Individual differences in frontoparietal plasticity in humans

Abstract

Neuroplasticity, defined as the brain’s ability to change in response to its environment, has been extensively studied at the cellular and molecular levels. Work in animal models suggests that stimulation to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) enhances plasticity, and that myelination constrains plasticity. Little is known, however, about whether proxy measures of these properties in the human brain are associated with learning. Here we investigated the plasticity of the frontoparietal system (FPS), which supports complex cognition. We asked whether VTA resting-state functional connectivity and myelin map (T1-w/T2-w ratio) values predicted learning after short-term training on a FPS-dependent task: the adaptive n-back (n = 46, ages 18-25). We found that stronger connectivity between VTA and lateral prefrontal cortex at baseline predicted greater improvements in accuracy. Lower myelin map values predicted improvement in response times, but not accuracy. Our findings suggest that proxy markers of neural plasticity can predict learning in humans.