"Working Memory Training Restores Aberrant Brain Activity in Adult Attention‐Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder"

Associate Professor Susanne Jaeggi (right) published with colleagues from Finland in Human Brain Mapping on brain activity associated with working memory (WM) training in adults with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder. The title of the article is “Working Memory Training Restores Aberrant Brain Activity in Adult Attention‐Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.”

Co-authors are Juha Salmi (Aalto University, Espoo, Finland); Anna Soveri (University of Turku, Finland); Viljami Salmela (University of Helsinki);  Kimmo Alho (University of Helsinki); Sami Leppämäki (Helsinki University Hospital);  Pekka Tani (Helsinki University Hospital); Anniina Koski (Helsinki University Hospital); and Matti Laine (Åbo Akademi University).

​Jaeggi researches training and transfer, individual differences in working memory capacity and executive control, as well as the nature of working memory limitations across the lifespan. She directs UCI's Working Memory and Plasticity (WMP) Lab. Jaeggi is a fellow of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Cognitive Sciences in UCI's School of Social Sciences.

Abstract
​
The development of treatments for attention impairments is hampered by limited knowledge about the malleability of underlying neural functions. We conducted the first randomized controlled trial to determine the modulations of brain activity associated with working memory (WM) training in adults with attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). At baseline, we assessed the aberrant functional brain activity in the n‐back WM task by comparing 44 adults with ADHD with 18 healthy controls using fMRI. Participants with ADHD were then randomized to train on an adaptive dual n‐back task or an active control task. We tested whether WM training elicits redistribution of brain activity as observed in healthy controls, and whether it might further restore aberrant activity related to ADHD. As expected, activity in areas of the default‐mode (DMN), salience (SN), sensory‐motor (SMN), frontoparietal (FPN), and subcortical (SCN) networks was decreased in participants with ADHD at pretest as compared with healthy controls, especially when the cognitive load was high. WM training modulated widespread FPN and SN areas, restoring some of the aberrant activity. Training effects were mainly observed as decreased brain activity during the trained task and increased activity during the untrained task, suggesting different neural mechanisms for trained and transfer tasks.