Lifespan differences in nonlinear dynamics during rest and auditory oddball performance

Electroencephalographic recordings (EEG) were used to assess age-associated differences in nonlinear brain dynamics during both rest and auditory oddball performance in children aged 9.0-12.8 years, younger adults, and older adults. We computed nonlinear coupling dynamics and dimensional complexity, and also determined spectral alpha power as an indicator of cortical reactivity. During rest, both nonlinear coupling and spectral alpha power decreased with age, whereas dimensional complexity increased. In contrast, when attending to the deviant stimulus, nonlinear coupling increased with age, and complexity decreased. Correlational analyses showed that nonlinear measures assessed during auditory oddball performance were reliably related to an independently assessed measure of perceptual speed. We conclude that cortical dynamics during rest and stimulus processing undergo substantial reorganization from childhood to old age, and propose that lifespan age differences in nonlinear dynamics during stimulus processing reflect lifespan changes in the functional organization of neuronal cell assemblies.     

Prospective memory across the lifespan: Investigating the contribution of retrospective and prospective processes

Prospective memory performance follows an inverted U-shaped function across the lifespan. Findings on the relative contribution of purely prospective memory and retrospective memory processes within prospective memory to this trajectory are scarce and inconclusive. We analyzed age-related differences in prospective memory performance across the lifespan in a cross-sectional design including six age groups (N = 99, 7–83 years) and investigated possible mechanisms by experimentally disentangling the relative contributions of retrospective memory and purely prospective memory processes. Results confirmed the inverted U-shaped function of prospective memory performance across the lifespan. A significant interaction between process type and age group was observed indicating differential relative contributions of retrospective memory and purely prospective memory processes on the development of prospective memory performance. Our results showed that mainly the pure prospective memory processes within prospective memory lead to lower prospective memory performance in young children and old adults. Moreover, the relative contributions of the retrospective memory and purely prospective memory processes are not uniform at both ends of the lifespan, i.e., in later adulthood the purely prospective memory processes seem to determine performance to an even greater extent than in childhood. Nevertheless, age effects were also observed in the retrospective component which thus contributed to the prospective memory performance differences between the age groups.     

Individual differences in motor development during early childhood: An MEG study

In a previous study, we reported the first measurements of pre‐movement and sensorimotor cortex activity in preschool age children (ages 3–5 years) using a customized pediatric magnetoencephalographic system. Movement‐related activity in the sensorimotor cortex differed from that typically observed in adults, suggesting that maturation of cortical motor networks was still incomplete by late preschool age. Here we compare these earlier results to a group of school age children (ages 6–8 years) including seven children from the original study measured again two years later, and a group of adults (mean age 31.1 years) performing the same task. Differences in movement‐related brain activity were observed both longitudinally within children in which repeated measurements were made, and cross‐sectionally between preschool age children, school age children, and adults. Movement‐related mu (8–12 Hz) and beta (15–30 Hz) oscillations demonstrated linear increases in amplitude and mean frequency with age. In contrast, movement‐evoked gamma synchronization demonstrated a step‐like transition from low (30–50 Hz) to high (70–90 Hz) narrow‐band oscillations, and this occurred at different ages in different children. Notably, pre‐movement activity (‘readiness fields’) observed in adults was absent in even the oldest children. These are the first direct observations of brain activity accompanying motor responses throughout early childhood, confirming that maturation of this activity is still incomplete by mid‐childhood. In addition, individual children demonstrated markedly different developmental trajectories in movement‐related brain activity, suggesting that individual differences need to be taken into account when studying motor development across age groups.     

Binding and strategic selection in working memory: a lifespan dissociation

Working memory (WM) shows a gradual increase during childhood, followed by accelerating decline from adulthood to old age. To examine these lifespan differences more closely, we asked 34 children (10-12 years), 40 younger adults (20-25 years), and 39 older adults (70-75 years) to perform a color change detection task. Load levels and encoding durations were varied for displays including targets only (Experiment 1) or targets plus distracters (Experiment 2, investigating a subsample of Experiment 1). WM performance was lower in older adults and children than in younger adults. Longer presentation times were associated with better performance in all age groups, presumably reflecting increasing effects of strategic selection mechanisms on WM performance. Children outperformed older adults when encoding times were short, and distracter effects were larger in children and older adults than in younger adults. We conclude that strategic selection in WM develops more slowly during childhood than basic binding operations, presumably reflecting the delay in maturation of frontal versus medio-temporal brain networks. In old age, both sets of mechanisms decline, reflecting senescent change in both networks. We discuss similarities to episodic memory development and address open questions for future research.     

Dyadic drumming across the lifespan reveals a zone of proximal development in children

Many social interactions require the synchronization--be it automatically or intentionally--of one's own behavior with that of others. Using a dyadic drumming paradigm, the authors delineate lifespan differences in interpersonal action synchronization (IAS). Younger children, older children, younger adults, and older adults in same- and mixed-age dyads were instructed to drum in synchrony with their interaction partner at a constant, self-chosen tempo. Adult-only dyads showed the highest and children-only the lowest levels of IAS accuracy. It is important to note that children improved reliably in IAS accuracy when paired with older partners. The observed age-related differences in IAS accuracy remained reliable after statistically controlling for individual differences in the ability to synchronize to a metronome and for between-dyad differences in tempo. The authors conclude that IAS improves from middle childhood to adulthood and that adult interaction partners may facilitate its development.     

Gratitude across the life span: Age differences and links to subjective well-being

Abstract

Gratitude has been described as an adaptive evolutionary mechanism that is relevant to healthy psychological and interpersonal outcomes. Questions remain as to whether the presence and benefits of gratitude are consistent from young adulthood to old age; prior research has yielded mixed evidence. We examined the magnitude and direction of age differences in gratitude in three samples (combined N = 31,206). We also examined whether gratitude was associated with greater/lesser well-being at different periods in the life course. We found that the experience of gratitude was greatest in older adults and least in middle aged and younger adults. Further, we found that the associations between gratitude and subjective well-being remained relatively constant across the lifespan. Findings are discussed from a developmental perspective.     

Thinking with Beauvoir on the Freedom of the Child

Among philosophers, Simone de Beauvoir is unique in treating childhood as a philosophical phenomenon. In both The Ethics of Ambiguity and The Second Sex, she examines the relationship between childhood and human freedom and considers its role in the development of subjectivity. Despite this, few sustained analyses of her treatment of the phenomenon exist. I argue that Beauvoir's conception of childhood is not uniform, but changes from The Ethics of Ambiguity to The Second Sex. Whereas the former presents children as lacking moral freedom, as not fully sovereign individuals, the latter suggests that children are just as free as adults. When children do not fully possess or exercise freedom, it is not because they are not in a position to do so, but rather because various social institutions hinder them. I find this position useful for developing a phenomenological account of childhood as a site for freedom. Hence, Beauvoir becomes a source for thinking of issues in philosophical anthropology concerning the temporality of human existence and the nature of human agency over a lifespan.     

Brain activation during upright and inverted encoding of own‐ and other‐age faces: ERP evidence for an own‐age bias

We investigated the neural processing underlying own‐age versus other‐age faces among 5‐year‐old children and adults, as well as the effect of orientation on face processing. Upright and inverted faces of 5‐year‐old children, adults, and elderly adults (> 75 years of age) were presented to participants while ERPs and eye tracking patterns were recorded concurrently. We found evidence for an own‐age bias in children, as well as for predicted delayed latencies and larger amplitudes for inverted faces, which replicates earlier findings. Finally, we extend recent reports about an expert‐sensitive component (P2) to other‐race faces to account for similar effects in regard to other‐age faces. We conclude that differences in neural activity are strongly related to the amount and quality of experience that participants have with faces of various ages. Effects of orientation are discussed in relation to the holistic hypothesis and recent data that compromise this view.     

Development of sensorimotor synchronization abilities: Motor and cognitive components

The aim of the present study was to examine both the development of sensorimotor synchronization in children in the age range from 5 to 8 years and the involvement of motor and cognitive capacities. Children performed a spontaneous motor tempo task and a synchronization–continuation task using an external auditory stimulus presented at three different inter-stimulus intervals: 500, 700, and 900 ms. Their motor and cognitive abilities (short-term memory, working memory, and attention) were also assessed with various neuropsychological tests. The results showed some developmental changes in synchronization capacities, with the regularity of tapping and the ability to slow down the tapping rate improving with age. The age-related differences in tapping were nevertheless greater in the continuation phase than in the synchronization phase. In addition, the development of motor capacities explained the age-related changes in performance for the synchronization phase and the continuation phase, although working memory capacities were also involved in the interindividual differences in performance in the continuation phase. The continuation phase is thus more cognitively demanding than the synchronization phase. Consequently, the improvement in sensorimotor synchronization during childhood is related to motor development in the case of synchronization but also to cognitive development with regard to the reproduction and maintenance of the rhythm in memory.     

Childhood amnesia in children and adolescents: Their earliest memories

Investigations of childhood amnesia have almost exclusively focused on the earliest memories of adults. Here we investigate the earliest memories of children of 6–19 years old. Parents confirmed the memory events and dated the memories. There were surprisingly few developmental differences between the earliest memories of children. Although 6–9-year-olds recalled earlier events than did older children, there were no differences between older age groups. Memories from all age groups were similar in structure, social orientation, and the nature of the recalled event. However, memories of older children were more likely to involve negative affect. There were also few gender differences, although girls were more likely to recall traumatic or transitional events while boys were more likely to recall play events. Overall, results deepen the paradox of early memory: 6–9-year-olds have verbally accessible memories from very early childhood that then seem to disappear as they get older.     

Childhood amnesia in children and adolescents: their earliest memories

Investigations of childhood amnesia have almost exclusively focused on the earliest memories of adults. Here we investigate the earliest memories of children of 6--19 years old. Parents confirmed the memory events and dated the memories. There were surprisingly few developmental differences between the earliest memories of children. Although 6--9-year-olds recalled earlier events than did older children, there were no differences between older age groups. Memories from all age groups were similar in structure, social orientation, and the nature of the recalled event. However, memories of older children were more likely to involve negative affect. There were also few gender differences, although girls were more likely to recall traumatic or transitional events while boys were more likely to recall play events. Overall, results deepen the paradox of early memory: 6--9-year-olds have verbally accessible memories from very early childhood that then seem to disappear as they get older.     

Age‐related changes in transient and oscillatory brain responses to auditory stimulation during early adolescence

Maturational changes in the capacity to process quickly the temporal envelope of sound have been linked to language abilities in typically developing individuals. As part of a longitudinal study of brain maturation and cognitive development during adolescence, we employed dense‐array EEG and spatiotemporal source analysis to characterize maturational changes in the timing of brain responses to temporal variations in sound. We found significant changes in the brain responses compared longitudinally at two time points in early adolescence, namely 10 years (65 subjects) and 11.5 years (60 of the 65 subjects), as well as large differences between adults, studied with the same protocol ( Poulsen, Picton & Paus, 2007 ), and the children at 10 and 11.5 years of age. The transient auditory evoked potential to tone onset showed decreases in the latency of vertex and T‐complex components, and a highly significant increase in the amplitude of the N1 wave with increasing age. The auditory steady state response to a 40‐Hz frequency‐modulated tone increased in amplitude with increasing age. The peak frequency of the envelope‐following response to sweeps of amplitude‐modulated white noise also increased significantly with increasing age. These results indicate persistent maturation of the cortical mechanisms for auditory processing from childhood into middle adulthood.     

Mapping the Landscape of Personality in Childhood and Adolescence

From infancy, children vary in their typical emotions and behaviors, and by the middle of childhood, children have richly differentiated personalities. In this paper, I review the personality differences that youths exhibit from early childhood through adolescence, using a three-part taxonomy developed by (McAdams, D. P., & Pals, J. L. American Psychologist, 2006; 61, 204–217). First, children exhibit a dispositional signature, including first temperament traits and later the Big Five personality traits, which show some consistency across situations and over time. Second, youths display characteristic adaptations that are more specific to particular life contexts; these include mental representations, strategies, and goals. Third, adolescents form personal narratives, stories about their lives that reflect and shape their identities. I describe the differences youths exhibit in these three domains and situate these differences in the context of overall development in childhood and adolescence. New work on youths’ personalities can serve as the foundation for future lifespan perspectives on personality development.     

Short-term memory predictions across the lifespan: monitoring span before and after conducting a task

Our objective was to explore metamemory in short-term memory across the lifespan. Five age groups participated in this study: 3 groups of children (4–13 years old), and younger and older adults. We used a three-phase task: prediction–span–postdiction. For prediction and postdiction phases, participants reported with a Yes/No response if they could recall in order a series of images. For the span task, they had to actually recall such series. From 4 years old, children have some ability to monitor their short-term memory and are able to adjust their prediction after experiencing the task. However, accuracy still improves significantly until adolescence. Although the older adults had a lower span, they were as accurate as young adults in their evaluation, suggesting that metamemory is unimpaired for short-term memory tasks in older adults.

Highlights:

?We investigate metamemory for short-term memory tasks across the lifespan.

?We find younger children cannot accurately predict their span length.

?Older adults are accurate in predicting their span length.

?People’s metamemory accuracy was related to their short-term memory span.     

Using Motion Tracking to Measure Avoidance in Children and Adults: Psychometric Properties,Associations With Clinical Characteristics,and Treatment-Related Change

Avoidance is implicated in many areas of psychopathology, particularly anxiety and its disorders. Accurate, reliable, valid, and objective measurement of avoidance behavior poses methodological challenges. Two key technological advances, increased computing power and the advent of motion-tracking technology, offer novel solutions to these challenges. We describe a series of three studies using a novel motion-tracking system to measure avoidance in children and adults. The first study examined behavioral avoidance of spider stimuli in large samples of children and adults (N = 200 each; the adults were the mothers of the children). Behavioral avoidance was associated with self-rated fear of spiders and increased state anxiety from before to after the task. The second study examined avoidance of threat faces in children and adults (N = 35 each; the adults were the mothers of the children) and test-retest reliability in the adults. Avoidance of threat faces was associated with broadband anxiety symptom severity. Test-retest correlations in behavioral avoidance measured 6 weeks apart was high and significant. The third study examined behavioral avoidance of spiders in clinically anxious children (N = 25) before and after cognitive-behavioral therapy for childhood anxiety disorders. Behavioral avoidance was significantly reduced following cognitive-behavioral therapy and reduction in behavioral avoidance correlated significantly with improvement in child-rated anxiety symptoms. Taken together, these studies provide strong support for the promise of motion-tracking technology to enable a new phase of behavioral avoidance research with sensitive, valid, reliable, and cost- and time-effective measurement of behavioral avoidance across the lifespan.     

Parallel development of ERP and behavioural measurements of visual segmentation

Visual segmentation, a process in which elements are integrated into a form and segregated from the background, is known to differ from adults at infancy. The further developmental trajectory of this process, and of the underlying brain mechanisms, during childhood and adolescence is unknown. The aim of the study was to investigate the developmental trajectory of ERP reflections of visual segmentation, and to relate this to behavioural performance. One hundred and eleven typically developing children from 7 to 18 years of age were divided into six age groups. Each child performed two visual tasks. In a texture segmentation task, the difference in event‐related potential (ERP) response to homogeneous (no visual segmentation) and checkered stimuli (visual segmentation) was investigated. In addition, behavioural performance on integration of elements into contours was measured. Both behavioural and ERP measurements of visual segmentation differed from adults in 7–12 year‐old children. Behaviourally, young children were less able to integrate elements into a contour than older children. In addition, a developmental change was present in the ERP pattern evoked by homogeneous versus checkered stimuli. The largest differences in behaviour and ERPs were found between 7–8‐ and 9–10‐, and between 11–12‐ and 13–14‐year‐old children, indicating the strongest development between those age groups. Behavioural as well as ERP measurements at 13–14 years of age showed similar results to those of adults. These results reveal that visual segmentation continues to develop until early puberty. Only by 13–14 years of age, children do integrate and segregate visual information as adults do. These results can be interpreted in terms of functional connectivity within the visual cortex.     

Variability in parenting behaviours during play and during mealtimes with toddlers

Few empirical studies have explored variability in parenting behaviours observed in a mealtime setting as well as in a play setting with young children. We analysed data from 282 parent–toddler dyads who participated in the Play & Grow study in the United States in 2017–2019. Parent–child interactions were video recorded during play in the laboratory when the child was 18 months old and then during mealtime in the home 6 months later. Standardised coding procedures were used to rate parenting behaviours (sensitivity, cognitive stimulation, positive regard, detachment, intrusive control and negative regard). We describe correlations and differences and variability in parenting behaviour between the two assessments and relative to child sex, gestational age, parent education level, household composition and household income. Detachment was lower on average during play at 18 months compared to during mealtime at 24 months (Cohen's d = −0.40), and the other five parenting behaviours were greater on average during play than during mealtime (d = 0.18–0.43). Sociodemographic characteristics were unrelated to the magnitude of individual differences across contexts in any of the parenting behaviours. Implications for research on associations between parent–child interactions and risk for childhood obesity are discussed.     

Developmental changes in colour constancy in a naturalistic object selection task

When the illumination falling on a surface change, so does the reflected light. Despite this, adult observers are good at perceiving surfaces as relatively unchanging—an ability termed colour constancy. Very few studies have investigated colour constancy in infants, and even fewer in children. Here we asked whether there is a difference in colour constancy between children and adults; what the developmental trajectory is between six and 11 years; and whether the pattern of constancy across illuminations and reflectances differs between adults and children. To this end, we developed a novel, child-friendly computer-based object selection task. In this, observers saw a dragon's favourite sweet under a neutral illumination and picked the matching sweet from an array of eight seen under a different illumination (blue, yellow, red, or green). This set contained a reflectance match (colour constant; perfect performance) and a tristimulus match (colour inconstant). We ran two experiments, with two-dimensional scenes in one and three-dimensional renderings in the other. Twenty-six adults and 33 children took part in the first experiment; 26 adults and 40 children took part in the second. Children performed better than adults on this task, and their performance decreased with age in both experiments. We found differences across illuminations and sweets, but a similar pattern across both age groups. This unexpected finding might reflect a real decrease in colour constancy from childhood to adulthood, explained by developmental changes in the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms underpinning colour constancy, or differences in task strategies between children and adults.

Highlights

• Six- to 11-year-old children demonstrated better performance than adults on a colour constancy object selection task.
• Performance decreased with age over childhood.
• These findings may indicate development of cognitive strategies used to overcome automatic colour constancy mechanisms.

     

Age differences in executive functioning across the lifespan: the role of verbalization in task preparation

Age-related changes in executive functioning across the lifespan were assessed in children (mean age=9.4 years), younger adults (mean age=21.5 years), and older adults (mean age=65.3 years). Executive functioning was investigated with a task-switching paradigm that permits the separation of two control components: to select and to switch between task sets. The specific aims of this study were (a) to determine developmental functions in both control components across the lifespan; and (b) to examine whether age-related changes in these components are influenced by verbal prompts during task preparation. The results revealed an inverted u-shaped developmental function for the ability to select between task sets but not for the ability to switch between task sets. In contrast to younger adults and children, older adults generally benefited from verbalizations during task preparation. Children, but not older adults, showed a facilitation of task execution when verbal prompts were task-compatible. Conversely, older adults, but not children, showed stronger interference when verbal prompts are task-incompatible. Our findings suggest that inner speech in an important modulator of developmental changes in executive functioning across the lifespan.     

Visual context processing and its development in gamers and non-gamers

Visual context processing was investigated in both action video game players and nonplayers using the Ebbinghaus illusion task (N = 312, 39.4% female) in a cross-sectional study design. When presented in context, players showed markedly poorer target size discrimination accuracy compared with nonplayers in the 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-years old age groups, but this difference was reduced in 10-years old group and diminished in adults. When presented in isolation (no-context), the two groups displayed similar performance in all age groups. Furthermore, nonplayers (linear) and players (bell curve) showed profoundly different age-related differences in context processing. These findings provide evidence that players might have enhanced perceptual bias to process visual context in the transition from early childhood to early adolescence, and the differences between the two groups start at early ages and continue with distinct developmental profiles.