DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES IN CORTICAL FUNCTION AND ORGANIZATION DURING MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

儿童认知和情感能力的显著进步发生在童年中期。拟议的研究计划旨在发现这些改进背后的大脑结构和功能变化。我们将使用核磁共振检查7至10岁儿童的大脑。在这项纵向研究中，儿童将每两年接受两次扫描。研究参与者是从一组儿童中招募的，这些儿童是过去7年来进行的一项更大规模研究的一部分。我们将通过观察白质束在结构上和在功能上通过观察大脑激活模式来研究大脑网络连接的变化。我们将探索负责记忆和抑制等认知过程的网络中与年龄相关的变化。此外，我们还将研究这些网络在情绪调节中的作用。核磁共振任务和发展措施被设计成对认知能力的差异具有参与性和敏感性。这项研究将在行为和大脑水平上产生关于典型儿童发育的新的和迫切需要的信息，并将为未来的研究奠定基础，考察环境和遗传对大脑发育的一些影响。

Dramatic advances in cognitive and emotional capacities of children take place during middle childhood. The proposed programme of research is aimed at discovering the structural and functional brain changes that underlie these improvements. We will use MRI to examine the brains of children age 7 to 10 years. Children will be scanned twice at two-year intervals in this longitudinal study. The study participants are being recruited from a of group children that are part of a larger study that has run for last 7 years. We will examine changes the connections of brain networks, both structurally by looking at white matter tracts, and functionally, by looking at brain activation patterns. We will explore age related changes in the networks responsible for cognitive processes like memory and inhibition. In addition, we will examine the role of these networks in emotional regulation. MRI tasks and developmental measures have been designed to be engaging and sensitive to differences in cognitive capacities. The research will yield novel and much needed information about typical child development at both behavioural and brain levels and will lay the groundwork for future research examining a number of environmental and genetic influences on brain development.