Schedule of Events | Symposia

White matter tract development may reflect cognitive development in the context of executive functioning

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Emily M Harriott¹ (emily.m.harriott@vanderbilt.edu), Tin Q Nguyen¹, Kellam Schmudde¹, Chenglin Lou¹, Bennett A Landman¹, Laura A Barquero¹, Laurie E Cutting¹; ¹Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

Functional neuroimaging studies provide evidence to suggest that executive functioning (EF) relies on a network of distinct and largely bilateral frontal brain regions. These regions are thought to be connected by white matter tracts, pathways by which neural signals are transmitted. Emerging evidence suggests that the microstructure of these tracts, measured using diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), influences performance on EF tasks. However, little is known not only about which tracts influence EF performance, but also how those tracts develop across childhood. In a sample of children assessed at two timepoints (N=89, M=5.77 +/- 0.37 years at timepoint 1; N=59, M=6.79 +/- 0.37 years at timepoint 2), we investigated relationships between fractional anisotropy (FA), a DWI metric quantifying the direction of water molecule movement along white matter tracts (thought to reflect tract “integrity”), and performance on three EF tasks (working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibition). We used FreeSurfer’s TRACULA to reconstruct 42 white matter tracts and calculate their FA values. Exploratory regression analyses were run at each timepoint, using each tract’s FA to predict each concurrent EF outcome. A comparison of the regression models from timepoint 1 to those from timepoint 2 suggests development in relationships between performance on EF measures and FA in the prefrontal and premotor portions of the corpus callosum, in addition to the bilateral cingulum bundles and superior longitudinal fasciculus 1. From these preliminary results, we hypothesize that, similar to the cognitive development of EF, the white matter tracts underlying EF may also form and specialize over time.

Topic Area: EXECUTIVE PROCESSES: Development &aging