Schneiders Julia A, Opitz Bertram, Tang Huijun, Deng Yuan, Xie Chaoxiang, Li Hong, Mecklinger Axel
Department of Psychology, Saarland University Saarbrücken, Germany.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2012 Jun 12;6:173. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00173. eCollection 2012.
Working memory training has been widely used to investigate working memory processes. We have shown previously that visual working memory benefits only from intra-modal visual but not from across-modal auditory working memory training. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging study we examined whether auditory working memory processes can also be trained specifically and which training-induced activation changes accompany theses effects. It was investigated whether working memory training with strongly distinct auditory materials transfers exclusively to an auditory (intra-modal) working memory task or whether it generalizes to a (across-modal) visual working memory task. We used adaptive n-back training with tonal sequences and a passive control condition. The memory training led to a reliable training gain. Transfer effects were found for the (intra-modal) auditory but not for the (across-modal) visual transfer task. Training-induced activation decreases in the auditory transfer task were found in two regions in the right inferior frontal gyrus. These effects confirm our previous findings in the visual modality and extents intra-modal effects in the prefrontal cortex to the auditory modality. As the right inferior frontal gyrus is frequently found in maintaining modality-specific auditory information, these results might reflect increased neural efficiency in auditory working memory processes. Furthermore, task-unspecific (amodal) activation decreases in the visual and auditory transfer task were found in the right inferior parietal lobule and the superior portion of the right middle frontal gyrus reflecting less demand on general attentional control processes. These data are in good agreement with amodal activation decreases within the same brain regions on a visual transfer task reported previously.
工作记忆训练已被广泛用于研究工作记忆过程。我们之前已经表明，视觉工作记忆仅从模态内视觉训练中受益，而不能从跨模态听觉工作记忆训练中受益。在本功能磁共振成像研究中，我们研究了听觉工作记忆过程是否也能被特异性训练，以及这些训练引起的激活变化伴随着哪些效应。研究了使用强烈不同的听觉材料进行的工作记忆训练是否仅转移到听觉（模态内）工作记忆任务，或者是否能推广到（跨模态）视觉工作记忆任务。我们使用了带有音调序列的自适应n-back训练和一个被动控制条件。记忆训练导致了可靠的训练增益。在（模态内）听觉转移任务中发现了转移效应，但在（跨模态）视觉转移任务中未发现。在右侧额下回的两个区域发现了训练引起的听觉转移任务中的激活减少。这些效应证实了我们之前在视觉模态中的发现，并将前额叶皮质中的模态内效应扩展到了听觉模态。由于右侧额下回经常在维持特定模态的听觉信息中被发现，这些结果可能反映了听觉工作记忆过程中神经效率的提高。此外，在右侧顶下小叶和右侧额中回上部发现了视觉和听觉转移任务中任务非特异性（非模态）激活减少，这反映了对一般注意力控制过程的需求减少。这些数据与之前报道的视觉转移任务中相同脑区的非模态激活减少情况非常吻合。
