title: Age-related differences in the neural correlates of trial-to-trial variations of reaction time.
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.
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Nancy E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Adleman
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Richard C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frackman
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Varun
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Razdan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church St, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Electronic address: danweiss@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Weissman
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Leibenluft
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013788:Thalamus / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Development; RT-BOLD; Reaction time; Variation; fMRI