Neural correlates of working memory training: Evidence for plasticity in older adults.

ABSTRACT: Brain activity typically increases with increasing working memory (WM) load, regardless of age, before reaching an apparent ceiling. However, older adults exhibit greater brain activity and reach ceiling at lower loads than younger adults, possibly reflecting compensation at lower loads and dysfunction at higher loads. We hypothesized that WM training would bolster neural efficiency, such that the activation peak would shift towards higher memory loads after training. Pre-training, older adults showed greater recruitment of the WM network than younger adults across all loads, with decline at the highest load. Ten days of adaptive training on a verbal WM task improved performance and led to greater brain responsiveness at higher loads for both groups. For older adults the activation peak sh

SUBMITTER: Iordan AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7755422 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature