Natural variance in executive function components by pubertal timing in neurotypical population of females

We have shown recently that biological age assessed by skeletal maturity is positively associated with specific cognitive abilities in a cohort of adolescent girls with high socioeconomic status (Kovács et al., 2022). Here we report executive function components assessed by the Numerical Stroop test of 107 female participants (11 to 15 years of age) from the same cohort. We have disentangled the effect of chronological and biological age (bone age) on inhibition and task switching by analyzing the performance in situations with varying task requirements. Both chronological and biological had an effect on the performance in all analyzed conditions. However, we did not find an independent effect of chronological or biological age related to switching. Chronological age had an independent effect on inhibition, however, no independent effect of biological age was present. When the successful completion of tasks required the simultaneous engagement of two executive components, we observed that both chronological and biological age had independent effects. This suggests that higher biological maturity, alongside chronological age, is associated with more successful performance in tasks with a higher cognitive load. Overall, the study highlights the interplay between chronological and biological age in executive function development, where the independent components interact with each other, and the effects of maturation become more apparent when simultaneous operation of multiple cognitive processes is required for task completion.