Abstract
Attentional control develops in early childhood and has been associated with critical outcomes (e.g., academic performance, mental health symptoms). Temperament is often operationalized as a dispositional regulatory ability and cognitive control is hypothesized to overlap with temperamental traits. The present study investigates attentional control at two timepoints to understand the emergence of dispositional and learned cognition. At 30-months of age, children completed an attention filtering task (Simon) and a self-regulation task (snack delay). Resting state connectivity was collected via functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. Children repeated Simon, in addition to an attentional shifting task (DCCS), at 54-months. Parents also reported on child temperament using the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire. Sixty-seven parent-child dyads completed the 30-month initial timepoint, and 21 returned for the 54-month session. Linear mixed effects models investigated associations among child resting state connectivity at 30-months; longitudinal associations were also examined among relevant tasks. Analyses controlled for relevant factors. At 30-months, higher parent-reported ratings of effortful control were associated with weaker coupling within the left frontal and parietal cortex. Similarly, higher parent-reported ratings of surgency were associated with weaker coupling between left temporal and parietal cortex, and weaker coupling between the right temporal and parietal cortex. Higher performance on snack delay (i.e., waiting longer/suppressing impulses) was associated with stronger coupling within the left frontal and right parietal regions, and stronger bilateral prefrontal cortex coupling. Longitudinal associations among child resting state connectivity at 30-months and cognitive scores (DCCS, Simon) at 54-months indicated that weaker bilateral frontal cortex connectivity (30-months) predicted higher performance on Simon task (54-months). Aspects of child temperament and later attentional control were significantly associated with weaker coupling within varied brain regions, which aligns with developmental changes in brain activity via synaptic pruning. Results offer a possible timeline to discern the origins of dispositional regulatory traits and attentional control.