Developmental change of neurocognitive motor behavior in a continuous performance test with different interstimulus intervals

Objective: We investigated the neurocognitive process of motor control using event-related potentials during a cued continuous performance test with different interstimulus intervals in healthy children, and examined their neurocognitive process in motor execution and in motor inhibition. Methods: Twenty-eight children group by age (9 years n=8, 11 years n=9, 13 years n=11) and 10 adults participated. In cued continuous performance test, subjects were asked to press a button when ‘9’ appeared immediately after ‘1.’ To maintain uncertainty in the stimulus series, we used 3 interstimulus intervals between the warning stimulus and subsequent target (800 ms, 1500 ms, 3000 ms). Results: Effects of different interstimulus intervals were observed in the reaction time of hits regardless of the age of the subject. In adults, spatial distribution of the P3 component elicited by targets was centro-parietal maximum that was discriminable from the distribution of No-go P3, which was characterized by centro-parietal dominant distribution under all interstimulus interval (ISI) conditions. However, in younger children (9 years), the P3 component elicited by No-go distributed to the centro-frontal area, and P2/N2 with a significant anterior negative/posterior positive distribution was observed. As age increased, the dominant distribution of No-go P3 shifted significantly to a more anterior area compared with that of Target P3, and significantly prolonged ISI brought No-go P3 with centro-frontal dominant distribution that might indicate motor inhibition. Conclusions: These results indicated that behavioral change in the developmental course might be concerned with automatization of orientation and evaluation of stimulus relevance. Furthermore, efficient motor control might be enabled by establishment of an inhibitory process in the anterior area, in addition to an executive process in the posterior area.