An integrative model of the maturation of cognitive control

Genetic and environmental influences on structural brain development from childhood to adolescence: A longitudinal twin study on cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical volume

The human brain undergoes structural development from childhood to adolescence, with specific regions in the sensorimotor, social, and affective networks continuing to grow into adulthood. While genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in these brain trajectories, the extent remains understudied. Our longitudinal study, utilizing up to three biennial MRI scans (n=485), aimed to assess the genetic and environmental effects on brain structure (age 7) and development (ages 7-14) in these regions. Heritability estimates varied across brain regions, with all regions showing genetic influence (ranging from 18 % to 59 %) with additional shared environmental factors affecting the primary motor cortex (30 %), somatosensory cortex (35 %), DLPFC (5 %), TPJ (17 %), STS (17 %), precuneus (10 %), hippocampus (22 %), amygdala (5 %), and nucleus accumbens (10 %). Surface area was more genetically driven (38 %) than cortical thickness (14 %). Longitudinal brain changes were primarily driven by genetics (ranging from 1 % to 29 %), though shared environment factors (additionally) influenced the somatosensory cortex (11 %), DLPFC (7 %), cerebellum (28 %), TPJ (16 %), STS (20 %), and hippocampus (17 %). These findings highlight the importance of further investigating brain-behavior associations and the influence of enriched and deprived environments from childhood to adolescence. Ultimately, our study can provide insights for interventions aimed at supporting children's development.

Frontoparietal and salience network synchronizations during nonsymbolic magnitude processing predict brain age and mathematical performance in youth

The development and refinement of functional brain circuits crucial to human cognition is a continuous process that spans from childhood to adulthood. Research increasingly focuses on mapping these evolving configurations, with the aim to identify markers for functional impairments and atypical development. Among human cognitive systems, nonsymbolic magnitude representations serve as a foundational building block for future success in mathematical learning and achievement for individuals. Using task-based frontoparietal (FPN) and salience network (SN) features during nonsymbolic magnitude processing alongside machine learning algorithms, we developed a framework to construct brain age prediction models for participants aged 7-30. Our study revealed differential developmental profiles in the synchronization within and between FPN and SN networks. Specifically, we observed a linear increase in FPN connectivity, concomitant with a decline in SN connectivity across the age span. A nonlinear U-shaped trajectory in the connectivity between the FPN and SN was discerned, revealing reduced FPN-SN synchronization among adolescents compared to both pediatric and adult cohorts. Leveraging the Gradient Boosting machine learning algorithm and nested fivefold stratified cross-validation with independent training datasets, we demonstrated that functional connectivity measures of the FPN and SN nodes predict chronological age, with a correlation coefficient of .727 and a mean absolute error of 2.944 between actual and predicted ages. Notably, connectivity within the FPN emerged as the most contributing feature for age prediction. Critically, a more matured brain age estimate is associated with better arithmetic performance. Our findings shed light on the intricate developmental changes occurring in the neural networks supporting magnitude representations. We emphasize brain age estimation as a potent tool for understanding cognitive development and its relationship to mathematical abilities across the critical developmental period of youth. PRACTITIONER POINTS: This study investigated the prolonged changes in the brain's architecture across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, with a focus on task-state frontoparietal and salience networks. Distinct developmental pathways were identified: frontoparietal synchronization strengthens consistently throughout development, while salience network connectivity diminishes with age. Furthermore, adolescents show a unique dip in connectivity between these networks. Leveraging advanced machine learning methods, we accurately predicted individuals' ages based on these brain circuits, with a more mature estimated brain age correlating with better math skills.

The scheduling of adolescence with Netrin-1 and UNC5C

Dopamine axons are the only axons known to grow during adolescence. Here, using rodent models, we examined how two proteins, Netrin-1 and its receptor, UNC5C, guide dopamine axons toward the prefrontal cortex and shape behaviour. We demonstrate in mice (Mus musculus) that dopamine axons reach the cortex through a transient gradient of Netrin-1-expressing cells - disrupting this gradient reroutes axons away from their target. Using a seasonal model (Siberian hamsters; Phodopus sungorus) we find that mesocortical dopamine development can be regulated by a natural environmental cue (daylength) in a sexually dimorphic manner - delayed in males, but advanced in females. The timings of dopamine axon growth and UNC5C expression are always phase-locked. Adolescence is an ill-defined, transitional period; we pinpoint neurodevelopmental markers underlying this period.

Therapeutic potential of CBD in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction, as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior. Despite extensive research, effective pharmacological interventions for ASD remain limited. Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotomimetic compound of the Cannabis sativa plant, has potential therapeutic effects on several neurological and psychiatric disorders. CBD interacts with the endocannabinoid system, a complex cell-signaling system that plays a crucial role in regulating various physiological processes, maintaining homeostasis, participating in social and behavioral processing, and neuronal development and maturation with great relevance to ASD. Furthermore, preliminary findings from clinical trials indicate that CBD may have a modulatory effect on specific ASD symptoms and comorbidities in humans. Interestingly, emerging evidence suggests that CBD may influence the gut microbiota, with implications for the bidirectional communication between the gut and the central nervous system. CBD is a safe drug with low induction of side effects. As it has a multi-target pharmacological profile, it becomes a candidate compound for treating the central symptoms and comorbidities of ASD.

Sensitivity to the Instrumental Value of Choice Increases Across Development

Across development, people tend to demonstrate a preference for contexts in which they have the opportunity to make choices. However, it is not clear how children, adolescents, and adults learn to calibrate this preference based on the costs and benefits of agentic choice. Here, in both a primary, in-person, reinforcement-learning experiment (N = 92; age range = 10-25 years) and a preregistered online replication study (N = 150; age range = 8-25 years), we found that participants overvalued agentic choice but also calibrated their agency decisions to the reward structure of the environment, increasingly selecting agentic choice when choice had greater instrumental value. Regression analyses and computational modeling of participant choices revealed that participants' bias toward agentic choice-reflecting its intrinsic value-remained consistent across age, whereas sensitivity to the instrumental value of agentic choice increased from childhood to early adulthood.

When Maturation is Not Linear: Brain Oscillatory Activity in the Process of Aging as Measured by Electrophysiology

Changes in brain oscillatory activity are commonly used as biomarkers both in cognitive neuroscience and in neuropsychiatric conditions. However, little is known about how its profile changes across maturation. Here we use regression models to characterize magnetoencephalography power changes within classical frequency bands in a sample of 792 healthy participants, covering the range 13 to 80 years old. Our findings unveil complex, non-linear power trajectories that defy the traditional linear paradigm, with notable cortical region variations. Interestingly, slow wave activity increases correlate with improved cognitive performance throughout life and larger gray matter volume in the elderly. Conversely, fast wave activity diminishes in adulthood. Elevated low-frequency activity during aging, traditionally seen as compensatory, may also signify neural deterioration. This dual interpretation, highlighted by our study, reveals the intricate dynamics between brain oscillations, cognitive performance, and aging. It advances our understanding of neurodevelopment and aging by emphasizing the regional specificity and complexity of brain rhythm changes, with implications for cognitive and structural integrity.

Electrophysiology and Morphology of Human Cortical Supragranular Pyramidal Cells in a Wide Age Range

The basic excitatory neurons of the cerebral cortex, the pyramidal cells, are the most important signal integrators for the local circuit. They have quite characteristic morphological and electrophysiological properties that are known to be largely constant with age in the young and adult cortex. However, the brain undergoes several dynamic changes throughout life, such as in the phases of early development and cognitive decline in the aging brain. We set out to search for intrinsic cellular changes in supragranular pyramidal cells across a broad age range: from birth to 85 years of age and we found differences in several biophysical properties between defined age groups. During the first year of life, subthreshold and suprathreshold electrophysiological properties changed in a way that shows that pyramidal cells become less excitable with maturation, but also become temporarily more precise. According to our findings, the morphological features of the three-dimensional reconstructions from different life stages showed consistent morphological properties and systematic dendritic spine analysis of an infantile and an old pyramidal cell showed clear significant differences in the distribution of spine shapes. Overall, the changes that occur during development and aging may have lasting effects on the properties of pyramidal cells in the cerebral cortex. Understanding these changes is important to unravel the complex mechanisms underlying brain development, cognition and age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS): A team science effort to predict societal trajectories in adolescence and young adulthood

Our society faces a great diversity of opportunities for youth. The 10-year Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) program has the long-term goal to understand which combination of measures best predict societal trajectories, such as school success, mental health, well-being, and developing a sense of belonging in society. Our leading hypothesis is that self-regulation is key to how adolescents successfully navigate the demands of contemporary society. We aim to test these questions using socio-economic, questionnaire (including experience sampling methods), behavioral, brain (fMRI, sMRI, EEG), hormonal, and genetic measures in four large cohorts including adolescents and young adults. Two cohorts are designed as test and replication cohorts to test the developmental trajectory of self-regulation, including adolescents of different socioeconomic status thereby bridging individual, family, and societal perspectives. The third cohort consists of an entire social network to examine how neural and self-regulatory development influences and is influenced by whom adolescents and young adults choose to interact with. The fourth cohort includes youth with early signs of antisocial and delinquent behavior to understand patterns of societal development in individuals at the extreme ends of self-regulation and societal participation, and examines pathways into and out of delinquency. We will complement the newly collected cohorts with data from existing large-scale population-based and case-control cohorts. The study is embedded in a transdisciplinary approach that engages stakeholders throughout the design stage, with a strong focus on citizen science and youth participation in study design, data collection, and interpretation of results, to ensure optimal translation to youth in society.

An Expanded Conceptual Framework for Understanding Irritability in Childhood: The Role of Cognitive Control Processes

Children prone to irritability experience significant functional impairments and internalising and externalising problems. Contemporary models have sought to elucidate the underlying mechanisms in irritability, such as aberrant threat and reward biases to improve interventions. However, the cognitive control processes that underlie threat (e.g., attention towards threats) and reward (e.g., attention towards reward-related cues) biases and the factors which influence the differential activation of positive and negative valence systems and thus leading to maladaptive activation of cognitive control processes (i.e., proactive and reactive control) are unclear. Thus, we aim to integrate extant theoretical and empirical research to elucidate the cognitive control processes underlying threat and reward processing that contribute to irritability in middle childhood and provide a guiding framework for future research and treatment. We propose an expanded conceptual framework of irritability that includes broad intraindividual and environmental vulnerability factors and propose proximal 'setting' factors that activate the negative valence and positive valence systems and proactive and reactive cognitive control processes which underpin the expression and progression of irritability. We consider the implications of this expanded conceptualisation of irritability and provide suggestions for future research.

Anxiety Symptoms in Young Children Are Associated With a Maladaptive Neurobehavioral Profile of Error Responding

BACKGROUND

Childhood anxiety symptoms have been linked to alterations in cognitive control and error processing, but the diverse findings on neural markers of anxiety in young children, which vary by severity and developmental stage, suggest the need for a wider perspective. Integrating new neural markers with established ones, such as the error-related negativity, the error positivity, and frontal theta, could clarify this association. Error-related alpha suppression (ERAS) is a recently proposed index of post-error attentional engagement that has not yet been explored in children with anxiety.

METHODS

To identify neurobehavioral profiles of anxiety in young children by integrating ERAS with the error-related negativity, error positivity, frontal theta, and post-error performance indicators, we employed K-means clustering as an unsupervised multimetric approach. For this, we first aimed to confirm the presence and scalp distribution of ERAS in young children. We performed event-related potentials and spectral analysis of electroencephalogram data collected during a Go/NoGo task (Zoo Task) completed by 181 children (ages 4-7 years; 103 female) who were sampled from across the clinical-to-nonclinical range of anxiety severity using the Child Behavior Checklist.

RESULTS

Results confirmed ERAS, showing lower post-error alpha power, maximal suppression at occipital sites, and less ERAS in younger children. K-means clustering revealed that high anxiety and younger age were associated with reduction in ERAS and frontal theta, less negative error-related negativity, enlarged error positivity, more post-error slowing, and reduced post-error accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate a link between ERAS, maladaptive neural mechanisms of attention elicited by errors, and anxiety in young children, suggesting that anxiety may arise from or interfere with attention and error processing.

Development of EEG alpha and theta oscillations in the maintenance stage of working memory

Several studies have shown developmental changes in EEG oscillations during working memory tasks. Although the load-modulated theta and alpha activities in adults are well-documented, the findings are inconsistent if children possess the adult-like brain oscillations that are similarly modulated by memory load. The present study compares children's and adults' true theta and alpha EEG oscillations, separated from aperiodic components, in the maintenance stage of working memory. The EEG was recorded in 25 Chinese-speaking children (14 male, Mage = 9.4 yrs) and 31 adults (19 male, Mage = 20.8 yrs) in Hong Kong while they performed an n-back task that included four conditions differing in load (1- vs. 2-back) and stimulus type (Chinese character vs. visual pattern). The results show that aperiodic activities (i.e., broadband power and slope) during the maintenance stage in the n-back task were significantly higher in children than adults. The periodic theta and alpha oscillations also changed with age. More importantly, adults showed significant periodic theta increase with memory load, whereas such an effect was absent in children. Regardless of age, there was a significant alpha power decrease with load increase, and a significant theta power enhancement when maintaining visual patterns than Chinese characters. In adults, load-modulated alpha peak shift (towards higher frequency) was linked to higher behavioral efficiency in the n-back task. In children, higher load-modulated theta enhancement was linked to better behavioral efficiency. The findings suggest that the load-modulated theta power during working memory maintenance matures from childhood to adulthood.

Enhancing Executive Functions in Pediatric Epilepsy: Feasibility and Efficacy of a Computerized Cognitive Training Program

Epilepsy, a prevalent neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures, significantly impacts individuals' neurobiological, cognitive, and social lives. This report presents a feasibility study investigating the effects of a computerized cognitive training program on enhancing executive functions, particularly inhibitory control, in children and adolescents with epilepsy. Employing a pre-test-intervention-post-test design, the study involved 26 participants with diverse epileptic syndromes, focusing on those without severe intellectual disabilities. The intervention, based on the CogniFit Inc. platform, consisted of personalized tasks aiming to improve participants' inhibitory skills over 16 weeks, with an average of 40 sessions completed per participant. Results indicated significant improvements in reaction times and error rates in an anti-saccade task, demonstrating enhanced inhibitory control and general performance post-intervention. These findings suggest that targeted cognitive training is a feasible approach to bolster executive functions in young individuals with epilepsy, potentially improving their academic performance, employability, and social interactions. The study underscores the importance of early cognitive interventions in epilepsy management, highlighting the potential for computerized programs to aid in mitigating cognitive deficits associated with the condition.

Macronutrient intake is associated with intelligence and neural development in adolescents

Introduction

Macronutrient intake can be one of the most influential factors in cognitive and neural development in adolescents. Adolescence is a specific period of cognitive and neural development, and nutritional effects during this period could be life-long. Therefore, understanding the effects of macronutrient intake on cognitive and neural development in adolescents is crucially important. We thus examined the association across macronutrient intake, intelligence, and neural development using population-based cohort data.

Methods

We conducted two studies. In study 1, we included a total of 1,734 participants (boys, 907, age [mean ± standard deviation] 171.9 ± 3.44 months; range 163.0-186.0 months) from the Tokyo TEEN Cohort (TTC) to examine the association between macronutrient intake and intelligence quotient (IQ). In study 2, we included a total of 63 participants (boys, 38, age 174.4 ± 7.7 months; range 160.7-191.6 months) to investigate the effect of nutrition intake on neural development using graph theory analysis for resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) derived from a subset of the TTC.

Results

TTC data revealed that a higher IQ was associated in boys with increased protein intake (β = 0.068, p = 0.031), and in girls, with reduced carbohydrate intake (β = -0.076, p = 0.024). Graph theory analysis for rs-fMRI at approximately age 12 has shown that impaired local efficiency in the left inferior frontal gyrus was associated with higher carbohydrate and fat intake ([x, y, z] = [-51, 23, 8], pFDR-corrected = 0.00018 and 0.02290, respectively), whereas increased betweenness centrality in the left middle temporal gyrus was associated with higher carbohydrate, fat, and protein intake ([x, y, z] = [-61, -43, -13], pFDR-corrected = 0.0027, 0.0029, and 0.00075, respectively). Moreover, we identified a significant moderating effect of fat and protein intake on the relationship between change in betweenness centrality over a 2-year measurement gap in the left middle temporal gyrus and intelligence (β = 12.41, p = 0.0457; β = 12.12, p = 0.0401, respectively).

Conclusion

Our study showed the association between macronutrient intake and neural development related to intelligence in early adolescents. Appropriate nutritional intake would be a key factor for healthy cognitive and neural development.

The scheduling of adolescence with Netrin-1 and UNC5C

Dopamine axons are the only axons known to grow during adolescence. Here, using rodent models, we examined how two proteins, Netrin-1 and its receptor, UNC5C, guide dopamine axons towards the prefrontal cortex and shape behaviour. We demonstrate in mice ( Mus musculus ) that dopamine axons reach the cortex through a transient gradient of Netrin-1 expressing cells - disrupting this gradient reroutes axons away from their target. Using a seasonal model (Siberian hamsters; Phodopus sungorus ) we find that mesocortical dopamine development can be regulated by a natural environmental cue (daylength) in a sexually dimorphic manner - delayed in males, but advanced in females. The timings of dopamine axon growth and UNC5C expression are always phase-locked. Adolescence is an ill-defined, transitional period; we pinpoint neurodevelopmental markers underlying this period.

Executive functioning, ADHD symptoms and resting state functional connectivity in children with perinatal stroke

Perinatal stroke describes a group of focal, vascular brain injuries that occur early in development, often resulting in lifelong disability. Two types of perinatal stroke predominate, arterial ischemic stroke (AIS) and periventricular venous infarction (PVI). Though perinatal stroke is typically considered a motor disorder, other comorbidities commonly exist including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and deficits in executive function. Rates of ADHD symptoms are higher in children with perinatal stroke and deficits in executive function may also occur but underlying mechanisms are not known. We measured resting state functional connectivity in children with perinatal stroke using previously established dorsal attention, frontoparietal, and default mode network seeds. Associations with parental ratings of executive function and ADHD symptoms were examined. A total of 120 participants aged 6-19 years [AIS N = 31; PVI N = 30; Controls N = 59] were recruited. In comparison to typically developing peers, both the AIS and PVI groups showed lower intra- and inter-hemispheric functional connectivity values in the networks investigated. Group differences in between-network connectivity were also demonstrated, showing weaker anticorrelations between task-positive (frontoparietal and dorsal attention) and task-negative (default mode) networks in stroke groups compared to controls. Both within-network and between-network functional connectivity values were highly associated with parental reports of executive function and ADHD symptoms. These results suggest that differences in functional connectivity exist both within and between networks after perinatal stroke, the degree of which is associated with ADHD symptoms and executive function.

Experience-dependent neurodevelopment of self-regulation in adolescence

Adolescence is a period of rapid biobehavioral change, characterized in part by increased neural maturation and sensitivity to one's environment. In this review, we aim to demonstrate that self-regulation skills are tuned by adolescents' social, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts. We discuss adjacent literatures that demonstrate the importance of experience-dependent learning for adolescent development: environmental contextual influences and training paradigms that aim to improve regulation skills. We first highlight changes in prominent limbic and cortical regions-like the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex-as well as structural and functional connectivity between these areas that are associated with adolescents' regulation skills. Next, we consider how puberty, the hallmark developmental milestone in adolescence, helps instantiate these biobehavioral adaptations. We then survey the existing literature demonstrating the ways in which cultural, socioeconomic, and interpersonal contexts drive behavioral and neural adaptation for self-regulation. Finally, we highlight promising results from regulation training paradigms that suggest training may be especially efficacious for adolescent samples. In our conclusion, we highlight some exciting frontiers in human self-regulation research as well as recommendations for improving the methodological implementation of developmental neuroimaging studies and training paradigms.

Brain network connectivity during peer evaluation in adolescent females: Associations with age, pubertal hormones, timing, and status

Despite copious data linking brain function with changes to social behavior and mental health, little is known about how puberty relates to brain functioning. We investigated the specificity of brain network connectivity associations with pubertal indices and age to inform neurodevelopmental models of adolescence. We examined how brain network connectivity during a peer evaluation fMRI task related to pubertal hormones (dehydroepiandrosterone and testosterone), pubertal timing and status, and age. Participants were 99 adolescents assigned female at birth aged 9-15 (M = 12.38, SD = 1.81) enriched for the presence of internalizing symptoms. Multivariate analysis revealed that within Salience, between Frontoparietal - Reward and Cinguloopercular - Reward network connectivity were associated with all measures of pubertal development and age. Specifically, Salience connectivity linked with age, pubertal hormones, and status, but not timing. In contrast, Frontoparietal - Reward connectivity was only associated with hormones. Finally, Cinguloopercular - Reward connectivity related to age and pubertal status, but not hormones or timing. These results provide evidence that the salience processing underlying peer evaluation is jointly influenced by various indices of puberty and age, while coordination between cognitive control and reward circuitry is related to pubertal hormones, pubertal status, and age in unique ways.

Multivariate Assessment of Inhibitory Control in Youth: Links With Psychopathology and Brain Function

Inhibitory control is central to many theories of cognitive and brain development, and impairments in inhibitory control are posited to underlie developmental psychopathology. In this study, we tested the possibility of shared versus unique associations between inhibitory control and three common symptom dimensions in youth psychopathology: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, and irritability. We quantified inhibitory control using four different experimental tasks to estimate a latent variable in 246 youth (8-18 years old) with varying symptom types and levels. Participants were recruited from the Washington, D.C., metro region. Results of structural equation modeling integrating a bifactor model of psychopathology revealed that inhibitory control predicted a shared or general psychopathology dimension, but not ADHD-specific, anxiety-specific, or irritability-specific dimensions. Inhibitory control also showed a significant, selective association with global efficiency in a frontoparietal control network delineated during resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. These results support performance-based inhibitory control linked to resting-state brain function as an important predictor of comorbidity in youth psychopathology.

Aperiodic EEG and 7T MRSI evidence for maturation of E/I balance supporting the development of working memory through adolescence

Adolescence has been hypothesized to be a critical period for the development of human association cortex and higher-order cognition. A defining feature of critical period development is a shift in the excitation: inhibition (E/I) balance of neural circuitry, however how changes in E/I may enhance cortical circuit function to support maturational improvements in cognitive capacities is not known. Harnessing ultra-high field 7 T MR spectroscopy and EEG in a large, longitudinal cohort of youth (N = 164, ages 10-32 years old, 347 neuroimaging sessions), we delineate biologically specific associations between age-related changes in excitatory glutamate and inhibitory GABA neurotransmitters and EEG-derived measures of aperiodic neural activity reflective of E/I balance in prefrontal association cortex. Specifically, we find that developmental increases in E/I balance reflected in glutamate:GABA balance are linked to changes in E/I balance assessed by the suppression of prefrontal aperiodic activity, which in turn facilitates robust improvements in working memory. These findings indicate a role for E/I-engendered changes in prefrontal signaling mechanisms in the maturation of cognitive maintenance. More broadly, this multi-modal imaging study provides evidence that human association cortex undergoes physiological changes consistent with critical period plasticity during adolescence.

The Lifespan Trajectories of Brain Activities Related to Cognitive Control

Cognitive control plays a pivotal role in guiding human goal-directed behavior, and revealing its lifespan trajectory is crucial for optimizing cognitive functioning at different ages, especially for stages of rapid development and decline. While existing studies have shed light on the inverted U-shaped trajectory of cognitive control function both behaviorally and anatomically, little is known about the corresponding changes in functional brain activation with age. To bridge this gap, we conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of 129 neuroimaging studies using conflict tasks, encompassing 3,388 participants whose age spanned from 5 to 85 years old. We applied the seed-based d mapping (SDM), generalized additive model (GAM) and model comparison approaches to investigate age-related changes of brain activity, chart the lifespan trajectories and pinpoint peaks of cognitive control brain activity. The present study have three major findings: 1) The inverted U-shaped lifespan trajectory is the predominant pattern; 2) Cognitive control related brain regions exhibit heterogeneous lifespan trajectories: the frontoparietal control network (such as the inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule) follows inverted U-shaped trajectories, peaking between 24 and 41 years, while the dorsal attention network (such as the frontal eye field and superior parietal lobule) demonstrates flatter trajectories with age; 3) Both the youth and the elderly show weaker brain activities and greater left laterality than young adults. These results collectively reveal the lifespan trajectories of cognitive control, highlighting heterogeneous fluctuations in brain networks with age.

Maturation of cortical input to dorsal raphe nucleus increases behavioral persistence in mice

The ability to persist toward a desired objective is a fundamental aspect of behavioral control whose impairment is implicated in several behavioral disorders. One of the prominent features of behavioral persistence is that its maturation occurs relatively late in development. This is presumed to echo the developmental time course of a corresponding circuit within late-maturing parts of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, but the specific identity of the responsible circuits is unknown. Here, we used a genetic approach to describe the maturation of the projection from layer 5 neurons of the neocortex to the dorsal raphe nucleus in mice. Using optogenetic-assisted circuit mapping, we show that this projection undergoes a dramatic increase in synaptic potency between postnatal weeks 3 and 8, corresponding to the transition from juvenile to adult. We then show that this period corresponds to an increase in the behavioral persistence that mice exhibit in a foraging task. Finally, we used a genetic targeting strategy that primarily affected neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, to selectively ablate this pathway in adulthood and show that mice revert to a behavioral phenotype similar to juveniles. These results suggest that frontal cortical to dorsal raphe input is a critical anatomical and functional substrate of the development and manifestation of behavioral persistence.

Perception of social inclusion/exclusion and response inhibition in adolescents with past suicide attempt: a multidomain task-based fMRI study

The occurrence of suicidal behaviors increases during adolescence. Hypersensitivity to negative social signals and deficits in cognitive control are putative mechanisms of suicidal behaviors, which necessitate confirmation in youths. Multidomain functional neuroimaging could enhance the identification of patients at suicidal risk beyond standard clinical measures. Three groups of adolescents (N = 96; 78% females, age = 11.6-18.1) were included: patients with depressive disorders and previous suicide attempts (SA, n = 29); patient controls with depressive disorders but without any suicide attempt history (PC, n = 35); and healthy controls (HC, n = 32). We scanned participants with 3T-MRI during social inclusion/exclusion (Cyberball Game) and response inhibition (Go-NoGo) tasks. Neural activation was indexed by the blood-oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) of the hemodynamic response during three conditions in the Cyberball Game ("Control condition", "Social Inclusion", and "Social Exclusion"), and two conditions in Go-NoGo task ("Go" and "NoGo" blocks). ANCOVA-style analysis identified group effects across three whole-brain contrasts: 1) NoGo vs. Go, 2) Social inclusion vs. control condition, 3) Social exclusion vs. control condition. We found that SA had lower activation in the left insula during social inclusion vs. control condition compared to PC and HC. Moreover, SA compared to PC had higher activity in the right middle prefrontal gyrus during social exclusion vs. control condition, and in bilateral precentral gyri during NoGo vs. Go conditions. Task-related behavioral and self-report measures (Self-reported emotional reactivity in the Cyberball Game, response times and number of errors in the Go-NoGo Task) did not discriminate groups. In conclusion, adolescent suicidal behaviors are likely associated with neural alterations related to the processing of social perception and response inhibition. Further research, involving prospective designs and diverse cohorts of patients, is necessary to explore the potential of neuroimaging as a tool in understanding the emergence and progression of suicidal behaviors.

A multi-sample evaluation of the measurement structure and function of the modified monetary incentive delay task in adolescents

Interpreting the neural response elicited during task functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) remains a challenge in neurodevelopmental research. The monetary incentive delay (MID) task is an fMRI reward processing task that is extensively used in the literature. However, modern psychometric tools have not been used to evaluate measurement properties of the MID task fMRI data. The current study uses data for a similar task design across three adolescent samples (N = 346 [Agemean 12.0; 44 % Female]; N = 97 [19.3; 58 %]; N = 112 [20.2; 38 %]) to evaluate multiple measurement properties of fMRI responses on the MID task. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to evaluate an a priori theoretical model for the task and its measurement invariance across three samples. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to identify the data-driven measurement structure across the samples. CFA results suggest that the a priori model is a poor representation of these MID task fMRI data. Across the samples, the data-driven EFA models consistently identify a six-to-seven factor structure with run and bilateral brain region factors. This factor structure is moderately-to-highly congruent across the samples. Altogether, these findings demonstrate a need to evaluate theoretical frameworks for popular fMRI task designs to improve our understanding and interpretation of brain-behavior associations.

Adolescent alcohol drinking interaction with the gut microbiome: implications for adult alcohol use disorder

Reciprocal communication between the gut microbiota and the brain, commonly referred to as the "gut-brain-axis" is crucial in maintaining overall physiological homeostasis. Gut microbiota development and brain maturation (neuronal connectivity and plasticity) appear to be synchronized and to follow the same timeline during childhood (immature), adolescence (expansion) and adulthood (completion). It is important to note that the mesolimbic reward circuitry develops early on, whereas the maturation of the inhibitory frontal cortical neurons is delayed. This imbalance can lead to increased acquirement of reward-seeking and risk-taking behaviors during adolescence, and consequently eventuate in heightened risk for substance abuse. Thus, there is high initiation of alcohol drinking in early adolescence that significantly increases the risk of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in adulthood. The underlying causes for heightened AUD risk are not well understood. It is suggested that alcohol-associated gut microbiota impairment during adolescence plays a key role in AUD neurodevelopment in adulthood. Furthermore, alcohol-induced dysregulation of microglia, either directly or indirectly through interaction with gut microbiota, may be a critical neuroinflammatory pathway leading to neurodevelopmental impairments and AUD. In this review article, we highlight the influence of adolescent alcohol drinking on gut microbiota, gut-brain axis and microglia, and eventual manifestation of AUD. Furthermore, novel therapeutic interventions via gut microbiota manipulations are discussed briefly.

Gains and Losses: Resilience to Social Defeat Stress in Adolescent Female Mice

BACKGROUND

Adolescence is a unique period of psychosocial growth during which social adversity can negatively influence mental health trajectories. Understanding how adolescent social stress impacts males and females and why some individuals are particularly affected is becoming increasingly urgent. Social defeat stress models for adolescent male mice have been effective in reproducing some physical/psychological aspects of bullying. Designing a model suitable for females has proven challenging.

METHODS

We report a version of the adolescent male accelerated social defeat stress (AcSD) paradigm adapted for females. Early adolescent C57BL/6J female mice (N = 107) were exposed to our modified AcSD procedure twice a day for 4 days and categorized as resilient or susceptible based on a social interaction test 24 hours later. Mice were then assessed for changes in Netrin-1/DCC guidance cue expression in dopamine systems, for inhibitory control in adulthood using the Go/No-Go task, or for alterations in dopamine connectivity organization in the matured prefrontal cortex.

RESULTS

Most adolescent females showed protection against stress-induced social avoidance, but in adulthood, these resilient females developed inhibitory control deficits and showed diminution of prefrontal cortex presynaptic dopamine sites. Female mice classified as susceptible were protected against cognitive and dopaminergic alterations. AcSD did not alter Netrin-1/DCC in early adolescent females, contrary to previous findings with males.

CONCLUSIONS

Preserving prosocial behavior in adolescent females may be important for survival advantage but seems to come at the price of developing persistent cognitive and dopamine deficiencies. The female AcSD paradigm produced findings comparable to those found in males, allowing mechanistic investigation in both sexes.

Expanding the emergentist Account:Reply to open peer commentaries

Emergentism provides a framework for understanding how language learning processes vary across developmental age and linguistic levels, as shaped by core mechanisms and constraints from cognition, entrenchment, input, transfer, social support, motivation, and neurology. As our commentators all agree, this landscape is marked by intense variability arising from the complexity. These mechanisms interact in collaborative and competitive ways during actual moments of language use. To better understand these interactions and their effects, we need much richer longitudinal data regarding both input and output during actual contexts of usage. We believe that modern technology can eventually provide this data (Flege & Bohn, 2021) in ways that will allow us to more fully populate an emergent landscape.

100 days of Adolescence: Elucidating Externalizing Behaviors Through the Daily Assessment of Inhibitory Control

Inhibitory control is a transdiagnostic risk factor for externalizing behaviors, particularly during adolescence. Despite advances in understanding links between inhibitory control and externalizing behaviors across youth on average, significant questions remain about how these links play out in the day-to-day lives of individual adolescents. The goals of the current study were to: (1) validate a novel 100-occasion measure of inhibitory control; (2) assess links between day-to-day fluctuations in inhibitory control and individual differences in externalizing behaviors; and (3) illustrate the potential of intensive longitudinal studies for person-specific analyses of adolescent externalizing behaviors. Participants were 106 youth (57.5% female, Mage = 13.34 years; SDage = 1.92) who completed a virtual baseline session followed by 100 daily surveys, including an adapted Stroop Color Word task designed to assess inhibitory control. Results suggested that the novel task was generally reliable and valid, and that inhibitory control fluctuated across days in ways that were meaningfully associated with individual differences in baseline impulsive behaviors. Results of illustrative personalized analyses suggested that inhibitory control had more influence in the daily networks of adolescents who used substances during the 100 days than in a matched set of adolescents who did not. This work marks a path forward in intensive longitudinal research by validating a novel inhibitory control measure, revealing that daily fluctuations in inhibitory control may be a unique construct broadly relevant to adolescent externalizing problems, and at the same time, highlighting that links between daily inhibitory control and impulsive behaviors are adolescent-specific.

Multifaceted neural and vascular pathologies after pediatric mild traumatic brain injury

Dynamic changes in neurodevelopment and cognitive functioning occur during adolescence, including a switch from reactive to more proactive forms of cognitive control, including response inhibition. Pediatric mild traumatic brain injury (pmTBI) affects these cognitions immediately post-injury, but the role of vascular versus neural injury in cognitive dysfunction remains debated. This study consecutively recruited 214 sub-acute pmTBI (8-18 years) and age/sex-matched healthy controls (HC; N = 186), with high retention rates (>80%) at four months post-injury. Multimodal imaging (functional MRI during response inhibition, cerebral blood flow and cerebrovascular reactivity) assessed for pathologies within the neurovascular unit. Patients exhibited increased errors of commission and hypoactivation of motor circuitry during processing of probes. Evidence of increased/delayed cerebrovascular reactivity within motor circuitry during hypercapnia was present along with normal perfusion. Neither age-at-injury nor post-concussive symptom load were strongly associated with imaging abnormalities. Collectively, mild cognitive impairments and clinical symptoms may continue up to four months post-injury. Prolonged dysfunction within the neurovascular unit was observed during proactive response inhibition, with preliminary evidence that neural and pure vascular trauma are statistically independent. These findings suggest pmTBI is characterized by multifaceted pathologies during the sub-acute injury stage that persist several months post-injury.

Age-associated alterations in thalamocortical structural connectivity in youths with a psychosis-spectrum disorder

Psychotic symptoms typically emerge in adolescence. Age-associated thalamocortical connectivity differences in psychosis remain unclear. We analyzed diffusion-weighted imaging data from 1254 participants 8-23 years old (typically developing (TD):N = 626, psychosis-spectrum (PS): N = 329, other psychopathology (OP): N = 299) from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort. We modeled thalamocortical tracts using deterministic fiber tractography, extracted Q-Space Diffeomorphic Reconstruction (QSDR) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures, and then used generalized additive models to determine group and age-associated thalamocortical connectivity differences. Compared to other groups, PS exhibited thalamocortical reductions in QSDR global fractional anisotropy (GFA, p-values range = 3.0 × 10-6-0.05) and DTI fractional anisotropy (FA, p-values range = 4.2 × 10-4-0.03). Compared to TD, PS exhibited shallower thalamus-prefrontal age-associated increases in GFA and FA during mid-childhood, but steeper age-associated increases during adolescence. TD and OP exhibited decreases in thalamus-frontal mean and radial diffusivities during adolescence; PS did not. Altered developmental trajectories of thalamocortical connectivity may contribute to the disruptions observed in adults with psychosis.

Neighborhood poverty during childhood prospectively predicts adolescent functional brain network architecture

Family poverty has been associated with altered brain structure, function, and connectivity in youth. However, few studies have examined how disadvantage within the broader neighborhood may influence functional brain network organization. The present study leveraged a longitudinal community sample of 538 twins living in low-income neighborhoods to evaluate the prospective association between exposure to neighborhood poverty during childhood (6-10 y) with functional network architecture during adolescence (8-19 y). Using resting-state and task-based fMRI, we generated two latent measures that captured intrinsic brain organization across the whole-brain and network levels - network segregation and network segregation-integration balance. While age was positively associated with network segregation and network balance overall across the sample, these associations were moderated by exposure to neighborhood poverty. Specifically, these positive associations were observed only in youth from more, but not less, disadvantaged neighborhoods. Moreover, greater exposure to neighborhood poverty predicted reduced network segregation and network balance in early, but not middle or late, adolescence. These effects were detected both across the whole-brain system as well as specific functional networks, including fronto-parietal, default mode, salience, and subcortical systems. These findings indicate that where children live may exert long-reaching effects on the organization and development of the adolescent brain.

A preliminary investigation into cortical structural alterations in adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury

The structural neural correlates underlying youth nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) warrant further exploration. Few studies have explored the association between NSSI and brain structure in adolescence, and no studies have investigated differences in the relation between age and brain structure in youth with NSSI. This preliminary investigation examined associations between NSSI history, age, and cortical structure using magnetic resonance imaging in adolescent girls (N=100, Mage=13.4 years) at increased risk for psychopathology. We conducted whole-brain analyses to investigate the associations between age and cortical structure, NSSI history and cortical structure, and NSSI history as a moderator of the association between age and cortical structure. Results suggested that age was associated with less cortical thickness and surface area in the left and right prefrontal, temporal, and parietal cortex. NSSI history was associated with less left insula and left inferior parietal cortex cortical surface area. Among adolescents with NSSI history, older age predicted greater left inferior parietal cortex surface area and was not associated with left precentral cortex surface area. Among adolescents without NSSI history, older age predicted smaller surface areas as expected with the typical trajectory of neurodevelopment. Overall, our results suggest differences in cortical surface area development in adolescents with NSSI history.

Characterizing experiential elements of early-life stress to inform resilience: Buffering effects of controllability and predictability and the importance of their timing

Key theoretical frameworks have proposed that examining the impact of exposure to specific dimensions of stress at specific developmental periods is likely to yield important insight into processes of risk and resilience. Utilizing a sample of N = 549 young adults who provided a detailed retrospective history of their lifetime exposure to numerous dimensions of traumatic stress and ratings of their current trauma-related symptomatology via completion of an online survey, here we test whether an individual's perception of their lifetime stress as either controllable or predictable buffered the impact of exposure on trauma-related symptomatology assessed in adulthood. Further, we tested whether this moderation effect differed when evaluated in the context of early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood stress. Consistent with hypotheses, results highlight both stressor controllability and stressor predictability as buffering the impact of traumatic stress exposure on trauma-related symptomatology and suggest that the potency of this buffering effect varies across unique developmental periods. Leveraging dimensional ratings of lifetime stress exposure to probe heterogeneity in outcomes following stress - and, critically, considering interactions between dimensions of exposure and the developmental period when stress occurred - is likely to yield increased understanding of risk and resilience following traumatic stress.

Transcriptomic analysis reveals mitochondrial pathways associated with distinct adolescent behavioral phenotypes and stress response

Adolescent individuals exhibit great variability in cortical dynamics and behavioral outcomes. The developing adolescent brain is highly sensitive to social experiences and environmental insults, influencing how personality traits emerge. A distinct pattern of mitochondrial gene expression in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during adolescence underscores the essential role of mitochondria in brain maturation and the development of mental illnesses. Mitochondrial features in certain brain regions account for behavioral differences in adulthood. However, it remains unclear whether distinct adolescent behavioral phenotypes and the behavioral consequences of early adolescent stress exposure in rats are accompanied by changes in PFC mitochondria-related genes and mitochondria respiratory chain capacity. We performed a behavioral characterization during late adolescence (postnatal day, PND 47-50), including naïve animals and a group exposed to stress from PND 31-40 (10 days of footshock and 3 restraint sessions) by z-normalized data from three behavioral domains: anxiety (light-dark box tests), sociability (social interaction test) and cognition (novel-object recognition test). Employing principal component analysis, we identified three clusters: naïve with higher-behavioral z-score (HBZ), naïve with lower-behavioral z-score (LBZ), and stressed animals. Genome-wide transcriptional profiling unveiled differences in the expression of mitochondria-related genes in both naïve LBZ and stressed animals compared to naïve HBZ. Genes encoding subunits of oxidative phosphorylation complexes were significantly down-regulated in both naïve LBZ and stressed animals and positively correlated with behavioral z-score of phenotypes. Our network topology analysis of mitochondria-associated genes found Ndufa10 and Cox6a1 genes as central identifiers for naïve LBZ and stressed animals, respectively. Through high-resolution respirometry analysis, we found that both naïve LBZ and stressed animals exhibited a reduced prefrontal phosphorylation capacity and redox dysregulation. Our findings identify an association between mitochondrial features and distinct adolescent behavioral phenotypes while also underscoring the detrimental functional consequences of adolescent stress on the PFC.

Corticostriatal connectivity mediates the reciprocal relationship between parent-reported sleep duration and impulsivity in early adolescents

BACKGROUND

Adolescence, a developmental period characterized by significant changes in sleep, is associated with normative increases in impulsivity. While short sleep duration has been linked to elevated impulsivity, the neural mechanism underlying the relationship between short sleep duration and elevated impulsivity remains poorly understood.

METHODS

We analyzed a dataset of 7,884 drug-naive 9-10 year-olds from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Among them, 5,166 have two-year follow-up neuroimaging data. Linear mixed-effects models, mediation analyses, and longitudinal mediation analyses were used to investigate the relationship between parent-reported sleep duration, impulsivity, and functional and structural connectivity between the cortex and the striatum.

RESULTS

We found that less sleep duration is significantly associated with higher positive and negative urgency, which are two affect-related components of impulsivity. In addition, we observed a link between short sleep duration and reduced corticostriatal connectivity. Neural pathways associated with short sleep duration-functional connectivity between the cingulo-opercular network and the left caudate, and between the cingulo-parietal network and the right pallidum-mediated the association between sleep duration and positive urgency both at baseline and two-year follow-up. Longitudinal mediation analyses further revealed that short sleep duration and elevated positive urgency exacerbated each other through these two corticostriatal connectivities.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the key role of corticostriatal connectivities in the reciprocal relationship between short sleep duration and elevated impulsivity. Given the increasing prevalence of short sleep duration in adolescents, the link between sleep duration, impulsivity, and corticostriatal connectivities has important implications for timely interventions to address impulsive problems in early adolescents.

A canonical trajectory of executive function maturation from adolescence to adulthood

Theories of human neurobehavioral development suggest executive functions mature from childhood through adolescence, underlying adolescent risk-taking and the emergence of psychopathology. Investigations with relatively small datasets or narrow subsets of measures have identified general executive function development, but the specific maturational timing and independence of potential executive function subcomponents remain unknown. Integrating four independent datasets (N = 10,766; 8-35 years old) with twenty-three measures from seventeen tasks, we provide a precise charting, multi-assessment investigation, and replication of executive function development from adolescence to adulthood. Across assessments and datasets, executive functions follow a canonical non-linear trajectory, with rapid and statistically significant development in late childhood to mid-adolescence (10-15 years old), before stabilizing to adult-levels in late adolescence (18-20 years old). Age effects are well captured by domain-general processes that generate reproducible developmental templates across assessments and datasets. Results provide a canonical trajectory of executive function maturation that demarcates the boundaries of adolescence and can be integrated into future studies.

Impact of stress on excitatory and inhibitory markers of adolescent cognitive critical period plasticity

Adolescence is a time of significant neurocognitive development. Prolonged maturation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) through adolescence has been found to support improvements in executive function. Changes in excitatory and inhibitory mechanisms of critical period plasticity have been found to be present in the PFC through adolescence, suggesting that environment may have a greater effect on development during this time. Stress is one factor known to affect neurodevelopment increasing risk for psychopathology. However, less is known about how stress experienced during adolescence could affect adolescent-specific critical period plasticity mechanisms and cognitive outcomes. In this review, we synthesize findings from human and animal literatures looking at the experience of stress during adolescence on cognition and frontal excitatory and inhibitory neural activity. Studies indicate enhancing effects of acute stress on cognition and excitation within specific contexts, while chronic stress generally dampens excitatory and inhibitory processes and impairs cognition. We propose a model of how stress could affect frontal critical period plasticity, thus potentially altering neurodevelopmental trajectories that could lead to risk for psychopathology.

A critical period plasticity framework for the sensorimotor-association axis of cortical neurodevelopment

To understand human brain development it is necessary to describe not only the spatiotemporal patterns of neurodevelopment but also the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie them. Human neuroimaging studies have provided evidence for a hierarchical sensorimotor-to-association (S-A) axis of cortical neurodevelopment. Understanding the biological mechanisms that underlie this program of development using traditional neuroimaging approaches has been challenging. Animal models have been used to identify periods of enhanced experience-dependent plasticity - 'critical periods' - that progress along cortical hierarchies and are governed by a conserved set of neurobiological mechanisms that promote and then restrict plasticity. In this review we hypothesize that the S-A axis of cortical development in humans is partly driven by the cascading maturation of critical period plasticity mechanisms. We then describe how recent advances in in vivo neuroimaging approaches provide a promising path toward testing this hypothesis by linking signals derived from non-invasive imaging to critical period mechanisms.

Lateralization of the cerebral network of inhibition in children before and after cognitive training

Inhibitory control (IC) plays a critical role in cognitive and socio-emotional development. IC relies on a lateralized cortico-subcortical brain network including the inferior frontal cortex, anterior parts of insula, anterior cingulate cortex, caudate nucleus and putamen. Brain asymmetries play a critical role for IC efficiency. In parallel to age-related changes, IC can be improved following training. The aim of this study was to (1) assess the lateralization of IC network in children (N = 60, 9-10 y.o.) and (2) examine possible changes in neural asymmetry of this network from anatomical (structural MRI) and functional (resting-state fMRI) levels after 5-week computerized IC vs. active control (AC) training. We observed that IC training, but not AC training, led to a leftward lateralization of the putamen anatomy, similarly to what is observed in adults, supporting that training could accelerate the maturation of this structure.

Immature event-related alpha dynamics in children compared with the young adults during inhibition shown by day-night stroop task

Introduction

Inhibitory control develops gradually from infancy to childhood and improves further during adolescence as the brain matures. Related previous studies showed the indispensable role of task-related alpha power during inhibition both in children and young adults. Nonetheless, none of the studies have been able to investigate the direct differences in brain responses between children and young adults when confronted with a stimulus that should be inhibited. Because, unlike event-related designs, task-related designs involve continuous tasks over a certain period, which precludes the possibility of making such a comparison. Accordingly, by employing event-related design, the present study first time in the literature, aimed to analyze the event-related alpha phase locking and event-related alpha synchronization/ desynchronization to differentiate the inhibitory processes in children compared to young adults.

Methods

Twenty children between the ages of 6 to 7  years and 20 healthy young adult subjects between the ages of 18 to 30  years were included in the study. Day-night Stroop task was applied to all subjects during 18-channel EEG recordings. Event-related time-frequency analysis was performed with the complex Morlet Wavelet Transform for the alpha frequency band (8-13  Hz). Event related spectral perturbation (ERSP) in three different time windows (0-200  ms, 200-400  ms, 400-600  ms) and Event-related phase locking in the early time window (0-400  ms) was calculated.

Results

The children had increased alpha power in early and late time windows but decreased alpha phase locking in the early time windows compared to young adults. There were also topological differences between groups; while young adults had increased alpha phase-locking in frontal and parietal electrode sites, children had increased occipital alpha power and phase locking.

Discussion

The shift in event-related alpha power observed from posterior to anterior regions with age may suggest a progressive maturation of the frontal areas involved in inhibitory processes from childhood to adulthood. The results of the present study showed that children and young adults had different EEG oscillatory dynamics during inhibitory processes at alpha frequency range.

Sex differences of the triple network model in children with autism: A resting-state fMRI investigation of effective connectivity

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has a pronounced male predominance, but the underlying neurobiological basis of this sex bias remains unclear. Gender incoherence (GI) theory suggests that ASD is more neurally androgynous than same-sex controls. Given its central role, altered structures and functions, and sex-dependent network differences in ASD, the triple network model, including the central executive network (CEN), default mode network (DMN), and salience network (SN), has emerged as a candidate for characterizing this sex difference. Here, we measured the sex-related effective connectivity (EC) differences within and between these three networks in 72 children with ASD (36 females, 8-14 years) and 72 typically developing controls (TCs) (36 females, 8-14 years) from 5 sites of the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange repositories using a 2 × 2 analysis of covariance factorial design. We also assessed brain-behavior relationships and the effects of age on EC. We found significant diagnosis-by-sex interactions on EC: females with ASD had significantly higher EC than their male counterparts within the DMN and between the SN and CEN. The interaction pattern supported the GI theory by showing that the higher EC observed in females with ASD reflected a shift towards the higher level of EC displayed in male TCs (neural masculinization), and the lower EC seen in males with ASD reflected a shift towards the lower level of EC displayed in female TCs (neural feminization). We also found significant brain-behavior correlations and significant effects of age on EC.

Reaction Time Variability in Children Is Specifically Associated With Attention Problems and Regional White Matter Microstructure

BACKGROUND

Increased intraindividual variability (IIV) in reaction times (RTs) has been suggested as a key cognitive and behavioral marker of attention problems, but findings for other dimensions of psychopathology are less consistent. Moreover, while studies have linked IIV to brain white matter microstructure, large studies testing the robustness of these associations are needed.

METHODS

We used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study baseline assessment to test the associations between IIV and psychopathology (n = 8622, age = 8.9-11.1 years) and IIV and white matter microstructure (n = 7958, age = 8.9-11.1 years). IIV was investigated using an ex-Gaussian distribution analysis of RTs in correct response go trials in the stop signal task. Psychopathology was measured by the Child Behavior Checklist and a bifactor structural equation model was performed to extract a general p factor and specific factors reflecting internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems. To investigate white matter microstructure, fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity were examined in 23 atlas-based tracts.

RESULTS

Increased IIV in both short and long RTs was positively associated with the specific attention problems factor (Cohen's d = 0.13 and d = 0.15, respectively). Increased IIV in long RTs was also positively associated with radial diffusivity in the left and right corticospinal tract (both tracts, d = 0.12).

CONCLUSIONS

Using a large sample and a data-driven dimensional approach to psychopathology, the results provide novel evidence for a small but specific association between IIV and attention problems in children and support previous findings on the relevance of white matter microstructure for IIV.

Translating Developmental Neuroscience to Understand Risk for Psychiatric Disorders

The transition from childhood to adulthood represents the developmental time frame in which the majority of psychiatric disorders emerge. Recent efforts to identify risk factors mediating the susceptibility to psychopathology have led to a heightened focus on both typical and atypical trajectories of neural circuit maturation. Mounting evidence has highlighted the immense neural plasticity apparent in the developing brain. Although in many cases adaptive, the capacity for neural circuit alteration also induces a state of vulnerability to environmental perturbations, such that early-life experiences have long-lasting implications for cognitive and emotional functioning in adulthood. The authors outline preclinical and neuroimaging studies of normative human brain circuit development, as well as parallel efforts covered in this issue of the Journal, to identify brain circuit alterations in psychiatric disorders that frequently emerge in developing populations. Continued translational research into the interactive effects of neurobiological development and external factors will be crucial for identifying early-life risk factors that may contribute to the emergence of psychiatric illness and provide the key to optimizing treatments.

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.

Age effects in second language acquisition: Expanding the emergentist account

In 2005, Science magazine designated the problem of accounting for difficulties in L2 (second language) learning as one of the 125 outstanding challenges facing scientific research. A maturationally-based sensitive period has long been the favorite explanation for why ultimate foreign language attainment declines with age-of-acquisition. However, no genetic or neurobiological mechanisms for limiting language learning have yet been identified. At the same time, we know that cognitive, social, and motivational factors change in complex ways across the human lifespan. Emergentist theory provides a framework for relating these changes to variation in the success of L2 learning. The great variability in patterns of learning, attainment, and loss across ages, social groups, and linguistic levels provides the core motivation for the emergentist approach. Our synthesis incorporates three groups of factors which change systematically with age: environmental supports, cognitive abilities, and motivation for language learning. This extended emergentist account explains why and when second language succeeds for some children and adults and fails for others.

The functional and structural changes in the hippocampus of COVID-19 patients

Since the hippocampus is predominantly susceptible to injuries caused by COVID-19, there are increasing data indicating the likelihood of post-infection memory loss and quickening neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. This is due to the fact that the hippocampus has imperative functions in spatial and episodic memory as well as learning. COVID-19 activates microglia in the hippocampus and induces a CNS cytokine storm, leading to loss of hippocampal neurogenesis. The functional and structural changes in the hippocampus of COVID-19 patients can explain neuronal degeneration and reduced neurogenesis in the human hippocampus. This will open a window to explain memory and cognitive dysfunctions in "long COVID" through the resultant loss of hippocampal neurogenesis.

Activation of Internal Correctness Monitoring Circuitry in Youths With Psychosis Spectrum Symptoms

BACKGROUND

Self-directed performance monitoring is a critical contributor to cognitive performance and general functioning and is impacted by psychiatric symptoms and personality traits, but has been understudied in psychosis-risk states. We have shown that ventral striatum (VS) responds to correctness during cognitive tasks where no explicit feedback is required, and this intrinsic reinforcement response is reduced in schizophrenia.

METHODS

Here, we examined this phenomenon in youths (n = 796, age range 11-22 years) from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) performing a working memory functional magnetic resonance imaging task. We hypothesized that VS would respond to internal correctness monitoring, while classic salience network regions, such as dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insular cortex, would reflect internal error monitoring and that these responses would increase with age. We expected that neurobehavioral measures of performance monitoring would be reduced in youths with subclinical psychosis spectrum features and would correlate with amotivation severity.

RESULTS

Supporting these hypotheses, we found correct>incorrect activation in VS and incorrect>correct activation in anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insular cortex. Furthermore, VS activation was positively correlated with age, reduced in youths with psychosis spectrum features, and inversely correlated with amotivation. However, these patterns were not significant in anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insular cortex.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings advance our understanding of the neural underpinnings of performance monitoring and its impairment in adolescents with psychosis spectrum features. Such understanding can facilitate investigation of the developmental trajectory of normative and aberrant performance monitoring; contribute to early identification of youths at elevated risk for poor academic, occupational, or psychiatric outcomes; and provide potential targets for therapeutic development.

The Relationship between Formal Music Training and Conflict Control: An ERP Study

Music training involves manifolds of sensorimotor processes that tie closely with executive functions, including conflict control. Past studies have found consistent evidence in children of the link between music learning and executive functions. However, the same relationship has not been found in adult populations, and conflict control has yet to be studied in a focused manner. Via the Stroop task and event-related potentials (ERPs), the present study examined the association between musical training and conflict control ability among Chinese college students. The findings exhibited that individuals with music training outperformed individuals without music training by demonstrating higher accuracy and faster reaction times on the Stroop task and exhibiting greater N2 and smaller P3 amplitudes compared to the control group. The results support our hypothesis that people who received music training demonstrate advantages in their capacity for conflict control. The findings also provide scope for future research.

Maturation of large-scale brain systems over the first month of life

The period immediately after birth is a critical developmental window, capturing rapid maturation of brain structure and a child's earliest experiences. Large-scale brain systems are present at delivery, but how these brain systems mature during this narrow window (i.e. first weeks of life) marked by heightened neuroplasticity remains uncharted. Using multivariate pattern classification techniques and functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging, we detected robust differences in brain systems related to age in newborns (n = 262; R2 = 0.51). Development over the first month of life occurred brain-wide, but differed and was more pronounced in brain systems previously characterized as developing early (i.e. sensorimotor networks) than in those characterized as developing late (i.e. association networks). The cingulo-opercular network was the only exception to this organizing principle, illuminating its early role in brain development. This study represents a step towards a normative brain "growth curve" that could be used to identify atypical brain maturation in infancy.