Data from: The expression of established cognitive brain states stabilizes with working memory development

We present results from a longitudinal study conducted over 10 years in a sample of 126 8-33 year olds demonstrating that adolescent development of working memory is supported by decreased variability in the amplitude of expression of whole brain states of task-related activity. fMRI analyses reveal that putative gain signals affecting maintenance and retrieval aspects of working memory processing stabilize during adolescence, while those affecting sensorimotor processes do not. We show that trial-to-trial variability in the reaction time and accuracy of eye-movements during a memory guided saccade task are related to fluctuations in the amplitude of expression of task-related brain states, or brain state variability, and also provide evidence that individual developmental trajectories of reaction time variability are related to individual trajectories of brain state variability. These observations demonstrate that underlying the maturation of cognition through adolescence is the stabilization of widespread gain signals affecting already available cognitive processes.

我们报告了一项为期10年的纵向研究结果，该研究纳入126名8至33岁的受试者，结果显示青少年期工作记忆的发育依托于任务相关全脑活动状态的表达振幅变异性降低。功能磁共振成像（fMRI）分析表明，影响工作记忆加工维持与提取环节的推定增益信号在青少年期趋于稳定，而调控感觉运动加工的此类信号则未出现此类稳定化现象。本研究发现，在记忆引导眼跳任务中，眼动反应时与准确度的试次间变异性，与任务相关脑状态的表达振幅波动（即脑状态变异性）存在关联；同时亦证实，反应时变异性的个体发育轨迹与脑状态变异性的个体发育轨迹密切相关。上述观测结果表明，青少年期认知成熟的底层机制，是调控既有认知加工过程的广泛分布增益信号趋于稳定。