Development of Prefrontal Cortical Connectivity and the Enduring Effect of Learned Value on Cognitive Control

• In Event: 1-218 - How the Environment Shapes Learning Across Development

Integrative Statement

Inhibitory control, the ability to suppress an inappropriate response, is a process used for guiding decisions about what actions to take in the service of goal-directed behavior. Under neutral circumstances, inhibitory control success improves from childhood to adulthood, is improved in individuals from higher socioeconomic environments, and has been associated with developmental shifts in functional activation and connectivity of the prefrontal cortex. However, the ability to exercise inhibitory control is challenged in certain contexts including by rewarding cues, a phenomenon that may be particularly pronounced in adolescents. However, cues that signal approach in one context may not hold the same meaning or potential rewards in all contexts. For example, a cell phone ring might confer rewarding feelings most of the time, but should signal a different kind of response if it occurs during class. Thus, selecting actions in response to valued cues depends on the context and goals at hand.

In the present study, we examine the magnitude and temporal persistence of the influence of value that has been learned on inhibitory control in a cross-sectional sample of 8-25 year olds. Participants (N = 127) first underwent conditioning of a motor approach response to two initially neutral cues, with one cue reinforced with monetary reward and the other with no monetary outcome. Subsequently, during fMRI participants re-encountered these cues as No-Go targets in a non-reinforced Go-No-Go paradigm. By training a novel reward association and holding learning constant with an adaptive algorithm, we ensure that value learning is matched in the sample before introducing a non-incentivized inhibitory control challenge.

While the influence of learned value increasingly disrupted inhibitory control with increasing age, in young adults this pattern remitted over the course of the task, whereas during adolescence the impairing effect of reward history persisted. In contrast, the youngest participants showed a modest relative benefit of learned value on inhibitory control, early in the task. Successful No-Go performance to the previously rewarded target was related to greater recruitment of the right inferior frontal gyrus. We also found an age-related increase in functional connectivity between the inferior frontal gyrus and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex for successful performance to the previously rewarded No-Go target over the control target.

The involvement of the inferior frontal gyrus has been well documented in previous research on inhibitory control and its development. We extend upon such previous work to show for the first time that functional coupling among distinct regions within the prefrontal cortex supports inhibitory control for previously valued cues, and that this coupling shifts from childhood to adulthood. Taken together, these results indicate that over development the complex influence of value information acquired through learning on goals relies upon the increased coordination of distinct higher-order regions in the prefrontal cortex. These findings increase our understanding of the differences in how learned information can be used towards accomplishing later goals, and the developing underlying neural networks.

Authors

• Juliet Davidow, Harvard University
  Presenting Author

• Margaret Sheridan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Koene R.A. Van Dijk, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rosario Santillana, UC Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jenna Snyder, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Constanza Vidal Bustamante, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bruce Rosen, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leah H. Somerville, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author