Inhibitory Control in Children 4-10 Years of Age: Evidence From Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Task-Based Observations.

Xin Zhou,Ruth Y Litovsky,Colleen Pletcher,Douglas C Dean,Lauren Heinrich,Marissa Dipiero,Elizabeth M Planalp,Andrew L Alexander

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2021.798358

Xin Zhou, Ruth Y Litovsky + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.798358

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Abstract

Executive function (EF) is essential to child development, with associated skills beginning to emerge in the first few years of life and continuing to develop into adolescence and adulthood. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), which follows a neurodevelopmental timeline similar to EF, plays an important role in the development of EF. However, limited research has examined prefrontal function in young children due to limitations of currently available neuroimaging techniques such as functional resonance magnetic imaging (fMRI). The current study developed and applied a multimodal Go/NoGo task to examine the EF component of inhibitory control in children 4–10 years of age. Cortical activity was measured using a non-invasive and child-friendly neuroimaging technique – functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Children’s response accuracy and reaction times were captured during the fNIRS session and compared with responses obtained using the standardized assessments from NIH Toolbox cognition battery. Results showed significant correlations between the behavioral measures during the fNIRS session and the standardized EF assessments, in line with our expectations. Results from fNIRS measures demonstrated a significant, age-independent effect of inhibitory control (IC) in the right PFC (rPFC), and an age-dependent effect in the left orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC), consistent with results in previous studies using fNIRS and fMRI. Thus, the new task designed for fNIRS was suitable for examining IC in young children, and results showed that fNIRS measures can reveal prefrontal IC function.

Highlights

Executive function (EF) refers to a family of top-down cognitive processes necessary for the control and regulation of behavior and goal-directed tasks
Two goals were addressed: (1) we aimed to validate that the designed task could reveal the development of inhibitory control (IC) that was consistent with standardized behavioral measures using the NIH Toolbox cognition battery in this group of children, and (2) we wish to establish functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a valid tool to examine IC by comparing our results with results from previous research and the brain functions related to EF which have been proposed for the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
We further examined the correlations between the behavioral measures from the fNIRS session (i.e., d-prime values and standard error of the mean (SEM) of reaction times (RTs)) and post-incongruence (InCg – Cong) HbO amplitudes in brain regions that showed significant effect of IC

Summary

Introduction

Executive function (EF) refers to a family of top-down cognitive processes necessary for the control and regulation of behavior and goal-directed tasks (see reviews by Diamond, 2013). Human behaviors are strongly rooted in the brain; the emergence of EF during childhood is likely closely tied to the development of underlying brain structures and neural networks, in the prefrontal cortex (PFC; Miller and Cohen, 2001; Diamond, 2002; Gogtay et al, 2004). This study aims to develop a protocol to examine a core EF component – IC in typically developing children 4–10 years of age, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which is a non-invasive and child-friendly neuroimaging technique

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