These findings imply that the DLPFC is a key node that supports working memory. studied patients with damage in the DLPFC and observed a deficit in the manipulation of verbal and spatial information. To further determine the functional importance of the DLPFC in working memory, Barbey et al. identified the key role of the DLPFC in coordinating two concurrent tasks. By examining the activation of the human prefrontal cortex as verbal and spatial working memory tasks were performed simultaneously, D’ Esposito et al. used a spatial working memory task to explore the prefrontal cortex of monkeys and the result of single-unit recording showed that the DLPFC controlled information maintenance. With respect to the central executive function, accumulating evidence showed that the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) played a crucial role in a variety of executive control processes. It was suggested that the phonological loop primarily recruited regions in the left hemisphere, including the temporoparietal region and Broca’s area the visuospatial sketch pad predominately engaged regions in the right hemisphere, including the frontoparietal cortex and the occipital cortex and the central executive function was mainly mediated by the prefrontal cortex. The functional brain anatomy underlying the three systems was explored by neuroimaging studies. Among the three systems, the central executive system controls attention and information flows to and from the phonological loop and visuospatial sketch pad, which separately buffer the verbal-acoustic and visual material. According to a multi-component model proposed by Baddeley and Hitch, working memory could be divided into an attention control system, the central executive, and two modality-based temporary storage systems, the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad. Working memory involves the temporary storage and manipulation of information that is assumed to be necessary for a wide range of complex cognitive activities such as reasoning, comprehension and learning. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.įunding: This work was supported by the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 60931003), the Funds for International Cooperation and Exchange of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 61210001), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 61071178). Received: Accepted: JPublished: August 27, 2013Ĭopyright: © 2013 Zhang et al. PLoS ONE 8(8):Įditor: Michelle Hampson, Yale University, United States of America These findings provide preliminary evidence that working memory performance can be improved through learned regulation of activation in associated brain regions using rtfMRI.Ĭitation: Zhang G, Yao L, Zhang H, Long Z, Zhao X (2013) Improved Working Memory Performance through Self-Regulation of Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex Activation Using Real-Time fMRI. Between-group comparison of behavioral changes showed that the increase of digit span in the experimental group was significantly greater than that in the control group. Pre- and post-training behavioral tests indicated that performance of the digit span and letter memory task was significantly improved in the experimental group. After two rtfMRI training sessions, activation in the left DLPFC was significantly increased, whereas the control group that received sham feedback did not show any increase in DLPFC activation. In the present study, we employed the rtfMRI technique to train subjects to up-regulate the activation in the left DLPFC, which is linked to verbal working memory. The recently emerged real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) technique enables the individuals to acquire self-control of localized brain activation, potentially inducing desirable behavioral changes. However, it is unclear whether the activation in the DLPFC can be self-regulated and whether any self-regulation can affect working memory behavior. Previous studies have shown that the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a critical role in working memory and that behavioral training of working memory can alter the activity of DLPFC. Working memory is important for a wide range of high-level cognitive activities.
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