Charting the maturation of the frontal lobe: An electrophysiological strategy

From preparation to post-processing: Insights into evoked and induced cortical activity during pre-cued motor reactions in children and adolescents

INTRODUCTION

The motor system undergoes significant development throughout childhood and adolescence. The contingent negative variation (CNV), a brain response reflecting preparation for upcoming actions, offers valuable insights into these changes. However, previous CNV studies of motor preparation have primarily focused on adults, leaving a gap in our understanding of how cortical activity related to motor planning and execution matures in children and adolescents.

METHODS

The study addresses this gap by investigating the maturation of motor preparation, pre-activation, and post-processing in 46 healthy, right-handed children and adolescents aged 5-16 years. To overcome the resolution limitations of previous studies, we combined 64-electrode high-density Electroencephalography (EEG) and advanced analysis techniques, such as event-related potentials (ERPs), mu-rhythm desynchronization as well as source localization approaches. The combined analyses provided an in-depth understanding of cortical activity during motor control.

RESULTS

Our data showed that children exhibited prolonged reaction times, increased errors, and a distinct pattern of cortical activation compared to adolescents. The findings suggest that the supplementary motor area (SMA) plays a progressively stronger role in motor planning and response evaluation as children age. Additionally, we observe a decrease in sensory processing and post-movement activity with development, potentially reflecting increased efficiency. Interestingly, adolescent subjects, unlike young adults in previous studies, did not yet show contralateral activation of motor areas during the motor preparation phase (late CNV).

CONCLUSION

The progressive increase in SMA activation and distinct cortical activation patterns in younger participants suggest immature motor areas. These immature regions might be a primary cause underlying the age-related increase in motor action control efficiency. Additionally, the study demonstrates a prolonged maturation of cortical motor areas, extending well into early adulthood, challenging the assumption that motor control is fully developed by late adolescence. This research, extending fundamental knowledge of motor control development, offers valuable insights that lay the foundation for understanding and treating motor control difficulties.

Performance monitoring and error detection: The role of mid frontal theta and error-related negativity (ERN) among Indian adolescents from different socioeconomic background

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and executive functioning, focusing specifically on performance monitoring, error detection, and their association with mid-frontal theta and error-related negativity (ERN). Employing the widely used flanker task, the research involved two phases with participants aged 10-16 years (15 individuals in the pilot phase and 35 in the second phase). Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings from distinct brain regions were analyzed during various conditions. The study revealed a notable increase in both absolute and relative theta power at Fcz during the flanker task, with a stronger effect observed during incorrect trials. Furthermore, it underscored the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on mid-frontal theta, highlighting interactions between SES, gender, and experimental conditions impacting both absolute and relative theta. Intriguingly, the research disclosed a positive correlation between parental occupation and error-related negativity (ERN), as well as between age and ERN. These findings underscore the significance of SES, gender, and age in shaping the neural mechanisms associated with performance monitoring and executive functions. The study contributes valuable insights into the intricate interplay between socio-demographic factors and cognitive processes, shedding light on their impact on goal-directed behaviors and brain activity.

Theta oscillatory dynamics serving cognitive control index psychosocial distress in youth

Background

Psychosocial distress among youth is a major public health issue characterized by disruptions in cognitive control processing. Using the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework, we quantified multidimensional neural oscillatory markers of psychosocial distress serving cognitive control in youth.

Methods

The sample consisted of 39 peri-adolescent participants who completed the NIH Toolbox Emotion Battery (NIHTB-EB) and the Eriksen flanker task during magnetoencephalography (MEG). A psychosocial distress index was computed with exploratory factor analysis using assessments from the NIHTB-EB. MEG data were analyzed in the time-frequency domain and peak voxels from oscillatory maps depicting the neural cognitive interference effect were extracted for voxel time series analyses to identify spontaneous and oscillatory aberrations in dynamics serving cognitive control as a function of psychosocial distress. Further, we quantified the relationship between psychosocial distress and dynamic functional connectivity between regions supporting cognitive control.

Results

The continuous psychosocial distress index was strongly associated with validated measures of pediatric psychopathology. Theta-band neural cognitive interference was identified in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and middle cingulate cortex (MCC). Time series analyses of these regions indicated that greater psychosocial distress was associated with elevated spontaneous activity in both the dlPFC and MCC and blunted theta oscillations in the MCC. Finally, we found that stronger phase coherence between the dlPFC and MCC was associated with greater psychosocial distress.

Conclusions

Greater psychosocial distress was marked by alterations in spontaneous and oscillatory theta activity serving cognitive control, along with hyperconnectivity between the dlPFC and MCC.

Improving the detection of sleep slow oscillations in electroencephalographic data

Study objectives

We aimed to build a tool which facilitates manual labeling of sleep slow oscillations (SOs) and evaluate the performance of traditional sleep SO detection algorithms on such a manually labeled data set. We sought to develop improved methods for SO detection.

Method

SOs in polysomnographic recordings acquired during nap time from ten older adults were manually labeled using a custom built graphical user interface tool. Three automatic SO detection algorithms previously used in the literature were evaluated on this data set. Additional machine learning and deep learning algorithms were trained on the manually labeled data set.

Results

Our custom built tool significantly decreased the time needed for manual labeling, allowing us to manually inspect 96,277 potential SO events. The three automatic SO detection algorithms showed relatively low accuracy (max. 61.08%), but results were qualitatively similar, with SO density and amplitude increasing with sleep depth. The machine learning and deep learning algorithms showed higher accuracy (best: 99.20%) while maintaining a low prediction time.

Conclusions

Accurate detection of SO events is important for investigating their role in memory consolidation. In this context, our tool and proposed methods can provide significant help in identifying these events.

Unveiling the Role of Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) in Migraine: A Review of Electrophysiological Studies in Adults and Children

Migraine has been considered a chronic neuronal-based pain disorder characterized by the presence of cortical hyperexcitability. The Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) is the most explored electrophysiological index in migraine. However, the findings show inconsistencies regarding its functional significance. To address this, we conducted a review in both adults and children with migraine without aura to gain a deeper understanding of it and to derive clinical implications. The literature search was conducted in the PubMed, SCOPUS and PsycINFO databases until September 2022m and 34 articles were retrieved and considered relevant for further analysis. The main results in adults showed higher CNV amplitudes (with no habituation) in migraine patients. Electrophysiological abnormalities, particularly focused on the early CNV subcomponent (eCNV), were especially prominent a few days before the onset of a migraine attack, normalizing during and after the attack. We also explored various modulatory factors, including pharmacological treatments-CNV amplitude was lower after the intake of drugs targeting neural hyperexcitability-and other factors such as psychological, hormonal or genetic/familial influences on CNV. Although similar patterns were found in children, the evidence is particularly scarce and less consistent, likely due to the brain's maturation process during childhood. As the first review exploring the relationship between CNV and migraine, this study supports the role of the CNV as a potential neural marker for migraine pathophysiology and the prediction of pain attacks. The importance of further exploring the relationship between this neurophysiological index and childhood migraine is critical for identifying potential therapeutic targets for managing migraine symptoms during its development.

Age-related differences in transient gamma band activity during working memory maintenance through adolescence

Adolescence is a stage of development characterized by neurodevelopmental specialization of cognitive processes. In particular, working memory continues to improve through adolescence, with increases in response accuracy and decreases in response latency continuing well into the twenties. Human electroencephalogram (EEG) studies indicate that gamma oscillations (35-65 Hz) during the working memory delay period support the maintenance of mnemonic information guiding subsequent goal-driven behavior, which decrease in power with development. Importantly, recent electrophysiological studies have shown that gamma events, more so than sustained activity, may underlie working memory maintenance during the delay period. However, developmental differences in gamma events during working memory have not been studied. Here, we used EEG in conjunction with a novel spectral event processing approach to investigate age-related differences in transient gamma band activity during a memory guided saccade (MGS) task in 164 10- to 30-year-olds. Total gamma power was found to significantly decrease through adolescence, replicating prior findings. Results from the spectral event pipeline showed age-related decreases in the mean power of gamma events and trial-by-trial power variability across both the delay period and fixation epochs of the MGS task. In addition, we found that while event number decreased with age during the fixation period, the developmental decrease during the delay period was more dramatic, resulting in an increase in event spiking from fixation to delay in adolescence but not adulthood. While average power of the transient gamma events was found to mediate age-related differences in total gamma power in the fixation and delay periods, the number of gamma events was related to total power in only the delay period, suggesting that the power of gamma events may underlie the sustained gamma activity seen in EEG literature while the number of events may directly support age-related improvements in working memory maintenance. Our findings provide compelling new evidence for mechanistic changes in neural processing characterized by refinements in neural function as behavior becomes optimized in adulthood.

Short-Term Effects of Competitive Video Games on Aggression: An Event-Related Potential Study

Previous research on factors affecting video game player aggression has mainly reflected on the violent content of video games; in recent years, some researchers have focused on competitive factors in video games. However, little research has examined the sole impacts of competitive factors in video games without violent content on aggression, and the neurological processes of these effects are still unknown. The present study was the first to examine the electrophysiological characteristics of short-term competitive video game exposure and aggression. Thirty-five participants played a video game in either competitive or solo mode for 15 min, followed by an ERP experiment based on the oddball paradigm and the hot sauce paradigm to measure aggressive behavior. Results showed that playing competitive game mode was associated with faster judgment of aggressive words, larger P300 amplitudes, and selection of more chili powder than in solo mode. Mediation analysis further revealed that the P300 amplitude evoked by the aggressive words partially mediated the relationship between competitive game exposure and aggressive behavior. These findings support the general aggression model. However, this study has limitations, such as a single form of competitive game examined and single blindness, which need further improvement in future studies.

Auditory evoked response to an oddball paradigm in children wearing cochlear implants

OBJECTIVE

Although children with cochlear implants (CI) achieve remarkable success with their device, considerable variability remains in individual outcomes. Here, we explored whether auditory evoked potentials recorded during an oddball paradigm could provide useful markers of auditory processing in this pediatric population.

METHODS

High-density electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded in 75 children listening to standard and odd noise stimuli: 25 had normal hearing (NH) and 50 wore a CI, divided between high language (HL) and low language (LL) abilities. Three metrics were extracted: the first negative and second positive components of the standard waveform (N1-P2 complex) close to the vertex, the mismatch negativity (MMN) around Fz and the late positive component (P3) around Pz of the difference waveform.

RESULTS

While children with CIs generally exhibited a well-formed N1-P2 complex, those with language delays typically lacked reliable MMN and P3 components. But many children with CIs with age-appropriate skills showed MMN and P3 responses similar to those of NH children. Moreover, larger and earlier P3 (but not MMN) was linked to better literacy skills.

CONCLUSIONS

Auditory evoked responses differentiated children with CIs based on their good or poor skills with language and literacy.

SIGNIFICANCE

This short paradigm could eventually serve as a clinical tool for tracking the developmental outcomes of implanted children.

Demographic factors, personality, and executive functions as predictors of procrastination in Polish and Ukrainian youth

BACKGROUND

Procrastination is an irrational and unproductive behavior that disrupts psychological well-being and the quality of interpersonal relationships. The study aimed to determine the differences between Polish and Ukrainian youth in procrastinating and establish personality and executive functions as predictors of procrastination. Also, cultural differences were taken into account.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

It included 180 students (86 females and 94 males) aged 12 to 17; 84 lived in Lublin, Poland, while 96 lived in Lviv, Ukraine. The Pure Procrastination Scale, Ten Item Personality Inventory, and Comprehensive Executive Function Inventory were used.

RESULTS

There were no significant differences in the level of procrastination between the whole Polish and Ukrainian groups, but age was an important predictor of procrastination. Gender was not a differentiating factor within the Polish or Ukrainian group. The most stable negative set of predictors of procrastination appeared to be age, agreeableness, and inhibitory control. These traits can be helpful in dealing with procrastination tendencies.

CONCLUSIONS

Our research shows that an ability to control procrastination depends more on predispositions related to personality traits than on executive function improvement linked to the maturation of the frontal lobes. Combining the demographic, personality, and executive variables showed that students in the older age groups were more resistant to procrastination.

Effects of childhood institutionalization on semantic processing and its neural correlates persist into adolescence and adulthood

Individuals raised in institutionalized care settings are more likely to demonstrate developmental deficits than those raised in biological families. One domain that is vulnerable to the impoverished environments characteristic of some institutionalized care facilities is language development. We used EEG to assess ERPs and source-localized event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs) associated with semantic processing at different levels of picture-word conflict and low versus high word frequency. Additionally, we assessed behavioral language ability (a synonyms task) and IQ. Participants (N = 454) were adolescents and adults with a history of institutionalized care (N = 187) or raised in biological families (N = 267), both recruited from secondary educational settings to approximately match the groups on age and education. Results indicate that individuals with a history of institutionalization are less accurate at judging whether semantic information in a spoken word matches an image. Additionally, those with a history of institutionalization show reduced cognitive control of conflict and more reactive N400 ERPs and beta ERSPs when handling picture-word conflict, especially in the left hemisphere. Frontal theta is related to semantic and conflict processing; however, in this study it did not vary with institutionalization.

Associations between lifetime stress exposure and the error-related negativity (ERN) differ based on stressor characteristics and exposure timing in young adults

Life stress increases risk for multiple forms of psychopathology, in part by altering neural processes involved in performance monitoring. However, the ways in which these stress-cognition effects are influenced by the specific timing and types of life stressors experienced remains poorly understood. To address this gap, we examined how different social-psychological characteristics and developmental timing of stressors are related to the error-related negativity (ERN), a negative-going deflection in the event-related potential (ERP) waveform that is observed from 0 to 100 ms following error commission. A sample of 203 emerging adults performed an ERN-eliciting arrow flanker task and completed an interview-based measure of lifetime stress exposure. Adjusting for stress severity during other developmental periods, there was a small-to-medium effect of stress on performance monitoring, such that more severe total stress exposure, as well as more severe social-evaluative stress in particular, experienced during early adolescence significantly predicted an enhanced ERN. These results suggest that early adolescence may be a sensitive developmental period during which stress exposure may result in lasting adaptations to neural networks implicated in performance monitoring.

Impulsivity Moderates the Effect of Neurofeedback Training on the Contingent Negative Variation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background

The contingent negative variation (CNV) is a well-studied indicator of attention- and expectancy-related processes in the human brain. An abnormal CNV amplitude has been found in diverse neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders. However, its role as a potential biomarker of successful clinical interventions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains unclear.

Methods

In this randomized controlled trial, we investigated how the CNV changes following an intensive neurofeedback training. Therefore, twenty-one adolescents with ASD underwent 24 sessions of slow cortical potential (SCP) neurofeedback training. Twenty additional adolescents with ASD formed a control group and received treatment as usual. CNV waveforms were obtained from a continuous performance test (CPT), which all adolescents performed before and after the corresponding 3-month long training period. In order to utilize all available neural time series, trial-based area under the curve values for all four electroencephalogram (EEG) channels were analyzed with a hierarchical Bayesian model. In addition, the model included impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity as potential moderators of change in CNV.

Results

Our model implies that impulsivity moderates the effects of neurofeedback training on CNV depending on group. In the control group, the average CNV amplitude decreased or did not change after treatment as usual. In the experimental group, the CNV changed depending on the severity of comorbid impulsivity symptoms. The average CNV amplitude of participants with low impulsivity scores decreased markedly, whereas the average CNV amplitude of participants with high impulsivity increased.

Conclusion

The degree of impulsivity seems to play a crucial role in the changeability of the CNV following an intensive neurofeedback training. Therefore, comorbid symptomatology should be recorded and analyzed in future EEG-based brain training interventions.

Clinical Trial Registration

https://www.drks.de, identifier DRKS00012339.

Exploration heuristics decrease during youth

Deciding between exploring new avenues and exploiting known choices is central to learning, and this exploration-exploitation trade-off changes during development. Exploration is not a unitary concept, and humans deploy multiple distinct mechanisms, but little is known about their specific emergence during development. Using a previously validated task in adults, changes in exploration mechanisms were investigated between childhood (8-9 y/o, N = 26; 16 females), early (12-13 y/o, N = 38; 21 females), and late adolescence (16-17 y/o, N = 33; 19 females) in ethnically and socially diverse schools from disadvantaged areas. We find an increased usage of a computationally light exploration heuristic in younger groups, effectively accommodating their limited neurocognitive resources. Moreover, this heuristic was associated with self-reported, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in this population-based sample. This study enriches our mechanistic understanding about how exploration strategies mature during development.

Internal consistency reliability of the P300 to novelty in infants: The influence of trial number and data loss due to artifacts

The P300 is an event-related potential component that reflects attention to motivationally salient stimuli and may be a promising tool to examine individual differences in cognitive-affective processing very early in development. However, the psychometric properties of the P300 in infancy are unknown, a fact that limits the component's utility as an individual difference measure in developmental research. To address this gap, 38 infants completed an auditory three-stimulus oddball task that included frequent standard, infrequent deviant, and novel stimuli. We quantified the P300 at a single electrode site and at region of interest (ROI) and examined the internal consistency reliability of the component, both via split-half reliability and as a function of trial number. Results indicated that the P300 to standard, deviant, and novel stimuli fell within moderate to high internal consistency reliability thresholds, and that scoring the component at an ROI led to slightly higher estimates of reliability. However, the percentage of data loss due to artifacts increased across the course of the task, suggesting that including more trials will not necessarily improve the reliability of the P300. Together, these results suggest that robust and reliable measurement of the P300 will require designing tasks that minimize trial number and maximize infant tolerability.

The reliability of visual ERP components in children across the first year of school

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are increasingly used as neurophysiological markers of perceptual and cognitive processes conveying risk for psychopathology. However, little is known about the reliability of ERP components during childhood, a time of substantial brain maturation. In the present study, we examine the early visual ERP components (P1, N170, VPP), frequently examined as indicators of attentional bias, for 110 children at kindergarten (T1) and first grade (T2). Children performed a Go/Nogo task at both time points, with exact stimuli changed to reduce habituation. All components showed increases in absolute amplitude and the P1 and VPP also showed decreases in latency. Retest reliability across time was good to very good for amplitude measures (Pearson rs ranging from .54 for N170 to .69 for P1) and low to very good for latencies (rs from .34 for P1 to .60 for N170), despite the change in visual stimuli. Although there was some evidence of moderation by sex, early visual ERP components appear to be a reliable measure of individual differences in attention processing in middle childhood. This has implications for the use of early visual ERP components as trait-like markers for individual differences in perceptual processes in developmental research.

Neural oscillations underlying selective attention follow sexually divergent developmental trajectories during adolescence

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A cohort of 9- to 16-year-olds completed a classic flanker task during MEG.

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There were developmentally-sensitive interference effects in key attention regions.

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Youth showed sexually-divergent patterns of age-related interference activity.

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Maturational differences among males supported improved task behavior.

Selective attention processes are critical to everyday functioning and are known to develop through at least young adulthood. Although numerous investigations have studied the maturation of attention systems in the brain, these studies have largely focused on the spatial configuration of these systems; there is a paucity of research on the neural oscillatory dynamics serving selective attention, particularly among youth. Herein, we examined the developmental trajectory of neural oscillatory activity serving selective attention in 53 typically developing youth age 9-to-16 years-old. Participants completed the classic arrow-based flanker task during magnetoencephalography, and the resulting data were imaged in the time-frequency domain. Flanker interference significantly modulated theta and alpha/beta oscillations within prefrontal, mid-cingulate, cuneus, and occipital regions. Interference-related neural activity also increased with age in the temporoparietal junction and the rostral anterior cingulate. Sex-specific effects indicated that females had greater theta interference activity in the anterior insula, whereas males showed differential effects in theta and alpha/beta oscillations across frontoparietal regions. Finally, males showed age-related changes in alpha/beta interference in the cuneus and middle frontal gyrus, which predicted improved behavioral performance. Taken together, these data suggest sexually-divergent developmental trajectories underlying selective attention in youth.

Shared and unique neural mechanisms underlying pediatric trichotillomania and obsessive compulsive disorder

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the neural underpinnings of pediatric trichotillomania (TTM). We examined error-related negativity (ERN)-amplitude and theta-EEG power differences among youth with TTM, OCD, and healthy controls (HC).

METHODS

Forty channel EEG was recorded from 63 pediatric participants (22 with TTM, 22 with OCD, and 19 HC) during the Eriksen Flanker Task. EEG data from inhibitory control were used to derive estimates of ERN amplitude and event-related spectral power associated with motor inhibition.

RESULTS

TTM and HC were similar in brain activity patterns in frontal and central regions and TTM and OCD were similar in the parietal region. Frontal ERN-amplitude was significantly larger in OCD relative to TTM and HC, who did not differ from each other. The TTM group had higher theta power compared to OCD in frontal and central regions, and higher theta than both comparison groups in right motor cortex and superior parietal regions. Within TTM, flanker task performance was correlated with EEG activity in frontal, central, and motor cortices whereas global functioning and impairment were associated with EEG power in bilateral motor and parietal cortices.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings are discussed in terms of shared and unique neural mechanisms in TTM and OCD and treatment implications.

Electrophysiological and behavioral indices of cognitive conflict processing across adolescence

Cognitive control enables goal-oriented adaptation to a fast-changing environment and has a protracted development spanning into young adulthood. The neurocognitive processes underlying this development are poorly understood. In a cross-sectional sample of participants 8-19 years old (n = 108), we used blind source separation of EEG data recorded in a Flanker task to derive electrophysiological measures of attention and conflict processing, including a N2-like frontal negative component and a P3-like parietal positive component. Outside the recording session, we examined multiple behavioral measures of interference control derived from the Flanker, Stroop, and Anti-saccade tasks. We found a positive association between age and P3 amplitude, but no relationship between age and N2 amplitude. A stronger N2 was age-independently related to better performance on Stroop and Anti-saccade measures of interference control. A Gratton effect was found on the Flanker task, with slower reaction times on current congruent and better accuracy on current incongruent trials when preceded by incongruent as opposed to congruent trials. The Gratton effect on accuracy was positively associated with age. Together, the findings suggest a multifaceted developmental pattern of the neurocognitive processes involved in conflict processing across adolescence, with a more protracted development of the P3 compared to the N2.

Promotion of Street-Dance Training on the Executive Function in Preschool Children

Executive function is the center of cognitive function, emotional function, and social function, and plays an important role in children’s cognitive development. Previous studies used music, sports, and other training methods to promote the development of children’s executive function. but researchers are still exploring more comprehensive and effective training methods. Street-dance, as a comprehensive dance form integrating the characteristics of movement, music, rhythm, and so on, needs the coordination of individual sensory systems and a sense of musical rhythm and action. These are the same activity elements found in previous studies that can improve the individual executive function of children. In order to investigate the promoting effect of street-dance training on children’s executive function, this study designed a street-dance training program integrating the characteristics of each component of executive function. Sixty preschool children around the age of four (M = 52.4, SD = 3.95) participated using the pretest-posttest experimental design. The dancing group conducted street-dance training 3 times a week, 40–50 min each time for a total of 24 times; the control group did not train. We discovered that 8 weeks of street-dance training can promote the development of executive function in preschool children, and we discussed about the potential mechanism of the street dance training effects and the implications of intervention programs.

Pearls and pitfalls in brain functional analysis by event-related potentials: a narrative review by the Italian Psychophysiology and Cognitive Neuroscience Society on methodological limits and clinical reliability-part I

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are obtained from the electroencephalogram (EEG) or the magnetoencephalogram (MEG, event-related fields (ERF)), extracting the activity that is time-locked to an event. Despite the potential utility of ERP/ERF in cognitive domain, the clinical standardization of their use is presently undefined for most of procedures. The aim of the present review is to establish limits and reliability of ERP medical application, summarize main methodological issues, and present evidence of clinical application and future improvement. The present section of the review focuses on well-standardized ERP methods, including P300, Contingent Negative Variation (CNV), Mismatch Negativity (MMN), and N400, with a chapter dedicated to laser-evoked potentials (LEPs). One section is dedicated to proactive preparatory brain activity as the Bereitschaftspotential and the prefrontal negativity (BP and pN). The P300 and the MMN potentials have a limited but recognized role in the diagnosis of cognitive impairment and consciousness disorders. LEPs have a well-documented usefulness in the diagnosis of neuropathic pain, with low application in clinical assessment of psychophysiological basis of pain. The other ERP components mentioned here, though largely applied in normal and pathological cases and well standardized, are still confined to the research field. CNV, BP, and pN deserve to be largely tested in movement disorders, just to explain possible functional changes in motor preparation circuits subtending different clinical pictures and responses to treatments.

Understanding the interplay of sleep and aging: Methodological challenges

In quest of new avenues to explain, predict, and treat pathophysiological conditions during aging, research on sleep and aging has flourished. Despite the great scientific potential to pinpoint mechanistic pathways between sleep, aging, and pathology, only little attention has been paid to the suitability of analytic procedures applied to study these interrelations. On the basis of electrophysiological sleep and structural brain data of healthy younger and older adults, we identify, illustrate, and resolve methodological core challenges in the study of sleep and aging. We demonstrate potential biases in common analytic approaches when applied to older populations. We argue that uncovering age-dependent alterations in the physiology of sleep requires the development of adjusted and individualized analytic procedures that filter out age-independent interindividual differences. Age-adapted methodological approaches are thus required to foster the development of valid and reliable biomarkers of age-associated cognitive pathologies.

Behind the Scenes of Noninvasive Brain-Computer Interfaces: A Review of Electroencephalography Signals, How They Are Recorded, and Why They Matter

Purpose

Brain-computer interface (BCI) techniques may provide computer access for individuals with severe physical impairments. However, the relatively hidden nature of BCI control obscures how BCI systems work behind the scenes, making it difficult to understand how electroencephalography (EEG) records the BCI related brain signals, what brain signals are recorded by EEG, and why these signals are targeted for BCI control. Furthermore, in the field of speech-language-hearing, signals targeted for BCI application have been of primary interest to clinicians and researchers in the area of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). However, signals utilized for BCI control reflect sensory, cognitive and motor processes, which are of interest to a range of related disciplines including speech science.

Method

This tutorial was developed by a multidisciplinary team emphasizing primary and secondary BCI-AAC related signals of interest to speech-language-hearing.

Results

An overview of BCI-AAC related signals are provided discussing 1) how BCI signals are recorded via EEG, 2) what signals are targeted for non-invasive BCI control, including the P300, sensorimotor rhythms, steady state evoked potentials, contingent negative variation, and the N400, and 3) why these signals are targeted. During tutorial creation, attention was given to help support EEG and BCI understanding for those without an engineering background.

Conclusion

Tutorials highlighting how BCI-AAC signals are elicited and recorded can help increase interest and familiarity with EEG and BCI techniques and provide a framework for understanding key principles behind BCI-AAC design and implementation.

Projected Retained Ability Score (PRAS): A New Methodology for Quantifying Absolute Change in Norm-Based Psychological Test Scores Over Time

A limitation of norm-based ability test scores is that they can only be used to evaluate relative change (compared with change in the norm sample), as opposed to absolute (raw) change in performance from Time 1 to Time 2. To address this limitation, a novel method (Projected Retained Ability Score [PRAS]) was developed to characterize absolute change in norm-based ability test scores. The PRAS method was applied to Differential Ability Scales®–Second Edition (DAS-II) General Conceptual Ability (GCA) scores in three cases of children with the neurodegenerative condition mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II) who were assessed at two visits, 16 to 23 months apart. Although all three cases showed declines in norm-based GCA scores, the PRAS method revealed differences in absolute change in performance. The PRAS method allows for differentiation of slower-than-average improvement or stabilization versus deterioration of cognitive ability when norm-based scores decline from Time 1 to Time 2.

Conducting Event-Related Potential (ERP) Research with Young Children: A Review of Components, Special Considerations and Recommendations for Research on Cognition and Emotion

There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of research studies employing event-related potential (ERP) techniques to examine dynamic and rapidly-occurring neural processes with children during the preschool and early childhood years. Despite this, there has been little discussion of the methodological and procedural differences that exist for studies of young children versus older children and adults. That is, reviewers, editors, and consumers of this work often expect developmental studies to simply apply adult techniques and procedures to younger samples. Procedurally, this creates unrealistic expectations for research paradigms, data collection, and data reduction and analyses. Scientifically, this leads to inappropriate measures and methods that hinder drawing conclusions and advancing theory. Based on ERP work with preschoolers and young children from 10 laboratories across North America, we present a summary of the most common ERP components under study in the area of emotion and cognition in young children along with 13 realistic expectations for data collection and loss, laboratory procedures and paradigms, data processing, ERP averaging, and typical challenges for conducting this type of work. This work is intended to supplement previous guidelines for work with adults and offer insights to aid researchers, reviewers, and editors in the design and evaluation of developmental research using ERPs. Here we make recommendations for researchers who plan to conduct or who are conducting ERP studies in children between ages 2 and 12, focusing on studies of toddlers and preschoolers. Recommendations are based on both data and our cumulative experience and include guidelines for laboratory setup, equipment and recording settings, task design, and data processing.

Developmental trends of performance monitoring measures in 7- to 25-year-olds: Unraveling the complex nature of brain measures

This study explores how trial-to-trial latency variability contributes to the developmental trends observed in ERN amplitude found in the incorrect trials of a performance monitoring task, the visual flanker task. An Adaptive Woody filter was used to measure and correct for the trial-to-trial latency variability of the ERN in 240 participants aged 7-25 years. Using three measures of latency variability, the degree of trial-to-trial latency variability was shown to decrease as the age of the participants increased from 7 to 25 years. The success of the Adaptive Woody filter technique to remove the trial-to-trial latency variability was demonstrated in a straightforward manner by the significant changes in the measures of fit and intraindividual variability obtained before and after applying the filter. After the latency variability effects were removed and adjusted averaged ERPs were obtained, a more subtle but significant nonlinear developmental trend was still found in the amplitude of the ERN component.

Towards a unified model of event-related potentials as phases of stimulus-to-response processing

This study demonstrates the utility of combining principles of connectionist theory with a sophisticated statistical approach, structural equation modeling (SEM), to better understand brain-behavior relationships in studies using event-related potentials (ERPs). The models show how sequential phases of neural processing measured by averaged ERP waveform components can successfully predict task behavior (response time; RT) while accounting for individual differences in maturation and sex. The models assume that all ERP measures are affected by individual differences in physical and mental state that inflate measurement error. ERP data were collected from 154 neurotypical children (7-13 years, M = 10.22, SD = 1.48; 74 males) performing a cued Go/No-Go task during two separate sessions. Using SEM, we show a latent variable path model with good fit (e.g., χ²(51) = 56.20, p = .25; RMSEA = .03; CFI = .99; SRMR = .06) yielding moderate-to-large predictive coefficients from N1 through the E-wave latent variables (N1 β = -.29 → P2 β = -.44 → N2 β = .28 → P3 β =.64→ E-wave), which in turn significantly predicted RT (β =.34, p = .02). Age significantly related to N1 and P3 latent variables as well as RT (β =.31, -.58, & -.40 respectively), and Sex significantly related to the E-wave latent variable and RT (β =.36 & 0.21 respectively). Additionally, the final model suggested that individual differences in emotional and physical state accounted for a significant proportion of variance in ERP measurements, and that individual states systematically varied across sessions (i.e., the variance was not just random noise). These findings suggest that modeling ERPs as a system of inter-related processes may be a more informative approach to examining brain-behavior relationships in neurotypical and clinical groups than traditional analysis techniques.

Differential Effects of Stress Exposures, Caregiving Quality, and Temperament in Early Life on Working Memory versus Inhibitory Control in Preschool-Aged Children

We examined the roles of maternal and child lifetime stress exposures, infant temperament (orienting/regulation, surgency/extraversion), and maternal caregiving during infancy and preschool on preschoolers' working memory and inhibitory control in a sociodemographically diverse pregnancy cohort. Working memory was predicted by infant orienting/regulation, with differential effects by the level of maternal cognitive support in infancy; maternal lifetime stress exposures exerted independent negative effects on working memory. Inhibitory control was positively associated with maternal emotionally supportive behaviors in infancy, which mediated the effects of maternal lifetime stress exposures on inhibitory control. These findings have implications for interventions designed to optimize child executive functioning.

Age-Related Differences in the Late Positive Potential during Emotion Regulation between Adolescents and Adults

The late positive potential (LPP) has been well documented in predicting the effect of emotion regulation in previous developmental literature. However, few studies have examined age-related changes in emotion regulation from adolescence to adulthood using this biomarker. To test this, Reactivity and Regulation-Image Task was used to test 18 young adolescents and 22 adults to examine the modulation of LPP during emotion regulation. Results revealed that (a) on the behavioral level, adults reported higher intensity of emotional experience than adolescents when they were asked to use up-regulation. Down-regulation showed no age effect for self-reported rating; (b) adolescents showed higher amplitudes of LPP than adults when using different regulatory strategies in all windows; (c) In late time window, regulation effect was larger when using up-regulation strategy than down-regulation strategy for adolescents, while the difference between the two strategies was negligible for adults. (d) In early time window, reactivity effect was larger in negative conditions than in positive conditions for adolescents, while the difference between the two conditions was again negligible for adults. Differences in the amplitudes and time courses of LPP during emotion regulation between adolescents and adults suggested that age-related changes in emotion regulation may occur during adolescence.

P300 development from infancy to adolescence

This article provides an overview of P300 research from infancy through adolescence. First, a brief historical overview is provided highlighting seminal studies that began exploration of the P300 component in developmental groups. Overall, these studies suggest that the P300 can be detected in children and appears to reflect similar cognitive processes to those in adults; however, it is significantly delayed in its latency to peak. Second, two striking findings from developmental research are the lack of a clear P300 component in infancy and differential electrophysiological responses to novel, unexpected stimuli in children, adolescents, and adults. Third, contemporary questions are described, which include P300-like components in infancy, alteration of P300 in atypically developing groups, relations between P300 and behavior, individual differences of P300, and neural substrates of P300 across development. Finally, we conclude with comments regarding the power of a developmental perspective and suggestions for important issues that should be addressed in the next 50 years of P300 research.

Novelty N2-P3a Complex and Theta Oscillations Reflect Improving Neural Coordination Within Frontal Brain Networks During Adolescence

Adolescents are easily distracted by novel items than adults. Maturation of the frontal cortex and its integration into widely distributed brain networks may result in diminishing distractibility with the transition into young adulthood. The aim of this study was to investigate maturational changes of brain activity during novelty processing. We hypothesized that during adolescence, timing and task-relevant modulation of frontal cortex network activity elicited by novelty processing improves, concurrently with increasing cognitive control abilities. A visual novelty oddball task was utilized in combination with EEG measurements to investigate brain maturation between 8–28 years of age (n = 84). Developmental changes of the frontal N2-P3a complex and concurrent theta oscillations (4–7 Hz) elicited by rare and unexpected novel stimuli were analyzed using regression models. N2 amplitude decreased, P3a amplitude increased, and latency of both components decreased with age. Pre-stimulus amplitude of theta oscillations decreased, while inter-trial consistency, task-related amplitude modulation and inter-site connectivity of frontal theta oscillations increased with age. Targets, intertwined in a stimulus train with regular non-targets and novels, were detected faster with increasing age. These results indicate that neural processing of novel stimuli became faster and the neural activation pattern more precise in timing and amplitude modulation. Better inter-site connectivity further implicates that frontal brain maturation leads to global neural reorganization and better integration of frontal brain activity within widely distributed brain networks. Faster target detection indicated that these maturational changes in neural activation during novelty processing may result in diminished distractibility and increased cognitive control to pursue the task.

Contingent Negative Variation and Working Memory Maintenance in Adolescents with Low and High Motor Competencies

Although it has been suggested that motor and cognitive development is interrelated, the link between motor competencies and neurophysiological indices of working memory operations has not yet been examined in adolescents. This study is aimed at comparing contingent negative variation and working memory performance between adolescents with low and high motor competencies. In eighty-two adolescents, motor competencies were assessed with the MOBAK-5 (basic motor competencies, 5th grade) test battery and a median split was performed on this variable to divide them into low and high performers. Additionally, all participants completed a Sternberg paradigm to assess working memory maintenance. The initial (iCNV) and terminal (tCNV) components of the contingent negative variation elicited by the cognitive task were recorded using electroencephalography. Higher working memory maintenance was found in adolescents with high motor competencies compared to those with low motor competencies. Cluster-based permutation testing further revealed increased iCNV in adolescents with higher motor competencies. In contrast, there was no difference in tCNV between groups. The findings suggest that high working memory maintenance and effective task preparation are both linked to high motor competencies. Thus, high performers on complex motor tasks seem to rely more on a proactive control strategy, which is optimal in tasks with high working memory demands.

Modeling the interrelationships between brain activity and trait attention measures to predict individual differences in reaction times in children during a Go/No-Go task

Many researchers are utilizing event-related potentials (ERPs) to better understand brain-behavior relationships across development. The present study demonstrates how structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques can be used to refine descriptions of brain-behavior relationships in a sample of neurotypical children. We developed an exploratory latent variable model in which trait measures of maturation and attention are related to neural processing and task behaviors obtained during a cued Go/No-Go task. Model findings are compared to results of traditional analysis techniques such as bivariate correlations. The data suggest that more sophisticated statistical approaches are beneficial to accurately interpreting the nature of brain-behavior relationships.

Hot and cool executive function in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: Cross-sectional developmental trajectories

The development of executive function (EF) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has only been investigated using "cool"-cognitive-EF tasks. Little is known about the development of "hot"-affective-EF and whether it follows a similar developmental pathway. This study employed a cross-sectional developmental trajectories approach to examine the developmental changes in cool (working memory, inhibition, and planning) and hot EF (delay discounting and affective decision-making) of ASD participants (n = 79) and controls (n = 91) relative to age and IQ, shedding more light on the hot-cool EF organization. The developmental trajectories of some aspects of cool EF (working memory and planning) differed significantly as a function of age in ASD participants relative to controls. For both hot EFs, no significant age-related changes were found in either group. These findings extend our understanding regarding the maturation of EF from childhood through adolescence in ASD.

Peripheral hearing loss reduces the ability of children to direct selective attention during multi-talker listening

Restoring normal hearing requires knowledge of how peripheral and central auditory processes are affected by hearing loss. Previous research has focussed primarily on peripheral changes following sensorineural hearing loss, whereas consequences for central auditory processing have received less attention. We examined the ability of hearing-impaired children to direct auditory attention to a voice of interest (based on the talker's spatial location or gender) in the presence of a common form of background noise: the voices of competing talkers (i.e. during multi-talker, or "Cocktail Party" listening). We measured brain activity using electro-encephalography (EEG) when children prepared to direct attention to the spatial location or gender of an upcoming target talker who spoke in a mixture of three talkers. Compared to normally-hearing children, hearing-impaired children showed significantly less evidence of preparatory brain activity when required to direct spatial attention. This finding is consistent with the idea that hearing-impaired children have a reduced ability to prepare spatial attention for an upcoming talker. Moreover, preparatory brain activity was not restored when hearing-impaired children listened with their acoustic hearing aids. An implication of these findings is that steps to improve auditory attention alongside acoustic hearing aids may be required to improve the ability of hearing-impaired children to understand speech in the presence of competing talkers.

An event related potential study of ihibitory and attentional control in Williams syndrome adults

The primary aim of the current study was to employ event-related potentials (ERPs) methodology to disentangle the mechanisms related to inhibitory control in older adults with Williams syndrome (WS). Eleven older adults with WS (mean age 42), 16 typically developing adults (mean age 42) and 13 typically developing children (mean age 12) participated in the study. ERPs were recorded during a three-stimulus visual oddball task, during which participants were required to make a response to a rare target stimulus embedded in a train of frequent non-target stimuli. A task-irrelevant infrequent stimulus was also present at randomised intervals during the session. The P3a latency data response related to task-irrelevant stimulus processing was delayed in WS. In addition, the early perceptual N2 amplitude was attenuated. These data are indicative of compromised early monitoring of perceptual input, accompanied by appropriate orientation of responses to task-irrelevant stimuli. However, the P3a delay suggests inefficient evaluation of the task-irrelevant stimuli. These data are discussed in terms of deficits in the disengagement of attentional processes, and the regulation of monitoring processes required for successful inhibition.

Conflict and performance monitoring throughout the lifespan: An event-related potential (ERP) and temporospatial component analysis

Cognitive control includes higher-level cognitive processes used to evaluate environmental conflict. Given the importance of cognitive control in regulating behavior, understanding the developmental course of these processes may contribute to a greater understanding of normal and abnormal development. We examined behavioral (response times [RTs], error rates) and event-related potential data (N2, error-related negativity [ERN], correct-response negativity [CRN], error positivity [Pe]) during a flanker task in cross-sectional groups of 45 youth (ages 8-18), 52 younger adults (ages 20-28), and 58 older adults (ages 56-91). Younger adults displayed the most efficient processing, including significantly reduced CRN and N2 amplitude, increased Pe amplitude, and significantly better task performance than youth or older adults (e.g., faster RTs, fewer errors). Youth displayed larger CRN and N2, attenuated Pe, and significantly worse task performance than younger adults. Older adults fell either between youth and younger adults (e.g., CRN amplitudes, N2 amplitudes) or displayed neural and behavioral performance that was similar to youth (e.g., Pe amplitudes, error rates). These findings point to underdeveloped neural and cognitive processes early in life and reduced efficiency in older adulthood, contributing to poor implementation and modulation of cognitive control in response to conflict. Thus, cognitive control processing appears to reach peak performance and efficiency in younger adulthood, marked by improved task performance with less neural activation.

Fitness and ERP Indices of Cognitive Control Mode during Task Preparation in Preadolescent Children

A growing number of studies conducted over the past decade have demonstrated that greater aerobic fitness is associated with superior cognitive control in preadolescent children. Several studies have suggested that the relationship between fitness and cognitive control may be attributed to differential reliance on proactive vs. reactive cognitive control modes. However, this contention has remained speculative, and further studies are needed to better elucidate this relationship. We designed the present study to test the hypothesis that use of cognitive control modes would differ as a function of childhood fitness. We compared performance of lower-fit and higher-fit children on a modified AX-continuous performance task, commonly used to examine shifts in the use of proactive and reactive control, along with cue-P3 and contingent negative variation (CNV) of event-related brain potentials (ERPs). Results indicated that higher-fit children exhibited greater response accuracy for BX (non-target cue – target probe) relative to AY (target cue – non-target probe) trials, whereas lower-fit children had comparable response accuracies for AY and BX trials. Because enhanced BX performance and impaired AY performance may be attributed to the proactive use of context information, these results suggest that greater childhood fitness is associated with more effective utilization of proactive control. Higher-fit children also exhibited larger cue-P3 amplitude and smaller CNV amplitude for BX relative to AY trials, with no such effect of trial type in lower-fit children. These ERP results suggest that greater fitness is associated with more effective utilization of cue information and response preparation more appropriate to trial type, supporting the behavioral findings. The present study provides novel insights into the relationship between fitness and cognition from the perspective of cognitive control mode during task preparation.

Age and sex differences in oxytocin and vasopressin V1a receptor binding densities in the rat brain: focus on the social decision-making network

Oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) regulate various social behaviors via activation of the OT receptor (OTR) and the AVP V1a receptor (V1aR) in the brain. Social behavior often differs across development and between the sexes, yet our understanding of age and sex differences in brain OTR and V1aR binding remains incomplete. Here, we provide an extensive analysis of OTR and V1aR binding density throughout the brain in juvenile and adult male and female rats, with a focus on regions within the social decision-making network. OTR and V1aR binding density were higher in juveniles than in adults in regions associated with reward and socio-spatial memory and higher in adults than in juveniles in key regions of the social decision-making network and in cortical regions. We discuss possible implications of these shifts in OTR and V1aR binding density for the age-specific regulation of social behavior. Furthermore, sex differences in OTR and V1aR binding density were less numerous than age differences. The direction of these sex differences was region-specific for OTR but consistently higher in females than in males for V1aR. Finally, almost all sex differences in OTR and V1aR binding density were already present in juveniles and occurred in regions with denser binding in adults compared to juveniles. Possible implications of these sex differences for the sex-specific regulation of behavior, as well potential underlying mechanisms, are discussed. Overall, these findings provide an important framework for testing age- and sex-specific roles of OTR and V1aR in the regulation of social behavior.

The Test-Retest Reliability of the Visually Evoked Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) in Children and Adults

Establishing the reliability of event-related potentials is critical for future applications to biomarker development and clinical research. Few studies have examined the reliability of the contingent negative variation (CNV), and only in adults. The current study explored test-retest reliability of the visually evoked CNV and its embedded components, the O-wave and the E-wave, in children (7-13 years) and young adults (19-28 years) during a visual Go/No-Go task over 1-2 weeks. Test-retest reliability of the components was moderate for children, and low-to-moderate for adults. These findings were in contrast to previous work with adults showing moderate-to-high reliability of the auditory-evoked CNV.

Animal Models of Maladaptive Traits: Disorders in Sensorimotor Gating and Attentional Quantifiable Responses as Possible Endophenotypes

Traditional diagnostic scales are based on a number of symptoms to evaluate and classify mental diseases. In many cases, this process becomes subjective, since the patient must calibrate the magnitude of his/her symptoms and therefore the severity of his/her disorder. A completely different approach is based on the study of the more vulnerable traits of cognitive disorders. In this regard, animal models of mental illness could be a useful tool to characterize indicators of possible cognitive dysfunctions in humans. Specifically, several cognitive disorders such as schizophrenia involve a dysfunction in the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system during development. These variations in dopamine levels or dopamine receptor sensibility correlate with many behavioral disturbances. These behaviors may be included in a specific phenotype and may be analyzed under controlled conditions in the laboratory. The present study provides an introductory overview of different quantitative traits that could be used as a possible risk indicator for different mental disorders, helping to define a specific endophenotype. Specifically, we examine different experimental procedures to measure impaired response in attention linked to sensorimotor gating as a possible personality trait involved in maladaptive behaviors.

Sustained attention and prediction: distinct brain maturation trajectories during adolescence

Adolescence is a key period for frontal cortex maturation necessary for the development of cognitive ability. Sustained attention and prediction are cognitive functions critical for optimizing sensory processing, and essential to efficiently adapt behaviors in an ever-changing world. The aim of the current study was to investigate the brain developmental trajectories of attentive and predictive processing through adolescence. We recorded EEG in 36 participants from the age of 12-24 years (three age groups: 12-14, 14-17, 18-24 years) to target development during early and late adolescence, and early adulthood. We chose a visual target detection task which loaded upon sustained attention, and we manipulated target predictability. Continued maturation of sustained attention after age 12 was evidenced by improved performance (hits, false alarms (FAs) and sensitivity) in a detection task, associated with a frontal shift in the scalp topographies of the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) and P3 responses, with increasing age. No effect of age was observed on predictive processing, with all ages showing similar benefits in reaction time, increases in P3 amplitude (indexing predictive value encoding and memorization), increases in CNV amplitude (corresponding to prediction implementation) and reduction in target-P3 latency (reflecting successful prediction building and use), with increased predictive content. This suggests that adolescents extracted and used predictive information to generate predictions as well as adults. The present results show that predictive and attentive processing follow distinct brain developmental trajectories: prediction abilities seem mature by the age of 12 and sustained attention continues to improve after 12-years of age and is associated with maturational changes in the frontal cortices.