Comp. by: KKavitha Date:9/9/08 Time:20:29:44 Stage:First Proof File Path:H:/01_CUP/3B2/ Rumsey-9780521883573/Applications/3B2/Proof/9780521883573c02.3d Proof by: QC by: 2 Neural correlates of the development of cognitive control Silvia A. Bunge and Eveline A. Crone Introduction One of the most salient ways in which our behavior changes during childhood and adolescence is that we get better at working towards long-term goals, ignoring irrelevant information that could distract us from these goals, and controlling our impulses – in other words, we exhibit improvements in cognitive control (Casey et al., 2005a; Diamond, 2002; Zelazo, 2004). Cognitive control relies on working memory , or the ability to keep relevant information in mind as needed to carry out an immediate goal. What pre- cisely is changing in a child’s brain over time, enab- ling him or her to better control his/her thoughts and behavior? To what extent do these neural changes result from experience and practice, and to what extent do they result from predictable developmental changes in brain structure? What are the elemental control processes that develop during childhood? A number of brain imaging studies have been conducted in recent years in an effort to tackle these and other difficult questions about the developing brain (Casey et al., 2005b; Luna and Sweeney, 2004). In comparison to what is known about changes in brain structure over development (see Chapter 1 by Lu and Sowell), far less is known about the resulting changes in brain function. Below, we focus on recent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies exam- ining age-related changes in cognitive control. Cognitive control processes The terms executive function and cognitive control refer to cognitive processes associated with the control of thought and action. Putative control functions include the ability to: (1) selectively attend to relevant information while filtering out distracting information (selective attention and interference suppression); (2) work with information that is currently being held in working memory (manipulation); (3) flexibly switch between tasks (task-switching); (4) inhibit inappropriate response tendencies (response inhibition); and (5) represent contextual information that determines whether a thought is relevant or whether an action is appro- priate (e.g. task-set representation). Developmental studies suggest that some of these abilities may mature at different rates during child- hood and adolescent development (Welsh et al., 1991). For example, the ability to inhibit a motoric response matures earlier than the ability to inhibit a response when the task additionally requires select- ive attention (Van den Wildenberg and Van der Molen, 2004). Likewise, the ability to switch between task rules develops earlier than the ability to keep a difficult rule online (Crone et al., 2004b). One of the key questions in developmental research has been whether the ontogenic changes in cognitive control are associated with the development of a single mechanism, such as the capacity to store or Neuroimaging in Developmental Clinical Neuroscience, eds. Judith M. Rumsey and Monique Ernst. Published by Cambridge University Press. # Cambridge University Press 2009. 22