Default mode network scaffolds immature frontoparietal network in cognitive development
Menglu Chen, Ying He, Hao Lei, Jiahua Xu, Ting Tian, Siya Peng, Gai Zhao, Jing Lu, Yuyao Zhao, Hui Zhao, Min Jiang, Jia‐Hong Gao, Shuping Tan, Yong He, Chao Liu, Sha Tao, Lucina Q. Uddin, Qi Dong, Shaozheng Qin
Abstract
The default mode network (DMN) is a workspace for convergence of internal and external information. The frontal parietal network (FPN) is indispensable to executive functioning. Yet, how they interplay to support cognitive development remains elusive. Using longitudinal developmental fMRI with an n-back paradigm, we show a heterogeneity of maturational changes in multivoxel activity and network connectivity among DMN and FPN nodes in 528 children and 103 young adults. Compared with adults, children exhibited prominent longitudinal improvement but still inferior behavioral performance, which paired with less pronounced DMN deactivation and weaker FPN activation in children, but stronger DMN coupling with FPN regions. Children's DMN reached an adult-like level earlier than FPN at both multivoxel activity pattern and intranetwork connectivity levels. Intrinsic DMN-FPN internetwork coupling in children mediated the relationship between age and working memory-related functional coupling of these networks, with posterior cingulate cortex (PCC)-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) coupling emerging as most prominent pathway. Coupling of PCC-DLPFC may further work together with task-invoked activity in PCC to account for longitudinal improvement in behavioral performance in children. Our findings suggest that the DMN provides a scaffolding effect in support of an immature FPN that is critical for the development of executive functions in children.