| This proposal presents one of the first developmental fMRI go/no-go study to examine response inhibition using a go/no-go task with children as young as 6 years old, compared with children aged 10 years and young adults, and is part of a larger study conducted on the same population of subjects (Ciesielski, Lesnik, Savoy, Grant, & Ahlfors, 2006). The present study hypothesizes that not only prefrontal but significant differential cerebellar activity is involved in a go/no-go task, due to the cerebellum's connections with the prefrontal cortex and proposed modulatory role in cognitive functioning and inhibitory control (Ciesielski et al., 1997; Ito, 1984; Lesnik et al., 1998; Schmahmann & Pandya, 1997). Participants performed neuropsychological tests intended to assess response inhibition, and an fMRI go/no-go task consisting of pictures of animals, nonanimals, and a cross. Participants were instructed to press a button to each animal (target), not to respond to non-animals (nontarget), and to ignore crosses. Results from 2 groups of normal children (average age 6 and 10 years old, respectively) and young adults were examined. Imaging results indicate that across groups several areas of activation are consistent with previous findings in other developmental go/no-go studies, including greater frontal and striatal activation in younger children (Booth et al., 2003; Bunge et al., 2002; Casey et al, 1997; Durston, et al., 2002; Tamm et al., 2002), and that both the prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum are significantly involved in response inhibition across development. The present findings suggest a pattern of normal developmental inhibitory functioning, which may contribute to a growing body of fMRI reference data in healthy children essential for studies of brain mechanisms in developmental psychopathology. |
