Over 6 months, aerobic exercise maintained executive function (effect size = −0.11, −0.24, −0.27, and −0.21 for the EXIT-25, BDS, Stroop, and latent factor, respectively).
The most affected tracts included nerve circuits involved in general cognitive performance, emotion, maintaining attention and executive function, and sensory processing.
The DLPFC entertains widespread interconnections within the social cognition network and is involved in executive functioning, maintaining cognitive flexibility and response inhibition [26], [27].
These positive appraisals would tend to maintain the inhibitory control exercised by prefrontal cortical executive function over more primitive subcortical structures and related automatic response patterns, such as the amygdala-regulated fear response.
Elderly who maintain high performance do so through compensation mechanisms, which are related to the recruitment of cognitive functions that sustain language (e.g., attention, executive function, and working memory).
For the participants for whom the global cognitive function is maintained, this program did not contribute to improvement in attention and executive function.
One such pathway with considerable empirical support implicates dysregulation of executive function processes (defined as the neurocognitive processes that maintain an appropriate problem-solving set to attain a future goal [ 25, 26]).
It must also be borne in mind that executive function is interdependent upon other cognitive faculties, such as the ability to maintain an alert and attentive state in order to concentrate on a task.
Furthermore, the aim of Mr. T.'s CBT and executive function remediation was to improve his organizational and initiation skills, which seemed to be a contributing factor to maintaining his high levels of anxiety and some of his addictive behavior.
Broadly defined, executive function encompasses cognitive processes that allow for organized and adaptive behavior, including the ability to utilize and maintain task-relevant information, otherwise known as spatial working memory [ 9].
