Relatively few fMRI studies have investigated attention control functions, despite the fact that attention control is also progressively refined throughout late childhood and adolescence [1, 17, 62]. Attention control refers to the individuals’ capacity to selectively attend some stimuli while ignoring others [63] which hence comprises selective attention and sustained attention, defined as the ability to voluntarily maintain the focus of attention to infrequently occurring critical events [64]. A developmental fMRI study of a relatively simple function of selective attention to rare oddball trials among a string of frequent standard trials showed significant age-associated activation increases in lateral fronto-striatal and temporo-parietal regions across 63 participants between 13 and 38 years, while decreasing age was associated with more activation in midline frontal, mid-cingulate and occipito-cerebellar regions [35] (Fig. 2b). Progressive age was furthermore associated with a speed accuracy trade-off, favouring accuracy, sacrificing speed, suggesting a less impulsive performance style in adults. Performance in this study, however, was not covaried. The findings show that functional activation increases in fronto-striatal and temporo-parietal areas are also underlying relatively simple functions such as perceptive attention
