The left and right hemispheres of the brain are specialized for different functions, and hemispheric asymmetries in brain structure and function are observable very early in life (Dehaene-Lambertz & Spelke, 2015). Thus, a possible explanation for the unique significance of left frontal brain development to children’s observed attentional control in this study is that performance on the visual search task may have relied on processes for which the left hemisphere is specialized. For example, approach motivation, the energization of behavior towards rewarding stimuli or experiences (Elliot, 2006), is lateralized to the left frontal cortex (Fox, 1991; Harmon-Jones & Allen, 1998), and children with greater intrinsic motivation to search for targets may have achieved greater success on the task. A large body of research has found associations between asymmetry in resting frontal EEG power in the alpha frequency band and tendencies to react emotionally with approach or avoidance (Coan & Allen, 2004). More recent work has found associations between asymmetry and attention biases towards motivational stimuli (Perez-Edgar, Kujawa, Nelson, Cole, & Zapp, 2013; Miskovic & Schmidt, 2010), suggesting that this lateralization
