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Executive control
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21/02/2022 HC 011. What is exactly executive control/functions?
Planning, working memory (manipulation of information), motivation, attention, concentration
and inhibition.
Executive functioning is goal-directed behavior. Creating a plan, adjusting according to
feedback and then executing it.
2. Involved processing processes?
Prefrontal cortex
Basal ganglia
Orbitofrontal cortex
Cingulate cortex
3. How do these processes/functions relate to other brain functions?
Go and no go pathways via the basal ganglia (dorsal for the motor and ventral side for
reward) via the release of dopamine, inhibitory control over the limbic system for your
emotions.
4. Why are they relevant for Neuropsychology?
Parkinson’s disease, addiction, Huntington
Executive functions superordinate processes that guide thought and behavior and allow
purposive action toward a goal. This sees it more as a set of abilities/functions that you can
have and these are involved in managing one’s resources to achieve goals via WM,
response inhibition etc. They don’t form a unitary function and are single independent
outcome measures, but what is the overall view = cognitive control (think of going grocery
shopping) which requires all types of skills related to all these executive functions described.
It is really difficult to study this, since we have all these independent processes.
Voluntary action is therefore a form of decision making and the same goes for many
processes in the brain involved in executive control (if I am thirsty, I get a glass of water,
however I have a break in 5 minutes, so you wait = example of executive control and is
based on a lot of information).
Approaches taken by studies might give us clues on how to tackle the problem of cognitive
control to focus on action control. If we zoom out and see information being processed and
given a certain output, then we know what was going on in the black box.
21/02/2022 PBL task 1
Action chapter 8
Cognitive control chapter 12
Learning goals:
What steps are taken in making decisions?
a. When looking at the example with the men being asked to go for a dance we see
hierarchical representation of action (also stroking with the idea of phylogenetic
perspective for we us humans capable of the most complex actions with the most
evolved motor system) sequences which organize movement elements into
integrated chunks:
1. Conceptual level = representation of the goal of the action (man's intention
(goal) is to accept the woman's invitation to dance).
,2. Goal must be translated into an effector system (man can make a verbal
response or physical gesture and even within those options, there are more
options > nodding/extending hand/different sayings).
3. Lower levels of hierarchy then translate these movement plans into patterns
of muscular activation
4. CONCLUSION = cortex can provide additional means for regulating the
actions of the lower levels of the motor hierarchy, offering an organism even
greater flexibility in its actions.
,b. Affordance competition hypothesis = brain's functional architecture has evolved to
mediate real-time interactions with the world and affordances are the opportunities
for action defined by the environment. Many interactions do not allow time for
carefully evaluating goals and then planning of movements (serial processing),
because as the affordance competition hypothesis proposes is that the processes of
action selection and specification occur simultaneously and the brain uses
continuous sensory info coming in to adjust potential actions and how to carry them
out (affordance part).
- Our internal state, longer-range goals, expected rewards and anticipated
costs provide info that can be used to assess the utility of the different actions
(competition) > one option wins out over the other and an action is selected
and executed.
- Other cells represent action goals more abstractly, so grasping, but it does
not matter with which effector this happens with some cells preferentially
activated when the animal reaches for an object and others for holding an
object.
- Cross-talk between 2 hemispheres during some stage of motor planning,
most likely at the stage when an abstract action goal is translated into a
movement plan > you cannot rub your belly and tap your head at the same
time unless you are a split brain patient.
c. Cognitive control = for purposeful goal-oriented behavior, all of us must develop a
plan of action that draws on our personal experiences and is tailored to the current
environment. They must be flexible and adaptive to accommodate unforeseen
changes. We must monitor our actions and sometimes inhibit our desires and follow
rules.
d. We have goal-oriented actions based on the assessment of an expected reward or
value and the knowledge that there is a causal relationship between action and the
reward (action-outcome), however goal-oriented actions are defined as habits that no
longer are under the control of a reward but just stimulus driven (automatic).
e. We make decisions more based on descriptive decision theories instead of how
people ought to make decisions that yield the optimal choice (normative decision
theories).
, f. Successful execution of an action: identifying the goal and developing subgoals,
anticipating consequences when choosing among goals and determining what is
required to achieve goals.
- Which brain regions are involved in these processes?
a. Thalamus connects all brain areas involved in motor associated behavior as
well as other behavior of course.
b. Lateral prefrontal cortex and frontal pole = goal-oriented behavior and works
in concert with posterior regions of the cortex (WM that recruits and selects
task-relevant info for planning, simulating, consequences, and initiating,
inhibiting and shifting behavior. Providing a generic signal that supports
representations in other cortical areas (fusiform face area also activated
together with WM in faces seen > stays active in the time in between in
contrast to WM activity).
c. Medial frontal cortex essential for guiding and monitoring behavior and works
together with the PFC. Error-related negativity response is an event-related
potential component that occurs when an error is produced + engaged when
response conflict is high and through its interactions with the lateral PFC it
can regulate the level of cognitive control.
d. Prefrontal cortex (lateral prefrontal cortex, frontal polar region, the
orbitofrontal cortex and the medial frontal cortex) coordinates processing
across wide regions of the CNS with links to the motor, perceptual and limbic
regions with the largest input from the thalamus and basal ganglia. Damage
results in not being able to inhibit action which is a form of cognitive control
(right frontal gyrus and the subthalamic nucleus).
- A ventral–dorsal gradient organized in terms of maintenance and
manipulation as well as in a manner that reflects general
organizational principles observed in the posterior cortex, such as the
ventral and dorsal visual pathways for “what” versus “how.” Dorsal is
manipulation and ventral is for maintenance.
- An anterior–posterior gradient that varies in abstraction, where the
more abstract representations engage the most anterior regions (e.g.,
frontal pole) and the least abstract engage more posterior regions of
the frontal lobes. In the extreme, we might think of the most posterior
part of the frontal lobe, the primary motor cortex, as the point where
abstract intentions are translated into concrete movement
- Medial - lateral = medial is reward/motivation/learning from errors
(ACC) and lateral integrates sensory information to guide goal-
directed behavior. Internal vs external
-
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