The associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studies
In intervention studies of cognitive training, the challenging cognitive tests, which were used as outcome measures, are generally completed in more than a few hours. Here, utilizing the control groups’ data from three 1-week intervention studies in which young healthy adult subjects underwent a wid...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2015-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00681/full |
| _version_ | 1818579588880531456 |
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| author | Hikaru eTakeuchi Yasuyuki eTaki Yuko eSassa Atsushi eSekiguchi Tomomi eNagase Rui eNouchi Ai eFukushima Ryuta eKawashima |
| author_facet | Hikaru eTakeuchi Yasuyuki eTaki Yuko eSassa Atsushi eSekiguchi Tomomi eNagase Rui eNouchi Ai eFukushima Ryuta eKawashima |
| author_sort | Hikaru eTakeuchi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In intervention studies of cognitive training, the challenging cognitive tests, which were used as outcome measures, are generally completed in more than a few hours. Here, utilizing the control groups’ data from three 1-week intervention studies in which young healthy adult subjects underwent a wide range of cognitive tests and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before and after the intervention period, we investigated how regional gray matter (GM) density (rGMD) of the subjects changed through voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Statistically significant increases in rGMD were observed in the anatomical cluster that mainly spread around the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the right superior frontal gyrus (rSFG). Moreover, mean rGMD within this cluster changes were significantly and positively correlated with performance changes in the Stroop task, and tended to positively correlate with performance changes in a divergent thinking task. Affected regions are considered to be associated with performance monitoring (dACC) and manipulation of the maintained information including generating associations (rSFG), and both are relevant to the cognitive functions measured in the cognitive tests. Thus, the results suggest that even in the groups of the typical control group in intervention studies including those of the passive one, experimental or non-experimental factors can result in an increase in the regional GM structure and form the association between such neural changes and improvements related to these cognitive tests. These results suggest caution toward the experimental study designs without control groups. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:04:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6f18f0752c66439fab3f1e7a50bc00f1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T07:04:06Z |
| publishDate | 2015-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-6f18f0752c66439fab3f1e7a50bc00f12022-12-21T22:40:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612015-12-01910.3389/fnhum.2015.00681163368The associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studiesHikaru eTakeuchi0Yasuyuki eTaki1Yuko eSassa2Atsushi eSekiguchi3Tomomi eNagase4Rui eNouchi5Ai eFukushima6Ryuta eKawashima7Tohoku UniversityTohoku UniversityTohoku UniversityTohoku UniversityTohoku UniversityTohoku UniversityTohoku UniversityTohoku UniversityIn intervention studies of cognitive training, the challenging cognitive tests, which were used as outcome measures, are generally completed in more than a few hours. Here, utilizing the control groups’ data from three 1-week intervention studies in which young healthy adult subjects underwent a wide range of cognitive tests and T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before and after the intervention period, we investigated how regional gray matter (GM) density (rGMD) of the subjects changed through voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Statistically significant increases in rGMD were observed in the anatomical cluster that mainly spread around the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the right superior frontal gyrus (rSFG). Moreover, mean rGMD within this cluster changes were significantly and positively correlated with performance changes in the Stroop task, and tended to positively correlate with performance changes in a divergent thinking task. Affected regions are considered to be associated with performance monitoring (dACC) and manipulation of the maintained information including generating associations (rSFG), and both are relevant to the cognitive functions measured in the cognitive tests. Thus, the results suggest that even in the groups of the typical control group in intervention studies including those of the passive one, experimental or non-experimental factors can result in an increase in the regional GM structure and form the association between such neural changes and improvements related to these cognitive tests. These results suggest caution toward the experimental study designs without control groups.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00681/fullLearningplasticityVoxel Based Morphometrysuperior frontal gyrusCognitive testsdorsal anterior cingulate gyrus |
| spellingShingle | Hikaru eTakeuchi Yasuyuki eTaki Yuko eSassa Atsushi eSekiguchi Tomomi eNagase Rui eNouchi Ai eFukushima Ryuta eKawashima The associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studies Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Learning plasticity Voxel Based Morphometry superior frontal gyrus Cognitive tests dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus |
| title | The associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studies |
| title_full | The associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studies |
| title_fullStr | The associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studies |
| title_full_unstemmed | The associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studies |
| title_short | The associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studies |
| title_sort | associations between regional gray matter structural changes and changes of cognitive performance in control groups of intervention studies |
| topic | Learning plasticity Voxel Based Morphometry superior frontal gyrus Cognitive tests dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00681/full |
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