Executive Cognitive Functioning and Education

A Presentation to the Stanley Teacher Preparation Program

January 30, 2014

Overview• Prefrontal cortex anatomy and connections• What are executive cognitive functions?• Damage to the prefrontal cortex• Research on Executive Functions (EF)• Executive Functioning in School• Strengthening EF• Neuroplasticity• Habits• State and EF

Consider what it takes to be successful/happy:

• Creativity– New ideas/hypotheses

– Divergent thinking – thinking outside the box for new approaches

• Flexibility– Seeing an opportunity and seizing it

– Being able to change course/react to change

• Self-control– Think before you speak or act

– Resist temptation/control impulses

• Discipline– Make a plan and stick to it

– Focus despite distractions

These are all Executive Cognitive Functions.

Executive Cognitive Functioning• Initiating, prioritizing, strategizing & sequencing• Regulating alertness, managing time• Working memory• Self-monitoring & self-regulation (insight, error

detection, behavior modification, impulse control)• Focusing and maintaining attention • Flexible response to novel situations• Using intentions to engage in purposeful activity • Managing frustration and regulating emotions• Active problem solving• Capacity to generate information

Anatomy of Executive Functioning

• Many regions of the brain are associated with executive functioning.

• Primary area is the prefrontal cortex (PFC)• Other areas affecting/affected by executive ability

include:– Cerebellum

– Basal ganglia

– Thalamus

Who/Where/What is the Executive?

• The prefrontal cortex is involved in the temporal organization of behavior.

• The prefrontal area combines working memory with long-term memory, current behavior, and both short- and long-term goals.

• These are referred to as the executive functions.

• But there is no “executive” in the brain, and nothing to regulate behavior.

• The brain and behavior are both self-organizing systems.

Your prefrontal cortex links information back and forth across other brain regions and has the vastest neural network and the most reciprocal interconnections with other brain

structures.

“All neural roads eventually lead to the frontal lobes.”

Basic Function of Prefrontal Cortex

• The prefrontal cortex provides cognitive control of behavior, so the right behavior is selected at the appropriate time and place.

• The prefrontal cortex plays a major role in an individual’s ability to regulate his or her behavior.

• When the prefrontal cortex is injured, people can’t plan, anticipate consequences, initiate purposeful behavior, inhibit irrelevant behavior, or monitor themselves.

Damage to the frontal lobe

According to V.S. Ramachadran in The Tell-Tale Brain, the prefrontal cortex affects “many of the most quintessential attributes that define human nature: ambition; empathy; foresight; a complex personality; a sense of morality; and a sense of dignity as a human being”.

Predictive Power of Executive FunctioningWalter Mischel’s 1968 Marshmallow Test

In the follow up in the 1980s, the children who participated in the original research were teenagers. Mischel found that those who were not as good at delaying gratification were much more likely to have behavioral problems, both in school and at home. They struggled in stressful situations, often had trouble paying attention in class and had serious problems with their temper. The difference between a child who could only wait thirty seconds and a child who could wait fifteen minutes was that the high-delayer had an SAT score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than the kid who couldn’t wait.

Most recent follow up:

Behavioral and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later

B. J. Caseya,1, Leah H. Somervillea, Ian H. Gotlibb, Ozlem Aydukc, Nicholas T. Franklina, Mary K. Askrend, John Jonidesd, Marc G. Bermand, Nicole L. Wilsone, Theresa Teslovicha, Gary Gloverf, Vivian Zayasg, Walter Mischel,1, and Yuichi Shodae,1

10.1073/pnas.1108561108 PNAS August 29, 2011

What Executive Functioning Looks Like for Young Children

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT7fbayfNBU

Predictive Power of Executive FunctioningPsychol Sci. 2005 Dec;16(12):939-44.

Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents.

Duckworth AL, Seligman ME

Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania

Self-discipline of 140 8th grade students measured by self reports, teacher and parent reports and monetary choice questionnaires in the fall predicted final grades, school attendance and admittance to competitive HS program.

Replicated study of 164 8th grade students added a behavioral delay-of-gratification task, a questionnaire on study habits and a group administered IQ test in addition to the above.

Finding: Self-discipline (as measured in the fall) accounted for more than twice as much variance as IQ in final grades, HS selection, school attendance…

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study

• Followed 1,037 individuals born in 1972-1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand

• Self-control during first decade of life was measured using nine measures of self control: observational ratings of children’s lack of control (ages 3 and 5); parent, teacher and self-reports of impulsive aggression, hyperactivity, lack of persistence, inattention and impulsivity (at 5,7,9 & 11 years old)

• Then, as 32-year old adults (with a 96% retention rate), health, wealth and crime outcomes were assessed by physical exams, blood tests, personal interviews, record searches and informant reports.

Design of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study.

Moffitt T E et al. PNAS 2011;108:2693-2698

©2011 by National Academy of Sciences

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study - Findings

• Children with less self control (i.e., children who were less persistent, more impulsive and had poorer attention regulation) 30 years later had:

– Poorer health

– Greater likelihood of alcohol or drug problems

– More financial problems

– More single-parent child rearing

– More criminal convictions

than those with better inhibitory control as young children (controlling for IQ, gender, social class and home lives and family circumstances growing up).

Self-control gradient.

Moffitt T E et al. PNAS 2011;108:2693-2698

©2011 by National Academy of Sciences

(From Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University)

Executive Functioning in School

• Without good EF, it can look like a student is not paying attention or is deliberately not controlling themselves

• They may: be pulled out of the learning environment; miss information; fall behind; feel upset; act out…

• They are in a downward spiral

• And consequences become irrelevant to a child who can’t conceive of them and can’t use impulse control to avoid them.

Executive Functions can be Trained by Strengthening Neural Connections

• Scenario 1: Poor EF leads to problems paying attention in class, completing assignments and inhibiting impulsive behaviors. School is less fun and the teacher is always getting annoyed with the student and complying with school demands is hard. The teacher comes to expect low self regulation and poor work and the children come to see themselves as poor students.

• Scenario 2: Children who have better EF are likely to be praised for good behavior, enjoy school more and want to spend more time working. Their teachers enjoy them and a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop is created.

• Results: One child wants out and doesn’t expect to succeed. The other wants in and fully expects to succeed.

Neuroplasticity is behind both scenarios

• Think of a stream bed:

– The bed affects where the water flows

– But, the water flow itself can also change the course of the stream bed

• In the brain, neurons that “fire together, wire together”

• So neural networks that are repeatedly activated become stronger and more efficient (and the opposite is also true)

• And practiced neural networks can become habits

Example of rapid brain change

(Casasanto, D. and Bottini, R. (2013), Spatial language and abstract concepts. WIREs Cogn Sci. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1271)

Synaptic Plasticity

What Executive Functioning Looks Like for Adults

• Maria Joao Pirex - Pianist who practiced the wrong piece

• http://www.youtube.com/watchv=n10DvWQW9_w

Habit vs. Voluntary Control of Behavior

Most human activity—whether simple or complex—is habitual, a function of procedural learning.

Effort is required to:inhibit habitual activity

disrupt a habit

respond to novel situations

engage in novel activity

create new habits

Brain Activation for Habits

• MRIs of brains in habit mode – PFC shows little activity

• Example of learning to drive

• Once the mechanics of driving are mastered, one can focus on navigation, defensive driving and can respond to dangerous situations

Habits

• Procedural learning causes the things we do repeatedly to become habits.– They become automatic and nonconscious.

– Habits are very efficient, and we rely on them most of the time. They require less effort than deliberate action.

• Sometimes habits are not useful or adaptive.– Then we need to change them.

• The likelihood that we’ll perform a habitual behavior depends on our state.

By Changing Habits, We Strengthen Executive Functioning

• We engage in habits unconsciously.• By drawing attention to them at the time, we become

conscious of them.– This prevents them from being enacted automatically and

unconsciously.– Repeatedly drawing awareness to a habit will disrupt its

performance.– Focusing attention helps strengthen connections in the

prefrontal cortex.

• It’s still easier to do what is a habit than to inhibit the habit, or perform a novel behavior.

By Developing Habits, We Scaffold Executive Functioning

• EF involves the ability to initiate goal-directed, deliberate behavior, and to inhibit habitual, inappropriate, or irrelevant behavior.

• EF typically involves effort, so it goes against the grain to use EF rather than do what is easiest.

• Developing habits that support our executive functions can scaffold those efforts.

• What skills can be transferred to habit?

Executive Function and State

• To a large extent, our state determines our level of motivation.

• Our state of mind at any time determines how likely we are to do a particular thing.– Example: If I’m depressed, I’ll have depressing

thoughts about myself, but if I’m happy, I won’t.

– A very desperate state may lead to desperate behavior.

• State is more complex than this, but different factors affect state, which affects what we do.– This includes whether we will use our executive

functions, or just go with the flow of habits.

Executive Function is affected by your State

• Stress

• Expectations/Mood

• Energy level

• Blood glucose levels

• Pain

• Poor health/Inflammation