The development of preparation, conflict monitoring and inhibition from early childhood to young adulthood; a Go/Nogo ERP study

Abstract

The present developmental study aimed to trace changes in response expectation, preparation, conflict monitoring and subsequent response inhibition from 6 years of age to adulthood. In two groups of children (6-7 and 9-10 years old) and young adults (19-23 years old), behavior and event-related brain activity (ERP) in a CPT-AX task was measured. Hits, false alarms, inattention and impulsivity scores and ERP measures of conflict monitoring and inhibition (Nogo-N2 and P3), cue-orientation and prestimulus target expectation (cue-P2 and P3) and response preparation (Contingent Negative Variation; CNV) were collected. Behavioral measures indicated that attention processes developed most strongly before age 10, whereas impulsive behavior only started to diminish after the age of 10. Nogo-N2 effects were largest and more widely distributed across fronto-parietal electrodes in 6-7-year olds and decreased linearly with age. Nogo-P3 effects showed an opposite pattern by being absent in the youngest children, starting to develop at age 9-10 and reaching maturity in young adulthood. These developmental behavioral and ERP results are supportive of links between Nogo-N2 and conflict monitoring and Nogo-P3 and response inhibition and suggest that both are liable to different developmental progress. Furthermore, enhanced cue-P3 activity in both 6-7 and 9-10-year olds was argued to reflect a higher level of Go-stimulus expectation, that might cause them to experience more conflict on subsequent Nogo-trials, when the 'not-expected' stimulus appears. On the other hand, young children's reduced preparatory CNV activity was interpreted as a sign of reduced response priming caused by yet immature fronto-parietal networks involved in motor regulation.

Developmental brain alterations in 17 year old boys are related to antenatal maternal anxiety

“…This confirms our previous finding that exogenous cognitive control is not related to antenatal maternal anxiety (Van den Bergh et al, 2005, 2006Mennes et al, 2006). Moreover, the absence of an effect of anxiety on the ERPs measured during this task strengthens this conclusion.…”

“…Developmental studies with visual stimuli in younger children have shown a decrease in P2a amplitude with age until adulthood (Polich, 1997;Taylor and Khan, 2000;Jonkman, 2006). The fact that the prefrontal areas of the brain undergo large developmental changes up into adolescence further supports this hypothesis (Spear, 2000;Paus, 2005).…”

“…Mennes et al, 2006). Only anxiety measured during weeks 12-22 of pregnancy was used as our previous results on adolescent cognitive functioning showed effects of this period only (Van den Bergh et al, 2005, 2006Mennes et al, 2006). Eight boys were included in the high anxiety group, 15 in the low-average anxiety group.…”

“…As such research on the effects of antenatal maternal anxiety on specific cognitive functions is scarce. In a prospective longitudinal study our group showed that 15 and 17 year old adolescents born to mothers reporting high levels of state anxiety during weeks 12-22 of their pregnancy had long-term impairments in endogenous control of their performance on challenging cognitive tasks (Van den Bergh et al, 2005, 2006Mennes et al, 2006). Endogenous cognitive control refers to the ability to generate triggers from within oneself or endogenously in order to control actions, strategies and thoughts interfering with optimal task performance (Miller, 2000;Miller and Cohen, 2001;Brass and von Cramon, 2004).…”

Neural correlates of audio-visual modal interference inhibition investigated in children by ERP

“…Jonkman et al [21] found that N300 was located on both sides of the medial frontal lobe (near the ACC) of both adults and children according to the analysis of dipole sources. A localization of posterior source was required for children, and the posterior source was located in the occipital-temporal area for 6-7 years old children and in the parietal lobe for 9-10 years old children.…”