I’ve searched for a good definition, but I’m not getting anything that makes sense with what I’m looking at. I’m reading articles about sluggish cognitive tempo, processing speed, and ADHD-IN. Here’s an example: “The current study provides what to our knowledge is the first examination of ***differential functional correlates*** of processing speed and SCT in youth with ADHD and highlights the need for further consideration of the theoretical and practical implications of their distinctiveness.” (Slow Processing Speed and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo in Pediatric Attention‑Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence for Differentiation of Functional Correlates by Nathan E. Cook, et al. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00904-6](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-019-00904-6))
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“Functional correlates” usually means correlating low-level brain activity with high-level brain function. For example, you might stick someone in an fMRI machine, which maps out brain activity, and see which parts of the brain are active when they’re doing some specific task. If you consistently see activity in a part of the brain during a specific kind of task (especially across individuals) you would conclude that that part of the brain is responsible for that type of task.
I don’t know that “differential functional correlates” is that commonly used a phrase, but it sounds like it’s taking “functional correlates” a step further: comparing them across different people doing the same task, and looking at how the neural activity for a given high-level task is different across people, in this case, with different cognitive tempos, etc. So they’re basically trying to see if they can find a low-level neurological “origin” for the difference in behavior.
(Though I use “origin” in quotes, because causality isn’t clear from these kinds of studies–that’s why they use the term “correlates”–but ultimately the origin is what scientists are after.)
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