Natural variance in executive function components by pubertal timing in neurotypical population of females

Abstract

We have shown recently that biological age assessed by skeletal maturity is positively associated with specific cognitive abilities in a cohort of adolescent girls. Here we report executive function components assessed by the Numerical Stroop test of 107 female participants from the same cohort. We have disentangled the effect of chronological and biological age (bone age) on inhibition and task switching by analyzing the performance with varying task requirements. Both chronological and biological age had an effect on the performance in all analyzed conditions. Chronological age had an independent effect on inhibition, however, no independent effect of biological age was present. However, we did not find an independent effect of chronological or biological age related to switching. When the successful completion of tasks required the simultaneous engagement of two executive components, we observed that both chronological and biological age had independent effects. This suggests that higher biological maturity, alongside chronological age, is associated with more successful performance in tasks with a higher cognitive load. Our study highlights the interplay between chronological and biological age in executive function development, where the effects of pubertal maturation become more apparent when simultaneous operation of multiple cognitive processes is required for task completion.

Navigating Pubertal Goldilocks: The Optimal Pace for Hierarchical Brain Organization

“…The EEG data collection was part of a large-scale study, within which each adolescent participant was also administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 4th edition (WISC-IV), [34] carried out a fine motor task, [36] and a Stroop test. [35] The Hungarian United Ethical Review Committee for Research in Psychology (EPKEB) approved the study (reference number 2017/84). Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects and their parents.…”

“…The EEG data collection was part of a large‐scale study, within which each adolescent participant was also administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 4th edition (WISC‐IV), [ 34 ] carried out a fine motor task, [ 36 ] and a Stroop test. [ 35 ]…”

“…[13,28,[30][31][32] Selfand parent-report versions of this method have also been deemed unreliable. [28,29,33] Recently, we have introduced ultrasonic bone age as a promising alternative for maturity assessments in human developmental research, [34] with evidence for selective maturity-dependent effects in cognitive, [34,35] motor, [36] and emotional development. [37] Operating without harmful radiation, this technology gauges acoustic conductivity at hand and wrist growth zones to estimate bone age, demonstrating robust correlation with pubertal hormone levels, [28,33,38,39] X-ray estimations, [40] and displaying high reliability.…”