Key result
Stronger prefrontal activation during cognitive tasks in children links to older age and better performance.
Why the study?
The neural bases of the development of executive functions in young children were not well understood due to limitations in brain imaging techniques.
Does prefrontal activation during executive tasks increase over early childhood?
Cross-Sectional
Does prefrontal activation during executive tasks increase over early childhood?
Prefrontal cortex activation during executive tasks increases with age and performance in early childhood, supporting the maturation of executive functions.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Supports models of executive function maturation; leaves open causal inference and longitudinal validation.
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a brain imaging technique that is well-suited for use in young children, making it particularly useful for investigating the neural bases of the development of executive functions. In the present study, children (ages 4-10) underwent fNIRS while completing response inhibition and working memory tasks. While both tasks were associated with increases in oxyhemoglobin and decreases in deoxyhemoglobin, we found that strength of activation increased with age and with improvements in task performance. These findings support the relation between emerging executive functions and maturation of the prefrontal cortex.
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Smith et al. (2017) conducted a cross-sectional in Development of executive functions. Age and task performance was evaluated on Prefrontal activation (changes in oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin). Prefrontal activation strength during response inhibition and working memory tasks increased with age and task performance in children ages 4 to 10.
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