title: Maturation of task-induced brain activation and long range functional connectivity in adolescence revealed by multivariate pattern classification.
abstract: The present study uses multivariate pattern classification analysis to examine maturation in task-induced brain activation and in functional connectivity during adolescence. The multivariate approach allowed accurate discrimination of adolescent boys of respectively 13, 17 and 21years old based on brain activation during a gonogo task, whereas the univariate statistical analyses showed no or only very few, small age-related clusters. Developmental differences in task activation were spatially distributed throughout the brain, indicating differences in the responsiveness of a wide range of task-related and default mode regions. Moreover, these distributed age-distinctive patterns generalized from a simple gonogo task to a cognitively and motivationally very different gambling task, and vice versa. This suggests that functional brain maturation in adolescence is driven by common processes across cognitive tasks as opposed to task-specific processes. Although we confirmed previous reports of age-related differences in functional connectivity, particularly for long range connections (>60mm), these differences were not specific to brain regions that showed maturation of task-induced responsiveness. Together with the task-independency of brain activation maturation, this result suggests that brain connectivity changes in the course of adolescence affect brain functionality at a basic level. This basic change is manifest in a range of tasks, from the simplest gonogo task to a complex gambling task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Esther H H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Keulers
authors.forename: Alexandros
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goulas
authors.forename: Jelle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jolles
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stiers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated; D055815:Young Adult