Abstract
N-back is a working memory (WM) task to study mental workload on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We assume that the subject’s performance and changes in mental workload over time depends on the length of the experiment. The performance of the participant can change positively due to the participant’s learning process or negatively because of objective mental fatigue and/or sleepiness. In this pilot study, we examined the PFC activation of 23 healthy subjects while they performed an N-back task with two different levels of task difficulty (2-, and 3-back). The hemodynamic responses were analyzed along with the behavioral data (correct answers). A comparison was done between the hemodynamic activation and behavioral data between the two different task levels and between the beginning and end of the 3-back task. Our results show that there is a significant difference between the two task levels, which is due to the difference in task complication. In addition, a significant difference was seen between the beginning and end of the 3-back task in both behavioral data and hemodynamics due to the subject’s learning process throughout the experiment.
Highlights
Working memory (WM) refers to a system that holds sensory information for processing and integration, allowing for cognitive understanding [1]
WM is critical for daily life, and WM dysfunction has been correlated with deficits in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s [1,3,4], along with neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [5] and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) [6]
We studied different mental workloads using the spatial characteristics of the hemodynamic responses during an N-back trial (region of interest (ROI))
Summary
Working memory (WM) refers to a system that holds sensory information for processing and integration, allowing for cognitive understanding [1]. The manipulation of items held within this short-term memory storage is done during everyday cognitive functions, such as decision making and problem solving, where neural correlates of WM are a topic of investigation [1,2]. An imaging approach to objectively measure WM would provide broader understanding of its neural correlates along with aiding in the detection of impairments affected across a range of psychopathologies. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been the traditional imaging modality used to study the associations between functional brain activation patterns and brain regions involved in working memory [7,8,9].
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