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Abstract
Developmental cognitive neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field seeking to elucidate the neural basis of cognitive development. With the advent of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have greatly informed our understanding of brain mechanisms subserving complex neurocognitive processes, such as working memory. Extant neuroimaging research has revealed core functional neuroanatomical underpinnings of working memory, a fundamental executive function that underlies youth's cognitive and behavioral development. Despite the knowledge gained on the links between working memory-associated neural and behavioral response, current investigations of brain-behavior relations are often devoid of environmental contexts, and thus leave out knowledge of individual differences. Specifically, little research has examined how exposure to adverse rearing environments accounts for variability in the brain-behavior relation. This variability in the brain-behavior relation is conceptualized as neural efficiency. Psychosocial deprivation, characterized by an absence of cognitive and positive social stimulation, has been shown to compromise children’s neurocognitive development. Hence, informed by an ecological approach to developmental neuroscience, the primary aim of the present study is to investigate if psychosocial deprivation serves as a moderator in the association between neural response and behavior during a working memory task (i.e., neural efficiency). To investigate this research aim, I utilized data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, which includes neuroimaging and self-report survey data from children (N = 11, 878, Mage = 9.48, 47.8% female, 52.0% White) and their primary caregivers. All study hypotheses were tested within a structural equation modeling framework. Results showed that psychosocial deprivation significantly attenuated the positive association between working memory-related neural activation within the frontoparietal network and attendant behavioral performance. Additionally, psychosocial deprivation significantly intensified the negative association between neural deactivation within the default mode network and behavioral performance during working memory challenges. These results suggest that psychosocial deprivation can compromise children’s working memory-related neural efficiency. Prevention and intervention programs may promote neural efficiency among children in deprived environments by creating a more cognitively and socially stimulating environment and providing working memory training.