Cognitive Control. Professor Ian Robertson

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1 Cognitive Control Professor Ian Robertson

2 Course Outline Control: definitions and development Learned helplessness, depression and control Status Syndrome socioeconomic factors in health Cognitive control mechanisms of attentional control Neuroimaging and neuropsychological correlates of control Neurochemistry and neurophysiological covariates of control Molecular genetics and evolution of control The biology of social dominance Implicit processing in dominance hierarchies Lifespan development and control Control and personality

3 Train Crash Watford South Junction, England August 8, 1996.

4 Watford Train Crash What happened? The from London Euston to Milton Keynes passed through a red light and at hit another train at Watford South Junction. One person was killed Ruth Holland and 69 others were injured. Why? The train driver said that he could not remember seeing the two yellow warning signals that he had passed through. The Health and Safety Executive report said the driver of the London Euston to Milton Keynes train "did not react correctly to two signals set at caution".

5 Vigilant Attention and Error Signals passed at danger (SPAD) is the most common cause of accidents on railways and impaired vigilant attention is by far the major factor in these errors. Also major factor in road accidents. GD Edkins CM Pollock Accident Analysis and Prevention 29,

6 Posner: 3 distinct attention systems in the brain Selection Control/switching Vigilant attention

7 Analysis of Everyday Behaviour Supports Posner s Typology Maps, Lottery, Telephone Directories etc Selection Control Vigilance Principal Components Analysis of Adult Attention Data replicated China, Italy SKY SEARCH ATTENTION SCORE 0.55 SELECTIVE ATTENTION 0.79 MAP MISSION ATTENTIONAL CONTROL/ SWITCHING CREATURE COUNTING TIM ING OPPOSITE WORLDS SCORE! Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirms with children, different materials CODE TRANSMISSION SUSTAINED ATTENTION WALK, DONT WALK 0.44 SCORE DT SKY SEARCH DT

8 Vigilant Attention and everyday action errors Repeating Regular Series of Numbers Press to all except Subject: EEG file: correct_press.avg Recorded : 11:49:19 26-Nov-2002 Rate Hz, HPF - 1 Hz, LPF - 30 Hz, Notch - off µv *correct_press.avg correct_withholds.avg commission_errors.avg omission_errors.avg Electrode: ms High alpha oscillations (yellow) in raw EEG prior to vigilant error (Dockree, Robertson et al, 2004) Neurosoft, Inc. SCAN 4.2 Printed : 11:02:10 25-Sep-2003 Do you read something and find you haven't been thinking about it and must read it again? Do you find you accidentally throw away the thing you want and keep what you meant to throw away as in the example of throwing away the matchbox and putting the used match in your pocket? Do you daydream when you ought to be listening to something? Broadbent s Cognitive Failure s Questionnaire (1986)

10 Processing of train driver s yellow signals 5,6,7,8 versus 9,1,2,3,4: ERP averages (Dockree, Robertson, Foxe et al) POZ CZ ,1,2,3,4 5,6,7,8

11 Parietal cortex preparation on number 1 in fixed Sart (a) ERP traces depicting increased P450 ( ms) amplitude (POZ) on trial 1 relative to REFW. A µ V ref (b) Composite scalp topography (i.e., collapsed across all trials) of the P450 effect. A bilateral parieto-central distribution is apparent for the P450. (c) A difference map (trial 1 minus reference) showing the rise in amplitude from trial 9 to 1 with a clear parieto-central focus. B C s e c Dockree, Robertson et al (in press) Neuroimage

12 Parietal cortex readies, frontal cortex brakes B Ready to brake - 2! C 4 A µ V D s e c E µ V Brake -3! s e c

13 Reduced frontal activity at time of 3 A 4 Trial 3 holds lapses B 3 µv sec

14 Everyday attention failures Why Vigilant Attention is Important Attention Gates experience dependent plasticity (Rencanzone and Merzenich) Vigilant Attention deficits predict motor recovery after RH stroke (Robertson et al 1997) Pegs in 2 min month 2 year Impaired Normal Vigilant Attention deficits predict everyday problems rated by relatives of TBI Errors of Commis sion on SART

15 Mean Errors Attention Deficit Disorder and Vigilant Attention ADHD (n=93) Fixed SART Controls (n=72) Mean Commission Errors Mean Omission Errors Mean Total Errors ADD smaller white matter volume right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Castellanos et al 1996) show specific deficits on fixed SART Score Sky Search Control ADHD deficits in vigilant attention but not selective attention, (Manly, Robertson et al, 2003).

16 Failure to inhibit alpha power following tbi-caused frontal injury lower-2 alpha power (uv2) TBI do not slow responses in preparation for upcoming Control TBI Fixed Sart Errors TBI do not desynchronise alpha power in preparation for upcoming 3 Changes in lower-2 alpha power as a function of trial in the Fixed Sequence SART (FCZ) TBIs Controls nine one two Trial Dockree, Robertson et al (2004), Cog. Brain Res

SART (Manly, Robertson et al 2003) Paus et al (1997) Continuous

17 Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal and Right Parietal Regions strongly linked to vigilant attention Activations associated with fixed SART (Manly, Robertson et al 2003) Paus et al (1997) Continuous performance task right fronto-parietal regions principally involved.

If you have to drive a car on an icy road, anxiously feeling the wheels skidding under you, there is no problem staying alert and attentive, no matter how tired or drowsy you

18 If you have to drive a car on an icy road, anxiously feeling the wheels skidding under you, there is no problem staying alert and attentive, no matter how tired or drowsy you might have been feeling beforehand. Contrast this with driving down the empty M6 late at night mile after mile of monotony presents a quite different challenge staying alert.

19 These two examples contrast exogenously and endogenously mediated vigilant attention and arousal. They also represent the interplay between a righthemisphere-cortex mediated vigilant/sustained attention system on the one hand and a midbrain-located arousal system on the other. Successful living requires that these two systems interact in an organised way:

20 Sustained Attention Phenotype

21 Sustained Attention Phenotype

22 Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (Broadbent) Do you read something and then find you haven t been thinking about what you re reading? Do you find you forgot whether you turned off a light or fire, or locked the door? Do you fail to hear people speaking to you when you are doing something else? Do you fail to hear people speaking to you when you are doing something else? Do you start doing one thing at home and then get distracted into doing Sustained Attention Phenotype something else, unintentionally?

23 STANDARD SART (11% probability) X DON T PRESS 3 Sustained Attention Phenotype

24 FIXED-SEQUENCE SART Preparation Sustained Attention Phenotype

25 CFQ TOTAL ERRORS of COMMISSION r=0.4, p<0.05 Bellgrove, Robertson et al 2004 Sustained Attention Phenotype

26 Only 11% probability Go- NoGo SART correlates with CFQ 10 5 High CFQ 0 11% 50% Low CFQ lure lure Sustained Attention Phenotype

27 .. But there are other factors than inhibition involved as making the task completely predictable enhances the discrimination of tbi from controls: fixed SART Random SART Fixed SART 2 0 Control errors TBI Errors Sustained Attention Phenotype

28 DSM-IV Major Depression 5 or more symptoms for at least 2 weeks, include Depressed mood or loss of interest/pleasure: Depressed mood most of the day nearly every day Loss of interest or pleasure Significant weight loss or weight gain Insomnia or hypersomnia Psychomotor agitation or retardation Fatigue or loss of energy Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt Diminished ability to think or concentration Recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation

29 Depression and Attentional Control Chicken or Egg?

31 Halari et al Adolescent Depression

34 Conclusion In all three tasks, adolescents with depression compared to healthy controls demonstrated reduced activation in task-relevant right dorsolateral (DLPFC), inferior prefrontal cortex (IFC) and anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG). Cause or Effect?

35 300 undergraduates, 5 questionnaires

38 Boredom Attentional Control Mood Memory

39 Main Conclusion: A lack of conscious awareness of one s actions, signaled by the propensity to experience brief lapses of attention and related memory failures, is thus seen as having significant consequences in terms of long-term affective wellbeing.

40 Stress effects in animals * 21 days of repeated restraint stress reduce dendritic arborization and spine density in the medial prefrontal cortex (mpfc ) of rats by as much as 33% (11 13). * These structural changes have significant functional consequences: chronic stress selectively impairs attentional set-shifting, which depends on mpfc integrity, but not reversal learning, a cognitive function of comparable difficulty Reversal learning does not depend on mpfc Humans????????

41 PNAS January 20, 2009 vol. 106 no. 3

42 Twenty Medical Students tested after 4 weeks of exam preparation stress compared with 20 control subjects matched for age, gender, and occupation. Stress exposure was confirmed and quantified same subjects reassessed after 4 weeks of reduced stress

43 If M in middle, press button on side where movement is UP If C in middle, press button on side where colour is RED

44 Reversal trials: The Red circle in the C condition is moving DOWN. This goes against the grain as in previous training, always pressed for UP and never for DOWN

45 Attentional Shift versus Reversal Learning Previous work showed IN HUMANS (as well as animals) that response reversals are comparably difficult but are mediated by a network independent of the prefrontal areas that mediate attention shifts

46 Chronic psychosocial stress selectively impaired attention shifting Liston C et al. PNAS 2009;106: by National Academy of Sciences

47 Flexible attentional control depends on the integrity of a frontoparietal network that includes DLPFC Liston C et al. PNAS 2009;106: by National Academy of Sciences

48 Chronic stress reversibly disrupted DLPFC functional connectivity Liston C et al. PNAS 2009;106: by National Academy of Sciences

49 Stress effects on human PFC function (Bottom) are consistent with those observed in a rodent model of chronic stress (Top) Liston C et al. PNAS 2009;106: by National Academy of Sciences

BDS-2 QUICK SCORE SCHOOL VERION PROFILE SAMPLE

BDS-2 QUICK SCORE SCHOOL VERION PROFILE SAMPLE BEHAVIOR DIMENSIONS SCALE-2 Name of student: Andrea Thomas School: Midvale High School Class: Science City: Midvale SCHOOL VERSION RATING FORM PROFILE SHEET Gender: Female Grade: State: NY Subscales SUMMARY