Scientists Show Toddlers How Brain Flexibility Appears

Cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to easily switch mental processes in response to external stimuli or different task demands. For example, when our brain is processing one task, an external stimulus exists and we need to switch our mental processes to pay attention to this external stimulus. This ability to switch from one mental task to another is cognitive flexibility. Such flexibility can predict reading ability, academic success, resilience to stress, creativity, and reduced risk of various neurological and psychiatric disorders. To shed light on the development of this important cognitive process in early infancy, researchers at the UNC Biomedical Research and Imaging Center (BRIC) at the UNC School of Medicine are studying infant brain imaging studies to examine the emergence of neural flexibility. Was carried out. How often a region of the brain changes its role (or loyalty from one functional network to another). Neural flexibility is thought to underlie cognitive flexibility.

Their work Minutes of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Researchers show it Brain area Nervous Flexibility Seems to match the core brain Supported regions Cognitive flexibility Adults have low neural flexibility in the brain regions that control basic brain functions such as motor performance, and functionally flexible brains appear in early infancy, whereas in adults

In this study, the authors used magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity up to seven times in 52 commonly developing infants under the age of two during natural sleep. The researchers, led by BRIC directors Weili Lin, Ph.D., Dixie Lee Boney Soo, a prominent neuromedical professor, and UNC Radiology’s Vice-Chair of Basic Research, said that as neural flexibility grew older, Allows infants to learn new motor skills in the whole brain, especially in the areas of the brain that control movement. Nerve flexibility increases with age in brain regions involved in higher-order cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and reaction inhibition, indicating continued development of these functional networks as the baby becomes an infant ..

Increased neural flexibility with age is highest in areas of the brain that are already involved in adult cognitive flexibility, and cognitive flexibility may begin to develop during the first two years of life. Suggests that.

“The neural flexibility of these brain regions may reflect early developmental processes that support their later appearance in cognitive flexibility,” Lin said. “What we envision is essentially the flexibility of the brain, ready for later maturation of higher cognitive brain function.”

Additional analysis of brain regions, especially those with high neural flexibility, reveals the presence of relatively weak and unstable connections from these regions to other parts of the brain, and these regions are loyal to various functional networks. It showed how you can quickly switch between. In contrast, neural flexibility in brain regions involved in visual function remained relatively low for the first two years of life, suggesting that these regions were already mature.

Low levels of neural flexibility in the visual brain region (ie, high established brain maturity) 3-18 months of age improved performance in cognitive and behavioral assessment at ages 5 or 6 ..

These findings provide insights into the development of high levels of brain function and can be used to predict cognitive outcomes later in life. The developed approach to non-invasively assess neural flexibility can also provide a new tool for assessing subjects with neurodevelopmental disorders.