Neurocognitive development and its relationship to brain structure and function: findings from the ABCD study

This paper reviews findings on neurocognitive development provided by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development® study to date. It explores the structure of cognitive processes during the late childhood to early adolescent developmental time frame as well as associations with brain regions and systems that may support such processes. Also reviewed are finding from a wide variety of cognitive processes including general cognitive abilities, memory, inhibitory control, risk and reward processing, language, non-verbal abilities, executive functioning, and cognitive flexibility. The relationships of these aspects of cognition are examined with regards to morphological features of both white and grey matter, and with regards to brain function, more specifically activation and connectivity measures derived from functional MRI, during rest and during tasks. Section summaries and potential future directions are provided at the end of each section. The paper concludes with broad lessons learned from the ABCD® study so far as well as consideration of how future exploration of the data could illuminate a variety of outstanding issues with regards to neurocognitive development.