Browsing by Author "Vaughn, Kelly A."
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Item Cortical Thickness in the Cognitive Control Network, Task Switching, and Bilingualism(2015-08) Vaughn, Kelly A.; Hernandez, Arturo E.; Leasure, J. Leigh; Yoshida, HanakoPrevious research involving patients with brain damage, children with ADHD, aging adults, Alzheimer’s patients, and normal monolingual children and adults suggests that cortical thickness in certain regions of the brain, specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and inferior frontal gyrus, is related to cognitive control abilities. For each of these groups, greater cortical thickness in these regions is associated with better cognitive control, and lesser cortical thickness is associated with poorer cognitive control. Surprisingly, researchers have not yet examined this relationship within the bilingual population, although bilinguals have sometimes demonstrated enhanced cognitive control abilities. Additionally, previous research by Della Rosa et al. (2013) and Mechelli et al. (2004) suggests that greater grey matter density in one of these regions, the inferior parietal lobule, is related to earlier age of second language acquisition, higher second language proficiency, and better overall language skills. Therefore, in order to fully understand the relationship between cortical thickness and cognitive control, it is important to examine the relationship between cortical thickness in the aforementioned regions and performance by bilinguals on a cognitive control task. This study measured cognitive control using a non-verbal switching task in which participants switched between sorting images by color and sorting images by shape as indicated by a symbolic cue. Results indicate that, in this bilingual sample, cortical thickness of the right and left inferior parietal lobules differentially correlate with response time costs and accuracy costs as a result of switching tasks. These findings shed light on the relationship between cognitive control and language in the brain.Item Parenting Influences on Frontal Lobe Gray Matter and Preterm Toddlers’ Problem-Solving Skills(2024-02-06) Muñoz, Josselyn S.; Giles, Megan E.; Vaughn, Kelly A.; Wang, Ying; Landry, Susan H.; Bick, Johanna R.; DeMaster, Dana M.Children born preterm often face challenges with self-regulation during toddlerhood. This study examined the relationship between prematurity, supportive parent behaviors, frontal lobe gray matter volume (GMV), and emotion regulation (ER) among toddlers during a parent-assisted, increasingly complex problem-solving task, validated for this age range. Data were collected from preterm toddlers (n = 57) ages 15–30 months corrected for prematurity and their primary caregivers. MRI data were collected during toddlers’ natural sleep. The sample contained three gestational groups: 22–27 weeks (extremely preterm; EPT), 28–33 weeks (very preterm; VPT), and 34–36 weeks (late preterm; LPT). Older toddlers became more compliant as the Tool Task increased in difficulty, but this pattern varied by gestational group. Engagement was highest for LPT toddlers, for older toddlers, and for the easiest task condition. Parents did not differentiate their support depending on task difficulty or their child’s age or gestational group. Older children had greater frontal lobe GMV, and for EPT toddlers only, more parent support was related to larger right frontal lobe GMV. We found that parent support had the greatest impact on high birth risk (≤27 gestational weeks) toddler brain development, thus early parent interventions may normalize preterm child neurodevelopment and have lasting impacts.