Developmental grey matter changes in superior parietal cortex accompany improved transitive reasoning
Date
2019Abstract
The neural basis of developmental changes in transitive reasoning in parietal
regions was examined, using voxel-based morphometry. Young adolescents
and adults performed a transitive reasoning task, subsequent to undergoing
anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans. Behaviorally, adults
reasoned more accurately than did the young adolescents. Neural results
showed (i) less grey matter density in superior parietal cortex in the adults
than in the young adolescents, possibly due to a developmental period of
synaptic pruning; (ii) improved performance in the reasoning task was negatively
correlated with grey matter density in superior parietal cortex in the
adolescents, but not in the adult group; and (iii) the latter results were driven
by the more difficult trials, requiring greater spatial manipulation. Taken
together, the results support the idea that during development, regions in
superior parietal cortex are fine-tuned, to support more robust spatial manipulation,
resulting in greater accuracy and efficiency in transitive reasoning.