A parsimonious, age-invariant, and psychometrically validated neural signature of task-control network functioning
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Neuroimaging has vast potential for identifying brain features that support individual and developmental differences in cognition, but challenges related to the dimensionality, unreliability, and unknown developmental properties of neuroimaging measures prevent this from being realized. We overcome these challenges by applying latent variable modeling to demand-related responses in the “task-control” frontoparietal and dorsal attention networks (FPN, DAN) within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and Human Connectome Project. Task-control activations are well-captured by a bifactor structure with a general factor spanning FPN/DAN and network-specific factors that is remarkably invariant across middle childhood to early adolescence and largely generalizes to adulthood. Trait-state-occasion modeling reveals a general task-control trait that shows robust associations with cognitive abilities, clinical symptoms, and grades. Repeated neuroimaging substantially increases associations. Findings establish a parsimonious neural signature that generalizes across samples, is stable across development, and has broad utility for understanding developmental and individual differences in goal-directed behavior. Graphical Abstract
Institutions: University of Michigan, Pennsylvania State University
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: 9/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT U MICHIGAN, 3/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT U MINNESOTA, 4/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT FIU, 7/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT YALE, 8/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT CHLA, ABCD-USA Consortium: Coordinating Center, 6/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT OHSU, 10/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT SRI, 12/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT U PITTSBURGH, 1/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT U UTAH, Leveraging computational models of neurocognition to improve predictions about individual youths' risk for substance use disorders, ABCD-USA Consortium: Data Analysis, Informatics and Resource Center, 5/21 ABCD-USA Consortium: Research Project Site at UC San Diego, 2/21 ABCD-USA CONSORTIUM: RESEARCH PROJECT SITE AT UMB, Multidisciplinary Alcoholism Research Training Program
OpenAlex ID: W7222038136