Multidisciplinary perspectives on attention and the development of self-regulation

Berger, Andrea; Kofman, Ora; Livneh, Uri; Henik, Avishai

doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2007.06.004

Cited by 152 publications

(117 citation statements)

References 294 publications

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“…Most children enter a stage of self-regulation about preschool age, at which time they are able to use rules, strategies, and plans to guide their behavior (41). From around 4 y of age, an executive attentional network is assumed to gradually differentiate from orienting and alerting systems and become the dominant factor in cognitive control (6,22).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multimodal imaging of the self-regulating developing brain

Fjell

Walhovd

Brown

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

203

185

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Self-regulation refers to the ability to control behavior, cognition, and emotions, and self-regulation failure is related to a range of neuropsychiatric problems. It is poorly understood how structural maturation of the brain brings about the gradual improvement in self-regulation during childhood. In a large-scale multicenter effort, 735 children (4-21 y) underwent structural MRI for quantification of cortical thickness and surface area and diffusion tensor imaging for quantification of the quality of major fiber connections. Brain development was related to a standardized measure of cognitive control (the flanker task from the National Institutes of Health Toolbox), a critical component of self-regulation. Ability to inhibit responses and impose cognitive control increased rapidly during preteen years. Surface area of the anterior cingulate cortex accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in cognitive performance. This finding is intriguing, because characteristics of the anterior cingulum are shown to be related to impulse, attention, and executive problems in neurodevelopmental disorders, indicating a neural foundation for self-regulation abilities along a continuum from normality to pathology. The relationship was strongest in the younger children. Properties of large-fiber connections added to the picture by explaining additional variance in cognitive control. Although cognitive control was related to surface area of the anterior cingulate independently of basic processes of mental speed, the relationship between white matter quality and cognitive control could be fully accounted for by speed. The results underscore the need for integration of different aspects of brain maturation to understand the foundations of cognitive development.executive function | cognitive conflict | inhibition | morphometry S elf-regulation enables people to make plans, choose from alternatives, control impulses, inhibit thoughts, and regulate social behavior (updated reviews in refs. 1 and 2). Several neuropsychiatric conditions and problems have been related to deficiencies in self-regulation [e.g., Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (3), addiction (4), risk behavior (5), conduct problems (6), and poor school and academic performance (7, 8)]. Although development of self-regulation in children is the result of a dynamic interaction between maturation and learning, we have scarce knowledge about the role played by structural brain characteristics in this process. Recent reports indicate that adjustment problems in childhood psychopathology are related to structural brain characteristics (9-13), but the brain basis for development of self-regulation in normal children is less well-understood. Thus, the purpose of the present paper was to use multimodal neuroimaging to map the structural brain characteristics related to self-regulation and cognitive control in a large sample of 735 children between 4 and 21 y of age.Self-regulation is closely tied to the concepts of cognitive control, attention, and executive f...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multimodal imaging of the self-regulating developing brain

Fjell

Walhovd

Brown

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

203

185

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Attentional processes encompass attention regulation, effortful control (EC; an attention-related construct), and various related networks (e.g., alerting, orienting, and executive attention; Rothbart, 2011;Rueda et al, 2004;Rueda, Posner, & Rothbart, 2005), which significantly develop between 3 and 5 years of age (e.g., Berger, Kofman, Livneh, & Henik, 2007;Rothbart, 2011). Different theoretical frameworks and attentional constructs have been used to account for these various attentional processes (Buss & Plomin, 1975;Rothbart, 1981Rothbart, , 2011Thomas & Chess, 1977, 1980.…”

Section: Attentional Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech-Language Dissociations, Distractibility, and Childhood Stuttering

Clark

Conture

Walden

et al. 2015

Am J Speech Lang Pathol

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Purpose: This study investigated the relation among speech-language dissociations, attentional distractibility, and childhood stuttering. Method: Participants were 82 preschool-age children who stutter (CWS) and 120 who do not stutter (CWNS). Correlationbased statistics (Bates, Appelbaum, Salcedo, Saygin, & Pizzamiglio, 2003) identified dissociations across 5 normbased speech-language subtests. The Behavioral Style Questionnaire Distractibility subscale measured attentional distractibility. Analyses addressed (a) between-groups differences in the number of children exhibiting speechlanguage dissociations; (b) between-groups distractibility differences; (c) the relation between distractibility and speech-language dissociations; and (d) whether interactions between distractibility and dissociations predicted the frequency of total, stuttered, and nonstuttered disfluencies.Results: More preschool-age CWS exhibited speechlanguage dissociations compared with CWNS, and more boys exhibited dissociations compared with girls. In addition, male CWS were less distractible than female CWS and female CWNS. For CWS, but not CWNS, less distractibility (i.e., greater attention) was associated with more speechlanguage dissociations. Last, interactions between distractibility and dissociations did not predict speech disfluencies in CWS or CWNS.Conclusions: The present findings suggest that for preschool-age CWS, attentional processes are associated with speech-language dissociations. Future investigations are warranted to better understand the directionality of effect of this association (e.g., inefficient attentional processes → speech-language dissociations vs. inefficient attentional processes ← speech-language dissociations).

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“…Self-regulation is an ability to monitor and modulate cognition, emotion and behavior to accomplish one's goals or/and to adapt to cognitive or social demands of the situation (Berger, Kofman, Livneh, & Henik, 2007). According to Andrea Berger (2011) selfregulation is not a single process, but rather the group of processes, including both cognitive and emotional component.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%