VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Psychology Service, United States.
Penn Lifespan Informatics and Neuroimaging Center, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, United States; Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, United States.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Aug;56:101129. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101129. Epub 2022 Jun 25.
Posterior cerebellar lobules are active during executive function (EF) tasks and are functionally connected to EF-associated cortical networks such as the fronto-parietal network (FPN) and cingulo-opercular network (CON). Despite evidence that EF and cerebello-cortical connectivity develop on a similar time scale, developmental relationships between EFs and cerebello-cortical connectivity have not been directly investigated. We therefore examined relationships between cerebello-cortical connectivity and EF performance in a typically developing sample ages 8 - 21. Resting-state functional connectivity between posterior cerebellum and FPN (middle frontal gyrus, posterior parietal lobules)/CON (anterior cingulate, insula) was computed using independent components analysis. Using conditional process models, we tested the hypothesis that cerebellum - PFC connectivity would mediate the relationship between FPN/CON and EF, and that cerebello-cortical connectivity, and connectivity - EF relationships, would become stronger with increasing age. Cerebellum - CON connectivity strengthened with age, but a relationship between cerebellum - anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) connectivity and attention efficiency was significant only in younger children. Results suggest that during childhood, the posterior cerebellum and ACC may support sustained and executive attention, though age has a stronger effect on EF. These findings may help to guide further studies of executive dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders.
小脑后叶在执行功能 (EF) 任务中活跃，并与 EF 相关的皮质网络（如额顶网络 (FPN) 和扣带-顶叶网络 (CON)）在功能上相连。尽管有证据表明 EF 和小脑皮质连接在相似的时间尺度上发展，但 EF 和小脑皮质连接之间的发展关系尚未被直接研究。因此，我们在一个年龄在 8 至 21 岁之间的正常发育样本中检查了小脑皮质连接与 EF 表现之间的关系。使用独立成分分析计算了小脑后叶与 FPN（额中回、顶叶后小叶）/CON（前扣带、岛叶）之间的静息状态功能连接。使用条件过程模型，我们检验了以下假设：小脑 - 前额叶皮质连接将介导 FPN/CON 与 EF 之间的关系，并且小脑皮质连接以及连接 - EF 关系随着年龄的增长而增强。小脑 - CON 连接随着年龄的增长而增强，但小脑 - 前扣带皮质 (ACC) 连接与注意力效率之间的关系仅在年幼的儿童中显著。结果表明，在儿童时期，小脑后叶和 ACC 可能支持持续注意力和执行注意力，尽管年龄对 EF 的影响更强。这些发现可能有助于指导神经发育障碍中执行功能障碍的进一步研究。
