Cognitive & Brain Systems Maturation Through Adolescence

描述（由申请人提供）：我们尚不了解大脑和认知过程如何整合以支持健康成人水平的行为认知控制的出现，随后；我们对精神疾病的神经发育模型的理解也是有限的。这个应用程序的广泛目标是获得关于从童年到成年的认知发展的神经生物学基础的知识。我们建议使用公认的认知神经科学方法，旨在研究基本认知过程和大脑过程之间的联系。眼球运动和神经心理学任务将由132名8至22岁的健康受试者在混合横截面纵向设计中完成，将跨越15年的发展。一个由88名受试者组成的亚组也将参与全脑功能磁共振成像和DTI研究。这一建议的目的是描述认知发展的形状、峰值和可变性，描述它是如何被大脑激活的变化所服务的，并确定支持向成人水平脑回路过渡的大脑连接的成熟。根据nimh资助的K01奖的初步发现和文献回顾，我们假设反应抑制、工作记忆和多层次的认知过程，如高水平的计划，将在整个青春期继续改善，因为连接这些区域的髓鞘形成指数的增加支持了广泛分布的大脑功能，整合皮层和皮层下系统。不同的发展速度将由与青春期、智商和性别相关的主体特征的独特轮廓来表征。反应抑制和工作记忆的独立成熟将支持多层次认知任务表现的发展性改善。这项工作将产生一个基本认知控制成熟的规范模板，这将对识别发育精神病理学中的认知成熟障碍具有重要意义，包括在青春期出现的精神分裂症和情绪障碍。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We do not yet understand how brain and cognitive processes integrate to support the emergence of healthy adult-level cognitive control of behavior, subsequently; our understanding of neurodevelopmental models of psychiatric illnesses is also limited. The broad goal of this application is to gain knowledge regarding the neurobiological basis of cognitive development from childhood to adulthood. We propose to use well-established cognitive neuroscience methods, devised to investigate the link between basic cognitive processes and brain processes. Oculomotor and neuropsychological tasks will be performed by 132 eight to 22 year-old healthy subjects in a hybrid cross-sectional longitudinal design that will span 15 years of development. A subgroup of 88 subjects will also participate in whole-brain fMRI and DTI studies. The aim of this proposal is to delineate the shape, peak, and variability of cognitive development, characterize how it is subserved by changes in brain activation, and identify the maturation of brain connectivity that supports the transition to adult level brain circuitry. Based on our preliminary findings from an NIMH-funded K01 award and review of the literature, we hypothesize that response inhibition, working memory, and multi-level cognitive processes, such as high level planning, will continue to improve throughout adolescence as widely distributed brain function integrating cortical and subcortical systems emerges supported by increases in indices of myelination connecting these regions. Different rates of development will be characterized by a unique profile of subject characteristics related to puberty, IQ, and gender. Developmental improvements in the performance of multi-level cognitive tasks will be supported by the independent maturation of response inhibition and working memory. This work will result in a normative template of the maturation of basic cognitive control, which will be significant in identifying impairments of cognitive maturation in developmental psychopathologies, including schizophrenia and mood disorders that emerge in adolescence.