Neural Changes Underlying the Development of Fluid Reasoning

描述（由申请人提供）：流动推理，或逻辑思考和解决新情况下问题的能力，是人类认知的核心。在儿童时期获得流畅的推理能力被认为是支持其他认知领域学习的基础，包括阅读和算术。一个基本问题涉及儿童和青少年流动推理发展背后的大脑机制。这项拟议的研究考察了5岁至17岁之间与流体推理能力提高相关的大脑结构和功能的典型发育变化。将使用加速纵向设计，能够评估1-3年内的个人变化，每位参与者有两次测量机会。脑结构的变化将通过结构磁共振成像和弥散张量成像来评估。此外，在执行两项推理任务期间，将使用功能性磁共振成像评估脑功能的变化。最后，将使用一系列认知测量来评估推理能力、处理速度、短期记忆、工作记忆和执行功能的变化。动态系统建模将用于研究从童年到青春期大脑结构、功能和表现之间的相互关系。这些分析将用于评估推理能力发展变化背后的神经机制的假设。这种结合了发展、认知神经科学和定量方法的方法是新颖的，应该会在几个方面产生重要的进展。首先，在不同年龄和能力水平的个体中，测量与流体推理相关的大脑激活将为研究一种重要的高级认知功能变化背后的神经机制提供新的见解，而人们对这一机制的了解相对较少。第二，到目前为止，已经发表的少数关于大脑发育的纵向研究都集中在大脑结构的变化上。因此，这个纵向数据集在描述童年和青春期的大部分大脑结构和功能的典型发育变化方面将是无价的。最后，这项研究可能会对影响儿童和/或成人的许多神经系统疾病的推理缺陷的本质提供见解，包括创伤性脑损伤、自闭症、精神分裂症和额颞叶痴呆。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Fluid reasoning, or the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, is central to human cognition. The acquisition of fluid reasoning ability during childhood is thought to serve as a scaffold that supports learning in other cognitive domains, including reading and arithmetic. A fundamental question concerns the brain mechanisms that underlie the development of fluid reasoning over childhood and adolescence. The proposed research examines the typical developmental changes in brain structure and function associated with improvements in fluid reasoning between the ages of 5 and 17. An accelerated longitudinal design will be used, enabling the assessment of within-person changes over 1-3 years, with two measurement occasions per participant. Changes in brain structure will be assessed with structural magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. Additionally, changes in brain function will be assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging during the performance of two reasoning tasks. Finally, a battery of cognitive measures will be used to assess changes in reasoning ability, as well as processing speed, short-term memory, working memory, and executive function. Dynamical systems modeling will be used to examine the interrelations between brain structure, function, and performance from childhood to adolescence. These analyses will be used to evaluate hypotheses about the neural mechanisms underlying developmental changes in reasoning ability. This combined developmental, cognitive neuroscientific, and quantitative approach is novel, and should yield important advances on several fronts. First, the measurement of brain activation associated with fluid reasoning in individuals of varying age and ability level will provide fresh insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the changes in an important higher-level cognitive function about which relatively little is known. Second, up to now, the few published longitudinal studies on brain development have focused on changes in brain structure. As such, this longitudinal dataset will be invaluable in terms of characterizing typical developmental changes over a large part of childhood and adolescence in terms of both brain structure and function. Finally, this research may provide insights into the nature of reasoning deficits in a number of neurological disorders affecting children and/or adults, including Traumatic Brain Injury, autism, schizophrenia, and frontotemporal dementia.