Four-year-olds have the same cognitive network in their brains that solves complex problems in adults. In this respect informs Ohio State University.
The fronto-parietal network helps people focus, multitask, and solve complex problems like math. It is known that this system is underdeveloped in children.
Psychologist Zeynep Saigin from Ohio State University and her colleagues found that children can also use it in their research. The project involved 44 adults aged 18 to 38 and 37 children aged 4 to 12.
During a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan, study participants were given a relatively difficult task: they were shown a series of grids containing 9 to 12 frames, some parts of which were blue. Two other grids were then shown and they had to choose which one matched the sequence of blue squares they had seen in the previous examples. Children were given easier trials than adults.
The same participants also completed a language task in which they listened to meaningful sentences. In adults, the cognitive network responsible for language perception is adjacent to, but separate from, the fronto-parietal network. It turns out that the same area of the brain – the fronto-parietal network – is activated in both children and adults when they perform a complex task, and not at all for the language task. This refuted one of the scientists’ hypotheses about the functioning of the child’s brain.
“We know that children are poor at focusing, easily distracted, and not always good at complex tasks. Based on this, the authors explain that it is reasonable to assume that they do not use the fronto-parietal network as adults. “But even at 4-year-olds, this network is very reliable and very different from the language network.”
At the same time, there were significant differences between the functioning of this part of the brain in adults and children. In particular, the response of the fronto-parietal networks was much less intense compared to that of adults. This means that many years must pass before it finally matures.