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Despite theoretical models suggesting developmental changes in neural substrates of cognitive control in adolescence, empirical research has rarely examined intraindividual changes in cognitive control-related brain activation using multi-wave multivariate longitudinal data. We used longitudinal repeated measures of brain activation and behavioral performance during the multi-source interference task (MSIT) from 167 adolescents (53% male) who were assessed annually over four years from ages 13 to 17 years. We applied latent growth modeling to delineate the pattern of brain activation changes over time and to examine longitudinal associations between brain activation and behavioral performance. We identified brain regions that showed differential change patterns: (1) the fronto-parietal regions that involved bilateral insula, bilateral middle frontal gyrus, left pre-supplementary motor area, left inferior parietal lobule, and right precuneus; and (2) the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) region. Longitudinal confirmatory factor analyses of the fronto-parietal regions revealed strong measurement invariance across time implying that multivariate functional magnetic resonance imaging data during cognitive control can be measured reliably over time. Latent basis growth models indicated that fronto-parietal activation decreased over time, whereas rACC activation increased over time. In addition, behavioral performance data, age-related improvement was indicated by a decreasing trajectory of intraindividual variability in response time across four years. Testing longitudinal brain-behavior associations using multivariate growth models revealed that better behavioral cognitive control was associated with lower fronto-parietal activation, but the change in behavioral performance was not related to the change in brain activation. The current findings suggest that reduced effects of cognitive interference indicated by fronto-parietal recruitment may be a marker of a maturing brain that underlies better cognitive control performance during adolescence.

Prior research has demonstrated that religiousness is associated with and potentially facilitative of self-regulation, though most of the research has been cross-sectional. The present longitudinal study examined dynamic relations between religiousness development and self-regulation formation from early adolescence into young adulthood. The sample included 500 U.S. adolescents and their parents. The data were restructured by adolescent age and analyzed from ages 11-22. The analyses involved latent curve models with structured residuals (LCM-SR). First, univariate latent growth curve models were estimated for religiousness, as well as adolescent-reports and parent-reports of adolescent behavioral selfregulation, cognitive self-regulation, and emotional self-regulation. Religiousness decreased over time while self-regulation increased (except for adolescent-report behavioral self-regulation, which followed a u-shape). Bivariate latent growth curve models pairing religiousness with each self-regulation variable found significant positive correlations between change in religiousness and change in adolescent-report cognitive and emotional self-regulation and parent-report emotional self-regulation. After adding in cross-lagged paths, relations between these slopes went away, but positive bidirectional cross-lagged associations in both directions were found between religiousness and adolescent-report cognitive selfregulation and parent-report emotional self-regulation. These results provide evidence for dynamic relations between religiousness and self-regulation across adolescence and into young adulthood. Further, the findings point to possible specificity based on the self-regulation dimension and whether data are adolescent-report or parent-report.

Highlights Maltreatment and brain development related to risky decision making were studied. Neglect predicted slower increases in risk-related insula and dACC activation. Abuse predicted steeper decreases in control-related fronto-parietal activation. Abuse predicted accelerated development of risk- and control-related brain regions. Abuse and neglect had differential effects on adolescent brain development.