Abstract: Since the emergence of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers have tried to use brain-image technologies, such as MRI, to gain a better understanding of the relationship between cognitive and brain development in children and adolescents. These studies shed new light on the respective and integrative role of physiological maturity and cognitive experience in brain development, and were helpful for us to understand the neural mechanism of different cognitive abilities in different developmental stages. This paper is an attempt to summarize the relationship between cognitive abilities and the development of structural brain, functional brain, and brain plasticity in children and adolescents, focusing specially on cognitive task-dependent changes in intelligence, working memory, and response inhibition. Based on this relationship, longitudinal design should be used in this field to investigate the role of natural maturation and experience in normal or abnormal children and adolescents, and to further the exploration of the role of practice and training in brain plasticity.

Key words: children and adolescents, cognitive development, structural brain, functional brain, brain plasticity