Age-related differences in the neural correlates of trial-to-trial variations of reaction time

Nancy E Adleman; Gang Chen; Richard C Reynolds; Anna Frackman; Varun Razdan; Daniel H Weissman; Daniel S Pine; Ellen Leibenluft

doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2016.05.001

Age-related differences in the neural correlates of trial-to-trial variations of reaction time

Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2016 Jun:19:248-57. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2016.05.001. Epub 2016 May 12.

Authors

Nancy E Adleman¹, Gang Chen², Richard C Reynolds³, Anna Frackman⁴, Varun Razdan⁵, Daniel H Weissman⁶, Daniel S Pine⁷, Ellen Leibenluft⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20064, USA; Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: adleman@cua.edu.
² Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: gangchen@mail.nih.gov.
³ Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: reynoldr@mail.nih.gov.
⁴ Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: Anna_Frackman@hms.harvard.edu.
⁵ Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: vrazdan@carilionclinic.org.
⁶ Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: danweiss@umich.edu.
⁷ Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: pined@mail.nih.gov.
⁸ Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: leibs@mail.nih.gov.

Abstract

Intra-subject variation in reaction time (ISVRT) is a developmentally-important phenomenon that decreases from childhood through young adulthood in parallel with the development of executive functions and networks. Prior work has shown a significant association between trial-by-trial variations in reaction time (RT) and trial-by-trial variations in brain activity as measured by the blood-oxygenated level-dependent (BOLD) response in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. It remains unclear, however, whether such "RT-BOLD" relationships vary with age. Here, we determined whether such trial-by-trial relationships vary with age in a cross-sectional design. We observed an association between age and RT-BOLD relationships in 11 clusters located in visual/occipital regions, frontal and parietal association cortex, precentral/postcentral gyrus, and thalamus. Some of these relationships were negative, reflecting increased BOLD associated with decreased RT, manifesting around the time of stimulus presentation and positive several seconds later. Critically for present purposes, all RT-BOLD relationships increased with age. Thus, RT-BOLD relationships may reflect robust, measurable changes in the brain-behavior relationship across development.

Keywords: Development; RT-BOLD; Reaction time; Variation; fMRI.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Brain / physiology*
Brain Mapping / methods
Cerebral Cortex / physiology
Child
Cross-Sectional Studies
Executive Function / physiology
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
Male
Occipital Lobe / physiology
Photic Stimulation / methods*
Psychomotor Performance / physiology*
Reaction Time / physiology*
Thalamus / physiology
Young Adult

Grants and funding

ZIA MH002781-15/Intramural NIH HHS/United States