Training working memory in childhood enhances coupling between fronto-parietal control network and task-related regions

Working-memory is a capacity upon which many everyday tasks depend, and which constrains a child’s educational progress. We show that a child’s working-memory can be significantly enhanced by intensive computer-based training, relative to a placebo control intervention, in terms of both standardised assessments of working-memory and performance on a working-memory task performed in a magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner. Neurophysiologically, we identified significantly increased cross-frequency phase-amplitude coupling in children who completed training. Following training, the coupling between the upper alpha rhythm (at 16 Hz), recorded in superior frontal and parietal cortex, became significantly coupled with high gamma activity (at ~ 90 Hz) in inferior temporal cortex. This altered neural network activity associated with cognitive skill enhancement is consistent with a framework in which slower cortical rhythms enable the dynamic regulation of higher frequency oscillatory activity related to task-related cognitive processes

Training working memory in childhood enhances coupling between fronto-parietal control network and task-related regions

Working-memory is a capacity upon which many everyday tasks depend, and which constrains a child’s educational progress. We show that a child’s working-memory can be significantly enhanced by intensive computer-based training, relative to a placebo control intervention, in terms of both standardised assessments of working-memory and performance on a working-memory task performed in a magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner. Neurophysiologically, we identified significantly increased cross-frequency phase-amplitude coupling in children who completed training. Following training, the coupling between the upper alpha rhythm (at 16 Hz), recorded in superior frontal and parietal cortex, became significantly coupled with high gamma activity (at ~ 90 Hz) in inferior temporal cortex. This altered neural network activity associated with cognitive skill enhancement is consistent with a framework in which slower cortical rhythms enable the dynamic regulation of higher frequency oscillatory activity related to task-related cognitive processes