From prediction to control: Age-related dissociations between implicit regularity encoding and attentional modulation...

Adolescence is a key period for the maturation of cognitive control, yet it remains unclear how developing brains transform learned regularities into flexible, goal-directed behavior. This study examined whether (pre-)adolescents can exploit the predictability of task-irrelevant information to improve perception-action integration. Using a distractor-response binding paradigm with varying predictability and EEG recording, we compared behavioral and neural indices between (pre-)adolescents (N = 35) and adults (N = 33). Behaviorally, adults-but not (pre-)adolescents-benefited from high predictability, showing reduced binding costs without changes in binding benefits. Time-frequency analyses revealed that adults exhibited theta-band modulation after prime onset and alpha-band modulation around probe onset, consistent with binding and attentional shielding mechanisms. These oscillatory modulations were absent in (pre-)adolescents, suggesting reduced integration of predictability into event-file representations. However, temporal generalization multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) revealed above-chance decoding of high versus low predictability in both groups, including pre-prime intervals. Thus, (pre-)adolescents represented probabilistic structure but failed to use it to modulate behavior or attentional control. This dissociation implies that while implicit encoding of environmental regularities is functionally mature, the top-down mechanisms needed to implement this knowledge proactively are still developing. These findings highlight a developmental shift from representation to regulation linking the maturation of alpha-theta coordination to the emergence of flexible action control during adolescence.