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Neurocognitive development of relational reasoning
Eveline A Crone1, Carter Wendelken, Linda van Leijenhorst
1Department of Developmental Psychology, Leiden University, The Netherlands.
Developmental Science
|January 6, 2009
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Relational reasoning is key to fluid intelligence and develops over time.
- Neural mechanisms of reasoning development are not well understood.
- Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can reveal brain activity during reasoning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate neural differences in relational reasoning between children and adults.
- To identify how brain activation patterns change with age during complex reasoning tasks.
- To understand the neural basis of developmental improvements in relational integration.
Main Methods:
- Used fMRI to scan children (8-12) and adults (18-25) performing a relational reasoning task.
- Task varied in relational reasoning demands (REL-0, REL-1, REL-2).
- Analyzed brain activation in lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and parietal cortex.
Main Results:
- Children showed lower accuracy than adults on tasks requiring two-relation integration (REL-2).
- Both groups engaged lateral PFC and parietal cortex, but with different activation patterns.
- Adults showed sustained rostrolateral PFC (RLPFC) activation for REL-2; children's RLPFC engagement for REL-2 was transient.
Conclusions:
- Children recruit RLPFC for relational processing but struggle with sustained integration.
- Developmental improvements in relational reasoning involve changes in RLPFC engagement.
- Enhanced PFC and parietal cortex function underlies advanced reasoning skills in adults.
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