title: Development of response activation and inhibition in a selective stop-signal task.
abstract: To gain more insight into the development of action control, the current brain potential study examined response selection, activation, and selective inhibition during choice- and stop-signal processing in three age groups (8-, 12-, and 21-year-olds). Results revealed that age groups differed in the implementation of proactive control; children slowed their go response and showed reduced cortical motor output compared to adults. On failed inhibition trials, children were less able than adults to suppress muscle output resulting in increased partial-inhibition rates. On invalid stop trials, all age groups initially activated, subsequently inhibited, and then reactivated the go response. Yet, children were less efficient in implementing this strategy. Then, older children recruit motor responses to a greater extent than younger children and adults, which reduced the efficiency of implementing response inhibition and proactive control. The results are discussed in relation to current notions of developmental change in proactive and reactive action control.
authors.affiliation: Amsterdam Center for the Study of Adaptive Control in Brain and Behavior (Acacia), Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: marijke.vandelaar@pels.nl.
authors.forename: Maria C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: van de Laar
authors.affiliation: Amsterdam Center for the Study of Adaptive Control in Brain and Behavior (Acacia), Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wery P M
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: van den Wildenberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Geert J M
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: van Boxtel
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maurits W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: van der Molen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Development; EMG; Laplacian ERPs; Response activation; Response inhibition; Selective inhibition