The Japanese Association of School Health

Research Report

ISSN ONLINE : 1880-2400

[School Health Vol.15, 1-10, 2019]

The Characteristics of Five Higher Brain Function Types as Assessed with a go/no-go Task in Japanese Children

Akiko Shikano* and Shingo Noi*

  • *Nippon Sport Science University
  • 7-1-1, Fukasawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, 158-8508 Japan
  • shikano.a@nittai.ac.jp

Received October 19, 2015 ; Accepted March 13, 2018

Keywords:
Pavlovian theory, type classification, excitation process, suppression process

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Abstracts

Background: Childcare and education professionals in Japan have increasingly complained that growing numbers of children “tire instantly,” “constantly fidget,” or “are unable to sit still during childcare or class.” Against this backdrop, there is a belief that contemporary Japanese children exhibit underdeveloped or distorted higher brain functions related to satisfaction or feelings of fulfillment.

Objective: We aimed to ascertain the characteristics of five higher brain function types in contemporary Japanese children with a focus on reaction times and reaction magnitudes to positive conditional stimuli.

Methods: We recruited 301 boys and 300 girls in elementary school grades 1-6 in October 2012. We collected data on grasp motor responses to light stimuli go/ no-go tasks that have long been used in Japan.

Results: The no task errors in the differentiation experiment and the go and no task errors in the reverse differentiation experiment exhibited a significant interaction between sex and grade level (no task errors:p=0.043, go errors: p=0.008, no task errors: p=0.006), whereas other indicators did not. In addition, melancholic type was better represented among boys than among girls, with the type becoming less common among girls in higher grades. Analysis of task parameters for different types in the differentiation experiment revealed that response times (RTs) were significantly shorter for the choleric type than for other types and longer for the inhibitory type, whereas the coefficients of variation in RT (RT-CVs) were significantly greater for the melancholic type than for other types. Analysis of response parameters for the phlegmatic and sanguine types in the reverse differentiation experiment revealed significant difference in the RT-CVs and the coefficients of variation in peak response magnitude (Peak-CVs) of the two groups.

Conclusion: The type frequencies of higher brain function in contemporary Japanese children may vary by sex and grade. Our results may provide an important guide in the reformation of daycare and educational practices to address the changing higher brain function profiles of contemporary children.

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