title: Increased parietal activity after training of interference control.
abstract: Recent studies suggest that computerized cognitive training leads to improved performance in related but untrained tasks (i.e. transfer effects). However, most study designs prevent disentangling which of the task components are necessary for transfer. In the current study, we examined whether training on two variants of the adaptive dual n-back task would affect untrained task performance and the corresponding electrophysiological event-related potentials (ERPs). Forty three healthy young adults were trained for three weeks with a high or low interference training variant of the dual n-back task, or they were assigned to a passive control group. While n-back training with high interference led to partial improvements in the Attention Network Test (ANT), we did not find transfer to measures of working memory and fluid intelligence. ERP analysis in the n-back task and the ANT indicated overlapping processes in the P3 time range. Moreover, in the ANT, we detected increased parietal activity for the interference training group alone. In contrast, we did not find electrophysiological differences between the low interference training and the control group. These findings suggest that training on an interference control task leads to higher electrophysiological activity in the parietal cortex, which may be related to improvements in processing speed, attentional control, or both.
authors: Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: stephan.oelhafen@psy.unibe.ch.
authors: Stephan
authors: S
authors: Oelhafen
authors: Aki
authors: A
authors: Nikolaidis
authors: Tullia
authors: T
authors: Padovani
authors: Daniela
authors: D
authors: Blaser
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Koenig
authors: Walter J
authors: WJ
authors: Perrig
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognitive training; Electrical neuroimaging; Event-related potential (ERP); Interference control; Parietal cortex; n-back