Inhibitory control and the adolescent brain: a review of fMRI research

Adolescence is a developmental period frequently characterized by impulsive behavior and suboptimal decision making, aspects that often result in increased rates of substance abuse, unprotected sex, and several other harmful behaviors. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have attempted to reveal the brain mechanisms that underlie the typical inhibitory control limitations associated with this developmental period. In the present review, all available studies in the PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science databases that investigated this issue utilizing fMRI were analyzed. In contrast to adults, adolescents exhibited decreased activity in several brain regions associated with inhibitory control such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and fronto-striatal regions. The decreased activity found in these regions may underlie the diminished inhibitory control abilities associated with this development period.

Antisaccade study of executive functions in children with two subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To analyze inhibitions and working memory impairments in children with different subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with saccade tasks. Methods Participants,aged 10～ 13 years with ADHD-combined ( n= 19) ,ADHD-inattentive ( n= 11 ) and control subjects ( n= 18) ,were selected according to DSM-Ⅳ diagnosis,Conners teacher rating scale and parent symptom questionnaire from 1500pupils from 2 primary schools in Jinhua city by stratified cluster sampling method. Participants performed 3 different saccade tasks: 1 prosaccade and 2 antisaccades executed in a single-task and a dual-task situation. One of the antisaccade tasks was performed under the verbal secondary task condition to investigate verbal working memory.Saccades were registered by Eyelink Ⅱ Tracker. Errors and correct rate were analyzed. One-way ANOVA and repeated measures ANOVA were used to analyze the data. Results (1) Each group showed more response suppression errors on antisaccade task without load than on prosaccade task, ADHD-combined and ADHD-inattentive exhibited more errors than non-ADHD (P＜0.01) ,and errors was lower in ADHD-inattentive than in ADHD-combined ( ( 70.90 ± 15.78 ) % vs ( 84.04 ± 12.84 ) %, P ＜ 0.05 ). (2) The interactions between group and load were not significant in error rate on antisaccade tasks (P ＞ 0.05 ), but in correct rate (P ＜ 0. 05 ). The two subtypes of ADHD were affected more than non-ADHD, their correct rates tended to decrease under verbal working memory load. Conclusion An integrative view of deficits in inhibition and verbal working memory in two subtypes of ADHD is proposed, and ADHD-inattentive has a better response suppression than ADHD-combined.

The antisaccade in children with autistic spectrum disorders / 国际儿科学杂志

Recent studies demonstrate that autistic spectrum disprders children have deficits in executive functiony, particularly the function referred response inhibition. The antisaccade task provides a new tool for direct evaluation of inhibitory function and a new way to explore the character of response inhibition in children with cognitive impairment. Researchers have used the technologies of eye movement to reveal the ability of oculomotor inhibition in children with autistic spectrum disprders, which is poorer than that of normal children.