It is notable that the bilateral PFC sub-regions where these dynamic relationships are strongest, are also (i) where variation in the dynamics of gray matter change in childhood and adolescence has been inked to intellectual ability (Shaw et al., 2006): (ii) important for working memory and executive function tasks which are negatively impacted by increasing Val in HCs (Barnett et al., 2007) and (iii) where other studies of HCs have found the Val158 allele to be associated with decreased activational ‘efficiency’ in meta-analysis of functional imaging data (Mier et al., 2009), decreased functional interconnectivity during rest (Liu et al., 2010), altered oscillatory activity during electroencephalography accompanied by worse executive functioning(Bodenmann et al., 2009), and decreased signal to noise ratio during executive functioning(Winterer et al., 2006). We speculate therefore that step-wise slowing of adolescent CT loss with increasing Val load in HCs, may be a maturational mechanism underlying observed associations between the Val allele and markers of reduced PFC functioning in typically developing groups.
