Performance in the attention network test relates to cortical excitability and trait anxiety in mid-childhood.

The transitional period from childhood to adulthood is marked by a multitude of changes in social and cognitive abilities, brain maturation, as well as genetic and hormonal changes. One implication of these many changes is that they increase the risk of developing mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression. In a previous paper, we showed that the emotional climate set within the family contributes most to child well-being, however, we also found that parental modelling is less effective for high anxious children. It is unclear why this is the case, although research suggests that both attentional and brain maturational factors play a role. Here we used 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy in a sample of 10-12-year-old girls to examine how attentional performance in the attention network test relates to cortical excitability (i.e. excitation/inhibition ratios, E/I) in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We also assessed how individual levels of trait anxiety modulate this relationship. We found that E/I ratios were related (in opposite directions) to alerting and orienting efficiency. Further, higher GABA was associated with better orienting efficiency. With regards to trait anxiety levels, our results showed that differential levels of trait anxiety affect bottom-up attention networks, but not top-down executive control. Specifically, we found that girls with low trait anxiety did not use the alerting cues well, while those with medium trait anxiety did. The high anxious group also used alerting cues, but with greater variability. In the present study, we provide evidence linking developmental cortical excitability levels to perceptual processing capacity. However, perceptual processing was influenced by variations in anxiety levels. Further research is needed to elucidate how anxiety relates to cortical excitability either directly, or via cognitive mechanisms to develop targeted intervention approaches for improving or preventing problematic emotional behaviour.