Meta-analysis of the neural correlates of vigilant attention in children and adolescents

Hugo A E Morandini; Timothy J Silk; Kristi Griffiths; Pradeep Rao; Sean D Hood; Florian D Zepf

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.08.008

Meta-analysis of the neural correlates of vigilant attention in children and adolescents

Cortex. 2020 Nov:132:374-385. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.08.008. Epub 2020 Aug 25.

Authors

Hugo A E Morandini¹, Timothy J Silk², Kristi Griffiths³, Pradeep Rao⁴, Sean D Hood⁵, Florian D Zepf⁶

Affiliations

¹ Centre & Discipline of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Division of Psychiatry, UWA Medical School, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Australia. Electronic address: hugo.morandini@uwa.edu.au.
² School of Psychology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
³ The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, The University of Sydney, Westmead, NSW, Australia.
⁴ Centre & Discipline of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Telethon Kids Institute, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Child and Adolescent Health Service, Western Australia, Australia.
⁵ Division of Psychiatry, UWA Medical School, Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Australia.
⁶ Centre & Discipline of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Telethon Kids Institute, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany.

PMID: 33035933
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.08.008

Abstract

Vigilant Attention (VA), defined as the ability to maintain attention to cognitively unchallenging activities over a prolonged period of time, is critical to support higher cognitive functions and many behaviours in our everyday life. Evidence has shown that VA rapidly improves throughout childhood and adolescence until young adulthood and tends to decline in older adulthood. Although neuroimaging studies have extensively investigated this cognitive function in adults, the neural correlates of VA in neurotypical children and adolescents remain unclear. The current meta-analysis reviewed and examined functional neuroimaging studies in paediatric populations that used behavioural tasks involving VA. The selected studies (N = 25) were analyzed using the activation likelihood estimation method. Findings showed convergence of activation in mainly right-lateralized brain areas, including dorsomedial frontal cortex and parieto-temporal areas, and are consistent with previous literature on the neural correlates of VA. Results are discussed in terms of their functional and developmental implications for VA in children and adolescents.

Keywords: ALE meta-analysis; Children and adolescents; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Sustained attention; Vigilant attention; fMRI.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Brain Mapping
Brain* / diagnostic imaging
Child
Functional Neuroimaging
Humans
Likelihood Functions
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
Neuroimaging
Wakefulness
Young Adult