Functional Activation Patterns Research Articles

Age-related decline of functional inhibition in rat cortex

Recent studies with functional magnetic brain imaging showed different task-related patterns of brain activation and deactivation in aged as compared to young healthy subjects. We hypothesized that these changes of brain activation patterns might be due to age-dependent changes of neuronal excitability. Therefore, we experimentally studied the functional cortical inhibition by paired pulse stimulation in brain slices of young adult (3 months), aged adult (24 months) and old (36 months) male rats. Field potentials were evoked by application of double pulses at layer VI/white matter and recorded in layer II/III. We also analyzed the regional distribution of five major gamma-aminobutyric acid A (GABA A) receptor subunits (α1, α2, α3, α5, and γ2) by immunohistochemistry. A reduced functional inhibition in aged as compared to young animals associated with an altered composition of GABA A-receptors, especially a reduction of subunit α5 in aged animals, was shown. The present study suggests that the age-dependent functional activation patterns and possibly also the cognitive and motor abilities are at least partially modulated by an age-dependent alteration of functional inhibition in the neocortex.

Recovery From Mild Head Injury in Sports: Evidence From Serial Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies in Male Athletes

To examine functional brain activation patterns before and after postconcussive symptoms (PCS) resolution. Prospective serial study with male athletes using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Hospital laboratory and imaging facility. 9 symptomatic concussed athletes who experienced persisting PCS at least 1 month postinjury and 6 healthy athletes. All athletes filled out a PCS checklist and underwent an fMRI session during which they performed a working-memory task. Behavioral outcomes were response speed and accuracy on the working memory tasks performed during the fMRI session. Functional imaging outcomes were blood oxygen level-dependent fMRI activation patterns associated with a working memory task. : There was no difference in behavioral performance between the groups. Despite normal structural MRI findings, all symptomatic concussed athletes initially showed atypical brain activation patterns in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPC). Compared to the initial postinjury evaluation, those athletes at follow-up with PCS resolved showed significant increases in activation in the left DLPC. Concussed athletes whose PCS status remained unchanged at follow-up continued to show atypical activation in DLPC. Healthy athletes showed remarkably clear and consistent brain activations in DLPC initially as well as in follow-up, highlighting the test-retest reliability of fMRI. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using fMRI to detect an underlying pathology in symptomatic concussed athletes with normal structural imaging results and its potential to document recovery. Such information may be of considerable value for clinical judgment and patient management.

Functional MRI of semantic retrieval is influenced by gender, menstrual cycle, and sex hormone levels

Event Abstract Back to Event Functional MRI of semantic retrieval is influenced by gender, menstrual cycle, and sex hormone levels Carsten Konrad1, 2*, A. Engelien1, 2, S. Schöning1, 2, P. Zwitserlood3, A. Jansen4, 5, A. Kersting1, P. Ohrmann1, E. Luders6, R. R. Greb7, W. Heindel8, V. Arolt1 and H. Kugel8 1 Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Germany 2 Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF), University of Muenster, Germany 3 Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Muenster, Germany 4 Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Aachen, Germany 5 Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF), University of Aachen, Germany 6 University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, United States 7 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Muenster, Germany 8 Department of Clinical Radiology, University of Muenster, Germany Background: The influence of biological factors on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of cognitive tasks has been controversially discussed. More specifically, the influence of gender, menstrual cycle, and sex hormones on memory performance is still unclear, although hormonal influences on memory are highly relevant to the current debate on hormone substitution and the risk of dementias. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the biological factors gender, menstrual cycle, and sex hormones influence functional MRI activation patterns during semantic retrieval. Methods: Twenty-four healthy right-handed subjects (12 female) were investigated with 3 Tesla functional MRI while performing a semantic retrieval task based on synonyms. Women were examined twice, during menstruation and during the midluteal phase. In addition to fMRI, behavioral performance and sex hormone levels were assessed. Results: The overall fMRI activation pattern was similar in all groups, involving left frontal, left temporal, and bilateral medial frontal, cingulate, occipital, basal ganglia, and cerebellar regions. In the absence of behavioral differences, men showed greater left frontal activation than women in both menstrual cycle phases. Women in the midluteal phase showed a trend towards higher prefrontal activation than women in the perimenstrual phase. Women yielded high correlations of left prefrontal activation with estradiol in the midluteal phase and with progesterone in both phases. Testosterone levels correlated highly with left prefrontal activation in all three groups. Discussion: In the absence of behavioral differences, gender and sex hormones significantly affect fMRI activation in semantic retrieval. Menstrual cycle effects seem to be less pronounced. Possible explanations are estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone effects on neuronal activity or neurovascular coupling. These factors evidently explain some of the variability in fMRI studies on cognition and should therefore be taken into account. Conference: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Memory & Learning Citation: Konrad C, Engelien A, Schöning S, Zwitserlood P, Jansen A, Kersting A, Ohrmann P, Luders E, Greb RR, Heindel W, Arolt V and Kugel H (2008). Functional MRI of semantic retrieval is influenced by gender, menstrual cycle, and sex hormone levels. Conference Abstract: 10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.293 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 09 Dec 2008; Published Online: 09 Dec 2008. * Correspondence: Carsten Konrad, Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany, konradc@uni-muenster.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Carsten Konrad A. Engelien S. Schöning P. Zwitserlood A. Jansen A. Kersting P. Ohrmann E. Luders R. R Greb W. Heindel V. Arolt H. Kugel Google Carsten Konrad A. Engelien S. Schöning P. Zwitserlood A. Jansen A. Kersting P. Ohrmann E. Luders R. R Greb W. Heindel V. Arolt H. Kugel Google Scholar Carsten Konrad A. Engelien S. Schöning P. Zwitserlood A. Jansen A. Kersting P. Ohrmann E. Luders R. R Greb W. Heindel V. Arolt H. Kugel PubMed Carsten Konrad A. Engelien S. Schöning P. Zwitserlood A. Jansen A. Kersting P. Ohrmann E. Luders R. R Greb W. Heindel V. Arolt H. Kugel Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Nuclear transcription factors and lipid homeostasis in liver

Nuclear transcription factors and lipid homeostasis in liver

Motor areas on the medial wall of the hemisphere.

The primary motor cortex (M1) receives input from four premotor areas on the medial wall of the hemisphere: the supplementary motor area (SMA) and three cingulate motor areas located on the banks of the cingulate sulcus (CMAr, CMAd and CMAv). All four premotor areas have maps of the body containing distinct proximal and distal representations of the arm. Surprisingly, the size of the distal representation is comparable to or larger than the size of the proximal representation in each area. Thus, contrary to some previous hypotheses, the anatomical substrate exists for the premotor areas on the medial wall to be involved in the control of distal, as well as proximal arm movements. Each of the premotor areas on the medial wall also has substantial direct projections to the spinal cord. Corticospinal axons from these premotor areas terminate in the intermediate zone of the spinal cord. Some corticospinal axons from SMA, CMAd, and CMAv terminate around motoneurons. In this respect, these motor areas are like M1 and appear to have direct connections with spinal motoneurons, particularly those innervating muscles of the fingers and wrist. These results suggest that the premotor areas on the medial wall are an important source of descending commands for the generation and control of movement. In recent experiments we examined the pattern of functional activation in the premotor areas on the medial wall during the performance of sequences of pointing movements. The patterns of activation were then compared with the body maps revealed by our anatomical studies. Overall, our initial results indicate that the attributes of motor control are unequally represented across the premotor areas. For example, one of the areas on the medial wall, the CMAd, was strongly and selectively activated during the performance of highly practised, remembered sequences of movement. Further insights into the function of the premotor areas are likely to come from examining their participation in a broad range of behavioural paradigms. These initial results support our hypothesis that each premotor area makes some unique contribution to the planning, initiation and/or execution of movement.

On navigating the human cerebral cortex: Response to ‘in praise of tedious anatomy’

Individual variability of the human cerebral cortex is a source of both fascination and frustration. The fascination arises because variability in cortical structure and function may account for many aspects of our unique personalities and cognitive capabilities. For neuroimagers, the frustration arises because variability presents serious obstacles when attempting to assign particular functional activation patterns to specific cortical areas. Devlin and Poldrack cogently summarize many of the key issues, and they make useful suggestions for linking function to anatomy using a standardized stereotaxic space. This commentary provides a broader perspective on the nature of individual variability that has implications for the choice of strategies used to compensate for variability. It also includes information about the actual differences between various registration strategies and introduces a new strategy for converting neuroimaging data to a standard stereotaxic space.

Assessment and quantification of head motion in neuropsychiatric functional imaging research as applied to schizophrenia

Differing degrees of head motion have long been recognized as a potential confound in functional neuroimaging studies comparing neuropsychiatric populations to healthy normal volunteers, and studies often cite excessive head motion as a possible reason for the different patterns of functional activation frequently observed between groups. We empirically tested the degree of head motion in 16 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 16, age- and education-matched controls during the acquisition of functional magnetic resonance imaging data. We examined the degree of motion across three different indices (total motion, relative motion, task-correlated motion) during a complex attentional task and the effect of entering the motion parameters as additional regressors in a general linear model analysis. Results indicate that individuals with schizophrenia did not exhibit more task-correlated or total motion compared with controls. Moreover, the residual error term from the general linear model analysis was similar for both groups of subjects. In conclusion, current results suggest that stable patients with schizophrenia are capable of controlling head motion compared with matched normal controls. However, a direct comparison of the motion parameters is an essential step for any quality assurance protocol to determine whether additional corrective techniques need to be implemented.

Voxel-based morphometry of auditory and speech-related cortex in stutterers

Stutterers demonstrate unique functional neural activation patterns during speech production, including reduced auditory activation, relative to nonstutterers. The extent to which these functional differences are accompanied by abnormal morphology of the brain in stutterers is unclear. This study examined the neuroanatomical differences in speech-related cortex between stutterers and nonstutterers using voxel-based morphometry. Results revealed significant differences in localized grey matter and white matter densities of left and right hemisphere regions involved in auditory processing and speech production.

Functional MRI of the cervical spinal cord during noxious and innocuous thermal stimulation in the α-chloralose- and halothane-anesthetized rat

Patterns of neuronal activity in the spinal cord using functional magnetic resonance imaging during noxious (48 degrees C) and innocuous (40 degrees C) thermal stimulation of the rat forepaw were examined. The patterns of functional activity elicited by thermal stimuli were compared in alpha-chloralose- and halothane-anesthetized rats. Although the locations of active pixels were similar during both types of stimulation, the mean percentage signal change was higher during noxious stimulation in both anesthetic groups. Ipsilateral dorsal horn activity was evident during both noxious and innocuous stimulation in all animals. The greatest consistency of ipsilateral dorsal horn activity occurred at the C3 to C5 spinal cord segments in all groups. Consistent contralateral dorsal horn activity appeared in segments C6 to C8 in all groups. C-fos immunohistochemical staining confirmed the presence of neural activity in the spinal cords of all animals.

Functional mapping of cortical areas with optical imaging

Sensory areas in mammalian cortex compute sensory inputs of different modalities in order to perceive the environment. Much is known about the anatomical pattern of inter-laminar connections, which form the basis of the computational process. Nevertheless, less is known about the functional relevance of these wiring patterns. We used intrinsic optical signals (IOSs) in vitro to investigate functional properties of inter-laminar connections in cortical brain slices of rat sensory cortex. By electrical stimulation in layer VI, a columnar-shaped IOS in all cortical areas was found. We detected different laminar patterns of activation in different cortical areas. In primary sensory areas, like primary visual cortex and primary somatosensory cortex, the peak intensity of IOSs occurred in layer IV, which receives the main thalamic input. In secondary sensory areas, like the secondary visual cortex or the secondary somatosensory cortex, the maximum of IOSs amplitude was shifted to layer II/III. In motor areas, IOS peak amplitude is located in layer II/III. In the hind limb area, considered as amalgam between sensory and motor function, a mixture of the activity patterns observed in primary sensory and a motor area occurred with a peak amplitude in layers II and IV. At different stimulation sites within one cortical area, the shape of columnar IOSs remained very similar, reflecting a canonical architecture of functional micro-circuitry. We conclude that both primary and secondary sensory cortical areas display their characteristic functional activation pattern, regardless of their sensory modalities.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of verbal learning in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure

We examined functional MRI activation patterns corresponding to verbal paired associate learning in a group of 11 children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure compared with 16 typically developing children. Among the typically developing children, prominent activation was observed in the left medial temporal lobe, left dorsal frontal lobe and bilateral posterior temporal cortices during learning and recall. Analyses revealed significantly less activation in left medial and posterior temporal regions and significantly more activation in right dorsal frontal cortex in the alcohol-exposed children relative to controls, even when group differences in memory test performance were statistically controlled. These results may indicate an increased reliance on frontal memory systems in the children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure, perhaps compensating for dysfunctional medial temporal memory systems. Our findings are consistent with neuropsychological and structural imaging studies, and provide the first evidence for brain activation abnormalities, independent of group performance differences, during verbal learning and recall in children with heavy prenatal alcohol exposure.

Anxiety, respiration, and cerebral blood flow: implications for functional brain imaging

Brain functional imaging methods, such as fMRI, are sensitive to changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) that are normally associated with changes in regional neural activation. However, other endogenous and exogenous factors can alter CBF independently of brain neural activity, thus complicating the interpretation of functional imaging data. The presence of an anxiety disorder, as well as change in state anxiety, is often accompanied by respiratory alterations that affect arterial CO 2 tensions and produce significant changes in CBF that are independent of task-related neural activation. Therefore, the effects of trait and state anxiety need to be given close consideration in interpreting functional imaging findings. In this paper, we review the dependence of most brain functional imaging methods on localized changes in CBF and the potentially confounding effects of anxiety-related alterations of respiration on interpreting patterns of functional activation. Approaches for addressing these effects are discussed.

Brain activation in elderly people with and without dementia: Influences of gender and medication

Patients suffering from dementia show altered functional brain activation patterns especially in prefrontal brain regions, as research suggests. The present study follows three aims: to replicate these findings, to investigate treatment effects when administering galantamine, and to put gender differences in focus. We compared 12 patients with dementia to 12 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects regarding changes in haemoglobin concentration in brain tissue while performing a verbal fluency task (VFT). Concentration changes of oxygenated (O2Hb) and deoxygenated (HHb) haemoglobin were measured by multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), an easily applicable and non-invasive method of optical topography. In the patient group, measurement was repeated 4 and 8 weeks after starting treatment with galantamine. The results showed a reduced increase in O2Hb during task performance for patients compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, female subjects showed more pronounced activation in O2Hb as well as HHb compared to male subjects. Regarding treatment effects, no clear results could be obtained. In HHb, evidence for an entrainment effect was found. In the light of existing literature, the present study suggests an interaction of gender and age regarding brain activation patterns which should be aimed at in future investigations.

Modafinil Activates Cortical and Subcortical Sites in the Sleep-Deprived State

SUBJECT OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of the wake-promoting drug modafinil on working memory and brain activation in the executive network, following a single night of sleep deprivation. Randomized, placebo-controlled, 4-arm, double-blind evaluation of a single 200-mg dose of modafinil on working memory (1-, 2-, and 3-back)-related functional brain activation and performance following overnight sleep deprivation. General Clinical Research Center, Biomedical Imaging Center. Eight medication-free men, aged 21 to 35 years. Overnight sleep deprivation, single-dose 200-mg modafinil, functional magnetic resonance imaging Brain activation patterns and regional signal intensity based on the blood-oxygen level-dependent signal were assessed. The following reaction times were used as measures of performance: (1) attention in the scanner before functional scanning, (2) "back" responses during the active-task block, and (3) attention during the baseline task block. Contrast of activation maps among conditions revealed sleep-deprivation and drug effects, and their interactions. Performance in the deprived state was enhanced by modafinil only at an intermediate (2-back) level of task difficulty and was associated with the recruitment of increased cortical activation volumes. Strong and consistent individual differences in performance were noted on the working memory tasks. Modafinil effectively counters the adverse effects of overnight sleep deprivation on working memory but only when task difficulty is moderate, recruiting extensive areas in the executive network to do so. Interindividual differences in working-memory performance are stable trait characteristics.

Anterior cingulate cortex involving in pain modulation-an functional magnetic resonance imaging study

To investigate the functional activation patterns of the subregions of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in human to electrical stimulation of different intensity with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and probe the contribution of this area in pain modulation network. 10 healthy right-handed volunteers were studied with different electrical intensity stimulation of 1-, 2-, or 3-time pain threshold. The fMRI data were collected by GE signa 1.5T MRI system and postprocessed with software of Analysis of Functional Neuroimages (AFNI) to generate the regional activation maps of ACC, furthermore, the distinctive characteristics of stimulation-BOLD signal in ACC subregions were analyzed according to the fMRI maps from the average of the 10 subjects. The anterior portion of ACC (aACC) showed moderate pain-attention-related activation but not statistically related to the strength of stimulation (average activated pixels of P1, P2, P3 amounted to 324, 429, 562 respectively). The BOLD signal showed a positive linear relation with the increasing stimulation at the dorsal-posterior portion of ACC (average activated pixels of P1, P2, P3 were 311, 964, 1414), which indicated stimulus intensity-dependent responses. The ventral-posterior area of ACC (vpACC) demonstrated pain intensity encoding because the BOLD signal had no significant difference during innocuous condition but displayed remarkable distinction during noxious stimulation in this area (average activated pixels of P1, P2, P3 were 324, 429, 562). Subregions in ACC may play a varied role in the network of pain modulation. Each area of ACC displays segregated activation patterns in response to electrical stimulation with different strength.

Reproducibility of activation in Broca's area during covert generation of single words at high field: A single trial FMRI study at 4 T

Although functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) has arguably become the most ubiquitously used imaging modality, questions remain about the reproducibility of the observed patterns of activation and the acquisition time required to achieve statistically significant and reproducible maps. In the current study, we investigated the reliability of activation in Broca's area, on both a voxel-wise and region of interest level, in response to the covert generation of a single word at 4 T. We also assessed the effects of different parametric ( P < 0.01; P < 0.005; P < 0.001) and spatial thresholds (25%, 50% and 75%) on the reproducibility of activation within our region of interest and other randomly selected areas of the brain. We report that the inter-trial consistency of activation within Broca's area for a single trial design using multi-echo EPI is roughly equivalent to previous studies that averaged across a much larger number of trials. However, reliability estimates varied dramatically (approximately 55%) depending on the different parametric and spatial criteria thresholds that were applied to the data. These results show that increased sensitivity at high field strength can be used to reduce the time needed to localize functional activation patterns, which is beneficial for clinical studies such as pre-surgical mapping. Additional benefits of single trial designs, such as the ability to immediately assess for extraneous cognitive processes, are also discussed.

Familial risk for Alzheimer's disease alters fMRI activation patterns

Alzheimer's disease poses a looming crisis for the health care system as well as society in general. The low efficacy of current treatments for those already affected with this disease has prompted the suggestion that interventions might be more successful if they were applied before the development of significant pathology, that is, when individuals are clinically asymptomatic. Currently, the field requires a sensitive and specific diagnostic tool for identifying those individuals destined to develop this disease. As a first step, we present here an analysis of cross-sectional data for 95 asymptomatic offspring (50-75 years of age) of autopsy-confirmed late-onset familial Alzheimer's disease cases and 90 age-matched controls, studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain activation patterns. Analysis of activation in response to a paired-associates memory paradigm found significantly different patterns in these groups. At-risk individuals showed more intense and extensive activation in the frontal and temporal lobes including the hippocampus during memory encoding, an increase unrelated to the APOE epsilon4 allele. They also showed decreased activation particularly in the cingulum and thalamus during both the encoding and recall phases of the task. These results demonstrate that asymptomatic individuals, at genetic risk for development of late-onset Alzheimer's disease by virtue of familial clustering, show functional activation patterns distinct from those without such risk more than a decade before their parent's onset age. While longitudinal study is needed to determine whether these patterns, or a subset of them, are predictive of disease onset, these findings suggest that functional neuroimaging holds promise as a method of identifying pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease.

Parkinson Disease: Pattern of Functional MR Imaging Activation during Deep Brain Stimulation of Subthalamic Nucleus—Initial Experience

To prospectively determine the pattern of functional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging activation at 3 T produced by deep brain stimulation (DBS) of subthalamic nucleus (STN) for treatment of Parkinson disease and to determine the safety of DBS electrode stimulation during functional MR imaging at 3 T. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects participating in the study, and the study protocol was approved by the institutional review board at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and was HIPAA compliant. After extensive phantom safety testing of DBS lead systems, five patients (three men, two women; mean age, 49.4 years +/- 14.5 [standard deviation]; range, 31-74 years) with percutaneously extended bilateral DBS electrodes placed in the STN for treatment of Parkinson disease were examined at 3 T on the 1st or 2nd postoperative day. Imaging consisted of a three-dimensional anatomic data set with leads disconnected and a blood oxygen level-dependent functional MR image with a single lead connected to the external pulse generator in the MR imaging control room by using stimulation parameters previously determined to produce optimal stimulation for alleviation of symptoms. A total of nine leads were tested with the functional MR imaging protocol. Subjects underwent neurologic examination immediately before and after MR imaging. All five patients completed the study without change in their neurologic examination and with activation seen in eight of nine electrodes stimulated. Activation was seen in the ipsilateral basal ganglia in all subjects and ipsilateral thalamus in six of the electrodes tested. Two of the electrode stimulations demonstrated additional activation in the STN and/or substantia nigra region adjacent to the electrode tip. For three electrode stimulations, activation was seen in the contralateral superior cerebellum. Therapeutically effective DBS of STN can be performed safely during functional MR imaging at 3 T and produces a consistent pattern of ipsilateral activation of deep brain motor structures.

Local Morphology Predicts Functional Organization of the Dorsal Premotor Region in the Human Brain

A confusing picture of the functional organization of the dorsal premotor region of the human brain emerged when functional neuroimaging studies that either examined visuomotor hand conditional activity or attempted to localize the human frontal eye field reported activity increases at the same general location, namely the junction of the superior precentral sulcus with the superior frontal sulcus. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined visuomotor hand conditional activity and the locus of the frontal eye field as defined by a standard task, on a subject-by-subject basis, to clarify their location and reveal relationships between the pattern of local morphology and functional activity. The results demonstrate that visuomotor hand conditional activity and the frontal eye field lie within distinct parts of the superior precentral sulcus, revealing an organization of the human premotor cortex consistent with that observed in experimental studies in the monkey.

Improvement-related functional plasticity following pitch memory training

Functional activation patterns of an auditory working memory task were examined prior to and after 5 days of training (1 h/day). A control group with no training was scanned twice at the same intervals to assess test–retest effects. Based on behavioral improvement scores, the training group ( n = 14) was divided into “Strong-Learners (SL)” and “Weak-Learners (WL)”. No significant functional or structural brain differences were seen between the SL and WL groups prior to training. Imaging contrasts comparing post- with pre-training sessions showed a significant signal increase in the left Heschl's gyrus (HG) as well as in the left posterior superior temporal and supramarginal gyrus for the SL group, while the WL group showed significant signal increases in the left HG and anterior insular cortex as well as in a lingual–orbitofrontal–parahippocampal network. The test–retest analysis in the control group revealed only minimal signal increases in a right dorsolateral prefrontal region. A random effects analysis comparing the SL group with the WL group using the post- and pre-training contrast images showed increased activation only in the left supramarginal gyrus but not in HG. The importance of HG in pitch discrimination has been established in previous studies. The pitch memory component differentiated our task from a straight pitch discrimination task. It is most likely that the activation of the SMG reflects its importance in the short-term storage of auditory material, and it was this activation that best differentiated between subjects' levels of performance.