The association between fronto-insular interaction and executive function during childhood and adolescence in a resting state fMRI study

The Insula is an area of the brain that plays a vital role in various functions, mainly several executive functions (EFs) during neurological development. Functional connectivity (FC) between the Frontal lobes and the Insula, the regions most commonly associated with EFs, is claimed to play an essential role in EFs. However, there is insufficient data on the relationship between the FC between the two brain regions and the EFs in childhood and adolescence. We investigate the relationship between the degree of functional connection between the Insula and the Frontal lobe and EFs in a sample of Korean children's and adolescent communities. Total 95 participants between the ages of 6 and 17 were recruited. An fMRI seed-based connectivity analysis was conducted with the Insula and all the Frontal lobe areas of interest. A partial correlation analysis of the Stroop and Children's Color Trails Test (CCTT) were performed to measure the overall EFs. One hundred eleven children and adolescents (average age 12.23) participated in the resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) study. The Stroop and CCTT tests found a strong positive correlation with the functional connection between the Insula and the Frontal lobes. In particular, this study confirmed that the solid functional connection between the Inferior front gyrus and the Insula is related to good linguistic ability and attention. The functional solid connection between the Prefrontal gyrus and the Insula is related to developed inhibition and cognitive flexibility.