A Dissociation of Attention, Executive Function and Reaction to Difficulty: Development of the MindPulse Test, a Novel Digital Neuropsychological Test for Precise Quantification of Perceptual-Motor Decision-Making Processes

Abstract

Traditionally, neuropsychological testing has assessed processing speed and precision, closely related to the ability to perform high-order cognitive tasks. An individual making a decision under time pressure must constantly rebalance its speed to action in order to account for possible errors. A deficit in processing speed appears to be afrequent disorder caused by cerebral damage — but it can be hard to pinpoint the exact cause of the slowdown. It is therefore important to separate the perceptual-motor component of processing speed from the decision-time component. We present a technique to isolate Reaction Times (RTs): a short digital test to assess the decision-making abilities of individuals by gauging their ability to balance between speed and precision. Our hypothesis is that some subjects willaccelerate, and others slow down in the face of the difficulty. This pilot study, conducted on 83 neurotypical adult volunteers, used images stimuli. The test was designed to measure RTs and correctness. After learning release gesture, the subjects were presented with three tasks: a simple Reaction Time task, a Go/No-Go, and a complex Go/No-Go with 2 simultaneous Choices. All three tasks have in common a perceptual component and a motor response. By measuring the 3 reference points requiring attentional and executive processing, while progressively increasing the conceptual complexity of the task, we were able to compare the processing times for different tasks — thus calculating the deceleration specific to the reaction time linked to difficulty. We defined the difficulty coefficient of a task as being the ratio of the group average time of this task minus the base time/average time of the unit task minus the base time. We found that RTs can be broken down into three elementary, uncorrelated components: Reaction Time, Executive Speed, and Reaction to Difficulty (RD). We hypothesized that RD reflects how the subject reacts to difficulty by accelerating (RD < 0) or decelerating (RD > 0). Thus we provide here a first proof of concept: the ability to measure four axes of the speed-precision trade-off inherent in a subject’s fundamental decision making: perceptual-motor speed, executive speed, subject accuracy, and reaction to difficulty.

Rhythmic temporal prediction enhances neural representations of movement intention for brain–computer interface

“…According to the free energy theory, the brain seeks to minimize uncertainty and resist disorder by reducing the uncertainty of upcoming events [39], which contributes to decreasing task complexity. Coincidently, it is reported that task complexity influences motor responses [40], more complex tasks (such as completing complex rhythmic finger-tapping [41]) lead to increased beta-ERD ipsilateral activation, and correspondingly decrease motor-related interhemispheric differences. In addition, predictability enhanced the contralateral motor area ERD during motor preparation [42].…”

Transferability and sustainability of process-based multi-task adaptive cognitive training in community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a randomized controlled trial

“…Previous studies with process-based training have shown relative stability and minor training effects in the far transfer effects of EF training [ 32 ]. Therefore, the psychomotor speed, as the indicator of the far transfer effects, was assessed using the auditory-visual reaction time test (model 32020 A, Lafayette instrument, US) [ 33 ] and finger tapping test (Torrance, CA 90503-5124) [ 28 ]. Previous studies have supported the reliability and validity of these tests [ 34 , 35 ].…”

“…Previous studies have supported the reliability and validity of these tests [ 34 , 35 ]. The auditory-visual reaction time test measured the time interval between the appearance of the stimulus (light, sound) and voluntary finger response [ 33 ]. The finger tapping test was used to assess psychomotor speed and it asked the participant to tap the tip of the index finger in rapid succession from a height of 15 centimeters 10 times [ 36 ].…”

Evaluation of taVNS for extreme environments: an exploration study of health benefits and stress operationality

“…Cardiac vagal activity would also constitute a measure of the efficiency of an individual's executive functioning. Recently, a new neurocognitive test was developed and named "MindPulse" (39). The purpose of this test is to highlight the elements underlying perceptual-motor decision-making, in particular attentional and executive functions.…”