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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1379241
This article is part of the Research Topic When Predicting Means Adapting: A Neurocognitive Perspective Across Lifespan and Clinical Populations View all 4 articles

Adaptive Cognitive Control in 4 to 7-Year-Old Children and Potential Effects of School-Based Yoga-Mindfulness Interventions: An Exploratory Study in Italy

Provisionally accepted
Lisa Toffoli Lisa Toffoli 1*Giulia Stefanelli Giulia Stefanelli 1Giulia Manca Giulia Manca 1Fiorella Del Popolo Cristaldi Fiorella Del Popolo Cristaldi 1Gian Marco Duma Gian Marco Duma 2Michele Guidi Michele Guidi 3Francesca Incagli Francesca Incagli 4Luca Sbernini Luca Sbernini 3,5Vincenza Tarantino Vincenza Tarantino 6Giovanni Mento Giovanni Mento 1,2
  • 1 Department of General Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
  • 2 Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Conegliano, Treviso, Italy, Conegliano, Italy
  • 3 Cooperativa Progetto Insieme, Padua, Italy, Padua, Italy
  • 4 IRCCS Carlo Besta Neurological Institute Foundation, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
  • 5 Centro Regionale di Ricerca e Servizi Educativi per le Difficoltà di Apprendimento - Polo Apprendimento, Padua, Italy, Padua, Italy
  • 6 Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement, University of Palermo, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Recent findings showed that adaptive cognitive control (CC) can be instantiated by bottom-up mechanisms, including statistical contingency of event occurrence. However, the developmental evidence in this domain remains limited. To address this gap, our study delves into the exploration of different mechanisms underlying adaptive CC in a substantial cohort of young children (211 participants aged between 4 and 7 years). We utilized the Ddynamic Ttemporal Pprediction (DTP) task and a modified version of the Flanker task to assess the effect of context predictability on motor preparation/inhibition and interference control, respectively. Furthermore, as part of an exploratory study designed to evaluate the feasibility of a school-based program in Italy, all children underwent a re-testing session after an 8week intervention involving yoga-mindfulness. Results suggested that young children can exploit global probabilistic changes to optimize motor preparation/inhibition while counterbalancing fatigue effects. Moreover, they successfully modulate interference control as a function of environmental contingencies, displaying more optimal conflict resolution when proactive control is engaged. Finally, we observed a post-intervention increase of the capability to implicitly adapt motor preparation/inhibition and a boosting effect on the interference control functions. Overall, these findings confirmed that adaptive CC is already present in preschool-aged children, extending these results to include 4-years-olds. Additionally, school-based yoga-mindfulness programs are feasible and might improve children's capability to flexibly and proactively adapt to environmental requests promoting cognitive proficiency.

    Keywords: adaptive cognitive control, yoga-mindfulness, implicit learning, interference control, reactive and proactive control, motor preparation and inhibition, School, executive functions

    Received: 30 Jan 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Toffoli, Stefanelli, Manca, Del Popolo Cristaldi, Duma, Guidi, Incagli, Sbernini, Tarantino and Mento. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lisa Toffoli, Department of General Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

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