Abstract
Cognitive training-induced neuroplastic brain changes have been reported. This prospective study evaluated whether microscopic fractional anisotropy (μFA) derived from double diffusion encoding (DDE) MRI could detect brain changes following a 4 week cognitive training. Twenty-nine healthy volunteers were recruited and randomly assigned into the training (n = 21) and control (n = 8) groups. Both groups underwent brain MRI including DDE MRI and 3D-T1-weighted imaging twice at an interval of 4–6 weeks, during which the former underwent the training. The training consisted of hour-long dual N-back and attention network tasks conducted five days per week. Training and time-related changes of DDE MRI indices (μFA, fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean diffusivity (MD)) and the gray and white matter volume were evaluated using mixed-design analysis of variance. In addition, any significant imaging indices were tested for correlation with cognitive training-induced task performance changes, using partial correlation analyses. μFA in the left middle frontal gyrus decreased upon the training (53 voxels, uncorrected p < 0.001), which correlated moderately with response time changes in the orienting component of attention (r = −0.521, uncorrected p = 0.032). No significant training and time-related changes were observed for other imaging indices. Thus, μFA can become a sensitive index to detect cognitive training-induced neuroplastic changes.
Highlights
Cognitive training is often conducted in normal and cognitively impaired patients to improve cognitive performance [1,2]
Post hoc analysis revealed that the training group had a μFA decrease in the left middle frontal gyrus following the cognitive training (Figure 3)
The results of this study highlight that μFA derived from double diffusion encoding (DDE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could detect the cognitive training-induced neuroplastic changes
Summary
Cognitive training is often conducted in normal and cognitively impaired patients to improve cognitive performance [1,2]. How training modulates the brain structure and function has been a subject of study. While techniques such as single-neuron recording can directly measure the electrophysiological responses of a single neuron with superb temporal and spatial resolution, their applicability is limited due to the invasive nature and small brain coverage [4,5]. Instead, advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques are widely applied to study the brain’s neuroplastic changes following cognitive training, thanks to their capability of showing the brain changes noninvasively and in vivo [1,2,3]. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has often been applied to illustrate the microstructural brain changes associated with improved cognitive performance following the training
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