Development of white matter microstructure in relation to verbal and visuospatial working memory—A longitudinal study

Abstract

Working memory capacity is pivotal for a broad specter of cognitive tasks and develops throughout childhood. This must in part rely on development of neural connections and white matter microstructure maturation, but there is scarce knowledge of specific relations between this and different aspects of working memory. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) enables us to study development of brain white matter microstructure. In a longitudinal DTI study of 148 healthy children between 4 and 11 years scanned twice with an on average 1.6 years interval, we characterized change in fractional anisotropy (FA), mean (MD), radial (RD) and axial diffusivity (AD) in 10 major white matter tracts hypothesized to be of importance for working memory. The results showed relationships between change in several tracts and change in visuospatial working memory. Specifically, improvement in visuospatial working memory capacity was significantly associated with decreased MD, RD and AD in inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) and uncinate fasciculus (UF) in the right hemisphere, as well as forceps major (FMaj). No significant relationships were found between change in DTI metrics and change in verbal working memory capacity. These findings yield new knowledge about brain development and corresponding working memory improvements in childhood.

Charting shared developmental trajectories of cortical thickness and structural connectivity in childhood and adolescence

“…In children, evidence of increased cortical thinning and white matter maturation from MRI is associated with improved cognitive performance (Kharitonova, Martin, Gabrieli, & Sheridan, 2013;Krogsrud et al, 2018;Squeglia, Jacobus, Sorg, Jernigan, & Tapert, 2013).…”

Neurocognitive reorganization between crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence and white matter microstructure in two age-heterogeneous developmental cohorts

“…A particular focus in developmental cognitive neuroscience has been the study of white matter using techniques such as diffusion-weighted imaging, which allows for the estimation of white matter microstructure (Wandell, 2016). Both cross-sectional and longitudinal research in children and adolescents using fractional anisotropy (FA), a commonly used estimate of white matter integrity, have consistently revealed strong correlations between FA and cognitive ability using tests of working memory, verbal and nonverbal performance (Koenis et al, 2015;Krogsrud et al, 2018;Peters et al, 2014;Tamnes et al, 2010;Urger et al, 2015). Moreover, recent research has also found associations between the corpus callosum (Navas-Sánchez et al, 2014;Westerhausen et al, 2018) association fibers (e.g.…”

Charting shared developmental trajectories of cortical thickness and structural connectivity in childhood and adolescence

“…It is likely these developmental processes are intrinsically linked (Van Essen 1997;Herculano-Houzel et al 2010;Mota and Herculano-Houzel 2012) with timing coincident with the development of cognitive function (Blakemore and Choudhury 2006). In children, evidence of increased cortical thinning and white matter maturation from MRI is associated with improved cognitive performance (Kharitonova et al 2013;Squeglia et al 2013;Krogsrud et al 2018).…”