A parsimonious, age-invariant, and psychometrically validated neural signature of task-control network functioning
- 1University of Michigan
Abstract
Neuroimaging has vast potential for identifying brain features that support individual and developmental differences in cognition, but challenges related to the dimensionality, unreliability, and unknown developmental properties of neuroimaging measures prevent this from being realized. We overcome these challenges by applying latent variable modeling to demand-related responses in the "task-control" frontoparietal and dorsal attention networks (FPN, DAN) within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and Human Connectome Project. Task-control activations are well-captured by a bifactor structure with a general factor spanning FPN/DAN and network-specific factors that is remarkably invariant across middle childhood to early adolescence and largely generalizes to adulthood. Trait-state-occasion modeling reveals a general task-control trait that shows robust associations with cognitive abilities, clinical symptoms, and grades. Repeated neuroimaging substantially increases associations. Findings establish a parsimonious neural signature that generalizes across samples, is stable across development, and has broad utility for understanding developmental and individual differences in goal-directed behavior.
Related
- GOParsimony: parsimonious saltation across the Gene Ontology digraph for efficient functional annotation
- A parsimonious mechanistic model of aroma synthesis during wine fermentation
- A model of the locust visual system under diverse stimuli highlights functionality of various mechanisms and suggests a parsimonious structure
- Caspase-Like Proteases as Contributors in the Functioning of Reproductive Barriers During Distant Hybridization in Solanaceae
- From deployment to functioning ecosystems: assessing taxonomic richness and community composition on modular shellfish reefs using environmental DNA metabarcoding
BibTeX
@misc{paige2026parsimonious,
title = {{A parsimonious, age-invariant, and psychometrically validated neural signature of task-control network functioning}},
author = {K. J. Paige and M. F. Molloy and M. Angstadt and L. Hyde and C. Sripada and M. Heitzeg and A. J. Weigard},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.08.757721},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.08.757721v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A parsimonious, age-invariant, and psychometrically validated neural signature of task-control network functioning
AU - K. J. Paige
AU - M. F. Molloy
AU - M. Angstadt
AU - L. Hyde
AU - C. Sripada
AU - M. Heitzeg
AU - A. J. Weigard
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.08.757721
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.08.757721v1
AB - Neuroimaging has vast potential for identifying brain features that support individual and developmental differences in cognition, but challenges related to the dimensionality, unreliability, and unknown developmental properties of neuroimaging measures prevent this from being realized. We overcome these challenges by applying latent variable modeling to demand-related responses in the "task-control" frontoparietal and dorsal attention networks (FPN, DAN) within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and Human Connectome Project. Task-control activations are well-captured by a bifactor structure with a general factor spanning FPN/DAN and network-specific factors that is remarkably invariant across middle childhood to early adolescence and largely generalizes to adulthood. Trait-state-occasion modeling reveals a general task-control trait that shows robust associations with cognitive abilities, clinical symptoms, and grades. Repeated neuroimaging substantially increases associations. Findings establish a parsimonious neural signature that generalizes across samples, is stable across development, and has broad utility for understanding developmental and individual differences in goal-directed behavior.
ER -