Inhibitory Control, Shifting, and Working Memory Updating Domains form Cognitive Phenotypes in Non-human Primates

Abstract Executive functions comprise at least four major subdomains: Inhibitory Control, Updating, Shifting, and Working Memory. Cognitive abilities in these subdomains are partially separable and partially unified in a common cognitive control factor in humans, but how these functions are organized in the nonhuman primate (NHP) is largely unknown. Here, we used a multi-task assessment approach and found that NHPs show within single sessions reliable cognitive markers of Inhibitory Control in an antisaccade task, ( ii ) Updating abilities in a multidimensional continuous updating task, ( iii ) Working Memory in a delayed matching task, and ( iv ) Shifting abilities in a feature-based rule learning task. First, we found that subjects’ performance fell into three separable cognitive phenotypes with unique strengths and weaknesses across cognitive subdomains. Second, the most reliable cognitive metrics gave rise to four latent cognitive factors that quantify the relative independence of shifting/learning and working memory updating as well as independent variance explaining the abilities in inhibitory control of exogeneous versus endogenous interference. These findings support a 4-factor cognitive organization of executive functions in NHPs, with inter-subject differences of these factors forming cognitive phenotypes. Significance Statement Cognitive abilities in Inhibitory Control, Shifting, Updating and Working Memory reflect four main executive functions (EFs). How independent these four subdomains are organized in nonhuman primates (NHPs) is unknown and has remained challenging to measure. We validated a multi-task assessment approach for NHPs that shows first, robust inter-individual differences of abilities in these subdomains that group subjects into cognitive phenotypes. Secondly, performance separated four latent cognitive factors underlying EFs supporting working memory updating, and shifting/learning, as well as two inhibitory control of interference from external or internal mental representations. These results suggest a 4-factor cognitive architecture of EFs in NHP.