title: Plasticity of cortical activation related to working memory during training.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although it is well established that cerebral activation increases with higher task load, the potential effects of training have been investigated over brief periods only. Training is of potential clinical relevance since training programs are an essential part of psychiatric therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cerebral activation during a visual spatial working memory task was examined before, during, and after 4 weeks of daily training in nine healthy subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All subjects showed a pronounced activation mainly involving the right inferior frontal gyrus and the right intraparietal sulcus. While the respective regions showed activation increases with improved performance after 2 weeks of training, the activation values decreased at the time of consolidation of performance gains after 4 weeks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that training-related cerebral activation changes follow an inverse U-shaped quadratic function and raise the prospect of investigating cerebral mechanisms underlying training effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Albrecht
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hempel
authors.forename: Frederik L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Giesel
authors.forename: Nohazarahit M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Garcia Caraballo
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amann
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wüstenberg
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Essig
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schröder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply*; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*