Executive Dysfunction - Etiology

Etiology

The etiology of executive dysfunction is heterogeneous, as many neurocognitive processes are involved in the executive system and each may be compromised by a range of genetic and environmental factors. Learning and development of long-term memory play a role in the severity of executive dysfunction through dynamic interaction with neurological characteristics. Studies in cognitive neuroscience suggest that executive functions are widely distributed throughout the brain, though a few areas have been isolated as primary contributors. As well, executive dysfunction is studied extensively in clinical neuropsychology, allowing correlations to be drawn between such dysexecutive symptoms and their neurological correlates.

Executive processes are closely integrated with memory retrieval capabilities for overall cognitive control; in particular, goal/task-information is stored in both short-term and long-term memory, and effective performance requires effective storage and retrieval of this information.

Executive dysfunction characterizes many of the symptoms observed in numerous clinical populations. In the case of acquired brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases there is a clear neurological etiology producing dysexecutive symptoms. Conversely, syndromes and disorders are defined and diagnosed based on their symptomatology rather than etiology. Thus, while Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative condition, causes executive dysfunction, a disorder such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a classification given to a set of subjectively-determined symptoms implicating executive dysfunction – current models indicate that such clinical symptoms are caused by executive dysfunction.