other attention-related disorders (see, for example, Tamm et al., in 

 press). However, we don't have any expectation that our exercises 

 are optimal or even better than other methods. 



The study of attention training as a whole suggests that networks 

 can be shaped both in informal ways and by formal training. With 

 the availability of imaging methods it should be possible to design 

 appropriate methods for children of various ages and with various 

 forms of difficulty. Our studies certainly support the importance of 

 educational designs in improving the lives of children. 



SUMMARY 



Human beings can regulate their thoughts, emotions, and actions: 

 for example, by passing up an immediate reward for a larger delayed 

 reward. Progress in neuroimaging and in sequencing the human ge- 

 nome make it possible to think about self-regulation in terms of a 

 specific neural network that includes midline and lateral frontal ar- 

 eas. 



A number of cognitive tasks involving conflict as well as efforts 

 to exercise control of emotions have been shown to activate similar 

 frontal brain areas. Studies have traced the development of this net- 

 work from about 2.5 to 7 years of age. At this age range, children 

 can carry out instructed tasks and parents can describe their ability 

 to regulate behavior in a variety of situations. We have recently 

 begun to examine the earlier forms of self-regulation in infants of 

 7 months. These studies suggest that executive attention can be stud- 

 ied by anticipatory eye movements to repeating locations. Other 

 studies show that infants, like adults, can detect errors. Detection of 

 errors by infants appears to involve an anatomy similar to that pre- 

 sent in adults. Individual differences in the development of the ex- 

 ecutive attention network have been related to parental reports of 

 the ability of children to regulate their behavior, to delay reward, 

 and to develop a conscience. In adolescents these individual differ- 

 ences predict the propensity for antisocial behavior. 



Differences in specific dopamine genes are related to individual 

 efficiency in performance, and to the degree of activation of this 

 network in imaging studies. Humans, to a greater degree than other 



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