Application of touch screen technology for early assessment of executive function

Executive functions include a group of cognitive processes that contribute to the regulation of purposeful reasoning and behaviour. They thus play a major role in an extremely wide range of our activities. Core components, which depend on one another to some extent, are inhibition, updating the content of working memory during the course of a task and cognitive flexibility in shifting between mental sets or reallocating attention to different tasks. The current construct of executive functioning is still largely based on empirical findings in adults. However, a growing body of data on executive function in typical development, early brain injury and a number of neurodevelopmental conditions (eg, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder) provide insights into maturational factors as well as the role of experience. Assessment remains challenging and in this context Twomey and colleagues propose to use touch screen technology to evaluate early cognitive functioning with instruments that do not...

from Archives of Disease in Childhood current issue http://bit.ly/2RGuaMk