Differential reconfiguration of brain networks in children in response to standard versus rewarded go/no-go task demands

Response inhibition and sustained attention are critical for higher-order cognition and rely upon specific patterns of functional brain network organization. This study investigated how functional brain networks reconfigure to execute these cognitive processes during a go/no-go task with and without the presence of rewards in 26 children between the ages of 8 and 12 years. First, we compared task performance between standard and rewarded versions of a go/no-go task. We found that the presence of rewards reduced commission error rate, a measure considered to indicate improved response inhibition. Tau, thought to index sustained attention, did not change across task conditions. Next, changes in functional brain network organization were assessed between the resting state, the standard go/no-go task, and the rewarded go/no-go task. Relative to the resting state, integration decreased and segregation increased during the standard go/no-go task. A further decrease in integration and increase in segregation was observed when rewards were introduced. These patterns of reconfiguration were present globally and across several key brain networks of interest, as well as in individual regions implicated in the processes of response inhibition, attention, and reward processing. These findings align with patterns of brain network organization found to support the cognitive strategy of sustained attention, rather than response inhibition, during go/no-go task performance and suggest that rewards enhance this organization. Overall, this study used large-scale brain network organization and a within-subjects multi-task design to examine different cognitive strategies and the influence of rewards on response inhibition and sustained attention in late childhood.