Cognitive interference elicits developmental sex differences in inhibitory control

Abstract

Inhibitory control is a key component of cognitive control that enables children and adolescents to develop increasingly complex skills throughout development. These processes are subject to insult via endogenous and environmental stressors (e.g., puberty, trauma) and alterations can lead to significant behavioral impairments that persist into adulthood. Despite this, the normative developmental course of neural oscillatory activity underlying interference control, a critical subcomponent of inhibitory control, and potential sex differences along this course, remain poorly understood. Herein, we utilized high-density magnetoencephalography (MEG) during the Eriksen flanker task to map the developmental sensitivity of neural processes supporting interference control in a large sample of children and adolescents (N = 121). MEG data were transformed into the time-frequency domain and significant oscillatory responses were imaged using a beamformer. Whole-brain analysis of flanker interference maps (i.e., incongruent - congruent trials) revealed age-related decreases in theta power in the supplementary motor area and cerebellum. Furthermore, regions known to be critical for supporting cognitive control, including the prefrontal and parietal cortices, exhibited age-by-sex interactive effects, suggesting modulation of interference control throughout development in a sex-dependent manner. Taken together, these data contribute to the characterization of the electrophysiological mechanisms supporting the development and refinement of interference control.

Keywords: Development; Flanker; Inhibitory control; Neuroimaging.

Fig. 1

Experimental paradigm and behavioral results. (Top) Participants completed a modified flanker task designed to probe interference control during MEG. (Middle) Correlations between age and accuracy (%) in the congruent and incongruent trials, as well as the flanker accuracy interference effect (i.e., incongruent – congruent accuracy). (Bottom) Correlations between age and reaction time (ms) in the congruent and incongruent trials, as well as the flanker reaction time interference effect. **p < .005.

Fig. 2

Time-frequency spectrogram and grand-averaged source image maps. A two-step statistical analysis following complex demodulation of planar gradiometer data indicated two significant time-frequency clusters (p < .05, corrected) in the active period relative to the baseline period. There were significant increases in theta power (4–7 Hz) from 100 to 350 ms and significant decreases in alpha power (8–14 Hz) from 350 to 650 ms. To assess data quality, we grand-averaged the functional maps for each time-frequency component (to the right of the spectrogram), which indicated theta responses near the right supramarginal gyrus and the strongest alpha responses in the bilateral occipital cortices.

Fig. 3

Age-related flanker interference effects in the theta frequency. The flanker interference effect (i.e., incongruent - congruent) decreased as a function of age in the right cerebellum (top) and the left medial superior frontal gyrus (bottom). ** p < .005.

Fig. 4

Age-by-sex interaction effects in the right superior temporal cortex, left inferior prefrontal cortex, and right inferior and superior parietal cortices. In males, age was positively correlated with the alpha interference effect in all four regions. In females, age was negatively correlated with the alpha interference effect in the superior temporal, left inferior prefrontal, and right inferior parietal cortices. ** p < .005, * p < .05.