Cognitive function and Cognitive flexibility

Cognitive function refers to a range of functions and processes that are controlled by the brain to enable the individuals s to “perceive, evaluate, store, manipulate, and use information from external sources (i.e., our environment) and internal sources (experience, memory, concepts, thoughts), and to respond to this information with experience and perspective (Schmitt et al, 2005). It has been proposed by Sachdev et al (2014) that six main domains are incorporated in cognitive function, which can also be further divided into smaller domains; these are executive functions, memory functions, attention functions, perceptual functions, psychomotor function, and language skills. These six functions do not work along and, there is some degree of overlap between the separate domains with one function impacting upon another Færevik & Reinertsen, (2003), and working on one of the domains will impact other domains leading to stronger cognitive functioning (Simmons et al, 2008). So, what feeds the brain and in turn improves cognitive functions? Firstly, the volume of blood delivered to the brain in a set period, known as Cerebral blood flow, is of utmost impotence (Cipolla, 2009). The brain has a high metabolic demand, utilizing 20% of the body’s available oxygen and alterations in cerebral blood flow regulate the delivery of nutrients to the brain (Cipolla, 2009). This mediates function, and the dilation of upstream vessels allows the allocation of resources to brain regions that require and have the greatest demand (Lambourne & Tomporowski, 2010). It has been proposed by Chang, Liu, Yu, & Lee, (2012a) that any fluctuations in blood flow to the brain can influence its ability to process and respond to stimuli which directly impacts cognitive functioning. A second factor is that of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which according to Egan et al (2003); Erickson et al (2009) have been associated with improvements in cognitive function following bouts of single bouts, acute and chronic exercise. This occurs as according to Lee et al (2014) Brain-derived neurotrophic factors can cross the blood-brain barrier and increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, this is likely to enhance cognitive function as this indicates that there has been disruption to the blood-brain barrier (Erickson et al (2009). Thirdly, Moon et al (2016) mention that Cathepsin B is a muscle secretory factor that is known to influence brain health and plasticity, as it is produced in muscle tissue during metabolism and can cross the blood-brain barrier (Vivar, Potter, 2012). Cathepsin B is a stimulator for neurogenesis which is defined as the formation of new neurons from neural stem and progenitor cells which occurs in various brain regions such as the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus in the hippocampus and the subventricular zone of lateral ventricles (Farah, 2003). All the cognitive functions, such as memory, attention, perceptual, psychomotor, and language skills are known to be reduced following exposure to severe stress (Aupperle, Melrose, Stein, & Paulus, 2011). A major hormone known to increase drastically with stress and bind directly to receptors in the brain is cortisol (Lupien, Maheu, Tu, Fiocco, & Schramek, 2007). Cognitive functioning also incorporates that of cognitive flexibility. It has been suggested by Martin & Rubin (1995) that cognitive flexibility is the ability to abandon one strategy in favor of a more optimal strategy. These researchers go deeper and mention that cognitive flexibility is (a) the awareness that in any given situation there are options and alternatives available, (b) willingness to be flexible and adapt to the situation, and (c) self-efficacy in being flexible, thus, to communicate in different ways, we must be able to think in different ways. Cognitive flexibility is a component of executive functioning, higher-order cognition involving the ability to control one's thinking. inhibition, working memory, emotional stability, planning, and organization and planning (Friedman, 2000). Human studies using functional magnetic resonance imagine having shown that cognitive flexibility relies on a variety of distinct regions of the brain that work in concert, including the pre-frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, posterior parietal cortex, basal ganglia, and thalamus (Johnson, Cilles and Gold, 2011). The regions active during engagement of cognitive flexibility depend on the task and various factors involved in as flexible thinking requires aspects of inhibition, attention, working memory, response selection, and goal maintenance (Rikhye, Gilra, and Halassa, 2018). It has been mentioned by Deák, (2004); Jacques & Zelazo, (2005) that the ability to switch between modes of thought and to simultaneously consider multiple concepts, a vital skill seen with cognitive flexibility, is a vital component of learning, language development), arithmetical skills (Bull & Scerif, 2001), interpersonal communication (Rubin & Martin, 1994), communication self-efficacy, assertiveness, responsiveness, (Martin & Anderson, 1998), multi-tasking, (Ionescu, 2012), decision making (Dunleavy & Martin, 2006), problem solving and creativity (Lin, Tsai, Lin, & Chen, 2014; Ritter et. al., 2012), willingness to collaborate, and leadership (Reiter-Palmon, 2003). Despite objective research addressing the negative aspects of playing video games, being obsessive is an example, research suggests that to improve cognitive functioning and cognitive flexibility the use of video games should not only be regarded as one type of learning, but they may also enhance cognitive functions better than conventional methods of learning (Gee, 2003; Vogel et al, 2006).Video games have been seen to improve cognitive function and flexibility regarding sustained attention (Huang, Young, and Fiocco, 2017) divided attention and selective attention (Palaus et al, 2017), working memory (Baniqued et al, 2014) declarative memory to resolve the uncertainty (Schenk, Lech, and Suchan, 2017) visuospatial which is the function referring to perception, recognition, and manipulation of visual stimuli (Palaus et al, 2017) and problem-solving skills (Gong et al, 2017). All these brain changes seen in video game players have been suggested by Schenk, Lech, and Suchan (2017); Palaus et al (2017) being due to higher activation in brain regions involved in visual imagery, semantic memory, and cognitive control, these being the hippocampus, precuneus, and thalamus as well as the association of the increase in the plasticity of white matter network in the prefrontal cortex which is directly involved in the cognitive control of the goal-directed neural process.