The present study was designed to investigate developmental effects on cortical oscillations during response inhibition. EEG data were collected from 42 normally developing children (8 - 18 years old) while they performed Go/No-go tasks. We examined EEG power in alpha (8 - 12Hz) and theta (4 - 7Hz) frequency bands during No-go trials. Results showed that alpha and theta power decreased during baseline, and theta power enhancement during response inhibition (200 – 400ms post-stimulus) increased, with age. Also, baseline power was found to be negatively, and theta power enhancement during inhibition positively, correlated with behavioral performance. Importantly, when the effects of brain measures on behavioral performance were considered, age effects on performance became non-significant, suggesting a mediator role for brain activation. These findings indicate that, as children age, the brain cortex becomes less activated before inhibitory tasks but more activated during tasks, suggesting a more efficient allocation of neural resources.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/24599 |
| Date | 27 July 2010 |
| Creators | Liu, Zhong Xu |
| Contributors | Lewis, Marc D. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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