TY - JOUR T1 - Functional Maturation of the Executive System during Adolescence JF - The Journal of Neuroscience JO - J. Neurosci. SP - 16249 LP - 16261 DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2345-13.2013 VL - 33 IS - 41 AU - Theodore D. Satterthwaite AU - Daniel H. Wolf AU - Guray Erus AU - Kosha Ruparel AU - Mark A. Elliott AU - Efstathios D. Gennatas AU - Ryan Hopson AU - Chad Jackson AU - Karthik Prabhakaran AU - Warren B. Bilker AU - Monica E. Calkins AU - James Loughead AU - Alex Smith AU - David R. Roalf AU - Hakon Hakonarson AU - Ragini Verma AU - Christos Davatzikos AU - Ruben C. Gur AU - Raquel E. Gur Y1 - 2013/10/09 UR - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/41/16249.abstract N2 - Adolescence is characterized by rapid development of executive function. Working memory (WM) is a key element of executive function, but it is not known what brain changes during adolescence allow improved WM performance. Using a fractal n-back fMRI paradigm, we investigated brain responses to WM load in 951 human youths aged 8–22 years. Compared with more limited associations with age, WM performance was robustly associated with both executive network activation and deactivation of the default mode network. Multivariate patterns of brain activation predicted task performance with a high degree of accuracy, and also mediated the observed age-related improvements in WM performance. These results delineate a process of functional maturation of the executive system, and suggest that this process allows for the improvement of cognitive capability seen during adolescence. ER -