Department of Neurology, Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sao Paulo (HC-FMUSP), Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Brain Institute, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2020 Feb 18;15(2):e0228866. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228866. eCollection 2020.
Episodic memory is the ability to learn, store and recall new information. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a crucial area engaged in this ability. Cognitive training has been demonstrated to improve episodic memory in adults and older subjects. However, there are no studies examining the effects of cognitive training on episodic memory encoding in typically developing children and adolescents. This study investigated the behavioral effects and neural correlates of semantic categorization strategy training in children and adolescents during verbal episodic memory encoding using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants with age range: 7-18 years were scanned before and after semantic categorization training during encoding of word lists. Results showed improved memory performance in adolescents, but not in children. Deactivation of the anterior medial PFC/anterior cingulate and higher activation of the right anterior and lateral orbital gyri, right frontal pole and right middle frontal gyrus activation were found after training in adolescents when compared to children. These findings suggest different maturational paths of brain regions, especially in the PFC, and deactivation of default mode network areas, which are involved in successful memory and executive processes in the developing brain.
情景记忆是学习、存储和回忆新信息的能力。前额叶皮层（PFC）是参与这种能力的关键区域。认知训练已被证明可以提高成年人和老年受试者的情景记忆。然而，目前还没有研究检查认知训练对典型发展的儿童和青少年情景记忆编码的影响。本研究使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究了在言语情景记忆编码期间语义分类策略训练对儿童和青少年的行为影响和神经相关性。参与者年龄范围：7-18 岁，在单词列表编码之前和之后进行语义分类训练时进行扫描。结果表明，青少年的记忆表现有所提高，但儿童没有。与儿童相比，青少年在训练后表现出前内侧前额叶皮层/前扣带皮层去激活，右侧前侧和外侧眶回、右侧额极和右侧中额回的激活增加。这些发现表明大脑区域，特别是 PFC 的不同成熟路径，以及默认模式网络区域的去激活，这些区域在发育中的大脑中参与了成功的记忆和执行过程。
