Cognitive Intervention

: Cognitive Intervention in Adolescents

 

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As students in the world pursue a higher degree of education, the ability to suppress habitual or irrelevant behaviors while promoting goal-directed behaviors becomes more important for adolescents. Moreover, the development of cognitive control capacity continues until late adolescence or early adulthood (Casey et al., 2000; Crone and Steinbeis, 2017; Diamond, 2002; Luna, 2009). In this context, the MTCC (Kim, Chey, & Lee, 2017) needed to be modified for young adolescents (Lee, Kwak, & Chey, 2019). Participants were trained for 30 minutes for five days a week. Cognitive assessment and MRI acquisition were administered before and after the training to investigate the effects of training. This study included an active control group to identify the training effect by group comparison and control for the placebo effect. After the training, significant improvement was observed in visuospatial intelligence, and cortical volume in the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) increased as well. Particularly, this increased volume of the rIFC was correlated with better performance in the inhibitory control process (Lee, Kwak, & Chey, 2019).

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After training, the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC) volume increased in the training group (left) and change in Stroop test performance was positively correlated with change in the volume of the rIFC (right).

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Furthermore, we examined how brain networks of participants in the training group changed using graph theory. Graph theory analysis was applied because cognitive control depends on an interplay among large-scale brain networks. After training, the degree of the cingulo-opercular network (CON) was significantly increased in the training group compared to the control group. More specifically, there was a strong trend toward an increase in between-CON degree in the training group compared to the control group, whereas there was no significant difference between the two groups in within-CON degree. The change in between-CON degree was positively correlated with the improvement in Block Design test (K-WAIS-IV) in both groups combined as well as in the training group alone (Lee, Kwak, Lee, & Chey, under review).

 

 

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Figure: ROIs in the CON which showed increases in degree after training. CON: cingulo-opercular network, aI/fO: Anterior insula/frontal operculum, IPS: Intraparietal sulcus, latP: Lateral parietal, IPL: Inferior parietal lobule, frontal: Frontal, sup frontal: Superior frontal cortex, dlPFC: Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, aPFC: Anterior Prefrontal Cortex, inf temp: Inferior temporal, R: right, L: left.

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Although numerous studies have aimed at improving cognitive control through cognitive training interventions in adolescents, relatively little is known about the neural mechanisms of these training effects. Our findings would contribute to revealing the underlying mechanism of cognitive plasticity during this period.

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Relevant Publications

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Lee, D., Kwak, S., & Chey, J. (2019). Parallel Changes in Cognitive Function and Gray Matter Volume after Multicomponent Training of Cognitive Control (MTCC) in Adolescents. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 13, 246.

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Lee, R., Kwak, S., Lee, D., & Chey, J. (under review). Cognitive control training enhances the integration of intrinsic functional networks in adolescents.