement on these tasks.

March 2022

Image: ©Gajus – stock.adobe.com

The post Executive functioning appeared first on NeuRA Library.