CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 78Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and ApplicationsCognitive Abilities and TestingNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Dynamics of White Matter Plasticity Underlying Working Memory Training: Multimodal Evidence from Diffusion MRI and Relaxometry

Open access
Metzler-Baddeley, Claudia, Foley, Sonya, de Santis, Silvia, Charron, Cyril, Hampshire, Adam, Caeyenberghs, Karen, Jones, Derek K.·2017·Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
DOI 10.1162/jocn_a_01127PMC PMC5881889
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Adaptive working memory (WM) training may lead to cognitive benefits that are associated with white matter plasticity in parietofrontal networks, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. We investigated white matter microstructural changes after adaptive WM training relative to a nonadaptive comparison group. Microstructural changes were studied in the superior longitudinal fasciculus, the main parietofrontal connection, and the cingulum bundle as a comparison pathway. MRI-based metrics were the myelin water fraction and longitudinal relaxation rate R1 from multicomponent relaxometry (captured with the mcDESPOT approach) as proxy metrics of myelin, the restricted volume fraction from the composite hindered and restricted model of diffusion as an estimate of axon morphology, and fractional anisotropy and radial diffusivity from diffusion tensor imaging. PCA was used for dimensionality reduction. Adaptive training was associated with benefits in a “WM capacity” component and increases in a microstructural component (increases in R1, restricted volume fraction, fractional anisotropy, and reduced radial diffusivity) that predominantly loaded on changes in the right dorsolateral superior longitudinal fasciculus and the left parahippocampal cingulum. In contrast, nonadaptive comparison activities were associated with the opposite pattern of reductions in WM capacity and microstructure. No group differences were observed for the myelin water fraction metric suggesting that R1 was a more sensitive “myelin” index. These results demonstrate task complexity and location-specific white matter microstructural changes that are consistent with tissue alterations underlying myelination in response to training.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1162/jocn_a_01127

Cites

12 of 12 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Experience can alter white matter microstructure.

    “Indeed, the growing realisation that experience can alter white matter microstructure (Metzler-Baddeley et al., 2017; (McKenzie et al., 2014) Zatorre et al., 2012) highlights the problems of separating cause from effect.”

    From The cingulum bundle: Anatomy, function, and dysfunction (2018) · cites this paper as Metzler-Baddeley et al., 2017

  • Two months of working memory training can cause dMRI changes in healthy young adults, including within the left parahippocampal cingulum.

    “It has, for example, been shown that two months of working memory training can cause dMRI changes in healthy young adults, including within the left parahippocampal cingulum (Caeyenberghs et al., 2016; Metzler-Baddeley et al., 2017).”

    From The cingulum bundle: Anatomy, function, and dysfunction (2018) · cites this paper as Metzler-Baddeley et al., 2017

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 61

  1. Alexander AL Hurley SA Samsonov AA Adluru N Hosseinbor AP Mossahebi P Characterization of cerebral white matter properties using quantitative magnetic resonance imaging stains Brain Connectivity 2011 1 423 446 22432902 PMC3360545
  2. Assaf Y Basser PJ Composite hindered and restricted model of diffusion (CHARMED) MR imaging of the human brain Neuroimage 2005 27 48 58 15979342
  3. Assaf Y Freidlin RZ Rohde GK Basser PJ New modeling and experimental framework to characterize hindered and restricted water diffusion in brain white matter Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2004 52 965 978 15508168
  4. Baddeley AD Hitch GJ Working memory Bower G Recent Advances in Learning and Motivation New York Academic Press 1974 VIII 47 90
  5. Barkhof F van Walderveen M Characterization of tissue damage in multiple sclerosis by nuclear magnetic resonance Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences 1999 354 1675 1686 10603619 PMC1692677
  6. Ben-Amitay S Jones DK Assaf Y Motion correction and registration of high b-value diffusion weighted images Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2012 67 1694 1702 22183784
  7. Caeyenberghs K Metzler-Baddeley C Foley S Jones DK Dynamics of the human structural connectome underlying working memory training Journal of Neuroscience 2016 36 4056 4066 27053212 PMC4821915
  8. Cogmed Working Memory Training Pearson Education www.cogmed.com 2012
  9. Corbett A Owen A Hampshire A Grahn J Stenton R Dajani S The effect of an online cognitive training package in healthy older adults: An online randomized controlled trial Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 2015 16 990 997 26543007
  10. De Santis S Drakesmith M Bells S Assaf Y Jones DK Why diffusion tensor MRI does well only some of the time: Variance and covariance of white matter tissue microstructure attributes in the living human brain Neuroimage 2014 89 35 44 24342225 PMC3988851
  11. de Winter JC Dodou D Wieringa PA Exploratory factor analysis with small sample sizes Multivariate Behavioral Research 2009 44 147 181 26754265
  12. Dell’acqua F Scifo P Rizzo G Catani M Simmons A Scotti G A modified damped Richardson-Lucy algorithm to reduce isotropic background effects in spherical deconvolution Neuroimage 2010 49 1446 1458 19781650
  13. Deoni SC Correction of main and transmit magnetic field (B0 and B1) inhomogeneity effects in multicomponent-driven equilibrium single-pulse observation of T1 and T2 Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2011a 65 1021 1035 21413066 PMC3777237
  14. Deoni SC Magnetic resonance relaxation and quantitative measurement in the brain Methods in Molecular Biology 2011b 711 65 108 21279598
  15. Deoni SC Kolind SH Investigating the stability of mcDESPOT myelin water fraction values derived using a stochastic region contraction approach Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2015 73 161 169 24464472 PMC8487011
  16. Deoni SC Matthews L Kolind SH One component? Two components? Three? The effect of including a nonexchanging “free” water component in multicomponent driven equilibrium single pulse observation of T1 and T2 Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2013 70 147 154 22915316 PMC3711852
  17. Deoni SC Rutt BK Arun T Pierpaoli C Jones DK Gleaning multicomponent T1 and T2 information from steady-state imaging data Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2008 60 1372 1387 19025904
  18. Deoni SC Rutt BK Jones DK Investigating exchange and multicomponent relaxation in fully-balanced steady-state free precession imaging Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging 2008 27 1421 1429 18504765
  19. Dosenbach NU Fair DA Cohen AL Schlaggar BL Petersen SE A dual-networks architecture of top–down control Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2008 12 99 105 18262825 PMC3632449
  20. Fields RD Change in the brain’s white matter Science 2010 330 768 769 21051624 PMC3201847
  21. Fields RD Araque A Johansen-Berg H Lim SS Lynch G Nave KA Glial biology in learning and cognition Neuroscientist 2014 20 426 431 24122821 PMC4161624
  22. Gajewski PD Wild-Wall N Schapkin SA Erdmann U Freude G Falkenstein M Effects of aging and job demands on cognitive flexibility assessed by task switching Biological Psychology 2010 85 187 199 20599468
  23. Gibson EM Purger D Mount CW Goldstein AK Lin GL Wood LS Neuronal activity promotes oligodendrogenesis and adaptive myelination in the mammalian brain Science 2014 344 1252304 24727982 PMC4096908
  24. Hampshire A Highfield RR Parkin BL Owen AM Fractionating human intelligence Neuron 2012 76 1225 1237 23259956
  25. Irfanoglu MO Walker L Sarlls J Marenco S Pierpaoli C Effects of image distortions originating from susceptibility variations and concomitant fields on diffusion MRI tractography results Neuroimage 2012 61 275 288 22401760 PMC3653420
  26. Jeurissen B Leemans A Jones DK Tournier JD Sijbers J Probabilistic fiber tracking using the residual bootstrap with constrained spherical deconvolution Human Brain Mapping 2011 32 461 479 21319270 PMC6869960
  27. Jolles DD van Buchem MA Crone EA Rombouts SA Functional brain connectivity at rest changes after working memory training Human Brain Mapping 2013 34 396 406 22076823 PMC6870317
  28. Jones DK Christiansen KF Chapman RJ Aggleton JP Distinct subdivisions of the cingulum bundle revealed by diffusion MRI fibre tracking: Implications for neuropsychological investigations Neuropsychologia 2013 51 67 78 23178227 PMC3611599
  29. Jones DK Horsfield MA Simmons A Optimal strategies for measuring diffusion in anisotropic systems by magnetic resonance imaging Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 1999 42 515 525 10467296
  30. Klein S Staring M Murphy K Viergever MA Pluim JP elastix: A toolbox for intensity-based medical image registration IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging 2010 29 196 205 19923044
  31. Lankford C Does M On the inherent precision of mcDESPOT [electronic version] Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2013 69 127 136 22411784 PMC3449046
  32. Laughlin SB Sejnowski TJ Communication in neuronal networks Science 2003 301 1870 1874 14512617 PMC2930149
  33. Leemans A Jones DK The B-matrix must be rotated when correcting for subject motion in DTI data Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2009 61 1336 1349 19319973
  34. Lövdén M Bodammer NC Kühn S Kaufmann J Schütze H Tempelmann C Experience-dependent plasticity of white-matter microstructure extends into old age Neuropsychologia 2010 48 3878 3883 20816877
  35. Makris N Kennedy DN McInerney S Sorensen AG Wang R Caviness VS Segmentation of subcomponents within the superior longitudinal fascicle in humans: A quantitative, in vivo, DT-MRI study Cerebral Cortex 2005 15 854 869 15590909
  36. McNab F Varrone A Farde L Jucaite A Bystritsky P Forssberg H Changes in cortical dopamine D1 receptor binding associated with cognitive training Science 2009 323 800 802 19197069
  37. Melby-Lervag M Hulme C There is no convincing evidence that working memory training is effective: A reply to Au et al. (2014) and Karbach and Verhaegen (2014) Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2016 23 324 330 26082279
  38. Metzler-Baddeley C Caeyenberghs K Foley S Jones DK Task complexity and location specific changes of cortical thickness in executive and salience networks after working memory training Neuroimage 2016 130 48 62 26806288 PMC4819728
  39. Morrison AB Chein JM Does working memory training work? The promise and challenges of enhancing cognition by training working memory Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 2011 18 46 60 21327348
  40. Mufson EJ Mesulam MM Insula of the old world monkey. II: Afferent cortical input and comments on the claustrum Journal of Comparative Neurology 1982 212 23 37 7174906
  41. Olesen PJ Westerberg H Klingberg T Increased prefrontal and parietal activity after training of working memory Nature Neuroscience 2004 7 75 79 14699419
  42. Pasternak O Sochen N Gur Y Intrator N Assaf Y Free water elimination and mapping from diffusion MRI Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2009 62 717 730 19623619
  43. Penke L Muñoz Maniega S Murray C Gow AJ Hernández MC Clayden JD A general factor of brain white matter integrity predicts information processing speed in healthy older people Journal of Neuroscience 2010 30 7569 7574 20519531 PMC6632368
  44. Pierpaoli C Basser PJ Toward a quantitative assessment of diffusion anisotropy Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 1996 36 893 906 8946355
  45. Preacher KJ MacCallum RC Exploratory factor analysis in behavior genetics research: Factor recovery with small sample sizes Behavior Genetics 2002 32 153 161 12036113
  46. Rizzolatti G Matelli M Two different streams form the dorsal visual system: Anatomy and functions Experimental Brain Research 2003 153 146 157 14610633
  47. Rose NS Olsen RK Craik FI Rosenbaum RS Working memory and amnesia: The role of stimulus novelty Neuropsychologia 2012 50 11 18 22044651
  48. Sampaio-Baptista C Khrapitchev AA Foxley S Schlagheck T Scholz J Jbabdi S Motor skill learning induces changes in white matter microstructure and myelination Journal of Neuroscience 2013 33 19499 19503 24336716 PMC3858622
  49. Scholz J Klein MC Behrens TE Johansen-Berg H Training induces changes in white-matter architecture Nature Neuroscience 2009 12 1370 1371 19820707 PMC2770457
  50. Shipstead Z Redick TS Engle RW Is working memory training effective? Psychological Bulletin 2012 138 628 654 22409508
  51. Smith SM De Stefano N Jenkinson M Matthews PM Normalized accurate measurement of longitudinal brain change Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography 2001 25 466 475 11351200
  52. Song SK Yoshino J Le TQ Lin SJ Sun SW Cross AH Demyelination increases radial diffusivity in corpus callosum of mouse brain Neuroimage 2005 26 132 140 15862213
  53. Suo C León I Brodaty H Trollor J Wen W Sachdev P Supervisory experience at work is linked to low rate of hippocampal atrophy in late life Neuroimage 2012 63 1542 1551 22902920
  54. Takeuchi H Taki Y Kawashima R Effects of working memory training on cognitive functions and neural systems Reviews in the Neurosciences 2010 21 427 449 21438192
  55. Takeuchi H Taki Y Sassa Y Hashizume H Sekiguchi A Fukushima A Working memory training using mental calculation impacts regional gray matter of the frontal and parietal regions PLoS One 2011 6 e23175 21886781 PMC3160301
  56. Tavor I Hofstetter S Assaf Y Micro-structural assessment of short term plasticity dynamics Neuroimage 2013 81 1 7 23702416
  57. Testa R Bennett P Ponsford J Factor analysis of nineteen executive function tests in a healthy adult population Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 2012 27 213 224 22314610
  58. Thomas C Baker CI Teaching and adult brain new tricks: A critical review of evidence for training-dependent structural plasticity in humans Neuroimage 2013 73 225 236 22484409
  59. Unsworth N Heitz RP Schrock JC Engle RW An automated version of the operation span task Behavior Research Methods 2005 37 498 505 16405146
  60. Valkanova V Rodriguez RE Ebmeier KP Mind over matter—What do we know about neuroplasticity in adults? International Psychgeriatrics 2013 26 891 909 24382194
  61. Zatorre RJ Fields RD Johansen-Berg H Plasticity in gray and white: Neuroimaging changes in brain structure during learning Nature Neuroscience 2012 15 528 536 22426254 PMC3660656

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Metzler-Baddeley, C., Foley, S., de Santis, S., Charron, C., Hampshire, A., Caeyenberghs, K., & Jones, D. K.
Affiliations
  • Cardiff University, Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC)
  • Cardiff University (GB)
  • University Miguel Hernandez, Alicante, Spain
  • Imperial College London (GB)
  • Australian Catholic University (AU)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher
MIT Press - Journals
Published
2017-09-01
Volume
29
Issue
9
Pages
1509-1520
ISSN
  • 0898-929X (ISSN-L)
  • 1530-8898
DOI
10.1162/jocn_a_01127
PMC
PMC5881889
OpenAlex
W2598782798
Cited by
78
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3
FWCI
6.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
  • Research Bank (Australian Catholic University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Deakin Research Online (Deakin University) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Wellcome Trust (096646, 096646/Z/11/Z)
  • Cardiff University
  • School of Psychology, Cardiff University
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
working memory training, white matter plasticity, superior longitudinal fasciculus, cingulum, myelin, longitudinal relaxation rate, fractional anisotropy, radial diffusivity, myelination, diffusion MRI, relaxometry, task complexity
MeSH terms
Adult, Brain, Cognition, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Learning, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Neuropsychological Tests, Verbal Learning, Anisotropy, Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Young Adult, White Matter

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review