van Duijvenvoorde, A. C. K.

bioRxiv2020

The Cognitive Mechanisms That Drive Social Belief Updates During Adolescence

Adolescence is a key life phase for developing well-adjusted social behaviour. Belief updates about the trustworthiness of peers are essential during adolescence as social reorientation emerges and peer relationships intensify. This study maps the age-related changes of those belief updates during adolescence (n = 157, 10-24 years). We used computational modelling and an information sampling paradigm to reveal that three cognitive mechanisms contribute to age-related changes in those belief updates: prior beliefs, prior uncertainty, and uncertainty tolerance. The age-related changes in these three cognitive mechanisms result in increasingly adaptive belief updates from early to mid-adolescence when it comes to beliefs about trustworthiness. Our findings shed light on age-related changes in adaptive learning about others during adolescence.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Developmental maturation of the precuneus as a functional core of the default-mode network

Efforts to map the functional architecture of the developing human brain have shown that connectivity between and within functional neural networks changes from childhood to adulthood. While prior work has established that the adult precuneus distinctively modifies its connectivity during task versus rest states (Utevsky, Smith, & Huettel, 2014), it remains unknown how these connectivity patterns emerge over development. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected at two longitudinal timepoints from over 250 participants between the ages of 8 and 26 engaging in two cognitive tasks and a resting-state scan. By applying independent component analysis (ICA) to both task and rest data, we identified three canonical networks of interest - the rest-based default mode network (DMN) and the task-based left and right frontoparietal networks (LFPN, RFPN) - which we explored for developmental changes using dual-regression analyses. We found systematic state-dependent functional connectivity in the precuneus, such that engaging in a task (compared to rest) resulted in greater precuneus-LFPN and precuneus-RFPN connectivity, whereas being at rest (compared to task) resulted in greater precuneus-DMN connectivity. These cross-sectional results replicated across both tasks and at both developmental timepoints. Finally, we used longitudinal mixed models to show that the degree to which precuneus distinguishes between task and rest states increases with age, due to age-related increasing segregation between precuneus and LFPN at rest. Our results highlight the distinct role of the precuneus in tracking processing state, in a manner that is both present throughout and strengthened across development.

neuroscience↗