White matter integrity predicts delay discounting behavior in 9- to 23-year-olds: a diffusion tensor imaging study.

Healthy participants (n = 79), ages 9-23, completed a delay discounting task assessing the extent to which the value of a monetary reward declines as the delay to its receipt increases. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was used to evaluate how individual differences in delay discounting relate to variation in fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) within whole-brain white matter using voxel-based regressions. Given that rapid prefrontal lobe development is occurring during this age range and that functional imaging studies have implicated the prefrontal cortex in discounting behavior, we hypothesized that differences in FA and MD would be associated with alterations in the discounting rate. The analyses revealed a number of clusters where less impulsive performance on the delay discounting task was associated with higher FA and lower MD. The clusters were located primarily in bilateral frontal and temporal lobes and were localized within white matter tracts, including portions of the inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculi, anterior thalamic radiation, uncinate fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, corticospinal tract, and splenium of the corpus callosum. FA increased and MD decreased with age in the majority of these regions. Some, but not all, of the discounting/DTI associations remained significant after controlling for age. Findings are discussed in terms of both developmental and age-independent effects of white matter organization on discounting behavior.

Interval timing and Parkinson's disease: heterogeneity in temporal performance.

Interval timing deficiencies in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients have been a matter of debate. Here we test the possibility of PD heterogeneity as a source for this discrepancy. Temporal performance of PD patients and control subjects was assessed during two interval tapping tasks and during a categorization task of time intervals. These tasks involved temporal processing of intervals in the hundreds of milliseconds range; however, they also covered a wide range of behavioral contexts, differing in their perceptual, decision-making, memory, and execution requirements. The results showed the following significant findings. First, there were two clearly segregated subgroups of PD patients: one with high temporal variability in the three timing tasks, and another with a temporal variability that did not differ substantially from control subjects. In contrast, PD patients with high and low temporal variability showed similar perceptual, decision-making, memory, and execution performance in a set of control tasks. Second, a slope analysis, designed to dissociate time-dependent from time-independent sources of variation, revealed that the increase in variability in this group of PD patients was mainly due to an increment in the variability associated with the timing mechanism. Third, while the control subjects showed significant correlations in performance variability across tasks, PD patients, and particularly those with high temporal variability, did not show such task correlations. Finally, the results showed that dopaminergic treatment restored the correlation effect in PD patients, producing a highly significant correlation between the inter-task variability. Altogether, these results indicate that a subpopulation of PD patients shows a strong disruption in temporal processing in the hundreds of milliseconds range. These findings are discussed in terms of the role of dopamine as a tuning element for the synchronization of temporal processing across different behavioral contexts in PD patients.

Working memory performance in typically developing children and adolescents: behavioral evidence of protracted frontal lobe development.

Post-mortem histological and in vivo neuroimaging findings both reveal frontal lobe development that extends beyond the adolescent years. Few studies have examined whether this protracted neurodevelopment coincides with improvements in adolescent performance on putative frontal lobe tasks. An instrumental function supported by the frontal lobes is working memory, the ability to maintain and manipulate information online. This study investigated the performance of typically developing children and adolescents on a battery of working memory tasks. Findings revealed an improvement in performance on most working memory tasks across the adolescent years. In contrast, no improvement was observed on tasks largely supported by more posterior neural substrates. Current findings indicate a similar unfolding of the executive aspects of verbal working memory as previously demonstrated with spatial working memory. Factor analysis revealed a grouping of working memory tasks based largely on task demands, irrespective of working memory domain, adding support for process-specific models of prefrontal organization. Important implications for typical and atypical frontal lobe development are discussed.

Variations in the catechol O-methyltransferase polymorphism and prefrontally guided behaviors in adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene codes for an enzyme that degrades prefrontal cortex (PFC) synaptic dopamine. Of two identified alleles (Met and Val), the Met allele results in COMT activity that is up to 4 times less pronounced than that conferred by the Val allele, resulting in greater PFC dopamine concentrations. Met-Met homozygotes perform better than individuals who possess the Val allele on PFC-mediated cognitive tasks. These genotypic variations and their associations with executive functions have been described in adults and prepubescent children, but there is a paucity of research assessing these relations in adolescent samples. METHODS: In this study, 70 children aged 9-17 were genotyped for COMT and completed measures of working memory, attention, fine motor coordination, and motor speed. RESULTS: COMT genotype modulated all but the motor speed measures. The Val-Met genotype was optimal for performance in this adolescent sample. CONCLUSIONS: Results are discussed within the context of developmental changes in the dopaminergic system during adolescence.

Adolescents' performance on delay and probability discounting tasks: contributions of age, intelligence, executive functioning, and self-reported externalizing behavior.

Healthy adolescents, ages 9-23, completed delay and probability discounting tasks and measures of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, executive functioning, and self-reported internalizing and externalizing behavior. Delay but not probability discounting decreased with age. Delay discounting was also associated with verbal intelligence and Go-NoGo and Iowa Gambling Task performance. Probability discounting was associated only with externalizing behavior. Findings conform to an accumulation of evidence that while delay and probability discounting may have some overlapping components, they also reflect some fundamentally different processes in this age group.

The development of nonverbal working memory and executive control processes in adolescents.

The prefrontal cortex modulates executive control processes and structurally matures throughout adolescence. Consistent with these events, prefrontal functions that demand high levels of executive control may mature later than those that require working memory but decreased control. To test this hypothesis, adolescents (9 to 20 years old) completed nonverbal working memory tasks with varying levels of executive demands. Findings suggest that recall-guided action for single units of spatial information develops until 11 to 12 years. The ability to maintain and manipulate multiple spatial units develops until 13 to 15 years. Strategic self-organization develops until ages 16 to 17 years. Recognition memory did not appear to develop over this age range. Implications for prefrontal cortex organization by level of processing are discussed.

Adolescents' performance on the Iowa Gambling Task: implications for the development of decision making and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Healthy adolescents (79 girls, 66 boys), ages 9-17, completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) as well as working memory (digit span) and behavioral inhibition (go/no-go) tasks. Cross-sectional age-related changes were seen on all 3 tasks. Gender differences were seen in IGT deck preference and attentional variables (i.e., go/no-go hit rate and forward digit span). After age, gender, and general intellectual abilities were controlled for, IGT performance was not predicted by working memory or behavioral inhibition scores. Findings suggest that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex or its connections are functionally maturing during adolescence in a manner that can be distinguished from maturation of other prefrontal regions. Development of these functions may continue into young adulthood.

A descriptive study of hyperlexia in a clinically referred sample of children with developmental delays.

In this study, we evaluated the incidence of hyperlexia in a clinically referred sample of 80 children with developmental delays. Based on hypotheses previously formulated in the literature, the study investigated the frequency of hyperlexia among boys and girls, the incidence of hyperlexia in children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD)-spectrum compared with non-PDD diagnoses, the range of IQ and of various cognitive skills in children with and without hyperlexia, and the developmental outcomes of children with and without hyperlexia. The results revealed no significant differences in the frequency of hyperlexia in girls compared with boys. However, the frequency of hyperlexia was significantly elevated among children with PDD compared with children with non-PDD diagnoses. The range of IQ and other cognitive skills and the developmental outcomes of children with hyperlexia were comparable to those of children without hyperlexia.