Off to a Good Start: The Early Development of the Neural Substrates Underlying Visual Working Memory

Fitch, Allison; Smith, Hayley; Guillory, Sylvia; Káldy, Zsuzsa

doi:10.3389/fnsys.2016.00068

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…3 et al, 2010). Several studies accentuated the crucial roles of attention (Posner et al, 2016), working memory (Fitch et al, 2016), and speed of processing (Horowitz-Kraus et al, 2017a) as early as in infancy. These studies provided foundational evidence for EF training in early childhood (Diamond and Lee, 2011;Rueda et al, 2005Rueda et al, , 2012Wardhana, 2016), which corresponds to the Anderson model for the development of EF (Anderson, 2002).…”

Section: Providing Neurobiological Evidence For the Anderson Ef Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased Functional Connectivity Within and Between Cognitive-Control Networks from Early Infancy to Nine Years During Story Listening

Farah

Horowitz‐Kraus

2019

Brain Connectivity

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The cingulo-opercular (CO) and frontoparietal (FP) networks are part of the cognitive-control system of the brain. Evidence suggests that over the course of development, brain regions supporting cognitive-control functions become more integrated within their networks (i.e., have increased within-network connectivity), more separated from other networks, and, due to increased maturation along development, are more functionally connected between the networks. The focus of this study was to characterize the developmental trajectory of the CO and FP networks from early infancy (17 months) to 9 years of age in typically developing children while listening to stories, using functional connectivity analyses. Seventy-four children underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging session while listening to stories inside the scanner. Within-and between-network functional connectivity and graph theory measures were compared during development. Developmental increase in functional connectivity within the CO network and between the CO and FP networks, as well as global efficiency of the CO network from 17 months to 9 years of age, was observed. These findings highlight the involvement of the CO and FP networks in story listening from early infancy, which increases along development. Future studies examining failures in language acquisition to further explore the role of these networks in story listening are warranted.

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Section: Providing Neurobiological Evidence For the Anderson Ef Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased Functional Connectivity Within and Between Cognitive-Control Networks from Early Infancy to Nine Years During Story Listening

Farah

Horowitz‐Kraus

2019

Brain Connectivity

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“…In humans, the development of early functional connections between the thalamus and the salience network (anterior cingulate, insula and caudate nucleus) is correlated with greater spatial working memory ability at 2 years old (Alcauter and others 2014). Electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies of very young infants suggest the developing frontoparietal network may also contribute, albeit to a lesser degree, to early working memory function (Fitch and others 2016), indicating that development of the working memory system may entail quantitative, rather than qualitative changes to the regions involved in working memory.…”

Section: Working Memory Throughout the Life Spanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasticity in the Working Memory System: Life Span Changes and Response to Injury

et al. 2017

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Working memory acts as a key bridge between perception, long-term memory, and action. The brain regions, connections, and neurotransmitters that underlie working memory undergo dramatic plastic changes during the life span, and in response to injury. Early life reliance on deep gray matter structures fades during adolescence as increasing reliance on prefrontal and parietal cortex accompanies the development of executive aspects of working memory. The rise and fall of working memory capacity and executive functions parallels the development and loss of neurotransmitter function in frontal cortical areas. Of the affected neurotransmitters, dopamine and acetylcholine modulate excitatory-inhibitory circuits that underlie working memory, are important for plasticity in the system, and are affected following preterm birth and adult brain injury. Pharmacological interventions to promote recovery of working memory abilities have had limited success, but hold promise if used in combination with behavioral training and brain stimulation. The intense study of working memory in a range of species, ages and following injuries has led to better understanding of the intrinsic plasticity mechanisms in the working memory system. The challenge now is to guide these mechanisms to better improve or restore working memory function.

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“…VWM is a cognitive system that is used roughly 10,000 times per day for at least two kinds of work-comparison of percepts that cannot be viewed at the same time and detecting changes in the world when they occur (Vogel & Luck, 1997;Vogel, Woodman, & Luck, 2001). Behavioural studies have shown that the development of VWM begins in infancy and gradually improves throughout childhood and adolescence (Fitch, Smith, Guillory, & Kaldy, 2016). Due to its early emergence and the availability of tasks that can be used in infancy to predict later achievement (Rose, Feldman, & Jankowski, 2012), VWM is an excellent marker of early cognitive development.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Early adversity in rural India impacts the brain networks underlying visual working memory

Wijeakumar

Kumar²,

Reyes

et al. 2019

Developmental Science

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There is a growing need to understand the global impact of poverty on early brain and behavioural development, particularly with regard to key cognitive processes that emerge in early development. Although the impact of adversity on brain development can trap children in an intergenerational cycle of poverty, the massive potential for brain plasticity is also a source of hope: reliable, accessible, culturally agnostic methods to assess early brain development in low resource settings might be used to measure the impact of early adversity, identify infants for timely intervention and guide the development and monitor the effectiveness of early interventions. Visual working memory (VWM) is an early marker of cognitive capacity that has been assessed reliably in early infancy and is predictive of later academic achievement in Western countries. Here, we localized the functional brain networks that underlie VWM in early development in rural India using a portable neuroimaging system, and we assessed the impact of adversity on these brain networks. We recorded functional brain activity as young children aged 4–48 months performed a VWM task. Brain imaging results revealed localized activation in the frontal cortex, replicating findings from a Midwestern US sample. Critically, children from families with low maternal education and income showed weaker brain activity and poorer distractor suppression in canonical working memory areas in the left frontal cortex. Implications of this work are far‐reaching: it is now cost‐effective to localize functional brain networks in early development in low‐resource settings, paving the way for novel intervention and assessment methods.

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Off to a Good Start: The Early Development of the Neural Substrates Underlying Visual Working Memory

Cited by 10 publications

References 83 publications

Increased Functional Connectivity Within and Between Cognitive-Control Networks from Early Infancy to Nine Years During Story Listening

Increased Functional Connectivity Within and Between Cognitive-Control Networks from Early Infancy to Nine Years During Story Listening

Plasticity in the Working Memory System: Life Span Changes and Response to Injury

Early adversity in rural India impacts the brain networks underlying visual working memory

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