Neuropsychology and Functional Neuroimaging Group, Department of Basic Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Universitat Jaume I, 12071, Castellón, Spain.
Department of Education, Universitat Jaume I, 12071, Castellón, Spain.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2019 Aug;13(4):1115-1127. doi: 10.1007/s11682-018-9925-x.
Neurobehavioral effects of cognitive training have become a popular research issue. Specifically, behavioral studies have demonstrated the long-term efficacy of cognitive training of working memory functions, but the neural basis for this training have been studied only at short-term. Using fMRI, we investigate the cerebral changes produced by brief single n-back training immediately and 5 weeks after finishing the training. We used the data from a sample of 52 participants who were assigned to either an experimental condition (training group) or a no-contact control condition. Both groups completed three fMRI sessions with the same n-back task. Behavioral and brain effects were studied, comparing the conditions and sessions in both groups. Our results showed that n-back training improved performance in terms of accuracy and response speed in the trained group compared to the control group. These behavioral changes in trained participants were associated with decreased activation in various brain areas related to working memory, specifically the frontal superior/middle cortex, inferior parietal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and middle temporal cortex. Five weeks after training, the behavioral and brain changes remained stable. We conclude that cognitive training was associated with an improvement in behavioral performance and decreased brain activation, suggesting better neural efficiency that persists over time.
神经行为认知训练的效果已成为热门研究课题。具体而言，行为研究表明，工作记忆功能的认知训练具有长期效果，但这种训练的神经基础仅在短期研究过。本研究采用 fMRI，在单次 n-back 训练结束时及结束后 5 周，分别对短暂性单 n-back 训练引起的大脑变化进行研究。我们使用了 52 名参与者的数据，他们被分配到实验组（训练组）或无接触对照组。两组均完成 3 次 fMRI 会话和相同的 n-back 任务。在两组中比较条件和会话，研究行为和大脑的影响。结果显示，与对照组相比，n-back 训练可提高训练组的准确性和反应速度。与训练相关的这些行为变化与工作记忆相关的各种大脑区域的激活减少有关，特别是额上/中皮质、下顶叶皮质、前扣带皮质和中颞叶皮质。训练 5 周后，行为和大脑变化仍然稳定。我们的结论是，认知训练与行为表现的提高和大脑激活的减少有关，表明神经效率随时间的推移而提高。
