Executive Function and Working Memory in Children

Harvey S. Levin
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX


Course Description: This course presents development of executive functions with an emphasis on working memory and the relationship to maturation of prefrontal cortex. In addition, impaired development of executive function and working memory due to acquired brain injury will be covered.


 Syllabus:  
 
    I-    Definition of Executive Function

    II-    Fundamental and Related Processes of Executive Functions in Children

            A.    Working memory
            B.    Inhibition
            C.    Processing speed

    III-    Development of Executive Function and Working Memory in Relation to Maturation of Prefrontal Cortex and its Circuitry

    IV-    Impairment of Executive Function and Working Memory due to Brain Injury in Children

    V-    Interventions for Executive Function and Working Memory Deficit


Reading List

1.    Baddeley, A. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255, 556-559.

2.    Burgess, P. W. & Robertson, I. H. (2002). Principles of the rehabilitation of frontal lobe function. In D.T.Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of Frontal Lobe Function (pp. 557-572). New York: Oxford University Press.

3.    Casey, B. J., Cohen, J. D., Jezzard, P., Turner, R., Noll, D. C., Trainor, R. J., Giedd, J., Kaysen, D., Hertz-Pannier, L., & Rapoport, J. L. (1995). Activation of prefrontal cortex in children during a nonspatial working memory task with functional MRI. Neuroimage., 2, 221-229.

4.    Diamond, A. (2002). Normal development of prefrontal cortex from birth to young adulthood: cognitive functions, anatomy, and biochemistry. In D.T.Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of Frontal Lobe Function (pp. 466-503). New York: Oxford University Press.

5.    Eslinger, P. J., Grattan, L. M., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. R. (1992). Developmental consequences of childhood frontal lobe damage. Archives of Neurology, 49, 764-769.

6.    Gaillard, W. D., Hertz-Pannier, L., Mott, S. H., Barnett, A. S., LeBihan, D., & Theodore, W. H. (2000). Functional anatomy of cognitive development: fMRI of verbal fluency in children and adults. Neurology, 54, 180-185.

7.    Kerns, K. A. (2000). The CyberCruiser: an investigation of development of prospective memory in children. J.Int.Neuropsychol.Soc., 6, 62-70.

8.    Konrad, K., Gauggel, S., Manz, A., & Scholl, M. (2000). Inhibitory control in children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Brain Inj., 14,  859-875.

9.    Levin, H. S., Hanten, G., Chang, C. C., Zhang, L., Schachar, R., Ewing-Cobbs, L., & Max, J. E. (2002). Working memory after traumatic brain injury in children. Ann.Neurol., 52, 82-88.

10.    Luciana, M. & Nelson, C. A. (1998). The functional emergence of prefrontally-guided working memory systems in four- to eight-year-old children. Neuropsychologia, 36, 273-293.

11.    Reeve, R. A. & Brown, A. L. (1985). Metacognition reconsidered: implications for intervention research. J.Abnorm.Child Psychol., 13, 343-356.

12.    Swanson, H. L. (1999). What develops in working memory? A life span perspective. Developmental Psychology, 35, 986-1000.




Additional Reference List

1.   Anderson, S. W., Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. R. (1999). Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 2,         1032-1037.

2.   Bechara, A., Damasio, A. R., Damasio, H., & Anderson, S. W. (1994). Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition, 50, 7-15.

3.   Bechara, A., Tranel, D., & Damasio, H. (2000). Characterization of the decision-making deficit of patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex lesions. Brain, 123 ( Pt 11), 2189-2202.

4.   Bjork, J. M., Knutson, B., Fong, G. W., Caggiano, D. M., Bennett, S. M., & Hommer, D. W. (2004). Incentive-elicited brain activation in adolescents: similarities and differences from young adults. J             Neurosci., 24, 1793-1802.

5.   Bunge, S. A., Dudukovic, N. M., Thomason, M. E., Vaidya, C. J., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2002). Immature frontal lobe contributions to cognitive control in children: evidence from fMRI. Neuron, 33, 1-11.

6.   Casey, B. J., Trainor, R. J., Orendi, J. L., Nystrom, L. E., Giedd, J. N., Castellanos, F. X. et al. (1997). A developmental functional MRI study of prefrontal activation during performance of a                          Go-No-Go task. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 835-847.

7.   Crone, E. A. & van der Molen, M. W. (2004). Developmental changes in real life decision making: performance on a gambling task previously shown to depend on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.             Developmental Neuropsychology, 25, 251-279.

8.   Dennis, M., Guger, S., Roncadin, C., Barnes, M., & Schachar, R. (2001). Attentional-inhibitory control and social-behavioral regulation after childhood closed head injury: do biological, developmental,           and recovery variables predict outcome? Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 7, 683-692.

9.   Diamond, A. (2002). Normal development of prefrontal cortex from birth to young adulthood: cognitive functions, anatomy, and biochemistry. In D.T.Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of Frontal             Lobe Function (pp. 466-503). New York: Oxford University Press.

10.  Eslinger, P. J. & Biddle, K. R. (2000). Adolescent neuropsychological development after early right prefrontal cortex damage. Developmental Neuropsychology, 18, 297-329.

11.  Gioia, G. A., Isquith, P. K., Guy, S. C., & Kenworthy, L. (2000). Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

12.  Gioia, G. A., Isquith, P. K., Retzlaff, P. D., & Espy, K. A. (2002). Confirmatory factor analysis of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) in a clinical sample. Neuropsychol Dev            Cogn Sect C Child Neuropsychol, 8, 249-257.

13.  Gogtay, N., Giedd, J. N., Lusk, L., Hayashi, K. M., Greenstein, D., Vaituzis, A. C. et al. (2004). Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood.                            Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.U.S.A, 101, 8174-8179.

14.  Grattan, L. M. & Eslinger, P. J. (1992). Long-term psychological consequences of childhood frontal lobe lesion in patient DT. Brain and Cognition, 20, 185-195.

15.  Hanten, G., Zhang, L. F., & Levin, H. S. (2002). Selective learning in children after traumatic brain injury: A preliminary study. Child Neuropsychology, 8, 107-120.

16.  Huttenlocher, P. R. & Dabholkar, A. S. (1997). Regional differences in synaptogenesis in human cerebral cortex. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 387, 167-178.

17.  Janusz, J. A., Kirkwood, M. W., Yeates, K. O., & Taylor, H. G. (2002). Social problem-solving skills in children with traumatic brain injury: long-term outcomes and prediction of social competence.              Neuropsychol Dev Cogn Sect C Child Neuropsychol, 8, 179-194.

18.  Kerr, A. & Zelazo, P. D. (2004). Development of "hot" executive function: the children's gambling task. Brain Cogn, 55, 148-157.
 
19.  Klingberg, T., Forssberg, H., & Westerberg, H. (2002). Increased brain activity in frontal and parietal cortex underlies the development of visuospatial working memory capacity during childhood. J Cogn        Neurosci., 14, 1-10.

20.  Levin, H. S., Hanten, G., Chang, C. C., Zhang, L., Schachar, R., Ewing-Cobbs, L. et al. (2002). Working memory after traumatic brain injury in children. Ann Neurol, 52, 82-88.

21.  Levin, H. S., Hanten, G., Zhang, L., Swank, P. R., Max, J., Schachar, R. et al. Changes in working memory after traumatic brain injury in children. Neuropsychology, (in press).

22.  Levin, H. S., Zhang, L., Dennis, M., Ewing-Cobbs, L., Schachar, R., Max, J. et al. (2004). Psychosocial outcome of TBI in children with unilateral frontal lesions. JINS, 10, 305-316.

23.  Logan, G. D. (1994). On the ability to inhibit thought and action: A users' guide to the Stop Signal Paradigm. In D.Dagenbach & T. H. Carr (Eds.), Inhibitory Processes in Attention, Memory, and                    Language (pp. 189-239). San Diego: Academic Press.

24.  Luciana, M. & Nelson, C. A. (1998). The functional emergence of prefrontally-guided working memory systems in four- to eight-year-old children. Neuropsychologia, 36, 273-293.

25.  Luna, B., Thulborn, K. R., Munoz, D. P., Merriam, E. P., Garver, K. E., Minshew, N. J. et al. (2001). Maturation of widely distributed brain function subserves cognitive development. Neuroimage., 13,        786-793.

26.  Mangeot, S., Armstrong, K., Colvin, A. N., Yeates, K. O., & Taylor, H. G. (2002). Long-term executive function deficits in children with traumatic brain injuries: assessment using the Behavior Rating            Inventory Executive Function (BRIEF). Neuropsychology, Development, and Cognition.Section C, Child Neuropsychology, 8, 271-284.

27.  May, J. C., Delgado, M. R., Dahl, R. E., Stenger, V. A., Ryan, N. D., Fiez, J. A. et al. (2004). Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging of reward-related brain circuitry in children and                  adolescents. Biol.Psychiatry, 55, 359-366.

28.  Olesen, P. J., Westerberg, H., & Klingberg, T. (2004). Increased prefrontal and parietal activity after training of working memory. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 75-79.

29.  Rolls, E. T., Hornak, J., Wade, D., & McGrath, J. (1994). Emotion-related learning in patients with social and emotional changes associated with frontal lobe damage. Journal of Neurology,                            Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 57, 1518-1524.

30.  Rubia, K., Overmeyer, S., Taylor, E., Brammer, M., Williams, S. C., Simmons, A. et al. (2000). Functional frontalisation with age: mapping neurodevelopmental trajectories with fMRI.                                    Neurosci.Biobehav.Rev., 24, 13-19.

31.  Stone, V. E., Baron-Cohen, S., & Knight, R. T. (1998). Frontal lobe contributions to theory of mind. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 10, 640-656.

32.  Thomas, K. M., King, S. W., Franzen, P. L., Welsh, T. E., Berkowitz, A. L., Noll, D. C. et al. (1999). A developmental functional MRI study of spatial working memory. Neuroimage, 10, 327-338.

33.  Waelti, P., Dickinson, A., & Schultz, W. (2001). Dopamine responses comply with basic assumptions of formal learning theory. Nature, 412, 43-48.

34.  Yeates, K. O., Swift, E., Taylor, H. G., Wade, S. L., Drotar, D., Stancin, T. et al. (2004). Short- and long-term social outcomes following pediatric traumatic brain injury. J Int.Neuropsychol Soc., 10,            412-426.

35.  Zelazo, P. D., Reznick, J. S., & Pinon, D. E. (1995). Response control and the execution of verbal rules. Developmental Psychology, 31, 508-517.