Plasticity of Cortical Activation Related to Working Memory During Training

• DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.161.4.745
• Publication Date: 2004-03-31T22:42:58Z
• Authors: Albrecht Hempel; Frederik L. Giesel; Nohazarahit M. Ga...; Michael Amann; Heiko Meyer; Torsten Wüstenberg; Marco Essig; Johannes Schröder
• Keywords: Intraparietal sulcus

Although it is well established that cerebral activation increases with higher task load, the potential effects of training have been investigated over brief periods only. Training clinical relevance since programs are an essential part psychiatric therapy.Cerebral during a visual spatial working memory was examined before, during, and after 4 weeks daily in nine healthy subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging.All showed pronounced mainly involving right inferior frontal gyrus intraparietal sulcus. While respective regions improved performance 2 training, values decreased at time consolidation gains weeks.Our results suggest training-related changes follow inverse U-shaped quadratic function raise prospect investigating mechanisms underlying effects.