Abstract
Working memory (WM) is central to the acquisition of knowledge and skills throughout childhood and adolescence. While numerous behavioral and task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have examined WM development, few have used resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI). Here, we present a systematic R-fMRI examination of age-related differences in the neural indices of verbal WM performance in a cross-sectional pediatric sample (ages: 7–17; n=68), using data-driven approaches. Verbal WM capacity was measured with the digit span task, a commonly used educational and clinical assessment. We found distinct neural indices of digit span forward (DSF) and backward (DSB) performance, reflecting their unique neuropsychological demands. Regardless of age, DSB performance was related to intrinsic properties of brain areas previously implicated in attention and cognitive control, while DSF performance was related to areas less commonly implicated in verbal WM storage (precuneus, lateral visual areas). From a developmental perspective, DSF exhibited more robust age-related differences in brain–behavior relationships than DSB, and implicated a broader range of networks (ventral attention, default, somatomotor, limbic networks) – including a number of regions not commonly associated with verbal WM (angular gyrus, subcallosum). These results highlight the importance of examining the neurodevelopment of verbal WM and of considering regions beyond the “usual suspects”.
Highlights
Working memory is the ability to maintain and manipulate information online during goal-directed task performance
Two-sample t-tests were performed on DST, digit span forward (DSF), and DS Backward (DSB) standard scores of younger versus older participants to confirm that these two groups did not differ in behavioral indices (p > 0.20)
We found that part of the unique effect of DSF is reflected in DST (i.e., Degree Centrality (DC) within the lateral visual area and Multivariate Distance Matrix Regression (MDMR) within the precuneus), but none of the unique effect of DSB was captured by DST, suggesting combining diluted these unique effects (Fig. 2 compare DST with DSF and DSB)
Summary
Working memory is the ability to maintain and manipulate information online during goal-directed task performance. This ability is central to the acquisition of knowledge and skills (e.g., reading, numerical calculation, and problem solving) throughout development and predicts academic achievement (Alloway and Alloway, 2010; Hitch et al, 2001). The ability to hold information in memory (maintenance) increases during early childhood, while the ability to operate and use the stored information (manipulation) improves most dramatically during late childhood and adolescence (Gathercole, 1999). Z. Yang et al / Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 15 (2015) 67–82 in both maintenance and manipulation (Owen et al, 2000), and matures during early childhood (Diamond, 2002). Few studies provide insights into how changes in functional interactions between regions may contribute to WM development
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