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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on June 26, 2006
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhl014
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Article

Brain Activity Related to Working Memory and Distraction in Children and Adults

Pernille J. Olesen 1, Julian Macoveanu 2, Jesper Tegnér 3, and Torkel Klingberg 1 *

1 Neuropediatric Research Unit, Department of Women and Child Health, Astrid Lindgren's Children's Hospital Q2:07, Karolinska Institutet, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden
2 Neuropediatric Research Unit, Department of Women and Child Health, Astrid Lindgren's Children's Hospital Q2:07, Karolinska Institutet, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden; Division of Computational Biology, Department of Physics, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden
3 Division of Computational Biology, Department of Physics, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden; Computational Medicine Group, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Torkel Klingberg, E-mail: torkel.klingberg{at}ki.se


  Abstract

In order to retain information in working memory (WM) during a delay, distracting stimuli must be ignored. This important ability improves during childhood, but the neural basis for this development is not known. We measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging in adults and 13-year-old children. Data were analyzed with an event-related design to isolate activity during cue, delay, distraction, and response selection. Adults were more accurate and less distractible than children. Activity in the middle frontal gyrus and intraparietal cortex was stronger in adults than in children during the delay, when information was maintained in WM. Distraction during the delay evoked activation in parietal and occipital cortices in both adults and children. However, distraction activated frontal cortex only in children. The larger frontal activation in response to distracters presented during the delay may explain why children are more susceptible to interfering stimuli.

Keywords: development; dorsolateral; event related; fMRI; prefrontal; visuospatial.
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