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Insightful Imagery is Related to Working Memory Updating.

ABSTRACT: Available body of evidence concerning the relationship between insight problem solving and working memory (WM) is ambiguous. Several authors propose that restructuring of the problem representation requires controlled search processes, which needs planning and involvement of WM. Other researchers suggest that the restructuring is achieved through the automatic spread of activation in long-term memory, assigning a limited role to WM capacity. In the present study we examined the correlations between insight problem solving performance and measures of WM updating function (n-back task), including general intelligence (as measured by Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices). The results revealed that updating function shared up to 30% of variance with the insight problem task performance, even when the influence of general mental ability was controlled for. These results suggest that insight problem solving is constrained by individual ability to update the content of WM.

SUBMITTER: Necka E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4770025 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Insightful Imagery is Related to Working Memory Updating.

Nęcka Edward E Żak Piotr P Gruszka Aleksandra A

Frontiers in psychology 20160229

Available body of evidence concerning the relationship between insight problem solving and working memory (WM) is ambiguous. Several authors propose that restructuring of the problem representation requires controlled search processes, which needs planning and involvement of WM. Other researchers suggest that the restructuring is achieved through the automatic spread of activation in long-term memory, assigning a limited role to WM capacity. In the present study we examined the correlations betw ...[more]

PMID: 26973549

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Project description:Recent neuroimaging studies have reported an age-related reduction in brain activations in response to working memory load in task-sensitive brain regions. The current fMRI study investigated the age-related differences in brain activations of the updating mechanism in working memory, which was not investigated in previous studies. With a hybrid block/event-related design, this study was able to examine changes in BOLD signals (i.e., neuromodulation) to increase in updating, a type of cognitive control that is understudied. Older adults were separated into young-old and old-old cohorts to examine whether, within healthy aging, the neuromodulation to cognitive control decreases with age. Our results show that younger adults activate left precentral gyrus and right cerebellum more during trials that require updating than trials that do not require updating. Although older adults showed reduced neuromodulation in these two regions, the old-old cohort failed to show any significant neuromodulation in response to updating. Moreover, older adults not only showed reduced suppressions of the default mode network (DMN) regions during the task, they also overactivated some of the DMN regions, esp. the old-old, when compared to the younger adults. Older adults also showed overactivations in a region (right precentral gyrus) that is contralateral to a task-sensitive region that was activated in the younger adults during updating. Brain-behavior correlations suggest that age-related overactivations of these DMN regions and the right precentral gyrus are maladaptive to their performance. Our results suggest that not only the neuromodulation in response to updating demands is diminished in healthy aging, older adults also show maladaptive increases in activations of task-irrelevant regions and reduced hemispheric specificity during updating. These effects are most pronounced in old-old cohort, compared to young-old, suggesting that age-related declines in neuromodulation during cognitive control is more pronounced in older cohorts within healthy aging.

Dataset Information

Insightful Imagery is Related to Working Memory Updating.

Publications

Insightful Imagery is Related to Working Memory Updating.

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