Intra-subject variation in reaction time (ISVRT) is a developmentally-important phenomenon that decreases from childhood through young adulthood in parallel with the development of executive functions and networks. Prior work has shown a significant association between trial-by-trial variations in reaction time (RT) and trial-by-trial variations in brain activity as measured by the blood-oxygenated level-dependent (BOLD) response in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. It remains unclear, however, whether such “RT-BOLD” relationships vary with age. Here, we determined whether such trial-by-trial relationships vary with age in a cross-sectional design. We observed an association between age and RT-BOLD relationships in 11 clusters located in visual/occipital regions, frontal and parietal association cortex, precentral/postcentral gyrus, and thalamus. Some of these relationships were negative, reflecting increased BOLD associated with decreased RT, manifesting around the time of stimulus presentation and positive several seconds later. Critically for present purposes, all RT-BOLD relationships increased with age. Thus, RT-BOLD relationships may reflect robust, measurable changes in the brain-behavior relationship across development.

受试者内部反应时间的变化（ISVRT）是一种发展上重要的现象，随着执行功能和网络的发展，这种现象从儿童期到成年期都在减少。先前的工作显示出反应时间（RT）的逐次试验变化与脑活动的逐次试验变化之间存在显着关联，如通过功能性磁共振成像中血氧水平依赖性（BOLD）反应所测量的（ fMRI）研究。然而，尚不清楚这种“ RT-BOLD”关系是否随年龄而变化。在这里，我们确定了这种断断续续的关系在横截面设计中是否随年龄而变化。我们在位于视觉/枕骨区域，额叶和顶叶缔合皮层的11个簇中观察到年龄与RT-BOLD关系之间的关联，中央前/中央后回和丘脑。这些关系中的一些是消极的，反映出BOLD的增加与RT的降低有关，在刺激表现时出现，几秒钟后呈阳性。出于当前的目的，至关重要的是，所有RT-BOLD关系都随着年龄的增长而增加。因此，RT-BOLD关系可能反映了整个发育过程中大脑行为关系的稳固，可测量的变化。