Probing the Neural Basis of Visual Working Memory in Early Development

 描述(申请人提供)：工作记忆被称为智能行为的心脏，而这一关键认知系统的一个核心属性是其高度有限的容量。工作记忆容量的限制可靠地与许多基本认知形式(如语言和数学能力)的个体差异有关，在高危人群中观察到工作记忆缺陷，包括被诊断为注意力缺陷/多动障碍的儿童、自闭症和早产儿童。考虑到这些影响，了解工作记忆容量限制的发展具有广泛的意义，可能对非典型发育儿童的干预努力至关重要。这笔赠款的重点是开发一种名为视觉工作记忆(VWM)的中央类型的工作记忆。VWM在许多视觉认知中起着关键作用，它比较不能同时观看的知觉，并在它们发生时识别世界的变化。研究表明，VWM在婴儿期到5岁之间发展迅速，最近的VWM动态神经场模型已经正式提出了一种候选的神经机制，可以解释VWM能力在早期发展中是如何变化的，以及为什么这种变化会随着任务的不同而变化。拨款的一个关键目标是在神经和行为层面上测试这一理论解释。特别是，我们将进行一项从6个月到4.5年的加速纵向研究。在每个年龄段，儿童将完成两次功能性神经成像课程和一次结构性神经成像课程。我们将使用这些数据来检验：(1)DNF模型是否捕获了VWM表现从6个月到4.5岁的个体发育轨迹；(2)DNF模型是否预测了VWM大脑网络在早期发育中的功能变化；以及(3)DNF参数在发育过程中的变化是否通过VWM网络中髓鞘含量的局部变化来解释。这笔赠款的结果将为我们研究高危人群纵向变化的方法的扩展奠定基础。这项工作还将促进在VWM神经过程模型的指导下进行个性化干预的创新方法，该模型说明了大脑和行为的个体差异。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Working memory has been dubbed the heart of intelligent behavior, and a core property of this critical cognitive system is its highly limited capacity. Working memory capacity limitations are reliably associated with individual differences in many basic forms of cognition (e.g., language and mathematical abilities), and working memory deficits have been observed in at-risk populations, including children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, and children born preterm. Given these influences, understanding the development of working memory capacity limits has broad implications and may be critical to intervention efforts with atypically developing children. This grant focuses on the development of a central type of working memory called visual working memory (VWM). VWM plays a key role in much of visual cognition, comparing percepts that cannot be simultaneously viewed and identifying changes in the world when they occur. Research has shown that VWM develops dramatically between infancy and 5 years old, and a recent dynamic neural field (DNF) model of VWM has formalized a candidate neural mechanism for how VWM capacity changes in early development and why such changes vary across tasks. A key goal of the grant is to test this theoretical account at neural and behavioral levels. In particular, we will conduct an accelerated longitudinal study from 6 months to 4.5 years. At each age, children will complete two functional neuroimaging sessions and a structural neuroimaging session. We will use these data to examine: (1) whether the DNF model captures individual developmental trajectories in VWM performance from 6 months to 4.5 years; (2) whether the DNF model predicts functional changes in the VWM brain network in early development; and (3) whether changes in DNF parameters over development are explained by localized changes in myelin content within the VWM network. Results from this grant will set the stage for extensions of our approach to examine longitudinal changes in at-risk populations. This work will also foster an innovative approach to individualized interventions guided by a neural process model of VWM that speaks to individual differences in both brain and behavior.