TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wolf, Kerstin
A1  - Galeano Weber, Elena M.
A1  - Bosch, Jasper J. F. van den
A1  - Volz, Steffen
A1  - Nöth, Ulrike
A1  - Deichmann, Ralf
A1  - Naumer, Marcus Johannes
A1  - Pfeiffer, Till
A1  - Fiebach, Christian
T1  - Neurocognitive development of the resolution of selective visuo-spatial attention : functional MRI evidence from object tracking
T2  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - Our ability to select relevant information from the environment is limited by the resolution of attention – i.e., the minimum size of the region that can be selected. Neural mechanisms that underlie this limit and its development are not yet understood. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed during an object tracking task in 7- and 11-year-old children, and in young adults. Object tracking activated canonical fronto-parietal attention systems and motion-sensitive area MT in children as young as 7 years. Object tracking performance improved with age, together with stronger recruitment of parietal attention areas and a shift from low-level to higher-level visual areas. Increasing the required resolution of spatial attention – which was implemented by varying the distance between target and distractors in the object tracking task – led to activation increases in fronto-insular cortex, medial frontal cortex including anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and supplementary motor area, superior colliculi, and thalamus. This core circuitry for attentional precision was recruited by all age groups, but ACC showed an age-related activation reduction. Our results suggest that age-related improvements in selective visual attention and in the resolution of attention are characterized by an increased use of more functionally specialized brain regions during the course of development.
KW  - selective attention
KW  - visuo-spatial attention
KW  - object tracking
KW  - development
KW  - functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
Y1  - 2018
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/47739
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-477396
SN  - 1664-1078
N1  - Copyright © 2018 Wolf, Galeano Weber, van den Bosch, Volz, Nöth, Deichmann, Naumer, Pfeiffer and Fiebach. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
VL  - 9
IS  - Art. 1106
SP  - 1
EP  - 16
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -