Comparison of diffusion-weighted fMRI and BOLD fMRI responses in a verbal working memory task

Background. There is considerable variability between patients in their expression of the diverse range of symptoms encompassed by the syndrome of schizophrenia, which may modulate functional activation to cognitive processing.Method. Here we investigate associations between schizophrenic subsyndrome scores, identified by factor analysis, and experimentally controlled brain activation. Five factors were defined by rotated principal components analysis of PANSS rating scale measurements in 100 patients with schizophrenia. A subsample of 30 patients and a group of 27 comparison subjects were studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the performance of two periodically designed cognitive activation experiments: verbal working memory and psychomotor sequencing.Results. Factor analysis replicated the five dimensions consistently reported. Within the patient group, power of activation by working memory was negatively associated with global symptom severity in left lingual and temporo-parietal cortices; negatively associated with positive subsyndrome scores in left inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices and basal ganglia; and positively associated with negative subsyndrome scores in lateral and medial premotor cortex. No relationship was observed between subsyndrome scores and functional activation during the motor task. Between-group comparisons demonstrated reduced power of response to the working memory task by patients in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal and left pre- and post-central cortices.Conclusions. In this study we observed task-specific modulation of functional response associated with symptom expression in schizophrenia. Our findings are compatible with previous empirical findings and theoretical conceptualization of human brain function, in terms of capacity constraints on activation in the face of competing demands from pathological and task-related cognitive activity.

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Social Skills Intervention Participation and Associated Improvements in Executive Function Performance

Autism Research and Treatment ◽

10.1155/2017/5843851 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2017 ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Shawn E. Christ ◽

Janine P. Stichter ◽

Karen V. O’Connor ◽

Kimberly Bodner ◽

Amanda J. Moffitt ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Executive Function ◽

Social Competence ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Neurodevelopmental Disorder ◽

Memory Task ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Mixing Costs ◽

Adolescents With Asd

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social communication. It has been postulated that such difficulties are related to disruptions in underlying cognitive processes such as executive function. The present study examined potential changes in executive function performance associated with participation in the Social Competence Intervention (SCI) program, a short-term intervention designed to improve social competence in adolescents with ASD. Laboratory behavioral performance measures were used to separately evaluate potential intervention-related changes in individual executive function component processes (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) in a sample of 22 adolescents with ASD both before and after intervention. For comparison purposes, a demographically matched sample of 14 individuals without ASD was assessed at identical time intervals. Intervention-related improvements were observed on the working memory task, with gains evident in spatial working memory and, to a slightly lesser degree, verbal working memory. Significant improvements were also found for a working memory-related aspect of the task switching test (i.e., mixing costs). Taken together, these findings provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that participation in the SCI program is accompanied by changes in underlying neurocognitive processes such as working memory.

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Right parietal hypoactivation in a cocaine-dependent group during a verbal working memory task

Brain Research ◽

10.1016/j.brainres.2010.12.042 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 1375 ◽

pp. 111-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Juan-Carlos Bustamante ◽

Alfonso Barrós-Loscertales ◽

Noelia Ventura-Campos ◽

Ana Sanjuán ◽

Juan-José Llopis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Verbal Working Memory

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Sex Differences in Working Memory

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.103.1.214-218 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 103 (1) ◽

pp. 214-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Ashley Harness ◽

Lorri Jacot ◽

Shauna Scherf ◽

Adam White ◽

Jason E. Warnick

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Sex Differences ◽

Memory Task ◽

Stimulus Presentation ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Recall Task ◽

Free Recall Task ◽

Men And Women ◽

Distraction Condition ◽

Distraction Task

In two separate studies, sex differences in modal-specific elements of working memory were investigated by utilizing words and pictures as stimuli. Groups of men and women performed a free-recall task of words or pictures in which 20 items were presented concurrently and the number of correct items recalled was measured. Following stimulus presentation, half of the participants were presented a verbal-based distraction task. On the verbal working-memory task, performance of men and women was not significantly different in the no-distraction condition. However, in the distraction condition, women's recall was significantly lower than their performance in the no-distraction condition and men's performance in the distraction condition. These findings are consistent with previous research and point to sex differences in cognitive ability putatively resulting from functional neuroanatomical dissimilarities. On the visual working-memory task, women showed significantly greater recall than men. These findings are inconsistent with previous research and underscore the need for further research.

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The Monkey game: A computerized verbal working memory task for self-reliant administration in primary school children

Behavior Research Methods ◽

10.3758/s13428-015-0607-y ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 756-771 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Eva Van de Weijer-Bergsma ◽

Evelyn H. Kroesbergen ◽

Shahab Jolani ◽

Johannes E. H. Van Luit

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Primary School ◽

School Children ◽

Memory Task ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Primary School Children

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Acute Ketamine Administration Alters the Brain Responses to Executive Demands in a Verbal Working Memory Task: an fMRI Study

Neuropsychopharmacology ◽

10.1038/sj.npp.1300438 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 29 (6) ◽

pp. 1203-1214 ◽

Cited By ~ 64

Author(s):

R A E Honey ◽

G D Honey ◽

C O'Loughlin ◽

S R Sharar ◽

D Kumaran ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Fmri Study ◽

The Brain

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Working Memory and Linguistic Performance of Dual Language Learners With and Without Developmental Language Disorders

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/2019_ajslp-19-00109 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 1301-1306

Author(s):

Mark M. Guiberson ◽

Barbara L. Rodríguez

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Language Learners ◽

Dual Language ◽

Memory Task ◽

Language Disorders ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Preschool Age ◽

Nonword Repetition ◽

Group Differences ◽

Spanish Speaking

Purpose This research note describes the use of working memory measures as potential indicators of developmental language disorders (DLD) in preschool-age dual language learners from Spanish-speaking backgrounds. This report is an extension of early work, completed by the same authors that described the diagnostic accuracy of a Spanish nonword repetition task. Method One hundred thirty Spanish-speaking families with preschool-age children participated; 37 children had DLD, and 93 were typically developing. Families were recruited from early childhood programs in three states in the western region of the United States. Working memory and linguistic measures were collected from the children; parents completed a vocabulary checklist and reported on their child's longest utterances. Results Nonverbal working memory was not associated with other measures, but verbal working memory was associated with linguistic measures. Although there were no group differences on nonverbal working memory, group differences (DLD vs. typical development) were detected on verbal working memory and linguistic measures. Verbal working memory combined with vocabulary scores resulted in 79% of cases correctly classified. Conclusions Working memory tasks yielded different results depending on the type of task (verbal vs. nonverbal). Outcomes from this study showed that a nonverbal working memory task (hand movement) was not useful in distinguishing preschool-age dual language children with DLD from typical peers, but a verbal working memory task (nonword repetition) may be useful if combined with other more robust linguistic measures.

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Resources Underlying Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Enable Veridical Large Numerosity Perception

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2021.751098 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Elisa Castaldi ◽

Manuela Piazza ◽

Evelyn Eger

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Memory Task ◽

Visual Image ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Clinical Population ◽

Cognitive Resources ◽

Multiple Objects ◽

Numerosity Discrimination ◽

Numerosity Perception

Humans can quickly approximate how many objects are in a visual image, but no clear consensus has been achieved on the cognitive resources underlying this ability. Previous work has lent support to the notion that mechanisms which explicitly represent the locations of multiple objects in the visual scene within a mental map are critical for both visuo-spatial working memory and enumeration (at least for relatively small numbers of items). Regarding the cognitive underpinnings of large numerosity perception, an issue currently subject to much controversy is why numerosity estimates are often non-veridical (i.e., susceptible to biases from non-numerical quantities). Such biases have been found to be particularly pronounced in individuals with developmental dyscalculia (DD), a learning disability affecting the acquisition of arithmetic skills. Motivated by findings showing that DD individuals are also often impaired in visuo-spatial working memory, we hypothesized that resources supporting this type of working memory, which allow for the simultaneous identification of multiple objects, might also be critical for precise and unbiased perception of larger numerosities. We therefore tested whether loading working memory of healthy adult participants during discrimination of large numerosities would lead to increased interference from non-numerical quantities. Participants performed a numerosity discrimination task on multi-item arrays in which numerical and non-numerical stimulus dimensions varied congruently or incongruently relative to each other, either in isolation or in the context of a concurrent visuo-spatial or verbal working memory task. During performance of the visuo-spatial, but not verbal, working memory task, precision in numerosity discrimination decreased, participants’ choices became strongly biased by item size, and the strength of this bias correlated with measures of arithmetical skills. Moreover, the interference between numerosity and working memory tasks was bidirectional, with number discrimination impacting visuo-spatial (but not verbal) performance. Overall, these results suggest that representing visual numerosity in a way that is unbiased by non-numerical quantities relies on processes which explicitly segregate/identify the locations of multiple objects that are shared with visuo-spatial (but not verbal) working memory. This shared resource may potentially be impaired in DD, explaining the observed co-occurrence of working memory and numerosity discrimination deficits in this clinical population.

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