Cognitive, Neuroanatomical, and Genetic Predictors of Executive Function in Healthy Children and Adolescents

ABSTRACT

The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) is a measure of cognitive flexibility for children, which requires rule-use and shifting. Demographic, cognitive, regional cortical thickness, and genetic variables, including those related to language and executive function, were used to build predictive models of DCCS scores in 556 healthy pediatric participants. Gender, age, frontal, and temporal lobe regions of interest, and measures of sustained attention, inhibition, and word reading were selected as the best predictors of DCCS performance. Results indicated that DCCS performance is related to a broad range of cognitive functions and anatomic regions associated with various levels of cognitive function.

Acknowledgments

Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition and Genetics Study (PING) data are disseminated by the PING Coordinating Center at the Center for Human Development, University of California, San Diego. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or the United States Government.

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Additional information

Funding

Data collection and sharing for this project was funded by the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition and Genetics Study (PING) (National Institutes of Health Grant RC2DA029475). PING is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development.