Bio-X Laboratory, Interdisciplinary Center for Quantum Information, State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, and Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Quantum Technology and Device, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
State Key Laboratory of Modern Optical Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2023 Jun 20;33(13):8633-8644. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhad146.
The individual difference of intrinsic functional connectivity is increasingly acknowledged to be biologically informative and behaviorally relevant. However, such valuable information is still discounted as a stochastic variation in previous studies of cognitive training. Here, we explored the plasticity of intersubject similarity in functional connectivity (ISFC), induced by long-term abacus-based mental calculation (AMC) training. Using a longitudinal dataset (AMC: n = 40, 5-year training; Control: n = 43), we found robust training effect of enhanced ISFC, after accounting for the factor of development. Notably, the enhancement focused on selective subsets of FCs, or the "critical FCs," which predominantly impacted the default-mode and visual networks. Using a cross-sectional dataset with a larger sample (AMC: n = 93, 1/3/5-year training; Control: n = 110), we observed that the "critical FCs" and its intersubject similarity could predict mental calculation ability and its intersubject similarity, respectively, in the AMC group. However, such predictions cannot be generalized to the control group, suggesting that long-term training may be a prerequisite for establishing such brain-behavior relationships. Jointly, our findings implicated that the enhanced ISFC with profound impact on the default-mode network could be a plastic change that is associated with behavioral gains of training.
个体内在功能连接的差异越来越被认为具有生物学信息性和行为相关性。然而，在之前的认知训练研究中，这种有价值的信息仍然被视为随机变化而被忽视。在这里，我们探索了基于算盘的长期心算（AMC）训练引起的功能连接（ISFC）的主体间相似性的可塑性。使用纵向数据集（AMC：n=40，5 年训练；对照组：n=43），我们发现，在考虑到发展因素后，ISFC 的增强具有很强的训练效果。值得注意的是，增强主要集中在 FC 的选择性子集或“关键 FC”上，这些子集主要影响默认模式和视觉网络。使用具有更大样本量的横截面数据集（AMC：n=93，1/3/5 年训练；对照组：n=110），我们观察到在 AMC 组中，“关键 FC”及其主体间相似性可以分别预测心算能力及其主体间相似性。然而，这种预测不能推广到对照组，这表明长期训练可能是建立这种大脑-行为关系的前提。总之，我们的研究结果表明，对默认模式网络有深远影响的增强的 ISFC 可能是一种与训练行为收益相关的可塑性变化。
