Tracking the Functional Development of the Corpus Callosum in Children Using Behavioral and Evoked Potential...

Visual functions requiring interhemispheric transfer exhibit a long developmental trajectory up to age 12, which might be constrained by corpus callosum maturation. Here, we use electrophysiological and behavioral crossed-uncrossed differences (CUDs) in a visual Poffenberger paradigm to estimate the interhemispheric transfer time (IHTT)-a measure of corpus callosum maturation-in 7-year-old children and adults. Adults' electrophysiological CUDs were faster than 7-year-olds'. Behavioral CUDs did not differ and proved to be unreliable in a 6-month follow-up test. These findings suggest that the corpus callosum still undergoes development at the age of 7 that can only reliably be traced with neuroscientific methods.