developmental changes of prefrontal activation in humans a near-infrared spectroscopy study of preschool children and adults发展变化人类前额叶激活的近红外光谱学研究学前儿童和成人.pdfVIP

Developmental Changes of Prefrontal Activation in Humans: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study of Preschool Children and Adults 1 1 2 1 2 Yuki Kawakubo *, Toshiaki Kono , Ryu Takizawa , Hitoshi Kuwabara , Ayaka Ishii-Takahashi , Kiyoto Kasai2 1 Department of Child Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 2 Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Abstract Previous morphological studies indicated that development of the human prefrontal cortex (PFC) appears to continue into late adolescence. Although functional brain imaging studies have sought to determine the time course of functional development of the PFC, it is unclear whether the developmental change occurs after adolescence to adulthood and when it achieves a peak because of the narrow or discontinuous range in the participant’s age. Moreover, previous functional studies have not focused on the anterior frontal region, that is, the frontopolar regions (BA9/10). Thus, the present study investigated the developmental change in frontopolar PFC activation associated with letter fluency task by using near- infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), in subjects from preschool children to adults. We analyzed the relative concentration of hemoglobin (DHb) in the prefrontal cortex measured during the activation task in 48 typically-developing children and adolescents and 22 healthy adults. Consistent with prior morphological studies, we found developmental change with age in the children/adolescents. Moreover, the average Doxy-Hb in adult males was significantly larger than that in child/ adolescent males, but was not true for females. These data sug