Working Memory Training Using Mental Calculation Impacts Regional Gray Matter of the Frontal and Parietal Regions

PLOS ONE, Aug 2011

Training working memory (WM) improves performance on untrained cognitive tasks and alters functional activity. However, WM training's effects on gray matter morphology and a wide range of cognitive tasks are still unknown. We investigated this issue using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), various psychological measures, such as non-trained WM tasks and a creativity task, and intensive adaptive training of WM using mental calculations (IATWMMC), all of which are typical WM tasks. IATWMMC was associated with reduced regional gray matter volume in the bilateral fronto-parietal regions and the left superior temporal gyrus. It improved verbal letter span and complex arithmetic ability, but deteriorated creativity. These results confirm the training-induced plasticity in psychological mechanisms and the plasticity of gray matter structures in regions that have been assumed to be under strong genetic control.

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Working Memory Training Using Mental Calculation Impacts Regional Gray Matter of the Frontal and Parietal Regions

et al. (2011) Working Memory Training Using Mental Calculation Impacts Regional Gray Matter of the Frontal and Parietal Regions. PLoS ONE 6(8): e23175. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0023175 Working Memory Training Using Mental Calculation Impacts Regional Gray Matter of the Frontal and Parietal Regions Hikaru Takeuchi 0 Yasuyuki Taki 0 Yuko Sassa 0 Hiroshi Hashizume 0 Atsushi Sekiguchi 0 Ai Fukushima 0 Ryuta Kawashima 0 Georges Chapouthier, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, France 0 1 Smart Ageing International Research Center, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University , Sendai , Japan , 2 Division of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University , Sendai , Japan , 3 Department of Functional Brain Imaging, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University , Sendai , Japan Training working memory (WM) improves performance on untrained cognitive tasks and alters functional activity. However, WM training's effects on gray matter morphology and a wide range of cognitive tasks are still unknown. We investigated this issue using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), various psychological measures, such as non-trained WM tasks and a creativity task, and intensive adaptive training of WM using mental calculations (IATWMMC), all of which are typical WM tasks. IATWMMC was associated with reduced regional gray matter volume in the bilateral fronto-parietal regions and the left superior temporal gyrus. It improved verbal letter span and complex arithmetic ability, but deteriorated creativity. These results confirm the training-induced plasticity in psychological mechanisms and the plasticity of gray matter structures in regions that have been assumed to be under strong genetic control. - Funding: This study was supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST)/Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society and JST/Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (no particular numbers exist). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Working memory (WM) is the limited capacity storage system involved in the maintenance and manipulation of information over short periods of time [1]. Individual working memory capacity (WMC) is correlated with a wide range of cognitive functions [1]. On the other hand, WMC and creativity show a lot of opposing psychological, pathological, pharmacological and genetic characteristics (for detail, see [2]). Previous neuroimaging studies using diverse imaging methods have investigated the neural correlates of WM and WMC [1]. Previous studies have shown WM trainings effect on psychological measures and neural systems. It has been shown that training on cognitive tasks, including WM tasks, can improve performance on trained tasks as well as on some untrained transfer tasks such as memory tasks, intelligence, and response inhibition tasks [3,4,5,6,7,8]. Also, while lateral prefrontal and parietal regions play a key role in WM [8], altered patterns of brain activity during the untrained cognitive tasks, altered density of cortical dopamine D1 receptors, and altered white matter integrity after training on WM tasks that are associated with prefrontal and parietal regions have been demonstrated [4,5,8,9,10]. Nevertheless, no previous study has observed the effect of WM task training on gray matter (GM) structures nor diverse cognitive functions such as spatial abilities and creativity. Considering individual working memory capacity (WMC) is correlated with a wide range of cognitive functions [1], how the training of WM is associated with changes of those cognitive function is a matter of interest. Furthermore, previous neuroimaging studies that investigated the effects of WM task training did not have appropriate control groups with placebo training. In this study, we focused on these unresolved issues using newly developed computer-based mental calculation task training, which requires manipulation of maintained information and is often referred to as typical of WM tasks. Using various psychological measures such as non-trained WM tasks and a creativity task, along with voxel-based morphometry (VBM) [11], we investigated the effects of training on WM tasks using mental calculation. VBM has been widely used as a tool to investigate the structural change following interventions at the whole brain level including subcortical structures [12,13] and it yields very consistent results with other voxel-based structural method as well as an ROI analysis [14,15,16]. We hypothesized regional gray matter structures in the lateral PFC and possibly parietal regions are affected by the training. However, given the previous training studies have shown training related increase, decrease and nonlinear changes (decrease after transient increase) of re (...truncated)


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Hikaru Takeuchi, Yasuyuki Taki, Yuko Sassa, Hiroshi Hashizume, Atsushi Sekiguchi, Ai Fukushima, Ryuta Kawashima. Working Memory Training Using Mental Calculation Impacts Regional Gray Matter of the Frontal and Parietal Regions, PLOS ONE, 2011, Volume 6, Issue 8, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023175