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Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task

Background: Neuropsychological instruments to assess cognitive trajectories during childhood in epidemiological studies are needed. This would improve neurodevelopment characterization in order to identify its potential determinants. We aimed to study whether repeated measures of n-back, a working m...

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Autores principales: López-Vicente, Mónica, Forns, Joan, Suades-González, Elisabet, Esnaola, Mikel, García-Esteban, Raquel, Álvarez-Pedrerol, Mar, Júlvez, Jordi, Burgaleta, Miguel, Sebastián-Gallés, Núria, Sunyer, Jordi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866535/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27242625
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00716
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author López-Vicente, Mónica
Forns, Joan
Suades-González, Elisabet
Esnaola, Mikel
García-Esteban, Raquel
Álvarez-Pedrerol, Mar
Júlvez, Jordi
Burgaleta, Miguel
Sebastián-Gallés, Núria
Sunyer, Jordi
author_facet López-Vicente, Mónica
Forns, Joan
Suades-González, Elisabet
Esnaola, Mikel
García-Esteban, Raquel
Álvarez-Pedrerol, Mar
Júlvez, Jordi
Burgaleta, Miguel
Sebastián-Gallés, Núria
Sunyer, Jordi
author_sort López-Vicente, Mónica
collection PubMed
description Background: Neuropsychological instruments to assess cognitive trajectories during childhood in epidemiological studies are needed. This would improve neurodevelopment characterization in order to identify its potential determinants. We aimed to study whether repeated measures of n-back, a working memory task, detect developmental trajectories in schoolchildren during a 1-year follow-up. Methods: We administered the n-back task to 2897 healthy children aged 7–11 years old from 39 schools in Barcelona (Spain). The task consisted of 2 levels of complexity or loads (2- and 3-back) and 2 different stimuli (numbers and words). Participants performed the task four times from January 2012 to March 2013. To study the trajectories during the follow-up, we performed linear mixed-effects models including school, individual and age as random effects. Results: We observed improvements related to age in n-back outcomes d′, HRT and accuracy, as well as reduced cognitive growth at older ages in d′ and HRT. Greater improvements in performance were observed at younger ages, in 2-back, in verbal rather than numerical stimuli and in girls compared to boys. Boys responded faster at baseline, while girls showed increased growth in 2-back numbers. Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) symptoms (15% of boys and 6% of girls) had a lower working memory at baseline, but they showed similar cognitive growth trajectories in numbers variants of the task, as compared to children without ADHD symptoms. However, the age-related improvement in response speed was not observed in children with ADHD symptoms. Conclusions: Changes in n-back outcomes reflected developmental trajectories in 1-year follow-up. The present results suggest that the repeated administration of this task can be used to study the factors that may alter the cognitive development during childhood.
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spelling pubmed-48665352016-05-30 Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task López-Vicente, Mónica Forns, Joan Suades-González, Elisabet Esnaola, Mikel García-Esteban, Raquel Álvarez-Pedrerol, Mar Júlvez, Jordi Burgaleta, Miguel Sebastián-Gallés, Núria Sunyer, Jordi Front Psychol Psychology Background: Neuropsychological instruments to assess cognitive trajectories during childhood in epidemiological studies are needed. This would improve neurodevelopment characterization in order to identify its potential determinants. We aimed to study whether repeated measures of n-back, a working memory task, detect developmental trajectories in schoolchildren during a 1-year follow-up. Methods: We administered the n-back task to 2897 healthy children aged 7–11 years old from 39 schools in Barcelona (Spain). The task consisted of 2 levels of complexity or loads (2- and 3-back) and 2 different stimuli (numbers and words). Participants performed the task four times from January 2012 to March 2013. To study the trajectories during the follow-up, we performed linear mixed-effects models including school, individual and age as random effects. Results: We observed improvements related to age in n-back outcomes d′, HRT and accuracy, as well as reduced cognitive growth at older ages in d′ and HRT. Greater improvements in performance were observed at younger ages, in 2-back, in verbal rather than numerical stimuli and in girls compared to boys. Boys responded faster at baseline, while girls showed increased growth in 2-back numbers. Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) symptoms (15% of boys and 6% of girls) had a lower working memory at baseline, but they showed similar cognitive growth trajectories in numbers variants of the task, as compared to children without ADHD symptoms. However, the age-related improvement in response speed was not observed in children with ADHD symptoms. Conclusions: Changes in n-back outcomes reflected developmental trajectories in 1-year follow-up. The present results suggest that the repeated administration of this task can be used to study the factors that may alter the cognitive development during childhood. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4866535/ /pubmed/27242625 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00716 Text en Copyright © 2016 López-Vicente, Forns, Suades-González, Esnaola, García-Esteban, Álvarez-Pedrerol, Júlvez, Burgaleta, Sebastián-Gallés and Sunyer. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 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) or licensor 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.
spellingShingle Psychology
López-Vicente, Mónica
Forns, Joan
Suades-González, Elisabet
Esnaola, Mikel
García-Esteban, Raquel
Álvarez-Pedrerol, Mar
Júlvez, Jordi
Burgaleta, Miguel
Sebastián-Gallés, Núria
Sunyer, Jordi
Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task
title Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task
title_full Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task
title_fullStr Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task
title_full_unstemmed Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task
title_short Developmental Trajectories in Primary Schoolchildren Using n-Back Task
title_sort developmental trajectories in primary schoolchildren using n-back task
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866535/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27242625
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00716
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