Chunk #13 — Changes in Frontal EEG Coherence across Infancy Predict Cognitive Abilities at Age 3: The Mediating Role of Attentional Control — Prefrontal Organization and the Development of Attentional Control
Neural network models have become increasingly central to most theoretical perspectives of cognitive development. A neural network can be defined as a group of neuronal populations that work together (via the transmission of electrical impulses across synapses) in order to carry out a particular cognitive process. According to Posner and his colleagues (Posner & Petersen, 1990; Petersen & Posner, 2012), attentional control is associated with the efficiency of the executive attention network, which involves connections between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula, basal ganglia, and the medial and lateral regions of the PFC (Posner & Fan, 2008). This network is theorized to begin developing in infancy, specifically during the latter half of the first year, and its maturation is thought to underlie the observed improvement in attentional control across late infancy and early childhood (Posner & Rothbart, 2013).
