Successful interaction with one’s visual environment is paramount to developing and performing many basic and complex mental functions. Although major aspects of visual development are completed at an early age, other structural and functional components of visual processing appear to be dynamically changing across a much more protracted period extending into late childhood and adolescence. However, the underlying neurophysiological changes and cortical oscillatory dynamics that support maturation of the visual system during this developmental period remain poorly understood. The present study utilized magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate maturational changes in the neural dynamics serving basic visual processing during childhood and adolescence (ages 9–15, n = 69). Our key results included robust sex differences in alpha oscillatory activity within the left posterior parietal cortex, and sex-by-age interactions in gamma activity in the right lingual gyrus and superior parietal lobule. Hierarchical regression revealed that the peak frequency of both the alpha and gamma responses predicted response power in parietal regions above and beyond the noted effects of age and sex. These findings affirm the view that neural oscillations supporting visual processing develop over a much more protracted period, and illustrate that these maturational trajectories are influenced by numerous elements, including age, sex, and individual variation.

与视觉环境的成功互动对于开发和执行许多基本和复杂的心理功能至关重要。尽管视觉发育的主要方面在幼年时期就完成了，但视觉处理的其他结构和功能组成部分似乎在延伸到儿童晚期和青春期的更长时期内发生动态变化。然而，在这个发育时期支持视觉系统成熟的潜在神经生理学变化和皮质振荡动力学仍然知之甚少。本研究利用脑磁图 (MEG) 来研究在儿童和青春期（9-15 岁，n = 69）期间服务于基本视觉处理的神经动力学的成熟变化。我们的主要结果包括左后顶叶皮层内 α 振荡活动的强烈性别差异，以及右舌回和顶上小叶中 γ 活动的性别相互作用。分层回归表明，α 和 γ 反应的峰值频率预测了顶叶区域的反应能力，超出了年龄和性别的显着影响。这些发现证实了支持视觉处理的神经振荡在更长时间内发展的观点，并说明这些成熟轨迹受到许多因素的影响，包括年龄、性别和个体差异。分层回归表明，α 和 γ 反应的峰值频率预测了顶叶区域的反应能力，超出了年龄和性别的显着影响。这些发现证实了支持视觉处理的神经振荡在更长时间内发展的观点，并说明这些成熟轨迹受到许多因素的影响，包括年龄、性别和个体差异。分层回归表明，α 和 γ 反应的峰值频率预测了顶叶区域的反应能力，超出了年龄和性别的显着影响。这些发现证实了支持视觉处理的神经振荡在更长时间内发展的观点，并说明这些成熟轨迹受到许多因素的影响，包括年龄、性别和个体差异。