Social Sciences Division
Published December 21, 2022 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Differences in the functional brain architecture of sustained attention and working memory in youth and adults

Creators

  • 1. University of Chicago
  • 2. University of California, Los Angeles
  • 3. Yale University

Description

Sustained attention (SA) and working memory (WM) are critical processes, but the brain networks supporting these abilities in development are unknown. We characterized the functional brain architecture of SA and WM in 9- to 11-year-old children and adults. First, we found that adult network predictors of SA generalized to predict individual differences and fluctuations in SA in youth. A WM model predicted WM performance both across and within children—and captured individual differences in later recognition memory—but underperformed in youth relative to adults. We next characterized functional connections differentially related to SA and WM in youth compared to adults. Results revealed 2 network configurations: a dominant architecture predicting performance in both age groups and a secondary architecture, more prominent for WM than SA, predicting performance in each age group differently. Thus, functional connectivity (FC) predicts SA and WM in youth, with networks predicting WM performance differing more between youths and adults than those predicting SA.

Data availability

All ABCD curated data are available at https://nda.nih.gov/edit_collection.html?id=2573. The sustained attention network masks are available at https://github.com/monicadrosenberg/Rosenberg_PNAS2020. Specific data used in the analyses of the current study are shared in the National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA) study 1849 with doi: 10.15154/1528288. Users with an NDA account and approved Data Use Agreement can download the shared data. HCP data are available at https://db.humanconnectome.org. Analysis scripts to generate results and figures in the manuscript are available at https://github.com/okardan/ABCD_SA-WM.

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Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1371/journal.pbio.3001938
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:6333

Funding

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
T32 AA007477
National Science Foundation
BCS-2043740
National Science Foundation
S&CC-1952050
National Science Foundation
DGE-1746045
National Science Foundation
BCS-1558497
National Institutes of Health
MH 108591
University of Chicago
Micro-Metcalf Program

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Social Sciences Division
Department(s)
Psychology