Developmental stability of task-rest neural efficiency in youth using a threat and cognitive control task

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Developmental Neuroscience

Background:

• Behaviors stem from coordinated neural activity across various scales.
• Neural efficiency, defined as stable functional connectivity between task and rest states, is linked to cognitive performance.
• Adolescence is a critical period for brain development and the emergence of mental health conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the developmental stability of neural efficiency over three years in adolescents.
• To examine the specificity of neural efficiency across cognitive control and threat tasks.
• To investigate associations between neural efficiency, task performance, and anxiety.

Main Methods:

• 95 adolescents (ages ~16 and ~19) underwent resting-state and task-based fMRI scans.
• Neural efficiency was calculated using partial correlations between intrinsic and task-related functional connectivity.
• Temporal stability, task specificity, and correlations with performance and anxiety were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Neural efficiency demonstrated moderate stability from mid to late adolescence (ICC = 0.51-0.58).
• The cognitive control task exhibited higher neural efficiency than the threat task.
• Associations between neural efficiency and improved task performance (reduced interference) were observed but not consistently and did not survive multiple testing correction. No link to anxiety was found.

Conclusions:

• Neural efficiency exhibits moderate developmental stability during adolescence.
• Task characteristics influence neural efficiency.
• While linked to performance, the relationship requires further investigation, especially given the small sample size and cautious interpretation needed.