The cognitive development of conflict monitoring of school-age children: a behavior and ERP study

Abstract

Objective The present study aimed to trace the behavior results and event-related potential (ERP) of conflict monitoring from 7 ～ 12 years old to explore the development features of the conflict monitoring.Methods In six groups of 144 children aged from 7 to 12,behavior and non-target N2 amplitude were analyzed in continuous performance test (CPT) task. Results 1. Behavior results:the reaction time of target stimulus decreased ( ( 533.33 ± 66.65 ) ms, (523.91 ± 92.96 ) ms, (468.37 ± 64. 13 ) ms, ( 46 1.48 ± 98.31 ) ms, (457.57 ±84.05 ) ms, (405.02 ± 67.90) ms) and the hitting number increased ( ( 34.87 ± 4.84 ), ( 37.64 ± 3.54 ), ( 37.95± 2.92 ), (38.67 ± 1.23 ), (39.31 ± 1.08 ), ( 39.45 ± 1.00 ) ) as age increased, and the difference was statistically significant ( P＜0.01 ). 2. ERP: ①The non-target N2 amplitude was significantly higher than the target,and the difference was statistically significant (F= 98.57, P＜ 0.01 ). ②The amplitude of non-target N2 amplitude decreased with age, and the difference was statistically significant (F= 5.54, P＜ 0. 01 ). Conclusion The non-target N2 was closely related to the monitoring conflict, and the behavior and ERP results in this study showed the development trend. 8 ～ l0 and 12 years old are the critical development period of information processing speed, attention and conflict monitoring function for children. Key words: School-age children; Event-related potentials; Behavior; Conflict monitoring