Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Section of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2012 Jan;83(1):24-35. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2011.09.019. Epub 2011 Oct 11.
The present study investigated how the development of interference control is influenced by the development of working memory (WM) capacity during adolescence. In a dual-task, 17 adolescents (12-16 years) and 19 adults (18-48 years) performed a gender word-face Stroop task, while WM-capacity was manipulated by a concurrently performed N-back task. Behavior (reaction times, % errors and % misses) and event-related potentials associated with the detection (N450) of the Stroop conflict and response selection (sustained positivity; SP) were measured without or with a concurrent WM load. Adolescents had lower accuracy on N-back and Stroop trials than adults. N450 results showed Stroop conflict above temporal-occipital cortex which was suggested to be caused by processing of distracter faces. This N450 conflict response was smaller in adults and only present when holding a simultaneous WM-load, whereas adolescents' N450 conflict responses were already present without a concurrent WM-load and did not further increase with load. These N450 results indicate poorer distracter suppression in adolescence which is suggested to be due to insufficient attentional resources for top-down control. Irrespective of WM-load, adolescents also had larger parietal SP conflict responses than adults, suggesting inefficient response selection in case of activation of two conflicting responses. The main conclusion is that adolescents have worse distracter suppression than adults, caused by lower availability of resources for top-down control.
本研究调查了青少年时期工作记忆（WM）容量的发展如何影响干扰控制的发展。在一项双重任务中，17 名青少年（12-16 岁）和 19 名成年人（18-48 岁）执行了性别词-面孔 Stroop 任务，同时通过同时进行的 N 回任务来操纵 WM 容量。行为（反应时间、%错误和%遗漏）和与 Stroop 冲突检测（N450）以及反应选择（持续正性；SP）相关的事件相关电位在没有或有同时 WM 负荷的情况下进行测量。青少年在 N 回和 Stroop 试验中的准确性低于成年人。N450 结果显示，Stroop 冲突出现在颞顶叶皮层上方，这被认为是由于对分心面孔的处理。这种 N450 冲突反应在成年人中较小，并且仅在同时保持 WM 负荷时才存在，而青少年的 N450 冲突反应已经存在于没有同时 WM 负荷的情况下，并且不会随着负荷的增加而进一步增加。这些 N450 结果表明，青少年的分心抑制能力较差，这可能是由于自上而下控制的注意力资源不足。无论 WM 负荷如何，青少年的顶叶 SP 冲突反应也比成年人更大，这表明在激活两个冲突反应时，反应选择效率低下。主要结论是，青少年的分心抑制能力比成年人差，这是由于自上而下控制的资源可用性较低所致。
