Neural Correlates of Inhibitory Control in Children: Evidence Using MRI and fNIRS

Fig. 1. Trial design for congruent (Cg) and incongruent (InCg) conditions, along with calculation of Intra-incongruence ΔHbO and post-incongruence ΔHbO from HbO measured at three time points (pre-InCg, intra-InCg, and post-InCg) during Cg and InCg conditions. For each condition, the pre-InCg HbO measurement was the average HbO from 0 to 10.7 s following stimulus onset, the intra-InCg HbO measurement was the average HbO from 10.7 to 20.7 s following stimulus onset, and the post-InCg HbO measurement was after stimulus offset, and was the average HbO from 20.7 to 30 s following stimulus onset. Intra-incongruence ΔHbO was calculated by subtracting intra-InCg HbO between the and Cg and InCg conditions, and post-InCg ΔHbO was calculated by subtracting post-Incg HbO between the InCg and Cg conditions

Fig. 2. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy, spatial representation of channels. Labels are included to orient the location of channels, with Nz representing the nasion (anterior), and RPA and LPA representing the right and left preauricular points, respectively. The 46 fNIRS channels are shown, with the color-coded legend on the right representing the 6 ROIs from which mean ΔHbO was calculated. This figure was adapted from NIRSite software (NIRSite 2.0, NIRx Medical Technologies, LLC), as well as from (Zhou et al. 2022) with the authors’ permission. Channels in gray (FFC1 and FC3h) were excluded from analysis given poor data quality

Fig. 3. Scatter plots of log(age) in days and average R1 in selected regions in 1/milliseconds (1/ms). Pearson correlation r values and corresponding p values are included for each selected region. Regions include: the genu of the corpus callosum (GCC), body of the corpus callosum (BCC), splenium of the corpus callosum (SCC), fornix (F), right anterior corona radiata (rACR), and left anterior corona radiata (rACR)

Fig. 4. Relationships between intra-incongruence or post-incongruence ΔHbO and go/no-go mean RT. The covariate and interaction terms for sex and interaction terms for age were not significant and did not improve model fit, so were removed

Fig. 5. Relations between go/no-go or flanker mean RT and R1 in the Fornix (panel A), right superior fronto-occipital fasciculus (rSFOF; panel B), and right uncinate fasciculus (rUF, panel C). Log(age) was significant in the models associated with flanker mean RT (B&C) and was removed from all additional models

Fig. 6. Relationships between R1 and intra-incongruence rFP, post-incongruence rFP, and post-incongruence lFP ΔHbO. Each row represents a model with R1 in the ROIs labeled (R1 ROI) modeled with the outcome variable ΔHbO in the ROI labeled (fNIRS ROI), with all relationships including post-incongruence ΔHbO. R1 ROIs include: the right posterior corona radiata (rPCR), left posterior corona radiata (lPCR), right superior longitudinal fasciculus (rSLF), left anterior corona radiata (lACR), and left superior corona. fNIRS RO! s include the right fronto-polar region (rFP) and left fronto-polar region (lFP)