Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK.
Neuroimage. 2010 Jun;51(2):817-27. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.02.058. Epub 2010 Feb 25.
Compared to our understanding of the functional maturation of brain networks underlying complex cognitive abilities, hardly anything is known of the neurofunctional development of simpler cognitive abilities such as visuo-spatial attention allocation. Furthermore, nothing is known on the effect of gender on the functional development of attention allocation. This study employed event related functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate effects of age, sex, and sex by age interactions on the brain activation of 63 males and females, between 13 to 38years, during a visual-spatial oddball task. Behaviourally, with increasing age, speed was traded for accuracy, indicative of a less impulsive performance style in older subjects. Increasing age was associated with progressively increased activation in typical areas of selective attention of lateral fronto-striatal and temporo-parietal brain regions. Sex difference analysis showed enhanced activation in right-hemispheric inferior frontal and superior temporal regions in females, and in left-hemispheric inferior temporo-parietal regions in males. Importantly, the age by sex interaction findings showed that these sex-dimorphic patterns of brain activation may be the result of underlying sex differences in the functional maturation of these brain regions, as females had sex-specific progressive age-correlations in the same right inferior fronto-striato-temporal areas, while male-specific age-correlations were in left medial temporal and parietal areas. The findings demonstrate progressive functional maturation of fronto-striato-parieto-temporal networks of the relatively simple function of attention allocation between early adolescence and mid-adulthood. They furthermore show that sex-dimorphic patterns of enhanced reliance on right inferior frontal, striatal and superior temporal regions in females and of left temporo-parietal regions in males during attention allocation may be the result of underlying sex differences in the functional maturation of these brain regions.
与我们对复杂认知能力相关的大脑网络功能成熟的理解相比，对于诸如视空间注意力分配等较简单认知能力的神经功能发育几乎一无所知。此外，对于性别对注意力分配的功能发育的影响也一无所知。本研究采用事件相关功能磁共振成像技术，对 63 名 13 至 38 岁的男性和女性在进行视觉空间Oddball 任务时的大脑激活情况进行了年龄、性别以及性别与年龄的交互作用的研究。行为上，随着年龄的增长，速度与准确性成反比，这表明年龄较大的受试者表现出的冲动性较低。随着年龄的增长，与选择性注意力的典型区域（外侧额-纹状体和颞-顶叶脑区）相关的大脑激活逐渐增加。性别差异分析显示，女性的右侧额下回和颞上回以及男性的左侧颞下回和顶区的激活增强。重要的是，年龄与性别的交互作用研究结果表明，这些大脑激活的性别差异模式可能是这些大脑区域功能成熟的潜在性别差异的结果，因为女性在相同的右侧额-纹状体-颞叶区域具有特定的性别相关性年龄相关性，而男性则在左侧颞叶和顶叶区域具有特定的年龄相关性。这些发现表明，在青少年早期到成年中期，注意力分配这一相对简单的功能的额-纹状体-顶-颞叶网络逐渐成熟。此外，女性在注意力分配过程中对右侧额下回、纹状体和颞上回以及男性对左侧颞叶和顶叶区域的依赖程度增强的性别差异模式可能是这些大脑区域功能成熟的潜在性别差异的结果。
