The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain Activity
This study aimed to investigate if two weeks of working memory (WM) training on a progressive N-back task can generate changes in the activity of the underlying WM neural network. Forty-six healthy volunteers (23 training and 23 controls) were asked to perform the N-back task during three fMRI scann...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Brain Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/2/155 |
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| author | Edward Nęcka Aleksandra Gruszka Adam Hampshire Justyna Sarzyńska-Wawer Andreea-Elena Anicai Jarosław Orzechowski Michał Nowak Natalia Wójcik Stefano Sandrone Eyal Soreq |
| author_facet | Edward Nęcka Aleksandra Gruszka Adam Hampshire Justyna Sarzyńska-Wawer Andreea-Elena Anicai Jarosław Orzechowski Michał Nowak Natalia Wójcik Stefano Sandrone Eyal Soreq |
| author_sort | Edward Nęcka |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study aimed to investigate if two weeks of working memory (WM) training on a progressive N-back task can generate changes in the activity of the underlying WM neural network. Forty-six healthy volunteers (23 training and 23 controls) were asked to perform the N-back task during three fMRI scanning sessions: (1) before training, (2) after the half of training sessions, and (3) at the end. Between the scanning sessions, the experimental group underwent a 10-session training of working memory with the use of an adaptive version of the N-back task, while the control group did not train anything. The N-back task in the scanning sessions was relatively easy (<i>n</i> = 2) in order to ensure high accuracy and a lack of between-group differences at the behavioral level. Such training-induced differences in neural efficiency were expected. Behavioral analyses revealed improved performance of both groups on the N-back task. However, these improvements resulted from the test-retest effect, not the training outside scanner. Performance on the non-trained stop-signal task did not demonstrate any transfer effect. Imaging analysis showed changes in activation in several significant clusters, with overlapping regions of interest in the frontal and parietal lobes. However, patterns of between-session changes of activation did not show any effect of training. The only finding that can be linked with training consists in strengthening the correlation between task performance accuracy and activation of the parietal regions of the neural network subserving working memory (left superior parietal lobule and right supramarginal gyrus posterior). These results suggest that the effects of WM training consist in learning that, in order to ensure high accuracy in the criterion task, activation of the parietal regions implicated in working memory updating must rise. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T03:46:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-446155b5d65f415da1fe8f91b8c9cda6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3425 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T03:46:18Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Brain Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-446155b5d65f415da1fe8f91b8c9cda62023-12-03T14:33:56ZengMDPI AGBrain Sciences2076-34252021-01-0111215510.3390/brainsci11020155The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain ActivityEdward Nęcka0Aleksandra Gruszka1Adam Hampshire2Justyna Sarzyńska-Wawer3Andreea-Elena Anicai4Jarosław Orzechowski5Michał Nowak6Natalia Wójcik7Stefano Sandrone8Eyal Soreq9Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 31-007 Krakow, PolandFaculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 31-007 Krakow, PolandThe C3NL Lab, Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BU, UKInstitute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 00-090 Warsaw, PolandThe C3NL Lab, Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BU, UKDepartment of Cognitive Psychology and Psychology of Individual Differences, Wroclaw Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, 53-238 Wrocław, PolandFaculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 31-007 Krakow, PolandFaculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 31-007 Krakow, PolandThe C3NL Lab, Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BU, UKThe C3NL Lab, Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BU, UKThis study aimed to investigate if two weeks of working memory (WM) training on a progressive N-back task can generate changes in the activity of the underlying WM neural network. Forty-six healthy volunteers (23 training and 23 controls) were asked to perform the N-back task during three fMRI scanning sessions: (1) before training, (2) after the half of training sessions, and (3) at the end. Between the scanning sessions, the experimental group underwent a 10-session training of working memory with the use of an adaptive version of the N-back task, while the control group did not train anything. The N-back task in the scanning sessions was relatively easy (<i>n</i> = 2) in order to ensure high accuracy and a lack of between-group differences at the behavioral level. Such training-induced differences in neural efficiency were expected. Behavioral analyses revealed improved performance of both groups on the N-back task. However, these improvements resulted from the test-retest effect, not the training outside scanner. Performance on the non-trained stop-signal task did not demonstrate any transfer effect. Imaging analysis showed changes in activation in several significant clusters, with overlapping regions of interest in the frontal and parietal lobes. However, patterns of between-session changes of activation did not show any effect of training. The only finding that can be linked with training consists in strengthening the correlation between task performance accuracy and activation of the parietal regions of the neural network subserving working memory (left superior parietal lobule and right supramarginal gyrus posterior). These results suggest that the effects of WM training consist in learning that, in order to ensure high accuracy in the criterion task, activation of the parietal regions implicated in working memory updating must rise.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/2/155working memorytrainingneural efficiencyN-back taskstop-signal task |
| spellingShingle | Edward Nęcka Aleksandra Gruszka Adam Hampshire Justyna Sarzyńska-Wawer Andreea-Elena Anicai Jarosław Orzechowski Michał Nowak Natalia Wójcik Stefano Sandrone Eyal Soreq The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain Activity Brain Sciences working memory training neural efficiency N-back task stop-signal task |
| title | The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain Activity |
| title_full | The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain Activity |
| title_fullStr | The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain Activity |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain Activity |
| title_short | The Effects of Working Memory Training on Brain Activity |
| title_sort | effects of working memory training on brain activity |
| topic | working memory training neural efficiency N-back task stop-signal task |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/2/155 |
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