Does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children’s performance?
The ability to flexibly switch between tasks is key for goal-directed behavior and continues to improve across childhood. Children’s task switching difficulties are thought to reflect less efficient engagement of sustained and transient control processes, resulting in lower performance on blocks tha...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929323000221 |
| _version_ | 1797843869462691840 |
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| author | Sina A. Schwarze Corinna Laube Neda Khosravani Ulman Lindenberger Silvia A. Bunge Yana Fandakova |
| author_facet | Sina A. Schwarze Corinna Laube Neda Khosravani Ulman Lindenberger Silvia A. Bunge Yana Fandakova |
| author_sort | Sina A. Schwarze |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The ability to flexibly switch between tasks is key for goal-directed behavior and continues to improve across childhood. Children’s task switching difficulties are thought to reflect less efficient engagement of sustained and transient control processes, resulting in lower performance on blocks that intermix tasks (sustained demand) and trials that require a task switch (transient demand). Sustained and transient control processes are associated with frontoparietal regions, which develop throughout childhood and may contribute to task switching development. We examined age differences in the modulation of frontoparietal regions by sustained and transient control demands in children (8–11 years) and adults. Children showed greater performance costs than adults, especially under sustained demand, along with less upregulation of sustained and transient control activation in frontoparietal regions. Compared to adults, children showed increased connectivity between the inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) from single to mixed blocks. For children whose sustained activation was less adult-like, increased IFJ-lPFC connectivity was associated with better performance. Children with more adult-like sustained activation showed the inverse effect. These results suggest that individual differences in task switching in later childhood at least partly depend on the recruitment of frontoparietal regions in an adult-like manner. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T17:14:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b4ceb5e018484c46b536a434f569cba7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1878-9293 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T17:14:06Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-b4ceb5e018484c46b536a434f569cba72023-04-20T04:36:08ZengElsevierDevelopmental Cognitive Neuroscience1878-92932023-04-0160101217Does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children’s performance?Sina A. Schwarze0Corinna Laube1Neda Khosravani2Ulman Lindenberger3Silvia A. Bunge4Yana Fandakova5Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Correspondence to: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany.Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Fresenius University of Applied Sciences, Jägerstraße 32, 10117 Berlin, GermanyCenter for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, GermanyCenter for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, 10-12 Russell Square, WC1B 5EH London, UKDepartment of Psychology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California at Berkeley, 2121 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USACenter for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, GermanyThe ability to flexibly switch between tasks is key for goal-directed behavior and continues to improve across childhood. Children’s task switching difficulties are thought to reflect less efficient engagement of sustained and transient control processes, resulting in lower performance on blocks that intermix tasks (sustained demand) and trials that require a task switch (transient demand). Sustained and transient control processes are associated with frontoparietal regions, which develop throughout childhood and may contribute to task switching development. We examined age differences in the modulation of frontoparietal regions by sustained and transient control demands in children (8–11 years) and adults. Children showed greater performance costs than adults, especially under sustained demand, along with less upregulation of sustained and transient control activation in frontoparietal regions. Compared to adults, children showed increased connectivity between the inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) from single to mixed blocks. For children whose sustained activation was less adult-like, increased IFJ-lPFC connectivity was associated with better performance. Children with more adult-like sustained activation showed the inverse effect. These results suggest that individual differences in task switching in later childhood at least partly depend on the recruitment of frontoparietal regions in an adult-like manner.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929323000221Task switchingCognitive controlFrontoparietal networkFunctional connectivityChildrenIndividual differences |
| spellingShingle | Sina A. Schwarze Corinna Laube Neda Khosravani Ulman Lindenberger Silvia A. Bunge Yana Fandakova Does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children’s performance? Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Task switching Cognitive control Frontoparietal network Functional connectivity Children Individual differences |
| title | Does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children’s performance? |
| title_full | Does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children’s performance? |
| title_fullStr | Does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children’s performance? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children’s performance? |
| title_short | Does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children’s performance? |
| title_sort | does prefrontal connectivity during task switching help or hinder children s performance |
| topic | Task switching Cognitive control Frontoparietal network Functional connectivity Children Individual differences |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929323000221 |
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