On the Phylogenesis of Executive Functions and Their Connection with Language Evolution

Adornetti, Ines

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01426

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The conclusion drawn is that the ability to control a situation declines when task requirements increase and this is particularly obvious in older adults. This finding seems to corroborate those of previous studies suggesting significant age-related effects on the combined application of inhibition and switching ( Bryan and Luszcz, 2000 ; Plumet et al, 2005 ; Adornetti, 2016 ; Lam et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Inversely, increased performance under switching recruitment (number of words generated) of older adults with RVD reflects that there is no such severe decline in set-shifting ability in this group, compared to VaD patients. On the other hand, the higher performance of young adults in the same condition compared to older adults with RVD, may indicate a progressive decline in cognitive flexibility along with age as well as its corresponding health deterioration ( Bryan and Luszcz, 2000 ; Gunning-Dixon and Raz, 2003 ; Plumet et al, 2005 ; Spiro and Brady, 2008 ; Adornetti, 2016 ; Lam et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inhibitory Control, Task/Rule Switching, and Cognitive Planning in Vascular Dementia: Are There Any Differences From Vascular Aging?

Pantsiou

Sfakianaki

Papaliagkas

et al. 2018

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Recent studies have shown that patients diagnosed with Vascular Dementia (VaD) exhibit deficits in executive functions. According to “vascular hypothesis of cognitive aging,” community-dwelling older adults having risk factors for vascular disease development (RVD) may suffer from cognitive decline of the same type. The aim of the study was to assess the level of specific executive functions (EF) that have been revealed as most affected by vascular abnormalities, in older adults with incipient VaD and RVD. Subsequently specific ways of EF measuring could be suggested for more accurate diagnosis of early stage VaD. The study compared three adult groups (N = 60): (a) patients diagnosed with incipient VaD, according to DSM-5 criteria (n = 20); (b) community-dwelling older adults presenting cardiovascular risk factors (RVD; n = 20); (c) healthy young adult controls (n = 20). Three types of executive functions were examined: inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility as rule/task switching, and planning. The following D-KEFS subtests were administered for their evaluation: The ‘Color-Word Interference Test,’ the ‘Verbal Fluency Test,’ and the ‘Tower Test.’ Mixed-measures ANOVA, MANOVA, and one-way ANOVA as well as Scheffe post hoc test were applied to the data of the scores in each condition of each test. The results showed that VaD patients had significantly lower performance in test conditions requiring switching and planning, compared to RVD group and young controls. The specific deficits of VaD patients, compared to older adults presenting RVD according to multiple-group path analyses were: more uncorrected errors in inhibition, the use of semantic knowledge primarily instead of switching ability to switch between semantic categories, as well as a lower level of movement precision in planning.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibitory Control, Task/Rule Switching, and Cognitive Planning in Vascular Dementia: Are There Any Differences From Vascular Aging?

Pantsiou

Sfakianaki

Papaliagkas

et al. 2018

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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“…Besides the fact that no studies exist to report cognitive flexibility deficits in people with SCD, cognitive control difficulties are usually presented in older adults as a result of a degree of vascular abnormality. Specifically, there are indications that older adults with risk factors for vascular disease development present lower performance compared to young adults in inhibitory control and inhibition plus switching [72,75,76]. Our study comes to contribute by also supporting the idea that cognitive flexibility deficits exist in older adults with SCD, since ICT/RST-S3 is sensitive enough to detect them.…”

Section: Ict/rst-s3 Differential Abilitysupporting

confidence: 74%

Is the Discrimination of Subjective Cognitive Decline from Cognitively Healthy Adulthood and Mild Cognitive Impairment Possible? A Pilot Study Utilizing the R4Alz Battery

Poptsi

Μoraitou

Tsardoulias

et al. 2020

JAD

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Background: The early diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders before the symptoms’ onset is the ultimate goal of the scientific community. REMEDES for Alzheimer (R4Alz) is a battery, designed for assessing cognitive control abilities in people with minor and major neurocognitive disorders. Objective: To investigate whether the R4Alz battery’s tasks differentiate subjective cognitive decline (SCD) from cognitively healthy adults (CHA) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: The R4Alz battery was administered to 175 Greek adults, categorized in five groups a) healthy young adults (HYA; n = 42), b) healthy middle-aged adults (HMaA; n = 33), c) healthy older adults (HOA; n = 14), d) community-dwelling older adults with SCD (n = 34), and e) people with MCI (n = 52). Results: Between the seven R4Alz subtasks, four showcased the best results for differentiating HOA from SCD: the working memory updating (WMCUT-S3), the inhibition and switching subtask (ICT/RST-S1&S2), the failure sets (FS) of the ICT/RST-S1&S2, and the cognitive flexibility subtask (ICT/RST-S3). The total score of the four R4Alz subtasks (R4AlzTot4) leads to an excellent discrimination among SCD and healthy adulthood, and to fare discrimination among SCD and MCI. Conclusion: The R4Alz battery is a novel approach regarding the neuropsychological assessment of people with SCD, since it can very well assist toward discriminating SCD from HOA. The R4Alz is able to measure decline of specific cognitive control abilities - namely of working memory updating, and complex executive functions - which seem to be the neuropsychological substrate of cognitive complaints in community dwelling adults of advancing age.

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“…In short, the construction of Beecher's argument calls for addressing cognition directly; instead it is only done via the roundabout route of design features, and the relevant cognitive capacities have not been discussed nor identified. This point is far from trivial, since several cognitive capacities considered as evolutionary preconditions for language have been argued to be uniquely human, such as advanced executive functions (e.g., Adornetti, 2016) or advanced intersubjectivity and triadic bodily mimesis (e.g., Zlatev, 2014).…”

Section: Cognitive Prerequisites For Language Are More Important Than Design Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Commentary: Why Are no Animal Communication Systems Simple Languages?

Wacewicz

2021

Front. Psychol.

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On the Phylogenesis of Executive Functions and Their Connection with Language Evolution

Cited by 11 publications

References 46 publications

Inhibitory Control, Task/Rule Switching, and Cognitive Planning in Vascular Dementia: Are There Any Differences From Vascular Aging?

Inhibitory Control, Task/Rule Switching, and Cognitive Planning in Vascular Dementia: Are There Any Differences From Vascular Aging?

Is the Discrimination of Subjective Cognitive Decline from Cognitively Healthy Adulthood and Mild Cognitive Impairment Possible? A Pilot Study Utilizing the R4Alz Battery

Commentary: Why Are no Animal Communication Systems Simple Languages?

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