Horowitz-Kraus, T., Holland, S. K., & Freund, L. (2016). Imaging executive functions in typically and atypically developed children. In Executive Function in Preschool Age Children: Integrating Measurement, Neurodevelopment and Translational Research. APA Press, New York, NY, USA

As described in the earlier chapters of this volume, executive functions (EFs) encompass a wide spectrum of self-regulatory controls during cognitive, social, and emotional functioning including inhibition, shifting, self-regulation, planning, and categorizing. Clinicians and researchers have been struggling to find a single test to evaluate EFs. Most of the available tests and batteries are based on parent- or teacher-report questionnaires, which can be useful but are vulnerable to subjective report. Neuroimaging tools that examine brain structure and function associated with EF skills can provide information about the neural substrates of EF. This information may lead to identification of more objective brain signatures of EF and how those signatures change throughout development. In this chapter we review current neuroimaging and electrophysiological data relating to EFs in children. Childhood, particularly preschool age, is considered a critically important period for development of EFs, so we focus our review on this age group. We then examine the application of brain assessment methods to the study of EF deficits in different learning and learning-related disorders of childhood.