Hi, my name is Stephannie, and today I want to go over the
executive function cognitive flexibility. Before we begin, of course, as usual with
the executive function series I have going on on this channel,
I just want to make it very clear to you that having an issue with
executive function does not necessarily mean that you are
autistic. There are a lot of people who deal
with issues in executive functioning. In fact, it is one of the
major hallmarks of ADHD. However, again, doesn't necessarily mean you have ADHD,
either. One source suggests that most of the population has
an issue with at least one executive function.
So, there you go. Cognitive flexibility is sometimes also called
flexible thinking. It is one of the main three executive functions that make
up the so-called command center of the brain and it deals a lot
with problem solving. The Handbook of
Behavioral Neuroscience says: cognitive flexibility is a critical
executive function that can be broadly defined as the
ability to adapt behaviors in response to changes in the
environment. Another definition puts it like this:
cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to shift attention
between task sets, attributes of a stimulus,
responses, perspectives, or strategies. So, basically, it appears that cognitive
flexibility has to do with that concept of
being flexible or rolling with the punches.
Being able to basically adapt to things in your environment or
shift to another task or maybe even shift
perspectives, things like that. Now, this executive function, I think, is
particularly of interest for autistic people
because it is pretty well known that autistic people
do have a tendency to become very rigid in their thinking and want things to go
in a particular way and by certain patterns and schedules
and routines. Before we get into more science-y kind of stuff,
here are some everyday examples of someone possibly having issues with
cognitive flexibility as outlined by
Understood.org: Kids with poor flexible thinking skills can
often seem rigid. They may seem fearful of change or easily frustrated by
challenges that come their way. That's because they tend to get stuck in
one activity or in one way of perceiving things.
They also have a hard time coming up with alternative solutions.
Situation: it's time to stop playing and get ready for
school. A child who struggles with cognitive flexibility may find it
intolerable to switch from play mode to school mode.
She may have a tantrum. Flexible thinking would help her realize
she can pick up her game where she left off
when she gets home from school. Situation: the swim instructor is teaching the
proper way to do the crawl. A child might stick with her old method of doggy
paddling and declare the new way impossible.
Flexible thinking would help her see that the new method could work
if she gave it a try. Situation: there's homework in almost
every subject tonight. A child gets frustrated when she tries
to switch from doing French homework to algebra.
Flexible thinking would help her shift gears and consider the skills she needs
for algebra. That would help her make the switch more
easily. Situation: a game of tag at a birthday party has slightly
different rules than usual. A child keeps playing by the rules she
knows. She eventually quits and sits on the sidelines.
Flexible thinking would help her think quickly, use what she knows, and adapt to
the rule changes. Situation: a group of friends are talking
about a new TV show at recess. A child who struggles with flexible
thinking may have an opinion about the latest plot twist, but when the other
kids have a different view of what happens,
she keeps restating her point, annoying her friends.
Flexible thinking would help her consider their perspective. I really
appreciate these examples, especially because I feel like
it's almost a decent snapshot of the things that I
struggle with and deal with myself on a daily basis.
The first time I read some of these scenarios, I literally started [to] tense
these muscles here and draw my shoulder up. I don't know. I don't like it.
It bothers me. ... I was feeling those feelings when reading
some of these because of the demand to shift and change
things, do things a different way, that aren't necessary. [laughs]
I was already feeling that secondhand aversion to trying to
shift for them, even though these are just random scenarios they came up with.
My husband is very helpful because he tends to help me out with
seeing things in a different perspective or way of thinking or seeing it
differently, because I tend to get really stuck on
the way my thinking pattern is. And a lot of
times, the way I think through things is very efficient,
and a lot of times it works and I can get there faster than a lot of other
people, but when it doesn't, I, I can't get off
that route; that mental map or route that I
feel like it's taking, and it won't let me change it. And so,
having someone outside of myself help me, I'll still get
frustrated, but it helps me to understand that this
isn't the only way. Because I'll get really stuck if it's
not working and I keep trying to do it the same way over and over
because it's supposed to work, and that would be
an issue with cognitive flexibility. And this, of course,
is why it's so well integrated with the concept of problem solving,
and I really think this is why a lot of autistic people can come across
as controlling. I actually did a video on that.
I'll link it. I always forget what side it is, but I'll link it for you if
you haven't seen that one and you want to check it out. Of course, with most
things, executive functions are developed over
time and that, of course, means that someone came up with a way to test
when people tend to develop better cognitive flexibility. One such
test is called the DCCS, which is the
Dimensional Change Card Sort. So, basically, children are
given a set of cards that has two features on them. They call this
bivalent. One card might have a blue star on it and another card might have
a yellow circle on it and yet another card
might have a yellow star. So, basically, you're dealing with
different shapes that are also different colors. So, that would be the
two features or the bivalent part of the card. So, the idea of the test
is to give them these cards and then have them sort them by
one rule. So, an example is sort them out into their colors. So, all the yellow
cards, all the blue cards, whatever. Then they're
going to have them switch and have them sort by a different rule.
So, if they were sorting by color, now they're going to
sort by shape. Under standard conditions, both three and
five-year-olds will have no problem sorting the cards by that first rule, but
usually the five-year-olds have no problem moving on to
changing the rules and sorting by the other condition, whereas the
three-year-olds do not. They're not okay, they're not okay with you changing the
rules and having them sort now instead by shape. So, the idea is that
this shows that around five years old, we are developing a
better cognitive flexibility. This also gives us a little bit of insight
behind cognitive functioning and how that works.
So, for the child to be able to switch tasks or switch rules appropriately,
they're going to have to see that there are two stimuli. the
bivalent part, right? That there is a shape and then there is
a color, and they're going to have to also, basically,
resolve a conflict in their brain, because their brain was saying look at
the, look at the color, look at the color, look at the color.
The rule is now we're going to look at the shape. We're going to focus more
on the shape. So, they have to be able to identify that
we're dealing with color and shape, and then also be able to resolve
this conflict in your brain between switching the rules, basically. There's
one thing that they were looking into about a brain wave, I believe called the
N2 wave, and if it had a bigger amplitude,
these children tended to have more of a problem switching to the different
roles, and if it had a smaller amplitude, then
those were typically the children who were able to switch
much more smoothly. So, apparently, the amplitude of
that N2 wave, for some reason, has to do with part of the cognitive flexibility
switching stuffs in your brain. Having a children
practice on this kind of thing can actually improve their results,
and when they do this, it actually makes that wave
amplitude smaller. A 2011 study found that a part of the brain called the
anterior cingulate gyrus or the ACG tends to be overactive in people who
have trouble with cognitive flexibility. It also
appears to play a role in social cognition, and evidence points to
disruption in the structure and the function of
this ACG in people with ASD. So, basically, there's
lots of interesting things going on in your brain
with, like, brain waves and parts of your brain that do things and send signals
and tell the different stimuli it's looking
at apart and understanding what to focus on, what
to block out, what's important, what's not, and how to
be able to shift between those kinds of focuses, basically. Now, I believe this is
similar to a more grown-up version of that kind of test
where there are words typed out onto a paper
and the words are blue, purple, green, orange, or whatever,
but the color of the font is different than the word. So, if the word
says blue, it might be in orange. So
the word b-l-u-e might be typed out in the color orange, so that
way your brain has to try to figure out what it's
looking at and discern between saying, oh, that's orange
the color, or that's blue the word, and basically,
the idea is you're supposed to be able to either read the words or tell
the colors of the words. It's very challenging, okay?
[on screen: Apparently this is called the Stroop Color and Word Test.]
[on screen, highlighted: previous literature also reports its application to measure . . . cognitive flexibility.]
I randomly think about this test purely because
someone had printed this out, laminated it,
and taped it to the shield to of one of the things that the food was
in or whatever, self-serve, cold food, or
whatever out of the cafeteria and stuff. Someone had taped it on there. I guess
for us to do while we were bored waiting in line. I don't know.
So, I randomly think about that test a lot, but I believe
that has something to do with cognitive flexibility and
your brain trying to basically resolve that conflict of different stimuli and
its meanings and all that jazz. So, we know that autistic
people tend to have poorer cognitive flexibility because we
tend to get stuck on things, we tend to have rigid thinking,
and we tend to have problems with changing things or
shifting to different activities, etc. So, how can we improve cognitive flexibility?
One suggestion is to change your diet to have higher
complex carbohydrate foods to protein ratio,
or adding foods that help boost serotonin. It's thought that people who
tend to be rigid in thinking or behavior have a deficit in serotonin.
Personal side note: I do wonder if that is part of the reason why
depression tends to be comorbid with autism. If there
is a deficit in serotonin, obviously that affects more than
just your flexibility of your thinking. Another suggestion
is to exercise, which helps to increase something called
l-tryptophan, which is a building block of serotonin. Obviously,
exercise helps your overall health and mental health, so, I mean,
it's not a bad thing to do in general. Understood.org
shares some ideas that are more aimed specifically at
children. So, something they suggest is the Fannee Doolee game, where Fannee
Doolee only likes words that have double letters.
So, then you're supposed to come up with things that Fannee Doolee does and
doesn't like. Fannee Doolee likes cheese because
there's two e's next to each other in cheese,
but she doesn't like bikes because there's not double
letters in it, or whatever, to help thinking with different rules
and stuff like that. They also suggest trying to find different ways
to do everyday things. So, like, if you're, you make peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches. Maybe you put the jelly on first when
you normally put on the peanut butter first or something
just to make small changes or take a different route if you go for a walk or
a drive or whatever. Maybe play with things differently
or decide you want to do something a little bit out of routine.
Now, from my perspective, I just want to warn you to please be careful and gentle
with this. Autistic people really
have trouble with this to the point where it can
be really distressing, and if your child's already having a rough day, I
don't think it's a good idea to try to do this.
If they're having a great day, and it's something to try, awesome.
But if, if you're going to be like, you must change this right now
to get more flexible in your thinking! I feel like that might do more harm than
good. So, just use your judgment. Obviously, be mindful and don't
get upset if that makes them melt down or makes them upset, because
that's how their brain is working and it has to work around the concept of you
changing stuff on them. My personal favorite from this group of suggestions
is self-talk, because it is something I personally
still use. The idea is basically to teach your child to think out loud through the
steps and what they're doing, and also look to
see if does this situation look like something
i've encountered before, and stuff like that. I think that skill's
very important because it seems that autistic people tend to be good at
patterns. So, if we see this situation looks like this situation,
and then also being able to identify what's different from the situation to
this situation, and why the exact response may work here
but not here is super important for us to be able to
modify to match this. Because if we don't
understand why what worked here doesn't work here, it's
just very frustrating and irritating. But if you can start to identify why
things might be similar, why things might be different, that can
really help. For me, personally, I need to know why
things are, and how they work, and if I know the
answer to that, I tend to be able to get to the
right, the right answer a lot easier. Not all the time, but usually. Anyway, I
have resources, references, etc. linked in the description
box as usual, so if you want to read more of the
suggestions that are on these sites for helping or
more examples to see if possibly you or someone you know has
issues with cognitive flexibility and such not, obviously, feel
free to check all of that out. Thank you so much for watching. I hope
that it was useful and that you enjoyed it,
and enjoyed my time going off into random
unnecessary information. If you enjoyed this video, go ahead
and give it a like and let me know all of your thoughts in the comments below.
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