scholarly journals Dynamic shifts in brain network activation during supracapacity working memory task performance

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 1245-1264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared X. Van Snellenberg ◽  
Mark Slifstein ◽  
Christina Read ◽  
Jochen Weber ◽  
Judy L. Thompson ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 935
Author(s):  
Ying Xing Feng ◽  
Masashi Kiguchi ◽  
Wei Chun Ung ◽  
Sarat Chandra Dass ◽  
Ahmad Fadzil Mohd Hani ◽  
...  

The effect of stress on task performance is complex, too much or too little stress negatively affects performance and there exists an optimal level of stress to drive optimal performance. Task difficulty and external affective factors are distinct stressors that impact cognitive performance. Neuroimaging studies showed that mood affects working memory performance and the correlates are changes in haemodynamic activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We investigate the interactive effects of affective states and working memory load (WML) on working memory task performance and haemodynamic activity using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging on the PFC of healthy participants. We seek to understand if haemodynamic responses could tell apart workload-related stress from situational stress arising from external affective distraction. We found that the haemodynamic changes towards affective stressor- and workload-related stress were more dominant in the medial and lateral PFC, respectively. Our study reveals distinct affective state-dependent modulations of haemodynamic activity with increasing WML in n-back tasks, which correlate with decreasing performance. The influence of a negative effect on performance is greater at higher WML, and haemodynamic activity showed evident changes in temporal, and both spatial and strength of activation differently with WML.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Urs Maurer ◽  
Silvia Brem ◽  
Martina Liechti ◽  
Stefano Maurizio ◽  
Lars Michels ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleš Oblak ◽  
Anka Slana Ozimič ◽  
Grega Repovš ◽  
Urban Kordeš

In experimental cognitive psychology, objects of inquiry have typically been operationalized with psychological tasks. If we are interested in measuring the target phenomena, we must inquire into the validity of the task; that is, to what extent does the task elicit the phenomenon in question. If we subscribe to the second view, evaluating the validity and the interpretation of the gathered data can be supplemented by understanding the experience of solving psychological tasks. The aim of the present article is to investigate how individuals experience performing a psychological task, specifically, a visuo-spatial working memory task. We present ethnographic descriptions of different ways individuals can experience the same task. We focus on aspects of experience that comprise the overall sense of experience (e.g., bodily feelings, emotional atmosphere, mood). We discuss the methodological implications of our findings and the possibility of conducting a neurophenomenology of visuo-spatial working memory.


Author(s):  
Yurui Gao ◽  
Muwei Li ◽  
Anna S Huang ◽  
Adam W Anderson ◽  
Zhaohua Ding ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia, characterized by cognitive impairments, arises from a disturbance of brain network. Pathological changes in white matter (WM) have been indicated as playing a role in disturbing neural connectivity in schizophrenia. However, deficits of functional connectivity (FC) in individual WM bundles in schizophrenia have never been explored; neither have cognitive correlates with those deficits. METHODS: Resting-state and spatial working memory task fMRI images were acquired on 67 healthy subjects and 84 patients with schizophrenia. The correlations in blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals between 46 WM and 82 gray matter regions were quantified, analyzed and compared between groups under three scenarios (i.e., resting state, retention period and entire time of a spatial working memory task). Associations of FC in WM with cognitive assessment scores were evaluated for three scenarios. RESULTS: FC deficits were significant (p<.05) in external capsule, cingulum, uncinate fasciculus, genu and body of corpus callosum under all three scenarios. Deficits were also present in the anterior limb of the internal capsule and cerebral peduncle in task scenario. Decreased FCs in specific WM bundles associated significantly (p<.05) with cognitive impairments in working memory, processing speed and/or cognitive control. CONCLUSIONS: Decreases in FC are evident in several WM bundles in patients with schizophrenia and are significantly associated with cognitive impairments during both rest and working memory tasks. Furthermore, working memory tasks expose FC deficits in more WM bundles and more cognitive associates in schizophrenia than resting state does.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jefferson Ortega ◽  
Chelsea Reichert Plaska ◽  
Bernard A Gomes ◽  
Timothy M Ellmore

Spontaneous eye blink rate (sEBR) has been found to be a non-invasive indirect measure of striatal dopamine activity. Dopamine (DA) neurons project to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) through the mesocortical dopamine pathway and their activity is implicated in a range of cognitive functions, including attention and working memory (WM). The goal of the present study was to understand how fluctuations in sEBR during different phases of a working memory task relate to task performance. Across two experiments, with recordings of sEBR inside and outside of a magnetic resonance imaging bore, we observed sEBR to be positively correlated with WM performance during the WM delay period. Additionally we investigated the non-linear relationship between sEBR and WM performance, and modeled a proposed Inverted-U-shape relationship between DA and WM performance. We also investigated blink duration, which is proposed to be related to sustained attention, and found blink duration to be significantly shorter during the encoding and probe periods of the task. Taken together, these results provide support towards sEBR as an important correlate of working memory task performance. The relationship of sEBR to DA activity and the influence of DA on the PFC during WM maintenance is discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Moraschi ◽  
Daniele Mascali ◽  
Silvia Tommasin ◽  
Tommaso Gili ◽  
Ibrahim Eid Hassan ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 500 ◽  
pp. e44-e45
Author(s):  
Revital Shani-Hershkovitch ◽  
Amit Reches ◽  
Dani Kerem ◽  
Noga Pinchuk ◽  
Naama Levy-Cooperman ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Reches ◽  
Naama Levy-Cooperman ◽  
Ilan Laufer ◽  
Revital Shani-Hershkovitch ◽  
Keren Ziv ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (04) ◽  
pp. 413-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather M. Conklin ◽  
Kirsten K. Ness ◽  
Jason M. Ashford ◽  
Matthew A. Scoggins ◽  
Robert J. Ogg ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectives: Craniopharyngioma survivors experience cognitive deficits that negatively impact quality of life. Aerobic fitness is associated with cognitive benefits in typically developing children and physical exercise promotes recovery following brain injury. Accordingly, we investigated cognitive and neural correlates of aerobic fitness in a sample of craniopharyngioma patients. Methods: Patients treated for craniopharyngioma [N=104, 10.0±4.6 years, 48% male] participated in fitness, cognitive and fMRI (n=51) assessments following surgery but before proton radiation therapy. Results: Patients demonstrated impaired aerobic fitness [peak oxygen uptake (PKVO2)=23.9±7.1, 41% impaired (i.e., 1.5 SD&lt;normative mean)], motor proficiency [Bruininks-Oseretsky (BOT2)=38.6±9.0, 28% impaired], and executive functions (e.g., WISC-IV Working Memory Index (WMI)=96.0±15.3, 11% impaired). PKVO2 correlated with better executive functions (e.g., WISC-IV WMI r=.27, p=.02) and academic performance (WJ-III Calculation r=.24, p=.04). BOT2 correlated with better attention (e.g., CPT-II omissions r=.26, p=.04) and executive functions (e.g., WISC-IV WMI r=.32, p=.01). Areas of robust neural activation during an n-back task included superior parietal lobule, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and middle and superior frontal gyri (p&lt;.05, corrected). Higher network activation was associated with better working memory task performance and better BOT2 (p&lt;.001). Conclusions: Before adjuvant therapy, children with craniopharyngioma demonstrate significantly reduced aerobic fitness, motor proficiency, and working memory. Better aerobic fitness and motor proficiency are associated with better attention and executive functions, as well as greater activation of a well-established working memory network. These findings may help explain differential risk/resiliency with respect to acute cognitive changes that may portend cognitive late effects. (JINS, 2019, 25, 413–425)


2016 ◽  
Vol 371 (1708) ◽  
pp. 20160005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Umeda ◽  
Saiko Tochizawa ◽  
Midori Shibata ◽  
Yuri Terasawa

Previous studies on prospective memory (PM), defined as memory for future intentions, suggest that psychological stress enhances successful PM retrieval. However, the mechanisms underlying this notion remain poorly understood. We hypothesized that PM retrieval is achieved through interaction with autonomic nervous activity, which is mediated by the individual accuracy of interoceptive awareness, as measured by the heartbeat detection task. In this study, the relationship between cardiac reactivity and retrieval of delayed intentions was evaluated using the event-based PM task. Participants were required to detect PM target letters while engaged in an ongoing 2-back working memory task. The results demonstrated that individuals with higher PM task performance had a greater increase in heart rate on PM target presentation. Also, higher interoceptive perceivers showed better PM task performance. This pattern was not observed for working memory task performance. These findings suggest that cardiac afferent signals enhance PM retrieval, which is mediated by individual levels of interoceptive accuracy. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Interoception beyond homeostasis: affect, cognition and mental health’.


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