Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL, USA ; Beckman Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Iowa Iowa City, IA, USA.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2014 Mar 21;8:169. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00169. eCollection 2014.
Researchers have devoted considerable attention and resources to cognitive training, yet there have been few examinations of the relationship between individual differences in patterns of brain activity during the training task and training benefits on untrained tasks (i.e., transfer). While a predominant hypothesis suggests that training will transfer if there is training-induced plasticity in brain regions important for the untrained task, this theory lacks sufficient empirical support. To address this issue we investigated the relationship between individual differences in training-induced changes in brain activity during a cognitive training videogame, and whether those changes explained individual differences in the resulting changes in performance in untrained tasks. Forty-five young adults trained with a videogame that challenges working memory, attention, and motor control for 15 2-h sessions. Before and after training, all subjects received neuropsychological assessments targeting working memory, attention, and procedural learning to assess transfer. Subjects also underwent pre- and post-functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans while they played the training videogame to assess how these patterns of brain activity change in response to training. For regions implicated in working memory, such as the superior parietal lobe (SPL), individual differences in the post-minus-pre changes in activation predicted performance changes in an untrained working memory task. These findings suggest that training-induced plasticity in the functional representation of a training task may play a role in individual differences in transfer. Our data support and extend previous literature that has examined the association between training related cognitive changes and associated changes in underlying neural networks. We discuss the role of individual differences in brain function in training generalizability and make suggestions for future cognitive training research.
研究人员已经投入了相当多的关注和资源用于认知训练，但对训练任务期间个体大脑活动模式的差异与未训练任务（即转移）的训练收益之间的关系的研究却很少。虽然一个主要的假设是，如果对未训练任务重要的大脑区域存在训练诱导的可塑性，那么训练就会发生转移，但这一理论缺乏足够的经验支持。为了解决这个问题，我们研究了认知训练视频游戏中训练引起的大脑活动个体差异与训练引起的未训练任务表现变化之间的关系，以及这些变化是否可以解释个体差异。45 名年轻人接受了一项挑战工作记忆、注意力和运动控制的视频游戏训练，为期 15 个 2 小时的课程。在训练前后，所有受试者都接受了针对工作记忆、注意力和程序性学习的神经心理学评估，以评估转移。受试者还在进行功能磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描之前和之后玩训练视频游戏，以评估这些大脑活动模式如何响应训练而发生变化。对于涉及工作记忆的区域，如顶叶上回（SPL），激活后减去激活前的个体差异预测了未训练工作记忆任务的表现变化。这些发现表明，训练任务的功能表现的诱导可塑性可能在转移的个体差异中发挥作用。我们的数据支持并扩展了以前的文献，该文献检查了与训练相关的认知变化与潜在神经网络变化之间的关联。我们讨论了大脑功能个体差异在训练普遍性中的作用，并对未来的认知训练研究提出了建议。
