Prefrontal activation may predict working-memory training gain in normal aging and mild cognitive impairment

Vermeij, Anouk; Kessels, Roy P. C.; Heskamp, Linda; Simons, Esther M F; Dautzenberg, Paul L. J.; Claassen, Jurgen A.H.R.

doi:10.1007/s11682-016-9508-7

Cited by 103 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 71 publications

(97 reference statements)

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“…In the same line, an altered frontal lateralization that impact on verbal fluency performances in MCI cases was recently reported [37]. Moreover, MCI cases exhibit increased difficulties in modulating FPN activation that usually decreases after cognitive training to guarantee processing efficiency in healthy controls [38]. Recent contributions on the role of DMN activity in n-back task pointed to the decrease of its activation and functional connectivity with increased WM load in healthy controls [39, 40].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Decreased Fronto-Parietal and Increased Default Mode Network Activation is Associated with Subtle Cognitive Deficits in Elderly Controls

et al. 2017

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Background: Cognitive functions progressively deteriorate during aging and neurodegenerative diseases. The present study aims at investigating differences in working memory performance as well as functional brain changes during the earliest stages of cognitive decline in health elderly individuals. Methods: 62 elderly individuals (41 females), including 41 controls (35 females) and 21 middle cognitive impairment subjects (6 females), underwent neuropsychological assessment at baseline and an fMRI examination in a N-back paradigm contrasting 2-back vs. 0-back condition. Upon a 18 months follow-up, we identified stable controls (sCON) with preserved cognition and deteriorating controls (dCON) with -1SD decrease of performances in at least two neuropsychological tests. Data analyses included accuracy and reaction time (RT) for the 2-back condition and general linear model (GLM) for the fMRI sequence. Results: At the behavioral level, sCON and dCON performed better than MCI in terms of accuracy and reaction time. At the brain level, functional differences in regions of the fronto-parietal network (FPN) and of the Default Mode Network (DFM) were observed. Significantly lower neural activations in the bilateral inferior and middle frontal gyri were found in MCI versus both dCON / sCON and for dCON versus sCON. Significantly increased activations in the anterior cingulate cortex and posterior cingulate cortex and bilateral insula were found in MCI versus both dCON / sCON and in dCON versus sCON. Conclusion: The present study suggests that brain functional changes in FPN and DMN anticipate differences in cognitive performance in healthy elderly individuals with subsequent subtle cognitive decline.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Decreased Fronto-Parietal and Increased Default Mode Network Activation is Associated with Subtle Cognitive Deficits in Elderly Controls

et al. 2017

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“…Under adaptive CCT, task difficulty was revised on a trial-by-trial basis with the goal of establishing 60% accuracy, thereby creating a consistently challenging level of subjective difficulty for each individual subject. This is important not only to foster engagement, but to drive any possible training effects (Karbach and Kray, 2009; Shipstead et al, 2012; Vermeij et al, 2016). Task difficulty was modulated by increasing or decreasing the WM load for each trial, e.g., the number of letters to keep in mind.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They found decreased neural activity after simple training on repetitive tasks, but increased activity after training on more complex tasks involving flexible control over attentional resources. Vermeij et al (2016), using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess hemodynamic responses in left and right prefrontal cortex, found decreased activity during high load untrained tasks. Together with unchanged performance, this pattern is often interpreted as reflecting improved, more efficient processing (Heinzel et al, 2014; Vermeij et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One possibility is that CCT would reduce overall activation, thereby shifting the task-demand/resource utilization curve downward ( Figure 1A ). Decreased activation coupled with either unchanged or improved performance can be interpreted as reflecting more efficient processing (Doyon and Benali, 2005; Brehmer et al, 2011; Belleville et al, 2014; Heinzel et al, 2014; Vermeij et al, 2016). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in Neural Activity Underlying Working Memory after Computerized Cognitive Training in Older Adults

Tusch

Alperin

Ryan

et al. 2016

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Computerized cognitive training (CCT) may counter the impact of aging on cognition, but both the efficacy and neurocognitive mechanisms underlying CCT remain controversial. In this study, 35 older individuals were randomly assigned to Cogmed adaptive working memory (WM) CCT or an active control CCT, featuring five weeks of five ∼40 min sessions per week. Before and after the 5-week intervention, event-related potentials were measured while subjects completed a visual n-back task with three levels of demand (0-back, 1-back, 2-back). The anterior P3a served as an index of directing attention and the posterior P3b as an index of categorization/WM updating. We hypothesized that adaptive CCT would be associated with decreased P3 amplitude at low WM demand and increased P3 amplitude at high WM demand. The adaptive CCT group exhibited a training-related increase in the amplitude of the anterior P3a and posterior P3b in response to target stimuli across n-back tasks, while subjects in the active control CCT group demonstrated a post-training decrease in the anterior P3a. Performance did not differ between groups or sessions. Larger overall P3 amplitudes were strongly associated with better task performance. Increased post-CCT P3 amplitude correlated with improved task performance; this relationship was especially robust at high task load. Our findings suggest that adaptive WM training was associated with increased orienting of attention, as indexed by the P3a, and the enhancement of categorization/WM updating processes, as indexed by the P3b. Increased P3 amplitude was linked to improved performance; however. there was no direct association between adaptive training and improved performance.

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“…Previous work has used fNIRS to explore the neural mechanisms that underlie age-related decline in working memory (Vermeij et al, 2016(Vermeij et al, , 2014(Vermeij et al, , 2012. However, these studies relied on recordings from two channels placed over the prefrontal cortex only and did not explore posterior cortical activity.…”

Section: Fnirs Reveals Comparable Modulation Of Vwm Across Load and Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modulating perceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual working memory network in ageing

2017

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Previous neuroimaging studies have reported a posterior to anterior shift of activation in ageing (PASA). Here, we explore the nature of this shift by modulating load (1,2 or 3 items) and perceptual complexity in two variants of a visual working memory task (VWM): a 'simple' color and a 'complex' shape change detection task. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record changes in activation in younger (N=24) and older adults (N=24). Older adults exhibited PASA by showing lesser activation in the posterior cortex and greater activation in the anterior cortex when compared to younger adults. Further, they showed reduced accuracy at loads 2 and 3 for the simple task and across all loads for the complex task. Activation in the posterior and anterior cortices was modulated differently for younger and older adults. In older adults, increasing load in the simple task was accompanied by decreasing activation in the posterior cortex and lack of modulation in the anterior cortex, suggesting the inability to encode and/or maintain representations without much aid from higher-order centers. In the complex task, older adults recruited verbal working memory areas in the posterior cortex, suggesting that they used adaptive strategies such as labelling the shape stimuli. This was accompanied by reduced activation in the anterior cortex reflecting the inability to exert top-down modulation to typical VWM areas in the posterior cortex to improve behavioral performance. IntroductionVisual working memory (VWM) is a short term storage system for visual information that is critical for at least two central aspects of cognition -for the comparison of percepts that cannot be simultaneously foveated and for identifying changes in the world when they occur (Luck and Vogel, 1997). As a result, VWM is central to adaptive functions such as navigation, driving, reading, and so on. Healthy VWM processing is critical throughout the human life span, and deficits in VWM processing have serious consequences for performance during early development and late adulthood.In healthy ageing, there are marked changes in this cognitive system. Decline in VWM is reported to start as early as in the fourth decade of life with a drop of 0.20 2 items per decade in both verbal and spatial working memory (Salthouse 1994). Although these data suggest a dramatic decline in working memory function, other factors might also play a role: factors such as deconditioning of physiological processes following inactivity, arthritis, and declining motor abilities can affect behavioral measures such as accuracy and reaction times. One way to move beyond motoric deficits is to investigate brain function alongside behavior in younger and older adults.Studies of WM using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) implicate a distributed cortical network that spans the frontal, parietal, and temporo-occipital cortices (Druzgal and D'Esposito, 2003;Learmonth et al., 2002;Linden et al., 2003;Ma et al., 2014;Pessoa and Ungerleider, 2004;Postle, 2015;R...

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Prefrontal activation may predict working-memory training gain in normal aging and mild cognitive impairment

Cited by 103 publications

References 71 publications

Decreased Fronto-Parietal and Increased Default Mode Network Activation is Associated with Subtle Cognitive Deficits in Elderly Controls

Decreased Fronto-Parietal and Increased Default Mode Network Activation is Associated with Subtle Cognitive Deficits in Elderly Controls

Changes in Neural Activity Underlying Working Memory after Computerized Cognitive Training in Older Adults

Modulating perceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual working memory network in ageing

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