The Maturation of Task Set-Related Activation Supports Late Developmental Improvements in Inhibitory Control

An antisaccade study found that short-lived PFC activity tied to stopping a saccade declines with age, while sustained task-set activity rises.

“a recent study examining inhibitory control in an antisaccade task found that transient activations in PFC related to inhibitory control during a given saccade decrease with age, whereas sustained set-related activations in PFC increase [6].”

Activity patterns across prefrontal and subcortical regions are influenced by task performance, task design, and data analysis techniques.

“other key factors besides development are known to influence patterns of activity across prefrontal and subcortical regions. These include (i) task performance [60], (ii) task design, including transient-event versus sustained-set paradigms [6] or different baseline and timing conditions [28,61], and (iii) various data analysis techniques.”

In typical development, the stop-signal and spatial span tasks recruit prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum, and these regions show differential recruitment with age until adulthood.

“in typical development, the stop-signal and spatial span tasks recruit prefrontal cortex as well as inferior parietal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum, which show differential recruitment with age until adulthood (Geier, Garver, Terwilliger, & Luna, 2009; Velanova, Wheeler, & Luna, 2009; see review, Luna, 2009).”

The behavioral trend of improving response inhibition generally coincides with linear increases in focal recruitment of lateral prefrontal cortex across development.

“and, though the evidence is a bit mixed, this behavioral trend is generally found to coincide with linear increases in the focal recruitment of the IPFC across this developmental period [73–80, though see also 81–84].”

Among studies reporting age-dependent effects in anterior insular cortex activation during response inhibition, seven report significantly weaker engagement in adolescents than adults, while only three report stronger activation in adolescents than adults.

“Of the studies reporting on age-dependent effects in AIC activation during response inhibition, seven studies report significantly weaker functional engagement of the AIC in adolescents compared to adults [73–75, 77, 79, 84, 85], while only three find stronger AIC activation among adolescents than adults [75–77]1.”

Age-related increases in anterior insular cortex recruitment during adolescence are just as consistent as age-related increases in lateral prefrontal cortex recruitment, with several studies showing concomitant developmental differences in both.

“In fact, from the studies we found it seems that age-related increases in AIC recruitment during adolescence are just as consistent as age-related increases in IPFC recruitment (see table 1), with several studies showing concomitant developmental differences in both the AIC and IPFC [73–77, 79, 84].”

The developmental response inhibition literature contains considerable evidence of developmental differences in anterior insular cortex recruitment.

“Upon inspection of the developmental response inhibition literature, we find considerable evidence of developmental differences in AIC recruitment [73–77, 79, 84, 85].”

Visually guided saccade trials were interspersed among antisaccade trials to reduce the chance of establishing an inhibitory response set.

“These VGS trials were randomly interspersed between the AS trials to minimize the possibility that participants would establish an inhibitory response set (Velanova et al., 2009), but were not further analyzed”

Brain function supporting antisaccade performance remains immature even though inhibitory antisaccade errors reach adult levels by mid-adolescence.

“Neuroimaging studies suggest that brain function underlying AS performance continues to demonstrate immaturities”

These functional immaturities include processes for antisaccade error processing and for maintaining an inhibitory response state, which improve into young adulthood.

“These functional immaturities include the recruitment of brain processes that support AS error processing (Velanova et al., 2008), and the ability to retain an inhibitory response state (Velanova et al., 2009), which continue to improve into young adulthood”