Li Yongjing, Ganesan Keertana, Smid Claire R, Thompson Abigail, Cañigueral Roser, Royer Jessica, Bernhardt Boris, Steinbeis Nikolaus
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL, London WC1H 0AP, UK; Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL, London WC1H 0AP, UK.
Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2025 Jan;71:101504. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101504. Epub 2024 Dec 28.
Executive functions can be classified into processes of inhibition, working memory and shifting, which together support flexible and goal-directed behaviour and are crucial for both current and later-life outcomes. A large body of literature has identified distinct brain regions critical to performing each of these functions. These findings are however predicated on a piecemeal and single-task approach. It is therefore unclear to what extent these associations reflect task-specific features or actual constructs of executive functions. Here, in a sample of 141 children aged 6-13 years, we administered a battery of 9 executive function tasks, derived latent factors of inhibition, working memory, and shifting and examined their associations with markers of brain structure (whole-brain cortical thickness). We identified associations between working memory and cortical thickness of right superior frontal and left medial temporal lobe as well as associations between shifting and cortical thickness in bilateral frontal and occipital lobes and left medial and anterior temporal lobes. While working memory and shifting shared a cortical substrate in right superior frontal cortex as well as left middle and inferior temporal regions no significant brain clusters were associated with inhibition. We discuss these findings in relation to theories of executive functions and their development.
执行功能可分为抑制、工作记忆和转换过程，这些过程共同支持灵活的、目标导向的行为，对当前和未来的生活结果都至关重要。大量文献已经确定了执行这些功能中每一项所必需的不同脑区。然而，这些发现是基于一种零碎的单任务方法。因此，尚不清楚这些关联在多大程度上反映了任务特定特征或执行功能的实际结构。在此，我们对141名6至13岁的儿童进行了研究，实施了一组9项执行功能任务，得出了抑制、工作记忆和转换的潜在因素，并研究了它们与脑结构标记（全脑皮质厚度）之间的关联。我们发现工作记忆与右侧额上回和左侧颞中回的皮质厚度之间存在关联，以及转换与双侧额叶和枕叶以及左侧颞中回和颞下回的皮质厚度之间存在关联。虽然工作记忆和转换在右侧额上回以及左侧颞中回和颞下回共享一个皮质底物，但没有发现与抑制相关的显著脑区簇。我们结合执行功能及其发展的理论来讨论这些发现。
