Abstract
Fluid intelligence is the capacity to solve novel problems in the absence of task-specific knowledge and is highly predictive of outcomes like educational attainment and psychopathology. ...Here, we modeled the neurocognitive architecture of fluid intelligence in two cohorts: the Centre for Attention, Leaning and Memory sample (CALM) (N = 551, aged 5–17 years) and the Enhanced Nathan Kline Institute—Rockland Sample (NKI-RS) (N = 335, aged 6–17 years). We used multivariate structural equation modeling to test a preregistered watershed model of fluid intelligence. This model predicts that white matter contributes to intermediate cognitive phenotypes, like working memory and processing speed, which, in turn, contribute to fluid intelligence. We found that this model performed well for both samples and explained large amounts of variance in fluid intelligence (R2CALM = 51.2%, R2NKI-RS = 78.3%). The relationship between cognitive abilities and white matter differed with age, showing a dip in strength around ages 7–12 years. This age effect may reflect a reorganization of the neurocognitive architecture around pre- and early puberty. Overall, these findings highlight that intelligence is part of a complex hierarchical system of partially independent effects.
Previous studies have identified localized associations between childhood environment – namely their socio-economic status (SES) – and particular neural structures. The primary aim of the current ...study was to test whether associations between SES and brain structure are widespread or limited to specific neural pathways. We employed advances in whole-brain structural connectomics to address this. Diffusion tensor imaging was used to construct whole-brain connectomes in 113 6−12 year olds. We then applied an adapted multi-block partial-least squares (PLS) regression to explore how connectome organisation is associated with childhood SES (parental income, education levels, and neighbourhood deprivation). The Fractional Anisotropy (FA) connectome was significantly associated with childhood SES and this effect was widespread. We then pursued a secondary aim, and demonstrated that the connectome mediated the relationship between SES and cognitive ability (matrix reasoning and vocabulary). However, the connectome did not significantly mediate SES relationships with academic ability (maths and reading) or internalising and externalising behavior. This multivariate approach is important for advancing our theoretical understanding of how brain development may be shaped by childhood environment, and the role that it plays in predicting key outcomes. We also discuss the limitations with this new methodological approach.
•In childhood and adolescence, cognitive ability is ‘best’ explained as consisting of two factors, gc and gf.•White matter tracts provide independent contributions to cognitive ability.•Associations ...between white matter and intelligence differed from childhood to adolescence.
Despite the reliability of intelligence measures in predicting important life outcomes such as educational achievement and mortality, the exact configuration and neural correlates of cognitive abilities remain poorly understood, especially in childhood and adolescence. Therefore, we sought to elucidate the factorial structure and neural substrates of child and adolescent intelligence using two cross-sectional, developmental samples (CALM: N = 551 (N = 165 imaging), age range: 5–18 years, NKI-Rockland: N = 337 (N = 65 imaging), age range: 6–18 years). In a preregistered analysis, we used structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine the neurocognitive architecture of individual differences in childhood and adolescent cognitive ability. In both samples, we found that cognitive ability in lower and typical-ability cohorts is best understood as two separable constructs, crystallized and fluid intelligence, which became more distinct across development, in line with the age differentiation hypothesis. Further analyses revealed that white matter microstructure, most prominently the superior longitudinal fasciculus, was strongly associated with crystallized (gc) and fluid (gf) abilities. Finally, we used SEM trees to demonstrate evidence for developmental reorganization of gc and gf and their white matter substrates such that the relationships among these factors dropped between 7–8 years before increasing around age 10. Together, our results suggest that shortly before puberty marks a pivotal phase of change in the neurocognitive architecture of intelligence.
Objectives
To discover psychiatric subtypes, researchers are adopting a method called community detection. This method was not subjected to the same scrutiny in the psychiatric literature as ...traditional clustering methods. Furthermore, many community detection algorithms have been developed without psychiatric sample sizes and variable numbers in mind. We aim to provide clarity to researchers on the utility of this method.
Methods
We provide an introduction to community detection algorithms, specifically describing the crucial differences between correlation‐based and distance‐based community detection. We compare community detection results to results of traditional methods in a simulation study representing typical psychiatry settings, using three conceptualizations of how subtypes might differ.
Results
We discovered that the number of recovered subgroups was often incorrect with several community detection algorithms. Correlation‐based community detection fared better than distance‐based community detection, and performed relatively well with smaller sample sizes. Latent profile analysis was more consistent in recovering subtypes. Whether methods were successful depended on how differences were introduced.
Conclusions
Traditional methods like latent profile analysis remain reasonable choices. Furthermore, results depend on assumptions and theoretical choices underlying subtyping analyses, which researchers need to consider before drawing conclusions on subtypes. Employing multiple subtyping methods to establish method dependency is recommended.
The majority of research effort into autism has been dedicated to understanding mechanisms during early development. As a consequence, research on the broader life course of an autism spectrum ...condition (ASC) has largely been neglected and almost nothing is known about ASC beyond middle age. Differences in brain connectivity that arise during early development may be maintained across the lifespan and may play protective or detrimental roles in older age.
This study explored age-related differences in functional connectivity across middle and older age in clinically diagnosed autistic adults (
= 44, 30-73 years) and in an age-matched typical comparison group (
= 45).
The results indicated parallel age-related associations in ASC and typical aging for the local efficiency and connection strength of the default mode network and for the segregation of the frontoparietal control network. In contrast, group differences in visual network connectivity are compatible with a safeguarding interpretation of less age-related decline in brain function in ASC. This divergence was mirrored in different associations between visual network connectivity and reaction time variability in the ASC and comparison group.
The study is cross-sectional and may be affected by cohort effects. As all participants received their autism diagnosis in adulthood, this might hinder generalizability.
These results highlight the complexity of aging in ASC with both parallel and divergent trajectories across different aspects of functional network organization.
Communication with visual signals, like facial expression, is important in early social development, but the question if these signals are necessary for typical social development remains to be ...addressed. The potential impact on social development of being born with no or very low levels of vision is therefore of high theoretical and clinical interest. The current study investigated event-related potential responses to basic social stimuli in a rare group of school-aged children with congenital visual disorders of the anterior visual system (globe of the eye, retina, anterior optic nerve). Early-latency event-related potential responses showed no difference between the VI and control group, suggesting similar initial auditory processing. However, the mean amplitude over central and right frontal channels between 280 and 320 ms was reduced in response to own-name stimuli, but not control stimuli, in children with VI suggesting differences in social processing. Children with VI also showed an increased rate of autistic-related behaviours, pragmatic language deficits, as well as peer relationship and emotional problems on standard parent questionnaires. These findings suggest that vision may be necessary for the typical development of social processing across modalities.
Childhood speech and language deficits are highly prevalent and are a common feature of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, it is difficult to investigate the underlying causal pathways because ...many diagnostic groups have a heterogeneous aetiology. Studying disorders with a shared genetic cause and shared cognitive deficits can provide crucial insight into the cellular mechanisms and neural systems that give rise to those impairments. The current study investigated structural brain differences of individuals with mutations in
, which is associated with a specific neurodevelopmental phenotype including prominent speech and language impairments and intellectual disability. We used multiple structural neuroimaging methods to characterise neuroanatomy in this group, and observed bilateral reductions in cortical thickness in areas surrounding the temporo-parietal junction, parietal lobule, and inferior frontal lobe, and decreased microstructural integrity of cortical, subcortical-cortical, and interhemispheric white matter projections. These findings are compared to reports for other genetic groups and genetically heterogeneous disorders with a similar presentation. Overlap in the neuroanatomical phenotype suggests a common pathway that particularly affects the development of temporo-parietal and inferior frontal areas, and their connections.
Executive functions are a collection of cognitive abilities necessary for behavioural control and regulation, and are important for school success. Executive deficits are common across acquired and ...developmental disorders in childhood and beyond. This review aims to summarize how studies using event‐related potential (ERP) can provide insight into mechanisms underpinning how executive functions develop in children from preschool to adolescence. We specifically focus on ERP components that are considered to be well‐established markers of executive functioning, including the ability to resist distraction (inhibition, N200), hold scenes in mind (visuospatial working memory, contralateral delay activity), attend to specific stimuli (information processing, P300), follow rules (response monitoring, error‐related negativity ERN, and error‐related positivity Pe), and adjust to feedback (outcome monitoring, feedback‐related negativity). All of these components show developmental changes from preschool to adolescence, in line with behavioural and neuroimaging findings. These ERP markers also show altered developmental trajectories in the context of atypical executive functions. As an example, deficits in executive function are prominently implicated in attention‐deficit–hyperactivity disorder. Therefore, this review highlights ERP studies that have investigated the above ERP components in this population. Overall, ERPs provide a useful marker for the development and dysfunction of executive skills, and provide insight into their neurophysiological basis.
What this review adds
Event‐related components show maturational changes from preschool to adolescence.
Altered developmental trajectories are associated with atypical executive functioning.
Event‐related potentials can serve as biological markers for the development and dysfunction of executive skills.
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