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Killanin AD, Ward TW, Embury CM, Calhoun VD, Wang Y, Stephen JM, Picci G, Heinrichs‐Graham E, Wilson TW. Effects of endogenous testosterone on oscillatory activity during verbal working memory in youth. Hum Brain Mapp 2024; 45:e26774. [PMID: 38949599 PMCID: PMC11215982 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26774] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2024] [Revised: 05/28/2024] [Accepted: 06/17/2024] [Indexed: 07/02/2024] Open
Abstract
Testosterone levels sharply rise during the transition from childhood to adolescence and these changes are known to be associated with changes in human brain structure. During this same developmental window, there are also robust changes in the neural oscillatory dynamics serving verbal working memory processing. Surprisingly, whereas many studies have investigated the effects of chronological age on the neural oscillations supporting verbal working memory, none have probed the impact of endogenous testosterone levels during this developmental period. Using a sample of 89 youth aged 6-14 years-old, we collected salivary testosterone samples and recorded magnetoencephalography during a modified Sternberg verbal working memory task. Significant oscillatory responses were identified and imaged using a beamforming approach and the resulting maps were subjected to whole-brain ANCOVAs examining the effects of testosterone and sex, controlling for age, during verbal working memory encoding and maintenance. Our primary results indicated robust testosterone-related effects in theta (4-7 Hz) and alpha (8-14 Hz) oscillatory activity, controlling for age. During encoding, females exhibited weaker theta oscillations than males in right cerebellar cortices and stronger alpha oscillations in left temporal cortices. During maintenance, youth with greater testosterone exhibited weaker alpha oscillations in right parahippocampal and cerebellar cortices, as well as regions across the left-lateralized language network. These results extend the existing literature on the development of verbal working memory processing by showing region and sex-specific effects of testosterone, and are the first results to link endogenous testosterone levels to the neural oscillatory activity serving verbal working memory, above and beyond the effects of chronological age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abraham D. Killanin
- Institute for Human NeuroscienceBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Center for Pediatric Brain HealthBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- College of MedicineUniversity of Nebraska Medical CenterOmahaNebraskaUSA
| | - Thomas W. Ward
- Institute for Human NeuroscienceBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Center for Pediatric Brain HealthBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Department of Pharmacology and NeuroscienceCreighton UniversityOmahaNebraskaUSA
| | - Christine M. Embury
- Institute for Human NeuroscienceBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Center for Pediatric Brain HealthBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
| | - Vince D. Calhoun
- Tri‐Institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS)Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Emory UniversityAtlantaGeorgiaUSA
| | - Yu‐Ping Wang
- Department of Biomedical EngineeringTulane UniversityNew OrleansLouisianaUSA
| | | | - Giorgia Picci
- Institute for Human NeuroscienceBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Center for Pediatric Brain HealthBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Department of Pharmacology and NeuroscienceCreighton UniversityOmahaNebraskaUSA
| | - Elizabeth Heinrichs‐Graham
- Institute for Human NeuroscienceBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Center for Pediatric Brain HealthBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Department of Pharmacology and NeuroscienceCreighton UniversityOmahaNebraskaUSA
| | - Tony W. Wilson
- Institute for Human NeuroscienceBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- Center for Pediatric Brain HealthBoys Town National Research HospitalNebraskaUSA
- College of MedicineUniversity of Nebraska Medical CenterOmahaNebraskaUSA
- Department of Pharmacology and NeuroscienceCreighton UniversityOmahaNebraskaUSA
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2
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Hamilton M, Ross A, Blaser E, Kaldy Z. Proactive interference and the development of working memory. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2022; 13:e1593. [PMID: 35193170 PMCID: PMC9640215 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2021] [Revised: 12/07/2021] [Accepted: 02/01/2022] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Working memory (WM), the ability to maintain information in service to a task, is characterized by its limited capacity. Several influential models attribute this limitation in a large extent to proactive interference (PI), the phenomenon that previously encoded, now-irrelevant information competes with relevant information. Here, we look back at the adult PI literature, spanning over 60 years, as well as recent results linking the ability to cope with PI to WM capacity. In early development, WM capacity is even more limited, yet an accounting for the role of PI has been lacking. Our Focus Article aims to address this through an integrative account: since PI resolution is mediated by networks involving the frontal cortex (particularly, the left inferior frontal gyrus) and the posterior parietal cortex, and since children have protracted development and less recruitment of these areas, the increase in the ability to cope with PI is a major factor underlying the increase in WM capacity in early development. Given this, we suggest that future research should focus on mechanistic studies of PI resolution in children. Finally, we note a crucial methodological implication: typical WM paradigms repeat stimuli from trial-to-trial, facilitating, inadvertently, PI and reducing performance; we may be fundamentally underestimating children's WM capacity. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Memory Neuroscience > Cognition Neuroscience > Development.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Zsuzsa Kaldy
- corresponding author: Dr. Zsuzsa Kaldy, University of Massachusetts Boston, Dept. of Psychology, 100 Morrissey Blvd, Boston, MA, 02125,
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DeMayo MM, Young LJ, Hickie IB, Song YJC, Guastella AJ. Circuits for social learning: A unified model and application to Autism Spectrum Disorder. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2019; 107:388-398. [PMID: 31560922 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.09.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2019] [Revised: 08/13/2019] [Accepted: 09/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Early life social experiences shape neural pathways in infants to develop lifelong social skills. This review presents the first unified circuit-based model of social learning that can be applied to early life social development, drawing together unique human developmental milestones, sensitive learning periods, and behavioral and neural scaffolds. Circuit domains for social learning are identified governing Activation, Integration, Discrimination, Response and Reward (AIDRR) to sculpt and drive human social learning. This unified model can be used to identify social delays earlier in development. We propose social impairments observed in Autism Spectrum Disorder are underpinned by early mistimed sensitive periods in brain development and alterations in amygdala development to disrupt the AIDRR circuits. This model directs how interventions can target neural circuits for social development and be applied early in life. To illustrate, the role of oxytocin and its use as an intervention is explored. The AIDRR model shifts focus away from delivering broad treatments based only on diagnostic classifications, to specifying and targeting the relevant circuits, at the right time of development, to optimize social learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marilena M DeMayo
- Brain and Mind Centre, Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 2050, Australia; Brain and Mind Centre, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 2050, Australia.
| | - Larry J Young
- Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition, Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
| | - Ian B Hickie
- Brain and Mind Centre, Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 2050, Australia; Brain and Mind Centre, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 2050, Australia.
| | - Yun Ju C Song
- Brain and Mind Centre, Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 2050, Australia; Brain and Mind Centre, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 2050, Australia.
| | - Adam J Guastella
- Brain and Mind Centre, Children's Hospital Westmead Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 2050, Australia; Brain and Mind Centre, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, 2050, Australia.
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Wijeakumar S, Kumar A, Delgado Reyes LM, Tiwari M, Spencer JP. Early adversity in rural India impacts the brain networks underlying visual working memory. Dev Sci 2019; 22:e12822. [PMID: 30803122 PMCID: PMC6767418 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12822] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2018] [Revised: 12/26/2018] [Accepted: 02/12/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
There is a growing need to understand the global impact of poverty on early brain and behavioural development, particularly with regard to key cognitive processes that emerge in early development. Although the impact of adversity on brain development can trap children in an intergenerational cycle of poverty, the massive potential for brain plasticity is also a source of hope: reliable, accessible, culturally agnostic methods to assess early brain development in low resource settings might be used to measure the impact of early adversity, identify infants for timely intervention and guide the development and monitor the effectiveness of early interventions. Visual working memory (VWM) is an early marker of cognitive capacity that has been assessed reliably in early infancy and is predictive of later academic achievement in Western countries. Here, we localized the functional brain networks that underlie VWM in early development in rural India using a portable neuroimaging system, and we assessed the impact of adversity on these brain networks. We recorded functional brain activity as young children aged 4-48 months performed a VWM task. Brain imaging results revealed localized activation in the frontal cortex, replicating findings from a Midwestern US sample. Critically, children from families with low maternal education and income showed weaker brain activity and poorer distractor suppression in canonical working memory areas in the left frontal cortex. Implications of this work are far-reaching: it is now cost-effective to localize functional brain networks in early development in low-resource settings, paving the way for novel intervention and assessment methods.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Aarti Kumar
- Community Empowerment LabUttar PradeshLucknowIndia
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Cheng C, Kaldy Z, Blaser E. Two-year-olds succeed at MIT: Multiple identity tracking in 20- and 25-month-old infants. J Exp Child Psychol 2019; 187:104649. [PMID: 31352226 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2019] [Revised: 06/06/2019] [Accepted: 06/06/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Infants' ability to remember objects and their locations emerges during the first year of life. However, not much is known about infants' ability to track objects' identities in a dynamic environment. Here, we tailored the delayed match retrieval eye-tracking paradigm to study infants' ability to track two object identities during occlusion-an infant version of multiple identity tracking (MIT). Delayed match retrieval uses virtual "cards" as stimuli that are first shown face up, exposing to-be-remembered information, and then turned face down, occluding it. Here, cards were subject to movement during the face-down occlusion period. We used complex non-nameable objects as card faces to discourage verbal rehearsal. In three experiments (N = 110), we compared infants' ability to track object identities when two previously exposed cards were static (Experiment 1), were moved into new positions along the same trajectory (Experiment 2), or were moved along different trajectories (Experiment 3) while face down. We found that 20-month-olds could remember two object identities when static; however, it was not until 25 months of age that infants could track when movement was introduced. Our results show that the ability to track multiple identities in visual working memory is present by 25 months.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen Cheng
- Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125, USA.
| | - Zsuzsa Kaldy
- Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125, USA
| | - Erik Blaser
- Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA 02125, USA
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Farah R, Horowitz-Kraus T. Increased Functional Connectivity Within and Between Cognitive-Control Networks from Early Infancy to Nine Years During Story Listening. Brain Connect 2019; 9:285-295. [PMID: 30777454 PMCID: PMC6479241 DOI: 10.1089/brain.2018.0625] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The cingulo-opercular (CO) and frontoparietal (FP) networks are part of the cognitive-control system of the brain. Evidence suggests that over the course of development, brain regions supporting cognitive-control functions become more integrated within their networks (i.e., have increased within-network connectivity), more separated from other networks, and, due to increased maturation along development, are more functionally connected between the networks. The focus of this study was to characterize the developmental trajectory of the CO and FP networks from early infancy (17 months) to 9 years of age in typically developing children while listening to stories, using functional connectivity analyses. Seventy-four children underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging session while listening to stories inside the scanner. Within- and between-network functional connectivity and graph theory measures were compared during development. Developmental increase in functional connectivity within the CO network and between the CO and FP networks, as well as global efficiency of the CO network from 17 months to 9 years of age, was observed. These findings highlight the involvement of the CO and FP networks in story listening from early infancy, which increases along development. Future studies examining failures in language acquisition to further explore the role of these networks in story listening are warranted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rola Farah
- Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Educational Neuroimaging Center, Technion, Haifa, Israel
- Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Educational Neuroimaging Center, Technion, Haifa, Israel
| | - Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus
- Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Educational Neuroimaging Center, Technion, Haifa, Israel
- Division of General and Community Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
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Long H, Liu B, Wang C, Zhang X, Li J, Yu C, Jiang T. Interaction effect between 5-HTTLPR and HTR1A rs6295 polymorphisms on the frontoparietal network. Neuroscience 2017; 362:239-247. [PMID: 28793232 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2017] [Revised: 07/31/2017] [Accepted: 08/01/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies have shown a close relationship between the serotonin system and working memory (WM), but the neural mechanism for the role of the serotonin system on the WM is unclear. The frontoparietal network is involved in WM and is associated with the serotonin system. Therefore, this study investigated the interaction effect of the serotonin transporter-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) and the polymorphism in the serotonin 1A receptor gene (rs6295) on the frontoparietal network obtained from the independent component analysis in a large, young Chinese sample population. The current study found a significant interaction effect of 5-HTTLPR and rs6295 on the connectivity within the right frontoparietal network, specifically in the middle frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule. Moreover, the mean connectivity in the right inferior parietal lobule was positively correlated with WM performance. These brain network analysis findings could provide a new perspective on the neural mechanisms of gene-gene interactions and on individual differences in cognitive functions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haixia Long
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China; Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Bing Liu
- Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Chao Wang
- Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Xiaolong Zhang
- Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Jin Li
- Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
| | - Chunshui Yu
- Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
| | - Tianzi Jiang
- Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China; Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia.
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