Developmental alterations in the neural oscillatory dynamics underlying attentional reorienting

• Authors: Giorgia Picci, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Lauren R. Ott, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Nathan M. Petro, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Chloe C. Casagrande, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Abraham D. Killanin, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Danielle L. Rice, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Anna T. Coutant, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Yasra Arif, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Christine M. Embury, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Hannah J. Okelberry, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Hallie J. Johnson, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Seth D. Springer, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Haley R. Pulliam, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Yu-Ping Wang, Tulane University; Vince Calhoun, Emory University; Julia M. Stephen, Mind Research Network; Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Brittany K. Taylor, Boys Town National Research Hospital; Tony W. Wilson, Boys Town National Research Hospital
• Journal Title: DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
• Volume: Volume 63
• Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD | 2023-10-01, Pages 101288-101288
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101288
• Subjects: Psychology, Developmental; Biology, Neuroscience
• Keywords: Social Sciences; Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Psychology, Developmental; Neurosciences; Psychology; Neurosciences & Neurology; Attention; Magnetoencephalography; Oscillations; Visual attention; Posner; Validity effect; CEREBELLAR DENTATE NUCLEUS; VENTRAL ATTENTION; FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY; SELECTIVE ATTENTION; HUMAN BRAIN; NETWORKS; DORSAL; SYSTEM; EEG; MEG

Abstract

The neural and cognitive processes underlying the flexible allocation of attention undergo a protracted developmental course with changes occurring throughout adolescence. Despite documented age-related improvements in attentional reorienting throughout childhood and adolescence, the neural correlates underlying such changes in reorienting remain unclear. Herein, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine neural dynamics during a Posner attention-reorienting task in 80 healthy youth (6–14 years old). The MEG data were examined in the time-frequency domain and significant oscillatory responses were imaged in anatomical space. During the reorienting of attention, youth recruited a distributed network of regions in the fronto-parietal network, along with higher-order visual regions within the theta (3–7 Hz) and alpha-beta (10–24 Hz) spectral windows. Beyond the expected developmental improvements in behavioral performance, we found stronger theta oscillatory activity as a function of age across a network of prefrontal brain regions irrespective of condition, as well as more limited age- and validity-related effects for alpha-beta responses. Distinct brain-behavior associations between theta oscillations and attention-related symptomology were also uncovered across a network of brain regions. Taken together, these data are the first to demonstrate developmental effects in the spectrally-specific neural oscillations serving the flexible allocation of attention.