The Contribution of Network Organization and Integration to the Development of Cognitive Control

Abstract

Cognitive control, which continues to mature throughout adolescence, is supported by the ability for well-defined organized brain networks to flexibly integrate information. However, the development of intrinsic brain network organization and its relationship to observed improvements in cognitive control are not well understood. In the present study, we used resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI), graph theory, the antisaccade task, and rigorous head motion control to characterize and relate developmental changes in network organization, connectivity strength, and integration to inhibitory control development. Subjects were 192 10–26-y-olds who were imaged during 5 min of rest. In contrast to initial studies, our results indicate that network organization is stable throughout adolescence. However, cross-network integration, predominantly of the cingulo-opercular/salience network, increased with age. Importantly, this increased integration of the cingulo-opercular/salience network significantly moderated the robust effect of age on the latency to initiate a correct inhibitory control response. These results provide compelling evidence that the transition to adult-level inhibitory control is dependent upon the refinement and strengthening of integration between specialized networks. Our findings support a novel, two-stage model of neural development, in which networks stabilize prior to adolescence and subsequently increase their integration to support the cross-domain incorporation of information processing critical for mature cognitive control.

Development of large-scale functional networks from birth to adulthood: A guide to the neuroimaging literature

“…The authors contend that their results are consistent with notions that network development facilitates the ability to traverse through more diverse cognitive states in order to accomplish increasingly complex task demands (Bassett et al, 2011; Braun et al, 2015). Similar, albeit not identical developmental findings, are observed by (Marek et al, 2015)), who found increased cross-network integration between the cingulo-opercular/salience and somatomotor modules over the age of 10–26, which they showed to be associated with the development of cognitive control. In agreement with these data, two additional reports also had findings that suggested that functional restructuring over this timespan disproportionately involves the cingulo-opercular and somotomotor modules (Fair et al, 2012b; Grayson et al, 2014), and potentially specific links between them (Grayson et al, 2014) (see Figure 4).…”

“…It is likely, however, that functional network maturation follows more precise spatiotemporal trajectories than previously understood. Indeed, there are now at least 3 reports that suggest the network structure in children as defined by community detection (see Figure 3) are largely similar to the adult (Fair et al, 2012b; Marek et al, 2015; Power et al, 2012). Despite this “adult like” level of organization, refinements within and between systems does appear to occur over time, although details to this end are still being worked out (Fair et al, 2012b; Gu et al, 2015b; Marek et al, 2015).…”

“…Much of this new work is finding that systems with different functional roles are characterized by substantially different trajectories (Gu et al, 2015b; Marek et al, 2015). For example, (Gu et al, 2015b) found that sensorimotor systems, already well-segregated in childhood, displayed little change into adulthood.…”

“…At first glance, these mixed or non-significant findings might suggest that regional properties of cortical hubs are largely established during very early development. However, given that different networks display varying trajectories for within-network and between-network connectivity (Gu et al, 2015b; Marek et al, 2015), renewed examination of nodal hub-like properties such as the participation coefficient (which quantifies within vs. between module strength) may be warranted (e.g. see (Marek et al, 2015)).…”

Development of White Matter Microstructure and Intrinsic Functional Connectivity Between the Amygdala and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex: Associations With Anxiety and Depression

“…Like recent publications (65;66), we used a rigorous rsfMRI processing pipeline to account for head motion and used several processing pipeline (Supplemental Materials). …”