Neurodevelopmental changes in brain structure and function across middle childhood

拟议的研究方案旨在发现儿童在儿童中期认知和情感能力进步的基础上的大脑结构和功能变化。大脑被组织成网络，这些网络由各个独立的区域组成，这些区域相互协作，执行不同的认知功能。核磁共振成像可以通过检查脑白质束来提供大脑的结构信息，也可以通过观察大脑的活动模式来提供功能信息。我们计划利用一个大型的成像数据存储库，并将这两个信息源结合起来，以产生功能连接的解剖学加权测量方法。此外，我们将利用一种涉及情绪调节和反应抑制的新型双任务fMRI范式。我们有一组孩子，他们在7岁的时候被扫描过，在接下来的4年里，当他们13岁的时候会被重新扫描。我们使用从存储库数据分析中获得的信息来指导我们的双任务分析。此外，我们将研究负责认知控制和情绪调节的网络中与年龄相关的变化。在这里，我们提出了一种理论，即情绪调节能力的提高与认知控制中涉及的网络结构的巩固有关。我们的MRI任务和发展措施被设计成对认知/情绪处理能力的差异具有吸引力和敏感性。这项研究将在行为和大脑两个层面上产生关于典型儿童发展的新颖和急需的信息。这项研究是纵向的，因此有望提供有关网络正常发展轨迹的有价值的信息。此外，迄今为止很少有研究结合使用功能性和结构MRI连接测量来检查儿童时期的大脑变化。这项工作提供了推进解剖学加权功能连接分析的当前方法。最后，这项研究将为未来研究环境和基因对大脑发育的影响奠定基础。

The proposed programme of research is aimed at discovering the structural and functional brain changes that underlie the advances in cognitive and emotional capacities of children during middle childhood. The brain is organized into networks that consist of individual regions that collaborate to perform diverse cognitive functions. Magnetic Resonance Imaging can provide information about the brain both structurally, by examining white matter tracts and functionally, by looking at brain activation patterns. We plan utilize a large imaging data repository and to apply methods that combine these two information sources to yield an anatomically weighted measure of functional connectivity. In addition, we will make use of a novel dual-task fMRI paradigm involving emotion regulation and response inhibition. We have a cohort of children that have been scanned at age 7 years and over the next 4 years will be rescanned when they turn 13 years of age. We use information gained from the analysis of repository data to guide our dual-task analyses. Furthermore, will examine age related changes in the networks responsible for cognitive control and emotional regulation. Here we advance the theory that improvements in emotional regulation capacities are tied developmentally to the consolidation of network structures involved in cognitive control. Our MRI tasks and developmental measures have been designed to be engaging and sensitive to differences in cognitive / emotional processing capacities. The research will yield novel and much needed information about typical child development at both behavioural and brain levels. The study is longitudinal and therefore promises to provide valuable information about normal developmental trajectories of networks. In addition, very few studies to date have made combined use of functional and structural MRI connectivity measures to examine brain changes during childhood. This work offers to advance current methods of anatomically weighted functional connectivity analyses. Finally, this research will lay the groundwork for future research examining a number of environmental and genetic influences on brain development.