Developmental changes in within- and between-network connectivity between late childhood and adulthood

Abstract

A number of behavioral changes occur between late childhood and adulthood, including maturation of social cognition, reward receptivity, impulsiveness, risk-taking and cognitive control. Although some of these abilities show linear improvements with age, some abilities may temporarily worsen, reflecting both the restructuring and/or strengthening of connections within some brain systems. The current study uses resting state functional connectivity to examine developmental differences between late childhood and adulthood in task positive (TP) regions, which play a role in cognitive control functions, and task negative (TN) regions, which play a role in social cognition, self-referential, and internally-directed thought. Within the TP network, developmental differences in connectivity were found with the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Within the TN network, developmental differences in connectivity were found with a broad area of the medial prefrontal cortex and the right parahippocampal gyrus. Connections between the two networks also showed significant developmental differences. Stronger anticorrelations were found in the TN maps of the adult group for the right anterior insula/inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral anterior inferior parietal lobule, bilateral superior parietal lobule and an anterior portion of the right posterior cingulate cortex. There was a significant brain-behavior relationship between the strength of anticorrelation in these regions and inhibitory control performance on two Go/No-go tasks suggesting that the development of anticorrelations between late childhood and adulthood supports mature inhibitory control. Overall, maturation of these networks occurred in specific regions which are associated with cognitive control of goal-directed behavior, including those involved in working memory, social cognition, and inhibitory control.

Figure 1

Task positive network group maps for adults (1a) and children (1b). Both positive (i.e. connections significantly greater than zero) and negative connections (i.e. connections significantly less than zero) with task positive regions are displayed.

Figure 2

Task negative network group maps for adults (2a) and children (2b). Both positive (i.e. connections significantly greater than zero) and negative connections (i.e. connections significantly less than zero) with task negative regions are displayed.

Figure 3

Task positive network group differences. Regions showing stronger connectivity in adults than children.

Figure 4

Task negative network group differences. Regions showing stronger connectivity in adults than children. The conjunction of those regions showing significant group differences for all three of the individual task negative network seeds are displayed in green.

Figure 5

Task negative network group differences. Regions showing stronger anticorrelation in adults than children. The conjunction of those regions showing significant group differences for all three of the individual task negative network seeds are displayed in green.

Figure 6

Brain-behavior Relationship. The strength of anticorrelation in developing TN regions is related to commission error rate on the Simple Go/No-go task (6a) and the Complex Go/No-go task (6b).