The NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery: results from a large normative developmental sample (PING)

Augmenting cognitive training in older adults (The ACT Study): Design and Methods of a Phase III tDCS and cognitive training trial

BACKGROUND

Adults over age 65 represent the fastest growing population in the US. Decline in cognitive abilities is a hallmark of advanced age and is associated with loss of independence and dementia risk. There is a pressing need to develop effective interventions for slowing or reversing the cognitive aging process. While certain forms of cognitive training have shown promise in this area, effects only sometimes transfer to neuropsychological tests within or outside the trained domain. This paper describes a NIA-funded Phase III adaptive multisite randomized clinical trial, examining whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of frontal cortices enhances neurocognitive outcomes achieved from cognitive training in older adults experiencing age-related cognitive decline: the Augmenting Cognitive Training in Older Adults study (ACT).

METHODS

ACT will enroll 360 participants aged 65 to 89 with age-related cognitive decline, but not dementia. Participants will undergo cognitive training intervention or education training-control combined with tDCS or sham tDCS control. Cognitive training employs a suite of eight adaptive training tasks focused on attention/speed of processing and working memory from Posit Science BrainHQ. Training control involves exposure to educational nature/history videos and related content questions of the same interval/duration as the cognitive training. Participants are assessed at baseline, after training (12weeks), and 12-month follow-up on our primary outcome measure, NIH Toolbox Fluid Cognition Composite Score, as well as a comprehensive neurocognitive, functional, clinical and multimodal neuroimaging battery.

SIGNIFICANCE

The findings from this study have the potential to significantly enhance efforts to ameliorate cognitive aging and slow dementia.

Modelling neuroanatomical variation during childhood and adolescence with neighbourhood-preserving embedding

Brain development is a dynamic process with tissue-specific alterations that reflect complex and ongoing biological processes taking place during childhood and adolescence. Accurate identification and modelling of these anatomical processes in vivo with MRI may provide clinically useful imaging markers of individual variability in development. In this study, we use manifold learning to build a model of age- and sex-related anatomical variation using multiple magnetic resonance imaging metrics. Using publicly available data from a large paediatric cohort (n = 768), we apply a multi-metric machine learning approach combining measures of tissue volume, cortical area and cortical thickness into a low-dimensional data representation. We find that neuroanatomical variation due to age and sex can be captured by two orthogonal patterns of brain development and we use this model to simultaneously predict age with a mean error of 1.5-1.6 years and sex with an accuracy of 81%. We validate this model in an independent developmental cohort. We present a framework for modelling anatomical development during childhood using manifold embedding. This model accurately predicts age and sex based on image-derived markers of cerebral morphology and generalises well to independent populations.

Perceived stress is associated with smaller hippocampal volume in adolescence

Perceived stress has been associated with decreased hippocampal, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex volume, as well as decreased memory and executive functioning performance in adulthood. Parents' perceived stress has been linked to decreased hippocampal volume in young children. However, no studies have investigated the links between self-perceived stress and brain structure or function in adolescents. Additionally, findings from previous research with younger or older samples are inconsistent, likely in part due to inconsistencies in participants' age range. In this study, we investigated the associations among self-perceived stress, family socioeconomic factors (family income, parental education), subcortical (hippocampus, amygdala) volumes, prefrontal cortical thickness and surface area, and memory and executive functioning performance in adolescents. One hundred and forty-three participants (12-20 years old) were administered a cognitive battery, a questionnaire to assess perceived stress, and a structural MRI scan. Higher levels of perceived stress were associated with decreased adolescent hippocampal volume. This study provides empirical evidence of how experience may shape brain development in adolescence-a period of plasticity during which it may be possible to intervene and prevent negative developmental outcomes.

Updated report on tools to measure outcomes of clinical trials in fragile X syndrome

OBJECTIVE

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) has been the neurodevelopmental disorder with the most active translation of preclinical breakthroughs into clinical trials. This process has led to a critical assessment of outcome measures, which resulted in a comprehensive review published in 2013. Nevertheless, the disappointing outcome of several recent phase III drug trials in FXS, and parallel efforts at evaluating behavioral endpoints for trials in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has emphasized the need for re-assessing outcome measures and revising recommendations for FXS.

METHODS

After performing an extensive database search (PubMed, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)/National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s www.ClinicalTrials.gov, etc.) to determine progress since 2013, members of the Working Groups who published the 2013 Report evaluated the available outcome measures for FXS and related neurodevelopmental disorders using the COSMIN grading system of levels of evidence. The latter has also been applied to a British survey of endpoints for ASD. In addition, we also generated an informal classification of outcome measures for use in FXS intervention studies as instruments appropriate to detect shorter- or longer-term changes.

RESULTS

To date, a total of 22 double-blind controlled clinical trials in FXS have been identified through www.ClinicalTrials.gov and an extensive literature search. The vast majority of these FDA/NIH-registered clinical trials has been completed between 2008 and 2015 and has targeted the core excitatory/inhibitory imbalance present in FXS and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Limited data exist on reliability and validity for most tools used to measure cognitive, behavioral, and other problems in FXS in these trials and other studies. Overall, evidence for most tools supports a moderate tool quality grading. Data on sensitivity to treatment, currently under evaluation, could improve ratings for some cognitive and behavioral tools. Some progress has also been made at identifying promising biomarkers, mainly on blood-based and neurophysiological measures.

CONCLUSION

Despite the tangible progress in implementing clinical trials in FXS, the increasing data on measurement properties of endpoints, and the ongoing process of new tool development, the vast majority of outcome measures are at the moderate quality level with limited information on reliability, validity, and sensitivity to treatment. This situation is not unique to FXS, since reviews of endpoints for ASD have arrived at similar conclusions. These findings, in conjunction with the predominance of parent-based measures particularly in the behavioral domain, indicate that endpoint development in FXS needs to continue with an emphasis on more objective measures (observational, direct testing, biomarkers) that reflect meaningful improvements in quality of life. A major continuous challenge is the development of measurement tools concurrently with testing drug safety and efficacy in clinical trials.

Socioeconomic Status, Amygdala Volume, and Internalizing Symptoms in Children and Adolescents

The associations among socioeconomic disadvantage, amygdala volume, and internalizing symptoms in children and adolescents are unclear and understudied in the extant literature. In this study, we examined associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and amygdala volume by age across childhood and adolescence to test whether socioeconomic disadvantage would be associated with larger amygdala volume at younger ages but with smaller amygdala volume at older ages. We then examined whether SES and amygdala volume were associated with children's levels of anxiety and depression. Participants were 3- to 21-year-olds from the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics study (N = 1,196), which included structural magnetic resonance imaging. A subsample (n = 327; 7-21 years of age) completed self-report measures of anxiety and depression. Lower family income and parental education were significantly associated with smaller amygdala volume in adolescence (13-21 years) but not significantly associated with amygdala volume at younger ages (3-12 years). Lower parental education, but not family income, was significantly associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression, even after accounting for family history of anxiety/depression. Smaller amygdala volume was significantly associated with higher levels of depression, even after accounting for parental education and family history of anxiety/depression. These findings suggest that associations between SES and amygdala structure may vary by age. In addition, smaller amygdala volume may be linked with an increased risk for depression in children and adolescents.

The influence of pubertal maturation on antisaccade performance

Adolescence is a period characterized by continued improvements in inhibitory control, and this persisting immaturity is believed to interact with affective/motivational behavior to generate the impulsive and risk-taking behavior evidenced at this time. Puberty is a central event of adolescence that has been shown to influence affective/motivational behavior. However, despite plausible mechanisms by which puberty might influence inhibitory control, researchers have yet to test this possibility rigorously. Thus, we designed a study to examine the unique role of pubertal maturation, independent of age, in the development of inhibitory control. In order to minimize age-related variability while maximizing pubertal status variability, we recruited 78 participants (34 F) whose ages narrowly spanned the mean age of gonadarche for each sex (F: ages 11-13, M: ages 12-14). Two complementary measures were used to assess pubertal status: (1) circulating blood serum testosterone and estradiol levels reflecting internal manifestations of pubertal maturation, and (2) Tanner staging by a trained nurse reflecting pubertal maturation's external manifestations. Inhibitory control was assessed using the antisaccade task, and findings were adjusted for the potential effect of age. Results revealed no association between testosterone levels and error rates or response latencies in either sex. In girls, estradiol levels were not associated with error rates, but were associated with faster response latencies. There was similarly no association between Tanner status and error rates, although girls in more advanced pubertal stages showed faster response latencies. Power analyses indicate that findings of a lack of association did not reflect limited statistical power. Thus, in a study designed to isolate the effects of pubertal maturation independent of age, both external and internal indices of pubertal maturation converged to indicate that age-related improvements in cold antisaccade performance are independent of pubertal maturation.

Efficiency of Executive Function: A Two-Generation Cross-Cultural Comparison of Samples From Hong Kong and the United Kingdom

Although Asian preschoolers acquire executive functions (EFs) earlier than their Western counterparts, little is known about whether this advantage persists into later childhood and adulthood. To address this gap, in the current study we gave four computerized EF tasks (providing measures of inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning) to a large sample ( n = 1,427) of 9- to 16-year-olds and their parents. All participants lived in either the United Kingdom or Hong Kong. Our findings highlight the importance of combining developmental and cultural perspectives and show both similarities and contrasts across sites. Specifically, adults' EF performance did not differ between the two sites; age-related changes in executive function for both the children and the parents appeared to be culturally invariant, as did a modest intergenerational correlation. In contrast, school-age children and young adolescents in Hong Kong outperformed their United Kingdom counterparts on all four EF tasks, a difference consistent with previous findings from preschool children.

Associations between cortical thickness and neurocognitive skills during childhood vary by family socioeconomic factors

Studies have reported associations between cortical thickness (CT) and socioeconomic status (SES), as well as between CT and cognitive outcomes. However, findings have been mixed as to whether CT explains links between SES and cognitive performance. In the current study, we hypothesized that this inconsistency may have arisen from the fact that socioeconomic factors (family income and parental education) may moderate the relation between CT and neurocognitive skills. Results indicated that associations between CT and cognitive performance did vary by SES for both language and executive function (EF) abilities. Across all ages, there was a negative correlation between CT and cognitive skills, with thinner cortices associated with higher language and EF scores. Similarly, across all cognitive skills, children from higher-SES homes outperformed their age-matched peers from lower-SES homes. Moderation analyses indicated that the impact of SES was not constant across CT, with SES more strongly predictive of EF skills among children with thicker cortices and more strongly predictive of language skills among children with thinner cortices. This suggests that socioeconomic advantage may in some cases buffer against a neurobiological risk factor for poor performance. These findings suggest that links between brain structure and cognitive processes vary by family socioeconomic circumstance.

The developmental relationship between specific cognitive domains and grey matter in the cerebellum

There is growing evidence that the cerebellum is involved in cognition and cognitive development, yet little is known about the developmental relationship between cerebellar structure and cognitive subdomains in children. We used voxel-based morphometry to assess the relationship between cerebellar grey matter (GM) and language, reading, working memory, executive function, and processing speed in 110 individuals aged 8-17 years from the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics (PING) Study. Further, we examined the effect of age on the relationships between cerebellar GM and cognition. Higher scores on vocabulary, reading, working memory, and set-shifting were associated with increased GM in the posterior cerebellum (lobules VI-IX), in regions which are typically engaged during cognitive tasks in healthy adults. For reading, working memory, and processing speed, the relationship between cerebellar GM and cognitive performance changed with age in specific cerebellar subregions. As in adults, posterior lobe cerebellar GM was associated with cognitive performance in a pediatric population, and this relationship mirrored the known developmental trajectory of posterior cerebellar GM. These findings provide further evidence that specific regions of the cerebellum support cognition and cognitive development, and suggest that the strength of this relationship depends on developmental stage.

Effects of prior testing lasting a full year in NCANDA adolescents: Contributions from age, sex, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, site, family history of alcohol or drug abuse, and baseline performance

Longitudinal study provides a robust method for tracking developmental trajectories. Yet inherent problems of retesting pose challenges in distinguishing biological developmental change from prior testing experience. We examined factors potentially influencing change scores on 16 neuropsychological test composites over 1 year in 568 adolescents in the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) project. The twice-minus-once-tested method revealed that performance gain was mainly attributable to testing experience (practice) with little contribution from predicted developmental effects. Group mean practice slopes for 13 composites indicated that 60% to ∼100% variance was attributable to test experience; General Ability accuracy showed the least practice effect (29%). Lower baseline performance, especially in younger participants, was a strong predictor of greater gain. Contributions from age, sex, ethnicity, examination site, socioeconomic status, or family history of alcohol/substance abuse were nil to small, even where statistically significant. Recognizing that a substantial proportion of change in longitudinal testing, even over 1-year, is attributable to testing experience indicates caution against assuming that performance gain observed during periods of maturation necessarily reflects development. Estimates of testing experience, a form of learning, may be a relevant metric for detecting interim influences, such as alcohol use or traumatic episodes, on behavior.

Neurocognitive development in socioeconomic context: Multiple mechanisms and implications for measuring socioeconomic status

Socioeconomic status (SES) has been linked to functioning across a variety of neurocognitive domains including language, memory, executive functioning, and social-emotional processing. We review these findings and discuss the ways in which socioeconomic context may shape neural processes such that these skills are supported by different neurobiological pathways in children from lower versus higher SES backgrounds. Moreover, we consider the mechanisms by which SES may be related to specific neurocognitive functions. Specifically, we focus on linguistic exposure and stress as two main pathways through which SES could influence neurocognitive processes and shape relations between the neural and behavioral levels of functioning. Finally, suggestions for conceptualizing and measuring SES in future work are offered.

A method for integrating neuroimaging into genetic models of learning performance

Specific learning disorders (SLD) are an archetypal example of how clinical neuropsychological (NP) traits can differ from underlying genetic and neurobiological risk factors. Disparate environmental influences and pathologies impact learning performance assessed through cognitive examinations and clinical evaluations, the primary diagnostic tools for SLD. We propose a neurobiological risk for SLD with neuroimaging biomarkers, which is integrated into a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of learning performance in a cohort of 479 European individuals between 8 and 21 years of age. We first identified six regions of interest (ROIs) in temporal and anterior cingulate regions where the group diagnosed with learning disability has the least overall variation, relative to the other group, in thickness, area, and volume measurements. Although we used the three imaging measures, the thickness was the leading contributor. Hence, we calculated the Euclidean distances between any two individuals based on their thickness measures in the six ROIs. Then, we defined the relative similarity of one individual according to the averaged ranking of pairwise distances from the individuals to those in the SLD group. The inverse of this relative similarity is called the neurobiological risk for the individual. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the AGBL1 gene on chromosome 15 had a significant association with learning performance at a genome-wide level. This finding was supported in an independent cohort of 2,327 individuals of the same demographic profile. Our statistical approach for integrating genetic and neuroimaging biomarkers can be extended into studying the biological basis of other NP traits.

Individual differences in children's global motion sensitivity correlate with TBSS-based measures of the superior longitudinal fasciculus

Reduced global motion sensitivity, relative to global static form sensitivity, has been found in children with many neurodevelopmental disorders, leading to the "dorsal stream vulnerability" hypothesis (Braddick et al., 2003). Individual differences in typically developing children's global motion thresholds have been shown to be associated with variations in specific parietal cortical areas (Braddick et al., 2016). Here, in 125 children aged 5-12years, we relate individual differences in global motion and form coherence thresholds to fractional anisotropy (FA) in the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), a major fibre tract communicating between parietal lobe and anterior cortical areas. We find a positive correlation between FA of the right SLF and individual children's sensitivity to global motion coherence, while FA of the left SLF shows a negative correlation. Further analysis of parietal cortical area data shows that this is also asymmetrical, showing a stronger association with global motion sensitivity in the left hemisphere. None of these associations hold for an analogous measure of global form sensitivity. We conclude that a complex pattern of structural asymmetry, including the parietal lobe and the superior longitudinal fasciculus, is specifically linked to the development of sensitivity to global visual motion. This pattern suggests that individual differences in motion sensitivity are primarily linked to parietal brain areas interacting with frontal systems in making decisions on integrated motion signals, rather than in the extra-striate visual areas that perform the initial integration. The basis of motion processing deficits in neurodevelopmental disorders may depend on these same structures.

Dyslexia and language impairment associated genetic markers influence cortical thickness and white matter in typically developing children

Dyslexia and language impairment (LI) are complex traits with substantial genetic components. We recently completed an association scan of the DYX2 locus, where we observed associations of markers in DCDC2, KIAA0319, ACOT13, and FAM65B with reading-, language-, and IQ-related traits. Additionally, the effects of reading-associated DYX3 markers were recently characterized using structural neuroimaging techniques. Here, we assessed the neuroimaging implications of associated DYX2 and DYX3 markers, using cortical volume, cortical thickness, and fractional anisotropy. To accomplish this, we examined eight DYX2 and three DYX3 markers in 332 subjects in the Pediatrics Imaging Neurocognition Genetics study. Imaging-genetic associations were examined by multiple linear regression, testing for influence of genotype on neuroimaging. Markers in DYX2 genes KIAA0319 and FAM65B were associated with cortical thickness in the left orbitofrontal region and global fractional anisotropy, respectively. KIAA0319 and ACOT13 were suggestively associated with overall fractional anisotropy and left pars opercularis cortical thickness, respectively. DYX3 markers showed suggestive associations with cortical thickness and volume measures in temporal regions. Notably, we did not replicate association of DYX3 markers with hippocampal measures. In summary, we performed a neuroimaging follow-up of reading-, language-, and IQ-associated DYX2 and DYX3 markers. DYX2 associations with cortical thickness may reflect variations in their role in neuronal migration. Furthermore, our findings complement gene expression and imaging studies implicating DYX3 markers in temporal regions. These studies offer insight into where and how DYX2 and DYX3 risk variants may influence neuroimaging traits. Future studies should further connect the pathways to risk variants associated with neuroimaging/neurocognitive outcomes.

Adolescent Development of Cortical and White Matter Structure in the NCANDA Sample: Role of Sex, Ethnicity, Puberty, and Alcohol Drinking

Brain structural development continues throughout adolescence, when experimentation with alcohol is often initiated. To parse contributions from biological and environmental factors on neurodevelopment, this study used baseline National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, acquired in 674 adolescents meeting no/low alcohol or drug use criteria and 134 adolescents exceeding criteria. Spatial integrity of images across the 5 recruitment sites was assured by morphological scaling using Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative phantom-derived volume scalar metrics. Clinical MRI readings identified structural anomalies in 11.4%. Cortical volume and thickness were smaller and white matter volumes were larger in older than in younger adolescents. Effects of sex (male > female) and ethnicity (majority > minority) were significant for volume and surface but minimal for cortical thickness. Adjusting volume and area for supratentorial volume attenuated or removed sex and ethnicity effects. That cortical thickness showed age-related decline and was unrelated to supratentorial volume is consistent with the radial unit hypothesis, suggesting a universal neural development characteristic robust to sex and ethnicity. Comparison of NCANDA with PING data revealed similar but flatter, age-related declines in cortical volumes and thickness. Smaller, thinner frontal, and temporal cortices in the exceeds-criteria than no/low-drinking group suggested untoward effects of excessive alcohol consumption on brain structural development.

Socioeconomic status, white matter, and executive function in children

BACKGROUND

A growing body of evidence links socioeconomic status (SES) to children's brain structure. Few studies, however, have specifically investigated relations of SES to white matter structure. Further, although several studies have demonstrated that family SES is related to development of brain areas that support executive functions (EF), less is known about the role that white matter structure plays in the relation of SES to EF. One possibility is that white matter differences may partially explain SES disparities in EF (i.e., a mediating relationship). Alternatively, SES may differentially shape brain-behavior relations such that the relation of white matter structure to EF may differ as a function of SES (i.e., a moderating relationship).

METHOD

In a diverse sample of 1082 children and adolescents aged 3-21 years, we examined socioeconomic disparities in white matter macrostructure and microstructure. We further investigated relations between family SES, children's white matter volume and integrity in tracts supporting EF, and performance on EF tasks.

RESULTS

Socioeconomic status was associated with fractional anisotropy (FA) and volume in multiple white matter tracts. Additionally, family income moderated the relation between white matter structure and cognitive flexibility. Specifically, across multiple tracts of interest, lower FA or lower volume was associated with reduced cognitive flexibility among children from lower income families. In contrast, children from higher income families showed preserved cognitive flexibility in the face of low white matter FA or volume. SES factors did not mediate or moderate links between white matter and either working memory or inhibitory control.

CONCLUSIONS

This work adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that the socioeconomic contexts in which children develop not only shape cognitive functioning and its underlying neurobiology, but may also shape the relations between brain and behavior.

Age-Related Differences in Cortical Thickness Vary by Socioeconomic Status

Recent findings indicate robust associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and brain structure in children, raising questions about the ways in which SES may modify structural brain development. In general, cortical thickness and surface area develop in nonlinear patterns across childhood and adolescence, with developmental patterns varying to some degree by cortical region. Here, we examined whether age-related nonlinear changes in cortical thickness and surface area varied by SES, as indexed by family income and parental education. We hypothesized that SES disparities in age-related change may be particularly evident for language- and literacy-supporting cortical regions. Participants were 1148 typically-developing individuals between 3 and 20 years of age. Results indicated that SES factors moderate patterns of age-associated change in cortical thickness but not surface area. Specifically, at lower levels of SES, associations between age and cortical thickness were curvilinear, with relatively steep age-related decreases in cortical thickness earlier in childhood, and subsequent leveling off during adolescence. In contrast, at high levels of SES, associations between age and cortical thickness were linear, with consistent reductions across the age range studied. Notably, this interaction was prominent in the left fusiform gyrus, a region that is critical for reading development. In a similar pattern, SES factors significantly moderated linear age-related change in left superior temporal gyrus, such that higher SES was linked with steeper age-related decreases in cortical thickness in this region. These findings suggest that SES may moderate patterns of age-related cortical thinning, especially in language- and literacy-supporting cortical regions.

LearningRx Cognitive Training Effects in Children Ages 8-14: A Randomized Controlled Trial

In a randomized controlled study, we examined the effects of a one‐on‐one cognitive training program on memory, visual and auditory processing, processing speed, reasoning, attention, and General Intellectual Ability (GIA) score for students ages 8–14. Participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental group to complete 60 h of cognitive training or to a wait‐list control group. The purpose of the study was to examine changes in multiple cognitive skills after completing cognitive training with ThinkRx, a LearningRx program. Results showed statistically significant differences between groups on all outcome measures except for attention. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are examined. © 2016 The Authors Applied Cognitive Psychology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Global Visual Motion Sensitivity: Associations with Parietal Area and Children's Mathematical Cognition

Sensitivity to global visual motion has been proposed as a signature of brain development, related to the dorsal rather than ventral cortical stream. Thresholds for global motion have been found to be elevated more than for global static form in many developmental disorders, leading to the idea of "dorsal stream vulnerability." Here we explore the association of global motion thresholds with individual differences in children's brain development, in a group of typically developing 5- to 12-year-olds. Good performance was associated with a relative increase in parietal lobe surface area, most strongly around the intraparietal sulcus and decrease in occipital area. In line with the involvement of intraparietal sulcus, areas in visuospatial and numerical cognition, we also found that global motion performance was correlated with tests of visuomotor integration and numerical skills. Individual differences in global form detection showed none of these anatomical or cognitive correlations. This suggests that the correlations with motion sensitivity are unlikely to reflect general perceptual or attentional abilities required for both form and motion. We conclude that individual developmental variations in global motion processing are not linked to greater area in the extrastriate visual areas, which initially process such motion, but in the parietal systems that make decisions based on this information. The overlap with visuospatial and numerical abilities may indicate the anatomical substrate of the "dorsal stream vulnerability" proposed as characterizing neurodevelopmental disorders.

Virtual reality as an ecologically valid tool for assessing multifaceted episodic memory in children and adolescents

The majority of episodic memory (EM) tests are far removed from what we experience in daily life and from the definition of this type of memory. This study examines the developmental trajectory of the main aspects of episodic memory—what, where, and when—and of feature binding in a naturalistic virtual environment. A population of 125 participants aged from 6 to 24 years was asked to navigate, by using a joystick, in a virtual urban environment composed of specific areas, and to memorize as many elements as possible (e.g., scenes, details, spatial and temporal contexts). The ability to recall factual content associated to details or spatiotemporal context increased steadily from the age of 8 to young adulthood. These results indicate main developmental differences in feature binding abilities in naturalistic events which are very sensitive to age in comparison with a standard EM assessment. Virtual reality therefore appears to be an appropriate technique to assess crucial aspects of EM development in children and adolescents and it should provide helpful tools for the detection of subtle memory deficits.

Roses Are Red, Socks Are Blue: Switching Dimensions Disrupts Young Children's Language Comprehension

Language is used to identify objects in many different ways. An apple can be identified using its name, color, and other attributes. Skilled language comprehension requires listeners to flexibly shift between different dimensions. We asked whether this shifting would be difficult for 3-year-olds, who have relatively immature executive function skills and struggle to switch between dimensions in card sorting tasks. In the current experiment, children first heard a series of sentences identifying objects using a single dimension (either names or colors). In the second half of the experiment, the labeling dimension was switched. Children were significantly less accurate in fixating the correct object following the dimensional switch. This disruption, however, was temporary; recognition accuracy recovered with increased exposure to the new labeling dimension. These findings provide the first evidence that children's difficulty in shifting between dimensions impacts their ability to comprehend speech. This limitation may affect children's ability to form rich, multi-dimensional representations when learning new words.

Individual differences in frontolimbic circuitry and anxiety emerge with adolescent changes in endocannabinoid signaling across species

Anxiety disorders peak in incidence during adolescence, a developmental window that is marked by dynamic changes in gene expression, endocannabinoid signaling, and frontolimbic circuitry. We tested whether genetic alterations in endocannabinoid signaling related to a common polymorphism in fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), which alters endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA) levels, would impact the development of frontolimbic circuitry implicated in anxiety disorders. In a pediatric imaging sample of over 1,000 3- to 21-y-olds, we show effects of the FAAH genotype specific to frontolimbic connectivity that emerge by ∼12 y of age and are paralleled by changes in anxiety-related behavior. Using a knock-in mouse model of the FAAH polymorphism that controls for genetic and environmental backgrounds, we confirm phenotypic differences in frontoamygdala circuitry and anxiety-related behavior by postnatal day 45 (P45), when AEA levels begin to decrease, and also, at P75 but not before. These results, which converge across species and level of analysis, highlight the importance of underlying developmental neurobiology in the emergence of genetic effects on brain circuitry and function. Moreover, the results have important implications for the identification of risk for disease and precise targeting of treatments to the biological state of the developing brain as a function of developmental changes in gene expression and neural circuit maturation.

ERBB4 polymorphism and family history of psychiatric disorders on age-related cortical changes in healthy children

Genetic variations in ERBB4 were associated with increased susceptibility for schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorders (BPD). Structural imaging studies showed cortical abnormalities in adolescents and adults with SCZ or BPD. However, less is known about subclinical cortical changes or the influence of ERBB4 on cortical development. 971 healthy children (ages 3-20 years old; 462 girls and 509 boys) were genotyped for the ERBB4-rs7598440 variants, had structural MRI, and cognitive evaluation (NIH Toolbox ®). We investigated the effects of ERBB4 variants and family history of SCZ and/or BPD (FH) on cortical measures and cognitive performances across ages 3-20 years using a general additive model. Variations in ERBB4 and FH impact differentially the age-related cortical changes in regions often affected by SCZ and BPD. The ERBB4-TT-risk genotype children with no FH had subtle cortical changes across the age span, primarily located in the left temporal lobe and superior parietal cortex. In contrast, the TT-risk genotype children with FH had more pronounced age-related changes, mainly in the frontal lobes compared to the non-risk genotype children. Interactive effects of age, FH and ERBB4 variations were also found on episodic memory and working memory, which are often impaired in SCZ and BPD. Healthy children carrying the risk-genotype in ERBB4 and/or with FH had cortical measures resembling those reported in SCZ or BPD. These subclinical cortical variations may provide early indicators for increased risk of psychiatric disorders and improve our understanding of the effect of the NRG1-ERBB4 pathway on brain development.

Harmonizing DTI measurements across scanners to examine the development of white matter microstructure in 803 adolescents of the NCANDA study

Neurodevelopment continues through adolescence, with notable maturation of white matter tracts comprising regional fiber systems progressing at different rates. To identify factors that could contribute to regional differences in white matter microstructure development, large samples of youth spanning adolescence to young adulthood are essential to parse these factors. Recruitment of adequate samples generally relies on multi-site consortia but comes with the challenge of merging data acquired on different platforms. In the current study, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were acquired on GE and Siemens systems through the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA), a multi-site study designed to track the trajectories of regional brain development during a time of high risk for initiating alcohol consumption. This cross-sectional analysis reports baseline Tract-Based Spatial Statistic (TBSS) of regional fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (L1), and radial diffusivity (LT) from the five consortium sites on 671 adolescents who met no/low alcohol or drug consumption criteria and 132 adolescents with a history of exceeding consumption criteria. Harmonization of DTI metrics across manufacturers entailed the use of human-phantom data, acquired multiple times on each of three non-NCANDA participants at each site's MR system, to determine a manufacturer-specific correction factor. Application of the correction factor derived from human phantom data measured on MR systems from different manufacturers reduced the standard deviation of the DTI metrics for FA by almost a half, enabling harmonization of data that would have otherwise carried systematic error. Permutation testing supported the hypothesis of higher FA and lower diffusivity measures in older adolescents and indicated that, overall, the FA, MD, and L1 of the boys were higher than those of the girls, suggesting continued microstructural development notable in the boys. The contribution of demographic and clinical differences to DTI metrics was assessed with General Additive Models (GAM) testing for age, sex, and ethnicity differences in regional skeleton mean values. The results supported the primary study hypothesis that FA skeleton mean values in the no/low-drinking group were highest at different ages. When differences in intracranial volume were covaried, FA skeleton mean reached a maximum at younger ages in girls than boys and varied in magnitude with ethnicity. Our results, however, did not support the hypothesis that youth who exceeded exposure criteria would have lower FA or higher diffusivity measures than the no/low-drinking group; detecting the effects of excessive alcohol consumption during adolescence on DTI metrics may require longitudinal study.

Cognitive, emotion control, and motor performance of adolescents in the NCANDA study: Contributions from alcohol consumption, age, sex, ethnicity, and family history of addiction

OBJECTIVE

To investigate development of cognitive and motor functions in healthy adolescents and to explore whether hazardous drinking affects the normal developmental course of those functions.

METHOD

Participants were 831 adolescents recruited across 5 United States sites of the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence 692 met criteria for no/low alcohol exposure, and 139 exceeded drinking thresholds. Cross-sectional, baseline data were collected with computerized and traditional neuropsychological tests assessing 8 functional domains expressed as composite scores. General additive modeling evaluated factors potentially modulating performance (age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and pubertal developmental stage).

RESULTS

Older no/low-drinking participants achieved better scores than younger ones on 5 accuracy composites (general ability, abstraction, attention, emotion, and balance). Speeded responses for attention, motor speed, and general ability were sensitive to age and pubertal development. The exceeds-threshold group (accounting for age, sex, and other demographic factors) performed significantly below the no/low-drinking group on balance accuracy and on general ability, attention, episodic memory, emotion, and motor speed scores and showed evidence for faster speed at the expense of accuracy. Delay Discounting performance was consistent with poor impulse control in the younger no/low drinkers and in exceeds-threshold drinkers regardless of age.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher achievement with older age and pubertal stage in general ability, abstraction, attention, emotion, and balance suggests continued functional development through adolescence, possibly supported by concurrently maturing frontal, limbic, and cerebellar brain systems. Determination of whether low scores by the exceeds-threshold group resulted from drinking or from other preexisting factors requires longitudinal study. (PsycINFO Database Record

Fathers matter: The role of father parenting in preschoolers' executive function development

Although previous work has shown that mothers' parenting influences the development of child executive function (EF; important self-control skills developed during the preschool years), the role of fathers' parenting has not been thoroughly investigated. We observed fathers' autonomy support and control in dyadic play with their 3-year-old children (N pairs=110) and measured father and child EF independently with laboratory tasks. We found that fathers' controlling parenting was significantly inversely related to the child EF composite, above and beyond family income and child verbal ability. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that fathers are important for the development of EF in their children and suggest that fathers should be included in both research and parenting interventions.

Anxiety is related to indices of cortical maturation in typically developing children and adolescents

Anxiety is a risk factor for many adverse neuropsychiatric and socioeconomic outcomes, and has been linked to functional and structural changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). However, the nature of these differences, as well as how they develop in children and adolescents, remains poorly understood. More effective interventions to minimize the negative consequences of anxiety require better understanding of its neurobiology in children. Recent research suggests that structural imaging studies may benefit from clearly delineating between cortical surface area and thickness when examining these associations, as these distinct cortical phenotypes are influenced by different cellular mechanisms and genetic factors. The present study examined relationships between cortical surface area and thickness of the VMPFC and a self-report measure of anxiety (SCARED-R) in 287 youths aged 7-20 years from the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics (PING) study. Age and gender interactions were examined for significant associations in order to test for developmental differences. Cortical surface area and thickness were also examined simultaneously to determine whether they contribute independently to the prediction of anxiety. Anxiety was negatively associated with relative cortical surface area of the VMPFC as well as with global cortical thickness, but these associations diminished with age. The two cortical phenotypes contributed additively to the prediction of anxiety. These findings suggest that higher anxiety in children may be characterized by both delayed expansion of the VMPFC and an altered trajectory of global cortical thinning. Further longitudinal studies will be needed to confirm these findings.

Cognitive functioning in socially anxious adults: insights from the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery

Theory suggests that individuals with social anxiety manifest unique patterns of cognition with less efficient fluid cognition and unperturbed crystallized cognition; however, empirical support for these ideas remains inconclusive. The heterogeneity of past findings may reflect unreliability in cognitive assessments or the influence of confounding variables. The present study examined the relations among social anxiety and performance on the reliable, newly established NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. Results indicate that high socially anxious adults performed as well as low anxious participants on all measures of fluid cognition. However, high socially anxious adults demonstrated enhanced crystallized cognitive abilities relative to a low socially anxious comparison group.

The Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics (PING) Data Repository

The main objective of the multi-site Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics (PING) study was to create a large repository of standardized measurements of behavioral and imaging phenotypes accompanied by whole genome genotyping acquired from typically-developing children varying widely in age (3 to 20 years). This cross-sectional study produced sharable data from 1493 children, and these data have been described in several publications focusing on brain and cognitive development. Researchers may gain access to these data by applying for an account on the PING portal and filing a data use agreement. Here we describe the recruiting and screening of the children and give a brief overview of the assessments performed, the imaging methods applied, the genetic data produced, and the numbers of cases for whom different data types are available. We also cite sources of more detailed information about the methods and data. Finally we describe the procedures for accessing the data and for using the PING data exploration portal.

Family income, parental education and brain structure in children and adolescents

Socioeconomic disparities are associated with differences in cognitive development. The extent to which this translates to disparities in brain structure is unclear. Here, we investigated relationships between socioeconomic factors and brain morphometry, independently of genetic ancestry, among a cohort of 1099 typically developing individuals between 3 and 20 years. Income was logarithmically associated with brain surface area. Specifically, among children from lower income families, small differences in income were associated with relatively large differences in surface area, whereas, among children from higher income families, similar income increments were associated with smaller differences in surface area. These relationships were most prominent in regions supporting language, reading, executive functions and spatial skills; surface area mediated socioeconomic differences in certain neurocognitive abilities. These data indicate that income relates most strongly to brain structure among the most disadvantaged children. Potential implications are discussed.

Calibrating longitudinal cognition in Alzheimer's disease across diverse test batteries and datasets

BACKGROUND

We sought to identify optimal approaches by calibrating longitudinal cognitive performance across studies with different neuropsychological batteries.

METHODS

We examined four approaches to calibrate cognitive performance in nine longitudinal studies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) (n = 10,875): (1) common test, (2) standardize and average available tests, (3) confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with continuous indicators, and (4) CFA with categorical indicators. To compare precision, we determined the minimum sample sizes needed to detect 25% cognitive decline with 80% power. To compare criterion validity, we correlated cognitive change from each approach with 6-year changes in average cortical thickness and hippocampal volume using available MRI data from the AD Neuroimaging Initiative.

RESULTS

CFA with categorical indicators required the smallest sample size to detect 25% cognitive decline with 80% power (n = 232) compared to common test (n = 277), standardize-and-average (n = 291), and CFA with continuous indicators (n = 315) approaches. Associations with changes in biomarkers changes were the strongest for CFA with categorical indicators.

CONCLUSIONS

CFA with categorical indicators demonstrated greater power to detect change and superior criterion validity compared to other approaches. It has wide applicability to directly compare cognitive performance across studies, making it a good way to obtain operational phenotypes for genetic analyses of cognitive decline among people with AD.

The cognition battery of the NIH toolbox for assessment of neurological and behavioral function: validation in an adult sample

This study introduces a special series on validity studies of the Cognition Battery (CB) from the U.S. National Institutes of Health Toolbox for the Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIHTB) (Gershon, Wagster et al., 2013) in an adult sample. This first study in the series describes the sample, each of the seven instruments in the NIHTB-CB briefly, and the general approach to data analysis. Data are provided on test-retest reliability and practice effects, and raw scores (mean, standard deviation, range) are presented for each instrument and the gold standard instruments used to measure construct validity. Accompanying papers provide details on each instrument, including information about instrument development, psychometric properties, age and education effects on performance, and convergent and discriminant construct validity. One study in the series is devoted to a factor analysis of the NIHTB-CB in adults and another describes the psychometric properties of three composite scores derived from the individual measures representing fluid and crystallized abilities and their combination. The NIHTB-CB is designed to provide a brief, comprehensive, common set of measures to allow comparisons among disparate studies and to improve scientific communication.

Schizophrenia-risk variant rs6994992 in the neuregulin-1 gene on brain developmental trajectories in typically developing children

The neuregulin-1 (NRG1) gene is one of the best-validated risk genes for schizophrenia, and psychotic and bipolar disorders. The rs6994992 variant in the NRG1 promoter (SNP8NRG243177) is associated with altered frontal and temporal brain macrostructures and/or altered white matter density and integrity in schizophrenic adults, as well as healthy adults and neonates. However, the ages when these changes begin and whether neuroimaging phenotypes are associated with cognitive performance are not fully understood. Therefore, we investigated the association of the rs6994992 variant on developmental trajectories of brain macro- and microstructures, and their relationship with cognitive performance. A total of 972 healthy children aged 3-20 years had the genotype available for the NRG1-rs6994992 variant, and were evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological tests. Age-by-NRG1-rs6994992 interactions and genotype effects were assessed using a general additive model regression methodology, covaried for scanner type, socioeconomic status, sex and genetic ancestry factors. Compared with the C-carriers, children with the TT-risk-alleles had subtle microscopic and macroscopic changes in brain development that emerge or reverse during adolescence, a period when many psychiatric disorders are manifested. TT-children at late adolescence showed a lower age-dependent forniceal volume and lower fractional anisotropy; however, both measures were associated with better episodic memory performance. To our knowledge, we provide the first multimodal imaging evidence that genetic variation in NRG1 is associated with age-related changes on brain development during typical childhood and adolescence, and delineated the altered patterns of development in multiple brain regions in children with the T-risk allele(s).

PhenX RISING: real world implementation and sharing of PhenX measures

Background

The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the PhenX RISING network and the site experiences in the implementation of PhenX measures into ongoing population-based genomic studies.

Methods

Eighty PhenX measures were implemented across the seven PhenX RISING groups, thirty-three of which were used at more than two sites, allowing for cross-site collaboration. Each site used between four and 37 individual measures and five of the sites are validating the PhenX measures through comparison with other study measures. Self-administered and computer-based administration modes are being evaluated at several sites which required changes to the original PhenX Toolkit protocols. A network-wide data use agreement was developed to facilitate data sharing and collaboration.

Results

PhenX Toolkit measures have been collected for more than 17,000 participants across the PhenX RISING network. The process of implementation provided information that was used to improve the PhenX Toolkit. The Toolkit was revised to allow researchers to select self- or interviewer administration when creating the data collection worksheets and ranges of specimens necessary to run biological assays has been added to the Toolkit.

Conclusions

The PhenX RISING network has demonstrated that the PhenX Toolkit measures can be implemented successfully in ongoing genomic studies. The next step will be to conduct gene/environment studies.

Genome-wide association study of shared components of reading disability and language impairment

Written and verbal languages are neurobehavioral traits vital to the development of communication skills. Unfortunately, disorders involving these traits-specifically reading disability (RD) and language impairment (LI)-are common and prevent affected individuals from developing adequate communication skills, leaving them at risk for adverse academic, socioeconomic and psychiatric outcomes. Both RD and LI are complex traits that frequently co-occur, leading us to hypothesize that these disorders share genetic etiologies. To test this, we performed a genome-wide association study on individuals affected with both RD and LI in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The strongest associations were seen with markers in ZNF385D (OR = 1.81, P = 5.45 × 10(-7) ) and COL4A2 (OR = 1.71, P = 7.59 × 10(-7) ). Markers within NDST4 showed the strongest associations with LI individually (OR = 1.827, P = 1.40 × 10(-7) ). We replicated association of ZNF385D using receptive vocabulary measures in the Pediatric Imaging Neurocognitive Genetics study (P = 0.00245). We then used diffusion tensor imaging fiber tract volume data on 16 fiber tracts to examine the implications of replicated markers. ZNF385D was a predictor of overall fiber tract volumes in both hemispheres, as well as global brain volume. Here, we present evidence for ZNF385D as a candidate gene for RD and LI. The implication of transcription factor ZNF385D in RD and LI underscores the importance of transcriptional regulation in the development of higher order neurocognitive traits. Further study is necessary to discern target genes of ZNF385D and how it functions within neural development of fluent language.