Learning environments may shape both children's cognitive outcomes and the maturation of large-scale neural dynamics. We investigate whether pedagogical context modulates brain activity and cognition in 96 students (4-15 years) enrolled in Montessori (MSC) or traditional (TSC) schools. Montessori emphasizes self-directed exploration with increasing independence, whereas traditional classrooms shift from play-based early learning to teacher-directed instruction. To examine how neural development diverges across educational trajectories, we quantify the temporal asymmetry ("non-reversibility") of fMRI signals during resting state and movie-watching. Behaviorally, MSC students outperform TSC peers in language, mathematics, and both divergent and convergent thinking. Neural patterns diverge with age: during rest, non-reversibility increases in MSC but decreases in TSC, primarily in sensorimotor, dorsal attention, and frontoparietal networks; during movie-watching, differences are strongest in younger children, especially in subcortical, visual, and default mode networks. Exploratory analyses reveal higher non-reversibility in females, with larger sex differences in TSC. These findings suggest that pedagogical context may shape developmental trajectories and variability of neural dynamics. Montessori education may foster more adaptive brain dynamics, support flexible and creative thinking, and reduce gender disparities. Longitudinal research is needed to clarify what non-reversibility reflects and how educational approaches sculpt brain development.

Much has changed since I started my PhD research in 1980. Neither the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience nor the term “executive functions” existed then. In some ways this piece is backward-looking, such as discussing how our research introduced the importance of the executive function of inhibitory control for cognitive development and that infants and young children are much smarter than we thought. The way our field has queried infants and young children often prevented us from seeing their competencies. That is still too true in studying children from different backgrounds. In other ways, this piece is forward-looking, such as when discussing evidence that the conceptualization of working memory as an executive function and as the key function of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has been too narrow. It is not just separation in time that must be bridged (traditionally the province of working memory) but also separations in space, and the latter are just as important for cognitive development and just as dependent on the executive function brain network, including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. It is also forward-looking in discussing the critical importance of motor, social, and emotional development for cognitive development and executive functions, as well as bidirectional relations among these different facets of development. Study of the different aspects of human development are still far too siloed, as are the different fields of science. Examples are provided of how the fields of neuroscience (including neurochemistry and molecular genetics) and child development inform and complement one another. Implications for educators, parents, and researchers are interwoven throughout.

OBJECTIVE:Thai researchers developed a new self-report measure of executive functions for adolescents based on Diamond's framework (the Behavioral Inventory Measure of Executive Functions [BIMEFs]). How it was developed, its psychometric properties, and norms by sex and age are reported here. METHOD:An independent panel of experts evaluated the content validity of BIMEFs. Reliability was checked using Cronbach's alpha with a sample of 45 secondary students. 1,865 students, ages 12 - 18 years (65% female) from across Thailand participated in the normative study. RESULTS:The BIMEFs consists of 42 items that assess inhibitory control (IC), working memory (WM), and cognitive flexibility (CF), including eight subcomponents. For all items, the index of item-objective congruence was >0.5 and Cronbach's alpha was >0.7. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed the adjusted goodness of fit index to be 0.9. The strongest sex difference was for IC. Students of 13 years scored lower on EFs overall, IC, WM, CF, and all subcomponents than older students. Self-control, verbal working memory, and being able to change perspectives showed the most pronounced differences by age. CONCLUSION:The BIMEFs, which is designed to be culturally-appropriate for Thailand and cross-culturally generally, is the first EF questionnaire based on Diamond's framework. It shows good psychometric properties and sensitivity to age and sex differences. It indicates that IC development, at least in Thailand, plateaus earlier than WM and CF and that CF shows a more protracted development during adolescence than IC or WM.

OBJECTIVE:To determine whether mothers' depressive symptoms with or without exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant treatments during pregnancy were associated with executive functions (EFs) in offspring at 6 and 12 years of age. METHODS:A prospective cohort of 191 mothers and their children participated in the study. Clinician-rated reports of mothers' depressive symptoms were obtained spanning the third trimester during pregnancy to 12 years later. Children's EFs were measured using 2 computer-based tasks (Flanker/Reverse Flanker, Hearts and Flowers [HF]) and mothers' reports of EFs using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) when the child was 6 and 12 years old. RESULTS:Longitudinal analyses showed that all children were both faster and more accurate on both Flanker/Reverse Flanker and HF with age. Fewer maternal prenatal depressive symptoms were associated with better accuracy on HF in children at 6 years of age and better EF skills as measured by the BRIEF at 6 and 12 years. Mothers' ratings of their children at 12 years indicated more executive dysfunction in children with prenatal SSRI exposure than for children without prenatal SSRI exposure, but this was no longer significant once prenatal depressive symptoms were taken into account. CONCLUSION:Prenatal and later depressive symptoms, not prenatal SSRI exposure, seems to affect offspring that continues into preadolescence, highlighting the importance of long-term mental health follow-up in mothers to ensure optimal development of children's EFs and hence their optimal development in school, in social relations, and in life generally.

IntroductionExecutive functions (EFs) are essential for cognitive, social, and emotional competence and have important implications for developmental outcomes across the lifespan. Limited research has explored how EFs relate to academic achievement and well-being specifically in adolescence over time. This study investigated relations of EFs to grade point average (GPA) and well-being (life satisfaction, depressive symptoms) from early to late adolescence.MethodsData were collected using multiple methods from 65 students in 4th and 5th grades and then again in 11th and 12th grades.ResultsResults revealed that EFs and depressive symptoms in early adolescence predicted GPA eight years later. EFs and life satisfaction were also correlated in late adolescence.DiscussionGiven the malleability of EFs, these findings suggest early interventions to enhance EFs may improve academic achievement in high school.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder. While there have been many empirical studies of childhood ADHD, there have been few qualitative studies investigating first-hand accounts of the lived experiences of children with ADHD. This study addresses that gap with qualitative data from open-ended interviews with 12 children ages 8 to 14 years about the positive and negative aspects of their ADHD. Overarching themes were identified using Interpretive Description and Thematic Analysis. An important point to emerge was a discrepancy between the generally negative perception of ADHD by society and the medical profession (a psychiatric disorder that needs to be cured) and the more nuanced perceptions of children who themselves have ADHD, where they express positive as well as negative aspects. Positive aspects reported included having more energy, the ability to hyper-focus, and being more creative and more fun because of their ADHD. The children's nuanced view of their ADHD is also at odds with an exclusively asset-based neurodiversity perspective that focuses only on strengths. The children perceived that some aspects of their ADHD are not advantageous. Implications are discussed with reference to rethinking how we understand ADHD, treatment practices for ADHD, and how to involve children with ADHD in future research.

Purpose: A growing body of evidence suggests that the benefits of exercise go far beyond physical health and may include cognitive gains. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that challenges Executive Functions (EFs), and inspires children's commitment in an environment characterized by positive affect, inclusiveness, and camaraderie. The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of Capoeira on EFs in children. The secondary aims were to look at the effects of Capoeira on academic achievement and motor function and to look at dose-response effects of Capoeira on EF. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 67 children (aged 8-13 years) were randomly assigned to Capoeira instruction (n = 37) or a wait-list control group (n = 30). Children in the Capoeira group participated in 60-min Capoeira classes three times per week. The Stroop Test, EF subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, an Academic Achievement Test, agility and eye-hand coordination tests were conducted before and after the intervention period. Results: ANCOVA analyses, controlling for sex and age, revealed that children who attended at least 70% of the Capoeira classes improved more in eye-hand coordination than the control group. There was also a positive association between EF improvement and the number of Capoeira classes attended. Conclusion: The results suggest that Capoeira practice benefits eye-hand motor coordination in children and that the improvements in EFs might be dose-dependent. The results highlight the need for further studies to determine the potential advantages of adopting Capoeira as a holistic movement practice for children.

Restless sleep disorder affects children and is characterized by frequent nocturnal movements, iron deficiency, and daytime symptoms such as poor school performance or behavioral problems. Although sleep parameters have been thoroughly studied and daytime sleepiness has been previously assessed, neurocognitive and executive functions have not. In this study, we evaluated neurocognitive functions in a group of 13 children diagnosed with restless sleep disorder using the National Institute of Health Toolbox (NIH toolbox). The mean age was 10.62 (S.D. 2.785). Among them, seven were male and six were female. The fully corrected T-scores (adjusted for demographic variables: age, ethnicity, and education level) showed the lowest values for the Flanker test (selective attention) and dimensional change card sorting test (cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control), with a very large effect size vs. the corresponding expected frequencies. For all the other tests, the average scores were 50; however, individual children scored low on pattern recognition and two composite scores (fluid and total). In conclusion, these data support the fact that cognitive functions are affected in children with restless sleep disorder, especially selective attention. Clinicians must recognize sleep disorders and daytime impairment in order to promptly intervene and prevent cognitive impairments.

That conditional, if-then reasoning does not emerge until 4–5 years has long been accepted. Here we show that children barely 3 years old can do conditional reasoning. All that was needed was a superficial change to the stimuli: When color was a property of the shapes (line drawings of a star and truck) rather than of the background (as in all past conditional discrimination [CD] testing), 3-year-olds could succeed. Three-year-olds do not seem to use color to inform them which shape is correct unless color is a property of the shapes themselves. While CD requires integrating color and shape information, the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) task requires keeping those dimension cognitively separate – inhibiting attention to one (e.g., shape) when sorting by the other (e.g., color). For DCCS, a superficial change to the stimuli that is the inverse of what helps on CD enables 3-year-olds to succeed when normally they do not until ∼4⁤12 years. As we and others have previously shown, 3-year-olds can succeed at DCCS when color is a property of the background (e.g., a white truck on a red background), instead of a property of the stimulus (e.g., a red truck on a white background, as in standard DCCS). Our findings on CD and DCCS suggest that scaffolding preschoolers’ emerging conceptual skills by changing the way stimuli look (perceptual bootstrapping) enables 3-year-olds to demonstrate reasoning abilities long thought beyond their grasp. Evidently, children of 3 years have difficulty mentally separating dimensions (e.g., color and shape) of the same object and difficulty mentally integrating dimensions not part of the same object. Our present CD findings plus our earlier DCCS findings provide strong evidence against prominent cognitive complexity, conditional reasoning, and graded memory theories for why 3-year-olds fail these two tasks. The ways we have traditionally queried children may have obscured the budding reasoning competencies present at 3 years of age.

We present here the first evidence of the much-predicted double dissociation between the effect of stress on cognitive skills [executive functions (EFs)] dependent on prefrontal cortex (PFC) by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genotype. The COMT gene polymorphism with methionine (Met) at codon 158 results in more dopamine (DA) in PFC and generally better EFs, while with valine (Val) at codon 158 the result is less PFC DA and generally poorer EFs. Many have predicted that mild stress, by raising PFC DA levels should aid EFs of COMT-Vals (bringing their PFC DA levels up, closer to optimal) and impair EFs of COMT-Mets (raising their PFC DA levels past optimal). We tested 140 men and women in a within-subject crossover design using extremely mild social evaluative stress. On trials requiring EFs (incongruent trials) of the Flanker/Reverse Flanker task, COMT-Val158 homozygotes performed better when mildly stressed than when calmer, while COMT-Met158 carriers performed worse when mildly stressed. Two other teams previously tried to obtain this, but only found stress impairing EFs of COMT-Mets, not improving EFs of COMT-Vals. Perhaps we found both because we used a much milder stressor. Evidently, the bandwidth for stress having a facilitative effect on EFs is exceedingly narrow.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245257.].

First, executive functions are defined. Then the development of executive functions in children, from infancy to 10-11 years of age, is briefly described. The relation between the speed of processing and the development of executive functions is addressed. Finally, tools and pointers for evaluating executive functioning in younger and older children are discussed. A cautionary note is sounded, in that almost no executive function measure requires only one executive function. A child might fail a working memory task because of problems with inhibitory control (not working memory), fail an inhibitory control task because of working memory problems, or fail a cognitive flexibility, planning, or reasoning task because of problems with inhibitory control or working memory.

We report results showing success at 3 years on conditional discrimination (CD) -- 12-18 months younger than previously reported. Three-year-olds succeeded when color was a property of the stimulus, rather than a property of the background, as in all past CD testing. Previously, we and others found children succeed on the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) test at 3 years -- 12-24 months earlier than previously reported -- by making color a property of the background, instead of a property of the stimulus, as in standard DCCS testing. Neither the change to CD or DCCS affected the rule structure or reasoning requirements of the task. This double dissociation, with 3-year-olds performing better on CD when color and shape were integrated but better on DCCS when color and shape were separated, indicates that when superficial stimulus properties are modified 3-year-olds can do conditional reasoning and grasp a hierarchical rule structure - but they seem to need perceptual boot-strapping to do that. Children of 3 years evidently have difficulty mentally separating physical dimensions (e.g., color and shape) of the same object and difficulty mentally integrating physical dimensions not part of the same object. These results provide the strongest evidence to date against conceptual accounts of why children of 3 years fail conditional discrimination or card sorting.

BACKGROUND: Growing attention has been paid to the field of gut microbiota for mental disorders over the last decade. However, to our knowledge, no studies have conducted systematic reviews on the association between gut microbiota and major depressive disorder (MDD) in both interventional and non-interventional studies.METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 studies (10 observational [701 participants] and six interventional trials [302 participants]) examining gut microbiota in patients with MDD. The primary outcome measures were differences in the profile of microbiota in the observational studies, and symptom changes for depression between pre- and post-intervention with probiotics in the interventional trials.RESULTS: In the observational studies, significant reductions in several taxa at the family and genus levels were observed in patients with MDD compared to non-depressed controls. In the interventional studies with probiotics, a significant improvement was found in depressive symptomatology compared to controls (SMD = -1.62, 95% CI = -2.73 to -0.51, p< 0.01).LIMITATIONS: Lack of consideration of the effects of diet and pharmacotherapy was a possible limitation.CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that several taxa at the family and genus levels, specifically family Prevotellaceae, genus Corprococcus, and Faecalibacterium, were decreased in MDD compared to non-depressed controls in observational studies, and depressive symptoms were improved compared to controls in interventional studies with probiotics. Due to the limited number of studies, further studies considering diet and pharmacotherapy are needed to explore the relationships between gut microbiota and MDD in humans.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PMID: 32056863