Brain activations related to attention and working memory and their association with technology-mediated activities

Executive functions are pivotal in our everyday lives, as they form the basis for complex and goal-directed behavior. For example, the ability to maintain information in memory while making a decision requires executive processes. Whether or not executive functions can exhibit experience-dependent changes is still a topic of debate, but generally accepted principles of brain plasticity suggest that environmental factors can have an impact on cognitive processes and the activity and structure of their respective brain networks. One such environmental factor is the increasingly ubiquitous daily interaction with technology, which has been suggested to affect mental faculties such as the ability to maintain focus on a single task or to actively maintain information in short-term memory. The aim of the present thesis was to study activity in cortical networks of attention and working memory. In addition, we investigated whether any associations could be found between the recruitment of these networks or performance speed and accuracy in working memory and attention tasks, and the extent of daily technology-mediated activities reported by adolescent and young adult participants. In all studies, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to record brain activity during task performance. By using novel experimental paradigms, the present results shed more light on the specific cortical networks recruited by different executive functions by showing that both common and specific brain regions are recruited by auditory and visual selective attention, divided attention and working memory processes. Furthermore, they demonstrate that during division of attention between two concurrent tasks (listening to speech and reading text), competition for neural resources in regions shared by the component tasks is a major contributor to performance limitations observed during multitasking. Importantly, the results of the present thesis also demonstrate that detectable associations exist between different types of daily technology use and cognitive functioning already in adolescence. More specifically, the results demonstrate that a tendency to use several media simultaneously (i.e., media multitasking) is related to increased distractibility. The extent of computer gaming in daily life, in turn, is associated with enhanced working memory functioning. These findings are of great importance, since it is vital to understand how the increasing amount of on-screen time might affect or interact with the cognitive and brain functioning of the current youth.Toiminnanohjaus käsittää joukon toimintoja, jotka mahdollistavat tavoitteellinen ja monimutkaisen toiminnan jokapäiväisissä tilanteissa. Esimerkki toiminnanohjauksesta on kyky ylläpitää tietoa muistissa samalla kun tekee päätöksen. On edelleen epäselvää, kuinka suuri vaikutus kokemuksella voi olla toiminnanohjaukseen lukeutuviin toimintoihin, mutta yleisesti hyväksytyt aivojen muovautuvuuteen liittyvät periaatteet antavat syyn olettaa, että ympäristötekijöiden on mahdollista vaikuttaa kognitiiviseen suoriutumiseen ja niihin liittyviin aivoverkostoihin. Jatkuvasti lisääntyvä teknologian parissa vietetty aika on yksi niistä ympäristötekijöistä, joiden on ehdotettu vaikuttavan kognitiivisiin toimintoihin kuten kykyyn keskittyä yhteen tehtävään samanaikaisesti, tai kykyyn ylläpitää tietoa lyhytkestoisessa muistissa. Tässä esitellyn väitöskirjatyön tavoite oli tutkia tarkkaavaisuuteen ja työmuistiin liittyviä aivoverkostoja. Lisäksi selvitettiin sitä, onko näiden aivoverkostojen toiminnalla ja tarkkaavaisuus- ja työmuistitehtävissä suoriutumisella yhteyksiä nuorten ja nuorten aikuisten itseraportoituihin teknologiankäyttötapoihin. Kaikissa väitöskirjan osatutkimuksissa käytettiin toiminnallista magneettiresonanssikuvantamista (fMRI) mittaamaan aivojen aktivoitumista tehtäväsuorituksen aikana. Käyttämällä uusia ja innovatiivisia koeasetelmia, tutkimuksemme tulokset tuottivat lisää tietoa eri toiminnanohjaukseen liittyvien toimintojen aktivoimista aivoverkostoista näyttämällä, että valikoiva tarkkaavaisuus, jaettu tarkkaavaisuus ja työmuistiprosessit aktivoivat sekä yhteisiä että erillisiä aivoalueita. Lisäksi tuloksemme osoittivat, että jaettaessa tarkkaavaisuutta kahden samanaikaisen tehtävän kesken, kilpailu hermostollisista resursseista näiden kahden samaa aivoaluetta kuormittavan tehtävän välillä vaikuttaa oleellisesti ihmisen rajalliseen monisuorittamiskykyyn. Tuloksemme osoittavat myös, että päivittäisten teknologian käyttötapojen ja kognitiivisen suoriutumisen välillä on havaittavia yhteyksiä jo nuoruusiässä. Taipumus käyttää montaa mediaa samanaikaisesti (nk. media multitasking) oli yhteydessä suurempaan häiriintyvyyteen, kun taas tietokonepelien pelaaminen oli yhteydessä parempaan työmuistisuoriutumiseen. Nämä tulokset ovat erittäin merkityksellisiä, sillä on tärkeää ymmärtää, minkälaisia mahdollisia vaikutuksia nuorten alati kasvavalla ruutuajalla on heidän kognitiivisiin toimintoihinsa ja aivojen toimintaan

Effects of Media Multitasking and Video Gaming on Cognitive Functions and Their Neural Bases in Adolescents and Young Adults

The increasing use of digital technology among adolescents and young adults has led to concerns about possible detrimental effects on cognitive and brain functions. Indeed, as reviewed here, according to behavioral and brain-imaging studies, excessive media multitasking (i.e., using different digital media in parallel) may lead to enhanced distractibility and problems in maintaining attention. However, frequent video gaming may be beneficial for the development of working memory, task switching, and attention skills. All these cognitive skills depend on executive cognitive functions. Stitt scant but gradually cumulating brain-imaging results suggest that the negative effects of frequent media multitasking and the positive effects of frequent video gaming on cognitive skills in adolescents and young adults are mediated by effects on the frontal lobes, implicated in executive cognitive functions and still developing even through early adulthood.Peer reviewe

Modulation of brain activity by selective attention to audiovisual dialogues

In real-life noisy situations, we can selectively attend to conversations in the presence of irrelevant voices, but neurocognitive mechanisms in such natural listening situations remain largely unexplored. Previous research has shown distributed activity in the mid superior temporal gyrus (STG) and sulcus (STS) while listening to speech and human voices, in the posterior STS and fusiform gyrus when combining auditory, visual and linguistic information, as well as in left-hemisphere temporal and frontal cortical areas during comprehension. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we investigated how selective attention modulates neural responses to naturalistic audiovisual dialogues. Our healthy adult participants (N = 15) selectively attended to video-taped dialogues between a man and woman in the presence of irrelevant continuous speech in the background. We modulated the auditory quality of dialogues with noise vocoding and their visual quality by masking speech-related facial movements. Both increased auditory quality and increased visual quality were associated with bilateral activity enhancements in the STG/STS. In addition, decreased audiovisual stimulus quality elicited enhanced fronto-parietal activity, presumably reflecting increased attentional demands. Finally, attention to the dialogues, in relation to a control task where a fixation cross was attended and the dialogue ignored, yielded enhanced activity in the left planum polare, angular gyrus, the right temporal pole, as well as in the orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate gyrus. Our findings suggest that naturalistic conversations effectively engage participants and reveal brain networks related to social perception in addition to speech and semantic processing networks.Peer reviewe

Brain Responses to Peer Feedback in Social Media Are Modulated by Valence in Late Adolescence

Previous studies have examined the neural correlates of receiving negative feedback from peers during virtual social interaction in young people. However, there is a lack of studies applying platforms adolescents use in daily life. In the present study, 92 late-adolescent participants performed a task that involved receiving positive and negative feedback to their opinions from peers in a Facebook-like platform, while brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Peer feedback was shown to activate clusters in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), superior temporal gyrus and sulcus (STG/STS), and occipital cortex (OC). Negative feedback was related to greater activity in the VLPFC, MPFC, and anterior insula than positive feedback, replicating previous findings on peer feedback and social rejection. Real-life habits of social media use did not correlate with brain responses to negative feedback.Peer reviewe

Eye movement related brain responses to emotional scenes during free viewing

Emotional stimuli are preferentially processed over neutral stimuli. Previous studies, however, disagree on whether emotional stimuli capture attention preattentively or whether the processing advantage is dependent on allocation of attention. The present study investigated attention and emotion processes by measuring brain responses related to eye movement events while 11 participants viewed images selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Brain responses to emotional stimuli were compared between serial and parallel presentation. An “emotional” set included one image with high positive or negative valence among neutral images. A “neutral” set comprised four neutral images. The participants were asked to indicate which picture—if any—was emotional and to rate that picture on valence and arousal. In the serial condition, the event-related potentials (ERPs) were time-locked to the stimulus onset. In the parallel condition, the ERPs were time-locked to the first eye entry on an image. The eye movement results showed facilitated processing of emotional, especially unpleasant information. The EEG results in both presentation conditions showed that the LPP (“late positive potential”) amplitudes at 400–500 ms were enlarged for the unpleasant and pleasant pictures as compared to neutral pictures. Moreover, the unpleasant scenes elicited stronger responses than pleasant scenes. The ERP results did not support parafoveal emotional processing, although the eye movement results suggested faster attention capture by emotional stimuli. Our findings, thus, suggested that emotional processing depends on overt attentional resources engaged in the processing of emotional content. The results also indicate that brain responses to emotional images can be analyzed time-locked to eye movement events, although the response amplitudes were larger during serial presentation.Peer reviewe

Gaming is related to enhanced working memory performance and task-related cortical activity

Peer reviewe

Brain activity during divided and selective attention to auditory and visual sentence comprehension tasks

Peer reviewe

Brain Responses to Peer Feedback in Social Media Are Modulated by Valence in Late Adolescence

Previous studies have examined the neural correlates of receiving negative feedback from peers during virtual social interaction in young people. However, there is a lack of studies applying platforms adolescents use in daily life. In the present study, 92 late-adolescent participants performed a task that involved receiving positive and negative feedback to their opinions from peers in a Facebook-like platform, while brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Peer feedback was shown to activate clusters in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), superior temporal gyrus and sulcus (STG/STS), and occipital cortex (OC). Negative feedback was related to greater activity in the VLPFC, MPFC, and anterior insula than positive feedback, replicating previous findings on peer feedback and social rejection. Real-life habits of social media use did not correlate with brain responses to negative feedback

Brain responses to peer feedback in social media are modulated by valence and personality dimensions in late adolescence

Previous studies have examined the neural correlates of receiving negative feedback from peers during virtual social interaction in young people. However, there is a lack of studies using platforms adolescents use in daily life. In the present study, 92 participants ages 17 to 20 performed a task that involved receiving positive and negative feedback from peers in a Facebook-like platform, while brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We also studied the effects of real-life habits of social media use on neural sensitivity to negative feedback. Peer feedback was shown to activate clusters in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), superior temporal gyrus and sulcus (STG/STS), and occipital cortex (OC). Negative feedback was related to greater activity in the VLPFC, MPFC, and anterior insula than positive feedback, replicating previous findings on peer feedback and social rejection. Habits of social media use did not correlate with brain responses to negative feedback