Numerous investigations have characterized the oscillatory dynamics serving working memory in adults, but few have probed its relationship with chronological age in developing youth. We recorded magnetoencephalography during a modified Sternberg verbal working memory task in 82 youth participants aged 6–14 years old. Significant oscillatory responses were identified and imaged using a beamforming approach and the resulting whole-brain maps were probed for developmental effects during the encoding and maintenance phases. Our results indicated robust oscillatory responses in the theta (4–7 Hz) and alpha (8–14 Hz) range, with older participants exhibiting stronger alpha oscillations in left-hemispheric language regions. Older participants also had greater occipital theta power during encoding. Interestingly, there were sex-by-age interaction effects in cerebellar cortices during encoding and in the right superior temporal region during maintenance. These results extend the existing literature on working memory development by showing strong associations between age and oscillatory dynamics across a distributed network. To our knowledge, these findings are the first to link chronological age to alpha and theta oscillatory responses serving working memory encoding and maintenance, both across and between male and female youth; they reveal robust developmental effects in crucial brain regions serving higher order functions.

中文翻译：

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随着年龄的增长效果更好：言语工作记忆编码和维护过程中振荡活动的发展变化

许多研究都描述了成年人工作记忆的振荡动力学特征，但很少有人探讨它与青少年发育中实际年龄的关系。我们对 82 名 6-14 岁的青少年参与者进行改良的斯滕伯格言语工作记忆任务，记录了脑磁图。使用波束形成方法识别和成像显着的振荡反应，并在编码和维持阶段探究所得的全脑图的发育影响。我们的结果表明，θ（4-7 Hz）和 α（8-14 Hz）范围内存在强烈的振荡反应，老年参与者在左半球语言区域表现出更强的 α 振荡。年长的参与者在编码过程中也有更大的枕骨θ功率。有趣的是，在编码期间小脑皮质和维持期间右上颞区存在性别与年龄的相互作用效应。这些结果通过显示分布式网络中年龄和振荡动力学之间的紧密关联，扩展了有关工作记忆发展的现有文献。据我们所知，这些发现首次将实际年龄与α和θ振荡反应联系起来，这些反应服务于男性和女性青少年之间的工作记忆编码和维护；它们揭示了服务于高级功能的关键大脑区域的强大发育效应。