Top-down control of MEG alpha-band activity in children performing Categorical N-Back Task

Top-down cognitive control has been associated in adults with the prefrontal-parietal network In children the brain mechanisms of top-down control have rarely been studied We examined developmental differences in top-down cognitive control by monitoring event-related desynchronization (ERD) and event-related synchronization (ERS) of alpha-band oscillatory activity (8-13 Hz) during anticipation target detection and post-response stages of a visual working memory task Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to record brain oscillatory activity from healthy 10-year-old children and young adults performing the Categorical N-Back Task (CNBT) Neuropsychological measures assessing frontal lobe networks were also acquired Whereas adults showed a modulation of the ERD at the anticipatory stages of CNBT and ERS at the post-response stage children displayed only some anticipatory modulation of ERD but no ERS at the post-response stage with alpha-band remaining at a desynchronized state Since neuropsychological and prior neuroimaging findings indicate that the prefrontal-parietal networks are not fully developed in 10-year olds and since the children performed as well as the adults on CNBT and yet displayed different patterns of ERD/ERS we suggest that children may be using different top-down cognitive strategies and hence different developmentally apt neuronal networks (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved