Witmer Joëlle S, Aeschlimann Eva A, Metz Andreas J, Troche Stefan J, Rammsayer Thomas H
Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland.
Brain Sci. 2018 Aug 12;8(8):152. doi: 10.3390/brainsci8080152.
In a previous study in young adults, we showed that hemodynamic changes as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) were sensitive for identifying visuospatial working memory (WM)-related functional brain activation in the prefrontal cortex. This functional activation, however, could not be verified for participants with far-above-average mental ability, suggesting different cognitive processes adopted by this group. The present study was designed to confirm these findings in 11- to 13-year-old children by applying the same study design, experimental task, fNIRS setup, and statistical approach. We successfully replicated the earlier findings on sensitivity of fNIRS with regard to visuospatial WM-specific task demands in our children sample. Likewise, mental-ability-induced differences in functional activation were even more pronounced in the children compared with in the young adults. By testing a children sample, we were able to not only replicate our previous findings based on adult participants but also generalize the validity of these findings to children. This latter aspect seems to be of particular significance considering the relatively large number of fNIRS studies on WM performance in children.
在之前一项针对年轻人的研究中，我们发现，通过功能性近红外光谱技术（fNIRS）测量的血流动力学变化对于识别前额叶皮质中与视觉空间工作记忆（WM）相关的功能性脑激活很敏感。然而，对于智力远高于平均水平的参与者，这种功能性激活无法得到验证，这表明该组采用了不同的认知过程。本研究旨在通过应用相同的研究设计、实验任务、fNIRS设置和统计方法，在11至13岁的儿童中证实这些发现。我们在儿童样本中成功重现了早期关于fNIRS对视觉空间WM特定任务需求的敏感性的发现。同样，与年轻人相比，智力引起的功能性激活差异在儿童中更为明显。通过测试儿童样本，我们不仅能够重现基于成年参与者的先前发现，还能够将这些发现的有效性推广到儿童。考虑到关于儿童WM表现的fNIRS研究数量相对较多，后一个方面似乎具有特别重要的意义。
