It has been proposed that the unique need for early bilinguals to manage multiple languages while their executive control mechanisms are developing might result in long-term cognitive advantages on inhibitory control processes that generalize beyond the language domain. We review the empirical data from the literature on nonlinguistic interference tasks to assess the validity of this proposed bilingual inhibitory control advantage. Our review of these findings reveals that the bilingual advantage on conflict resolution, which by hypothesis is mediated by inhibitory control, is sporadic at best, and in some cases conspicuously absent. A robust finding from this review is that bilinguals typically outperform monolinguals on both compatible and incompatible trials, often by similar magnitudes. Together, these findings suggest that bilinguals do enjoy a more widespread cognitive advantage (a bilingual executive processing advantage) that is likely observable on a variety of cognitive assessment tools but that, somewhat ironically, is most often not apparent on traditional assays of nonlinguistic inhibitory control processes.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758%2Fs13423-011-0116-7.pdf

Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic interference tasks? Implications for the plasticity of executive control processes

http://bernhard-hommel.eu/The%20Simon%20effect%20as%20heuristic%20and%20tool.pdf

The Simon effect as tool and heuristic.

Rationale
Impaired inhibitory control over behavior is a key feature in various psychiatric disorders, and recent studies indicated an important role for dopamine D1 and D2 receptors and the nucleus accumbens (Acb) in this respect.

Involvement of dopamine D1 and D2 receptors in the nucleus accumbens core and shell in inhibitory response control.

Dysfunction of the basal ganglia and the brain nuclei interconnected with them leads to disturbances of movement and cognition exemplified in Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease, including disordered timing of movements and impaired time estimation. Previous research has shown that whereas striatal damage in animals can result in the loss of temporal control over behavior, dopaminergic deregulation in the human striatum associated with PD distorts the memory for time. Here we show a dissociation between deficits in storage (writing to) and retrieval (reading from) temporal memory processes. Both are dysfunctional in PD and sensitive to treatment with dopaminergic agents, but produce dissimilar distortions. When time intervals are stored in memory while the subjects are dopamine depleted, the process is slowed, leading to overestimation of two different time intervals. Conversely, when retrieval occurs in a dopamine-depleted state, interference or coupling occurs between two remembered time intervals, producing overestimation of the shorter and underestimation of the longer one. Whether those two separable patterns of dysfunction in storing and retrieving temporal memories rely on distinct neural networks within the basal ganglia and/or their cortical targets remains to be answered by future research.

Separating Storage from Retrieval Dysfunction of Temporal Memory in Parkinson's Disease

Human interaction and physical environmental factors are part of the stimuli presented to laboratory animals everyday, influencing their behaviour and physiology and contributing to their welfare. Certain environmental conditions and routine procedures in the animal facility might induce stress responses and when the animal is unable to maintain its homeostasis in the presence of a particular stressor, the animal's wellbeing is threatened. This review article summarizes several published studies on the impact of environmental factors such as light, noise, cage cleaning and in-house transport on welfare and stress of laboratory rats. The behaviour and physiological responses of laboratory rats to different environmental housing conditions and routine procedures are reviewed. Recommendations on the welfare of laboratory rats and refinements in experimental design are discussed and how these can influence and improve the quality of scientific data.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1258/la.2009.0080098

The impact of light, noise, cage cleaning and in-house transport on welfare and stress of laboratory rats

Deleterious effects of an environmental noise on sleep and contribution of its physical components in a rat model.

The present study was aimed at characterizing the cognitive deficits caused by the degeneration of nigrostriatal dopamine (DA) pathways by using the additive factor logic (Sternberg, S. (1969) Acta Psychol., 30, 276-315), a powerful reaction time (RT) method developed in humans and recently introduced in the rat (Courtiere, A., Hardouin, J., Hasbroucq, T., Possamai¨, C.-A. & Vidal, F. (2000) Behav. Process., 50, 113-121). Long-Evans rats were trained to respond to left or right (lateral) visual cues in a choice RT task. Two task factors, signal intensity and force requirement, were manipulated. Partial bilateral 6-OHDA lesions of DA nerve terminals in the striatum were then performed and their effects tested for up to 7 weeks following surgery. Reaction time was lengthened from the 2nd to the 4th week postlesion. This alteration was independent of force requirement, thereby suggesting that the related motor processes were not influenced by the DA depletion. During the 2nd week postlesion, the RT increase was accompanied by a disappearance of the effect of signal intensity, showing that the lesion altered stimulus-related processes. From the 3rd week the signal intensity effect was re-established although RT was still increased, indicating that the stimulus-related processes had recovered while other central processes were still impaired. From the 5th week after surgery, the lesioned animals had completely recovered from the RT deficits induced by the lesion. These results point at the involvement of striatal DA in sensory and central information processes.

Selective effects of partial striatal 6-OHDA lesions on information processing in the rat.

Many studies have described the physiology of water immersion (WI), whereas few have focused on post WI physiology, which faces the global water loss of the large WI diuresis. Therefore, we compared hemodynamics and vasomotor tone in 10 trained supine divers before and after two 6h sessions in dry (DY) and head out WI environments. During each exposure (DY and WI) two exercise periods (each one hour 75W ergometer cycling) started after the 3rd and 5th hours. Weight losses were significant (-2.24 +/- 0.13 kg and -2.38 +/- 0.19 kg, after DY and WI, respectively), but not different between the two conditions. Plasma volume was reduced at the end of the two conditions (-9.7 +/- 1.6% and -14.7 +/- 1.6%, respectively; p < 0.05). This post-WI decrease was deeper than post DY (p < 0.05). Cardiac output (CO) and mean arterial blood pressure were maintained after the two exposures. Plasma levels of noradrenaline, antidiuretic hormone and ANP were twofold higher after WI than after DY (p < 0.05). After DY total peripheral resistances (TPR) were increased (p < 0.05) and heart rate (HR) was reduced (p < 0.05). After WI there was a trend for a decrease in stroke volume (p = 0.07) with unchanged TPR and HR, despite more sizeable increases in plasma noradrenaline and vasopressin than after DY. We hypothesized that the higher levels of plasma natriuretic peptides after WI were likely counteracting the dehydration-required vasomotor adjustments.

Short-term vasomotor adjustments to post immersion dehydration are hindered by natriuretic peptides.

It is well established that the dopaminergic system influences simple reaction time (RT) performance. However, the role of this system in more complex information processing remains to be clarified. The present study was aimed at addressing this issue. To this end, we used an inferential method that relies on choice RT procedures and allows one to identify information processing stages in both humans and rats. Long-Evans rats responded to lateral visual cues (left or right). Two task factors, signal intensity and foreperiod duration, were manipulated. Low doses of two pharmacological agents, SCH 23390 (a D1 receptor antagonist; 0.015 and 0.025 micromol/kg) and eticlopride (a D2 receptor antagonist; 0.01 and 0.02 micromol/kg), were administrated systemically. Both drugs increased choice RT: eticlopride interacted with signal intensity on RT, showing that D2 receptors mediate at least the sensory stage of stimulus preprocessing. In addition, eticlopride interacted with signal intensity on omission rate, thereby suggesting an involvement of D2 receptors in attentional processes; and SCH 23390 interacted with foreperiod duration on RT, indicating that D1 receptors specifically mediate the response adjustment stage. The effect of this drug on RT rests entirely in its interaction with foreperiod duration, allowing us to conclude that this D1 antagonist affects the response adjustment stage while sparing all other processing stages.

A Courtiere

Papers

Deleterious effects of an environmental noise on sleep and contribution of its physical components in a rat model.

Selective effects of partial striatal 6-OHDA lesions on information processing in the rat.

Short-term vasomotor adjustments to post immersion dehydration are hindered by natriuretic peptides.

Selective effects of low-dose dopamine D1 and D2 receptor antagonists on rat information processing.

Simon effect in the rat: a new model for studying the neural bases of the dual-route architecture.