Theories of human neurobehavioral development suggest executive functions mature from childhood through adolescence, underlying adolescent risk-taking and the emergence of psychopathology. Investigations with relatively small datasets or narrow subsets of measures have identified general executive function development, but the specific maturational timing and independence of potential executive function subcomponents remain unknown. Integrating four independent datasets (N = 10,766; 8–35 years old) with twenty-three measures from seventeen tasks, we provide a precise charting, multi-assessment investigation, and replication of executive function development from adolescence to adulthood. Across assessments and datasets, executive functions follow a canonical non-linear trajectory, with rapid and statistically significant development in late childhood to mid-adolescence (10–15 years old), before stabilizing to adult-levels in late adolescence (18–20 years old). Age effects are well captured by domain-general processes that generate reproducible developmental templates across assessments and datasets. Results provide a canonical trajectory of executive function maturation that demarcates the boundaries of adolescence and can be integrated into future studies.

Inhibitory control can be less reliable in adolescence, however, in the presence of rewards, adolescents’ performance often improves to adult levels. Dopamine is known to play a role in signaling rewards and supporting cognition, but its role in the enhancing effects of reward on adolescent cognition and inhibitory control remains unknown. Here, we assessed the contribution of basal ganglia dopamine-related neurophysiology using longitudinal MR-based assessments of tissue iron in rewarded inhibitory control, using an antisaccade task. In line with prior work, we show that neutral performance improves with age, and incentives enhance performance in adolescents to that of adults. We find that basal ganglia tissue iron is associated with individual differences in the magnitude of this reward boost, which is strongest in those with high levels of tissue iron, predominantly in adolescence. Our results provide novel evidence that basal ganglia neurophysiology supports developmental effects of rewards on cognition, which can inform neurodevelopmental models of the role of dopamine in reward processing during adolescence.

Neurodevelopmental theories suggest goal-directed cognitive abilities (executive functions) mature from childhood through adolescence, and deviations from their normative development underlie peaks in accidental fatalities and the emergence of psychopathology during adolescence. The precise maturational timing of when adolescents reach adult-levels of executive function (EF) and the relative developmental independence of possible EF subcomponents (working memory, inhibition, switching, planning), however, remain unknown. Integrating four large independent datasets, two longitudinal and two cross-sectional (total age range: 8-35-years-old, total N=10,123, total visits =13,196) that included twenty-three measures from seventeen distinct EF tasks, we demonstrate that nearly all EFs follow a canonical non-linear developmental trajectory, with rapid and statistically significant development in late childhood through mid-adolescence (10-15-years-old), before stabilizing to adult-levels in late adolescence (18-20-years-old). Both cross-sectional age effects and longitudinal changes among EFs are well captured by domain-general accuracy and latency components consistent with theories of unitary executive function and fluid cognition. Scaled domain-general EF scores generate reproducible adolescent growth charts across datasets and tasks and can quantitatively guide future research. Results have implications for defining the adolescent period, growth charting of cognitive development in health and disease, and linking EF to brain development.