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      Contribution of Neuroimaging Studies to Understanding Development of Human Cognitive Brain Functions

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          Abstract

          Humans experience significant physical and mental changes from birth to adulthood, and a variety of perceptual, cognitive and motor functions mature over the course of approximately 20 years following birth. To deeply understand such developmental processes, merely studying behavioral changes is not sufficient; simultaneous investigation of the development of the brain may lead us to a more comprehensive understanding. Recent advances in noninvasive neuroimaging technologies largely contribute to this understanding. Here, it is very important to consider the development of the brain from the perspectives of “structure” and “function” because both structure and function of the human brain mature slowly. In this review, we first discuss the process of structural brain development, i.e., how the structure of the brain, which is crucial when discussing functional brain development, changes with age. Second, we introduce some representative studies and the latest studies related to the functional development of the brain, particularly for visual, facial recognition, and social cognition functions, all of which are important for humans. Finally, we summarize how brain science can contribute to developmental study and discuss the challenges that neuroimaging should address in the future.

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          Most cited references96

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          Microstructural maturation of the human brain from childhood to adulthood.

          Brain maturation is a complex process that continues well beyond infancy, and adolescence is thought to be a key period of brain rewiring. To assess structural brain maturation from childhood to adulthood, we charted brain development in subjects aged 5 to 30 years using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging, a novel brain imaging technique that is sensitive to axonal packing and myelination and is particularly adept at virtually extracting white matter connections. Age-related changes were seen in major white matter tracts, deep gray matter, and subcortical white matter, in our large (n=202), age-distributed sample. These diffusion changes followed an exponential pattern of maturation with considerable regional variation. Differences observed in developmental timing suggest a pattern of maturation in which areas with fronto-temporal connections develop more slowly than other regions. These in vivo results expand upon previous postmortem and imaging studies and provide quantitative measures indicative of the progression and magnitude of regional human brain maturation.
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            The adolescent brain.

            Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by suboptimal decisions and actions that give rise to an increased incidence of unintentional injuries and violence, alcohol and drug abuse, unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Traditional neurobiological and cognitive explanations for adolescent behavior have failed to account for the nonlinear changes in behavior observed during adolescence, relative to childhood and adulthood. This review provides a biologically plausible conceptualization of the neural mechanisms underlying these nonlinear changes in behavior, as a heightened responsiveness to incentives while impulse control is still relatively immature during this period. Recent human imaging and animal studies provide a biological basis for this view, suggesting differential development of limbic reward systems relative to top-down control systems during adolescence relative to childhood and adulthood. This developmental pattern may be exacerbated in those adolescents with a predisposition toward risk-taking, increasing the risk for poor outcomes.
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              Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents.

              Children who are adept at any one of the three academic 'R's (reading, writing and arithmetic) tend to be good at the others, and grow into adults who are similarly skilled at diverse intellectually demanding activities. Determining the neuroanatomical correlates of this relatively stable individual trait of general intelligence has proved difficult, particularly in the rapidly developing brains of children and adolescents. Here we demonstrate that the trajectory of change in the thickness of the cerebral cortex, rather than cortical thickness itself, is most closely related to level of intelligence. Using a longitudinal design, we find a marked developmental shift from a predominantly negative correlation between intelligence and cortical thickness in early childhood to a positive correlation in late childhood and beyond. Additionally, level of intelligence is associated with the trajectory of cortical development, primarily in frontal regions implicated in the maturation of intelligent activity. More intelligent children demonstrate a particularly plastic cortex, with an initial accelerated and prolonged phase of cortical increase, which yields to equally vigorous cortical thinning by early adolescence. This study indicates that the neuroanatomical expression of intelligence in children is dynamic.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Hum Neurosci
                Front Hum Neurosci
                Front. Hum. Neurosci.
                Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1662-5161
                15 September 2016
                2016
                : 10
                : 464
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University Suita, Japan
                [2] 2Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) Suita, Japan
                [3] 3Graduate Schools of Medicine and Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University Suita, Japan
                Author notes

                Edited by: Tetsuo Kida, National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), Japan

                Reviewed by: Christine Schiltz, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Fabio Richlan, University of Salzburg, Austria

                *Correspondence: Tomoyo Morita morita@ 123456ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp
                Article
                10.3389/fnhum.2016.00464
                5023663
                27695409
                2135c563-8248-481e-926e-4f884424a238
                Copyright © 2016 Morita, Asada and Naito.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 25 March 2016
                : 02 September 2016
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 0, Equations: 0, References: 132, Pages: 14, Words: 12978
                Funding
                Funded by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 10.13039/501100001691
                Award ID: 24000012
                Award ID: 26120003
                Award ID: 15K21138
                Categories
                Neuroscience
                Review

                Neurosciences
                development,functional mri,human brain,neuroimaging,structure,social cognition
                Neurosciences
                development, functional mri, human brain, neuroimaging, structure, social cognition

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