Abstract
PurposeWorking memory (WM) represents the brain’s ability to maintain information in a readily available state for short periods of time. This study examines the resting-state cortical activity patterns that are most associated with performance on a difficult working-memory task.MethodsMagnetoencephalographic (MEG) band-passed (delta/theta (1–7 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (14–30 Hz)) and sensor based regional power was collected in a population of adult men (18–28 yrs, n = 24) in both an eyes-closed and eyes-open resting state. The normalized power within each resting state condition as well as the normalized change in power between eyes closed and open (zECO) were correlated with performance on a WM task. The regional and band-limited measures that were most associated with performance were then combined using singular value decomposition (SVD) to determine the degree to which zECO power was associated with performance on the three-back verbal WM task.ResultsChanges in power from eyes closed to open revealed a significant decrease in power in all band-widths that was most pronounced in the posterior brain regions (delta/theta band). zECO right posterior frontal and parietal cortex delta/theta power were found to be inversely correlated with three-back working memory performance. The SVD evaluation of the most correlated zECO metrics then provided a singular measure that was highly correlated with three-back performance (r = −0.73, p<0.0001).ConclusionOur results indicate that there is an association between WM performance and changes in resting-state power (right posterior frontal and parietal delta/theta power). Moreover, an SVD of the most associated zECO measures produces a composite resting-state metric of regional neural oscillatory power that has an improved association with WM performance. To our knowledge, this is the first investigation that has found that changes in resting state electromagnetic neural patterns are highly associated with verbal working memory performance.
Highlights
Working memory (WM) consists of several interacting brain processes that are involved in both maintaining and manipulating information for short periods of time [1,2].The neural mechanisms contributing to WM have been a major focus of the neurosciences, with progress in this field being applied to investigations of a wide array of brain pathologies, education, learning, as well as furthering our basic understanding of the brain [2,3,4,5,6,7,8].The ability to selectively attend to relevant information has been described as the capacity to focus our cognitive resources to our goals
While both the three-back accuracy scores and d9 measures were found to have linear distributions, the three-back, d9 measure was used as a metric for working memory performance because it evaluated the ability of our subjects’ to identify correct stimuli without the influence of positive or negative response bias [29]
This is the first study to show that individual changes in delta/theta power (1–7 Hz; right posterior frontal and parietal regions) from eyes closed to eyes open are highly associated with performance on a subsequent three-back WM task
Summary
Working memory (WM) consists of several interacting brain processes that are involved in both maintaining and manipulating information for short periods of time [1,2].The neural mechanisms contributing to WM have been a major focus of the neurosciences, with progress in this field being applied to investigations of a wide array of brain pathologies, education, learning, as well as furthering our basic understanding of the brain [2,3,4,5,6,7,8].The ability to selectively attend to relevant information has been described as the capacity to focus our cognitive resources to our goals. Investigations into these mechanisms have found that lapses in selective attention are associated with neurophysiological changes in cortical processing [13]. Both selective attention and physiological arousal, which has previously been described as an energetic state at a point in time, have been linked to the prefrontal and parietal cortices, suggesting that there may be a functional overlap between these two processes [12,14,15,16]. It appears that either task-related lapses in attention or decreased levels of cortical arousal can be detected physiologically and are linked to decreased cognitive performance [14,15]
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