What is the clinical evidence from this study?

Study design: Cross-Sectional. Population: Typical development (n=28). Primary outcome: Association between intra-incongruence ΔHbO in the right frontal pole and go/no-go mean reaction time (p=0.005).

July 26, 2025Brain Topography1 citationsOpen Access

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

LSLeela ShahUniversity of Wisconsin System XZXin ZhouMinzu University of China MDMarissa DiPieroUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Key Result

Higher task-related functional brain activation in the right frontopolar region was significantly and positively associated with go/no-go mean reaction times in children aged 4 to 10 years.

Study Design

Type

Cross-Sectional (n=28)

Multicenter

Structured PICO

Population

28 typically developing children aged 4-10 years old (mean 6.8 years, 14 females), English as primary language, with no psychiatric or neurologic illness or developmental disorders.

Outcome

Associations between myelination (R1 mapping), brain activation (fNIRS HbO changes), and reaction times during go/no-go and flanker inhibitory control taskssurrogate

Myelination and frontal cortical brain activation are associated with inhibitory control task reaction times in children.

Main Result

p-value: p=0.005

Limitations

Small sample size due to some subjects not completing both MRI and fNIRS
R1 is sensitive to other microstructural processes, including water content, edema, and iron content
fNIRS was only recorded during the go/no-go task, so task-related brain activation could not be associated with variation in Flanker RT

Abstract

Inhibitory control (IC) develops in stages from infancy through adolescence and is associated with numerous developmental disorders and learning outcomes. This study examined how neural architecture - in particular myelination - underlies brain activation patterns observed during IC tasks in a sample of 28 children aged 4-10 years old. IC was observed using reaction times during go/no-go and flanker IC tasks. Myelination was measured using quantitative longitudinal relaxation rate (R1) mapping obtained from selected white matter regions of interest (ROIs). Brain activation was defined as task-related changes in hemoglobin oxygenation as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) averaged within ROIs. Results indicated that myelination in ROIs was higher in older children and fNIRS activation in frontal channels was significantly and positively associated with go/no-go mean reaction time. Myelination in the corona radiata and superior longitudinal fasciculus was positively associated with frontal fNIRS activation, while myelination was negatively associated with go/no-go and flanker mean reaction times across white matter ROIs. Overall, significance level notably varied across models. Independently of inhibitory control constructs, these regions may be of interest in future structure-function studies across development.

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