fMRI of feedback processing in children and adults

• ¹ Cognitive Neurobiology, IBU, University of Oldenburg, Germany

The prefrontal cortex of the human brain undergoes a long developmental process in its structural and functional organization and it has been demonstrated that these changes are associated with marked improvements in cognitive control. The present fMRI study (Siemens Magnetom, 1.5T) aims to investigate the impact of human development on feedback processing, which is a key variable of interest in cognitive control. A child (10-13 yrs) and an adult group (18-29 yrs.) performed an associative learning paradigm, where errors were hard to detect, subjects thus partially relying on external error feedback. In both age groups participants were randomly assigned either to a group receiving informative or to a group receiving non-informative feedback after retrieval. Additionally, cognitive testing was performed (intelligence, memory capacity, attention) to assess potential modulatory effects of interindividual differences on brain activation. Due to a manipulation of task difficulty we obtained comparable latencies and accuracy rates for both age groups. Within age-group analysis of the fMRI-data (informative feedback > non-informative feedback; N=34 in each age group) showed that positive feedback evoked a similar pattern of brain activation both in children and adults (striatum and left inferior frontal cortex). In the negative feedback condition a different activation pattern was observed with children relying on rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) and thalamus activation whereas adults engaged bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and left middle temporal cortex. Between age-group comparison of feedback-related activation also revealed significantly more activation in right rACC in children compared to adults when processing negative feedback. The heightened engagement of the rACC in children is possibly due to a more effortful performance monitoring in this age group.