Tubiolo Philip N, Williams John C, Van Snellenberg Jared X
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA.
J Neurosci Res. 2025 Feb;103(2):e70021. doi: 10.1002/jnr.70021.
In studying the neural correlates of working memory (WM) ability via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in health and disease, it is relatively uncommon for investigators to report associations between brain activation and measures of task performance. Additionally, how the choice of WM task impacts observed activation-performance relationships is poorly understood. We sought to illustrate the impact of WM task on brain-behavior correlations using two large, publicly available datasets. We conducted between-participants analyses of task-based fMRI data from two publicly available datasets: The Human Connectome Project (HCP; n = 866) and the Queensland Twin Imaging (QTIM) Study (n = 459). Participants performed two distinct variations of the n-back WM task with different stimuli, timings, and response paradigms. Associations between brain activation ([2-back - 0-back] contrast) and task performance (2-back % correct) were investigated separately in each dataset, as well as across datasets, within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), medial prefrontal cortex, and whole cortex. Global patterns of activation to task were similar in both datasets. However, opposite associations between activation and task performance were observed in bilateral pre-supplementary motor area and left middle frontal gyrus. Within the dlPFC, HCP participants exhibited a significantly greater activation-performance relationship in bilateral middle frontal gyrus relative to QTIM Study participants. The observation of diverging activation-performance relationships between two large datasets performing variations of the n-back task serves as a critical reminder for investigators to exercise caution when selecting WM tasks and interpreting neural activation in response to a WM task.
在通过功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究健康和疾病状态下工作记忆（WM）能力的神经关联时，研究人员报告大脑激活与任务表现测量之间的关联相对较少。此外，WM任务的选择如何影响观察到的激活-表现关系，目前还知之甚少。我们试图使用两个大型公开可用数据集来说明WM任务对脑-行为相关性的影响。我们对来自两个公开可用数据集的基于任务的fMRI数据进行了参与者间分析：人类连接组计划（HCP；n = 866）和昆士兰双胞胎成像（QTIM）研究（n = 459）。参与者执行了n-back WM任务的两种不同变体，具有不同的刺激、时间和反应范式。在每个数据集中以及跨数据集，分别在背外侧前额叶皮层（dlPFC）、内侧前额叶皮层和整个皮层中研究大脑激活（[2-back - 0-back]对比）与任务表现（2-back正确率）之间的关联。两个数据集中对任务的整体激活模式相似。然而，在双侧辅助运动前区和左侧额中回观察到激活与任务表现之间存在相反的关联。在dlPFC内，相对于QTIM研究参与者，HCP参与者在双侧额中回表现出显著更强的激活-表现关系。在执行n-back任务变体的两个大型数据集之间观察到不同的激活-表现关系，这提醒研究人员在选择WM任务和解释对WM任务的神经激活时要谨慎。
