Division of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan.
J Neurosci. 2010 Mar 3;30(9):3297-303. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4611-09.2010.
Working memory is the limited capacity storage system involved in the maintenance and manipulation of information over short periods of time. Individual capacity of working memory is associated with the integrity of white matter in the frontoparietal regions. It is unknown to what extent the integrity of white matter underlying the working memory system is plastic. Using voxel-based analysis (VBA) of fractional anisotropy (FA) measures of fiber tracts, we investigated the effect of working memory training on structural connectivity in an interventional study. The amount of working memory training correlated with increased FA in the white matter regions adjacent to the intraparietal sulcus and the anterior part of the body of the corpus callosum after training. These results showed training-induced plasticity in regions that are thought to be critical in working memory. As changes in myelination lead to FA changes in diffusion tensor imaging, a possible mechanism for the observed FA change is increased myelination after training. Observed structural changes may underlie previously reported improvement of working memory capacity, improvement of other cognitive functions, and altered functional activity following working memory training.
工作记忆是一种有限容量的存储系统,涉及在短时间内维持和操作信息。个体工作记忆能力与额顶区域白质的完整性有关。目前尚不清楚工作记忆系统下的白质完整性在多大程度上具有可塑性。我们采用基于体素的分析(VBA)对纤维束的各向异性分数(FA)进行测量,在一项干预研究中,我们研究了工作记忆训练对结构连通性的影响。工作记忆训练的量与训练后顶内沟和胼胝体体前部相邻白质区域的 FA 增加相关。这些结果表明,在被认为对工作记忆至关重要的区域存在训练诱导的可塑性。由于髓鞘的变化导致弥散张量成像中的 FA 变化,观察到的 FA 变化的一个可能机制是训练后髓鞘增加。观察到的结构变化可能是以前报道的工作记忆能力提高、其他认知功能改善以及工作记忆训练后功能活动改变的基础。