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. 2004 Oct;23(2):99-108.
doi: 10.1002/hbm.20051.

Brain-behavior correlation in children depends on the neurocognitive network

Affiliations

Brain-behavior correlation in children depends on the neurocognitive network

James R Booth et al. Hum Brain Mapp. 2004 Oct.

Abstract

We examined brain-behavior correlations in 12 children (age range 9.3 to 11.7 years) during a selective attention task that required the visual search of a conjunction of features and during a response inhibition task that required the inhibition of a pre-potent response during "no-go" blocks. We found that the association between performance in these tasks and brain activation as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) depended on the neurocognitive network. Specifically, better performance during the no-go task was associated with greater activation in the response inhibition network including the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia. In contrast, better performance during the visual search task was associated with less activation in the selective attention network including superior parietal lobule and lateral premotor cortex. These results show that the relation of performance to the magnitude of neural activation is complex and may display differential relationships based on the cognitive domain, anatomical region, and perhaps also developmental stage.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Axial slices showing poorer behavioral performance associated with greater activation for the selective attention task. Red indicates false alarms, green indicates misses, and purple indicates overlap between false alarms and misses. AG: angular gyrus; MC: middle cingulate; MFG: middle frontal gyrus; MTG: middle temporal gyrus; PostC: posterior central gyrus; PC: posterior cingulate; PreC: precuneus; SPL: superior parietal lobule.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatterplots showing poorer performance (false alarms or misses) associated with greater activation for the selective attention task. PreC: precuneus; SPL: superior parietal lobule. R2 for the regression lines are presented in the legend.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Axial slices showing better behavioral performance associated with greater activation for the response inhibition task. Red indicates false alarms, green indicates misses, and purple indicates overlap between false alarms and misses. AG: angular gyrus; AC: anterior cingulate; Cau: caudate; Cun: cuneus; IFG: inferior frontal gyrus; Ins: insula; MedFG: medial frontal gyrus; PCG: precentral gyrus; Put: putamen; RN: red nucleus; SG: supramarginal gyrus.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Scatterplots showing better performance (false alarms or misses) associated with greater activation in frontal regions for the response inhibition task. MedFG: medial frontal gyrus; MFG: middle frontal gyrus; PCG: precentral gyrus. R2 for the regression lines are presented in the legend.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Scatterplots showing better performance (false alarms) associated with greater activation in basal ganglia for the response inhibition task. Cau: caudate; Put: putamen. R2 for the regression lines are presented in the legend.

References

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