Connectome-based substrates of emotional N-back performance in the adolescent brain cognitive development study

Refinement of large-scale functional networks during adolescence facilitates maturation of cognitive and affective functions vital to adult wellbeing, including working memory and emotion regulation. Understanding how functional connectivity (FC) subserves these abilities can offer valuable insight into typical neurodevelopment and brain-based markers of vulnerability to psychopathology. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study includes a task designed to engage both working memory and affective processing: the Emotional N-back (EN-back). This study applied connectome-based predictive modelling (CPM) to baseline EN-back fMRI data (n = 4326) to examine whole-brain FC patterns underlying EN-back performance. Separate models were run to predict overall and stimulus-specific accuracy (i.e., places, happy, fearful, and neutral faces). To probe neurodevelopmental change, CPM was applied to N-back fMRI data among adults in the Human Connectome Project (HCP; n = 515). CPM identified networks predictive of overall task performance (Total-accuracy) and all stimuli (rho = 0.26 - 0.35, p < .001) in ABCD. Total-accuracy network strength was a significant predictor of externalizing problems (β = -0.002, t = -5.06, p = 0.0000004), and generalized to predict task performance across brain states (resting-state: rho = 0.13, p < .001) and time (2-year follow-up: rho = 0.37, p < .005). CPM also identified a network predictive of Total N-back accuracy among adult HCP participants (rho = 0.48, p < .05), characterized by common and distinct FC patterns. This work provides novel insight into whole-brain mechanisms of EN-back performance at the onset of adolescence and patterns of neurodevelopment from early adolescence to adulthood.