Inhibitory control (IC) is the ability to control natural urges and instinctual behavior in favor of more socially appropriate responses. It refers to a person’s command over their emotions, behavior, and actions. IC is not a skill inherently present at birth, but rather a skill humans develop as they mature. It is important in childhood development because it aids in academic success as evidenced by Dr.Bell’s findings in her research regarding brain maturation, IC development, and academic success. IC is also important as children mature because it helps them appropriately navigate social situations. Despite its crucial role in development, little is known about the origins of IC in our brains and how to foster its growth. In Dr.Bell’s research on IC, she and her team focused on locating its formation and maturation in the brain and relating its increase to academic success in children ages 4-6. In the article,Effects of Music Training on Inhibitory Control and Associated Neural Networks in School-Aged Children, a team of researchers similarly performed a longitudinal study over four years to determine if musical training can aid in progressing IC.
Dr.Bell and her team used EEG, a non-invasive technique that measures electrical signals, to observe the maturation of the prefrontal cortex. They wanted to see if it correlated with increased IC development. They specifically tracked resting state alpha power because it is known to show increased brain maturity. According to their findings, increased resting state alpha power was positively associated with IC in children at age four. These findings also showed that increased IC at age four positively correlated with better academic skills at age six. To confirm region specificity, Dr.Bell and her team also tracked resting alpha state power in the posterior brain to see if correlated with inhibitory control. They did not see any correlation between posterior brain activity and IC, which validated their idea of IC development in the prefrontal cortex. This led their team to the conclusion that prefrontal cortex maturation is important in inhibitory control development and future academic success.
In the research article regarding musical training, children from under-resourced communities were selected to participate in a longitudinal study to determine if musical training, as opposed to sports training or no structured activity, developed increased IC in children ages six and up. They conducted the study over four years and employed various tasks such as a Delayed Gratification task, a Flanker task, and a Color-Word Stroop task to observe differences in IC between the three experimental groups. These studies were conducted under an MRI scanner and without one to determine if changes in brain activity were associated with IC activation. In the delayed gratification task, researchers noticed that musically trained children displayed a greater ability to wait for delayed larger rewards compared to their sports-playing or control group counterparts. Similarly, in the flanker task, the musically trained group showed significant improvements in their focus in completing the task over years three and four compared to their sports-playing and control counterparts. Another significant finding of the research was that fMRI showed greater activation in brain regions associated with IC for children with musical training during the performance of these tasks. However, in year 4, the fMRI results became consistent for all groups leading to the conclusion that while musical training might speed up the maturation of inhibition skills, it did not necessarily enhance them.
One common factor in both studies is the focus on what techniques can be used to improve IC since it has beneficial academic effects. While musical training might not be the ultimate answer, it can be a starting point in developing IC earlier on in a child’s academic career.
Another common factor between both research findings was the role of language in the development of inhibitory control. In Dr.Bell’s research, the team had to control for vocabulary and language because it positively influenced IC in kids of young ages. Similarly, in the musical training study, researchers found that bilingual children had better inhibitory control skills, and although it was not controlled for, they did use bilingualism as a contributor to why the results might’ve been skewed since 96% of their participants were bilingual. Using this as a jumping-off point, future studies could focus on further studying language and its effects on IC using EEG and fMRI to observe brain activity.
References:
Hennessy, Sarah L., et al. “Effects of Music Training on Inhibitory Control and Associated Neural Networks in School-Aged Children: A Longitudinal Study.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 24 Sept. 2019, www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.01080/full.
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