Visuospatial working memory in very preterm and term born children—Impact of age and performance

Abstract

Working memory is crucial for meeting the challenges of daily life and performing academic tasks, such as reading or arithmetic. Very preterm born children are at risk of low working memory capacity. The aim of this study was to examine the visuospatial working memory network of school-aged preterm children and to determine the effect of age and performance on the neural working memory network. Working memory was assessed in 41 very preterm born children and 36 term born controls (aged 7-12 years) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and neuropsychological assessment. While preterm children and controls showed equal working memory performance, preterm children showed less involvement of the right middle frontal gyrus, but higher fMRI activation in superior frontal regions than controls. The younger and low-performing preterm children presented an atypical working memory network whereas the older high-performing preterm children recruited a working memory network similar to the controls. Results suggest that younger and low-performing preterm children show signs of less neural efficiency in frontal brain areas. With increasing age and performance, compensational mechanisms seem to occur, so that in preterm children, the typical visuospatial working memory network is established by the age of 12 years.

Spatial learning in a virtual reality-based task is altered in very preterm children

“…Omizzolo et al (2013) showed that 7-year-old very preterm children were impaired in comparison to controls in different visuospatial tasks like block recall or dot locations. However, other studies revealed that very preterm and controls did not differ behaviorally in two visuospatial working memory tasks (Mürner-Lavanchy et al, 2014;Taylor, Donner, & Pang, 2011). It is important to stress that abilities required for accurately solving visuospatial and spatial orientation tests differ.…”

As Working Memory Grows: A Developmental Account of Neural Bases of Working Memory Capacity in 5- to 8-Year Old Children and Adults

“…In adults, a network of prefrontal, parietal, and anterior cingulate regions is reliably activated in working memory contexts (D'Ardenne et al, 2012;Todd & Marois, 2004;Osaka et al, 2003;Courtney et al, 1998;D'Esposito et al, 1995;Jonides et al, 1993), and activation in these regions increases with increasing working memory load (Rypma, Prabhakaran, Desmond, Glover, & Gabrieli, 1999;Barch et al, 1997;Braver et al, 1997). In children and adolescents, many studies find activation in similar frontoparietal and cingulate networks (Mürner-Lavanchy et al, 2014;Spencer-Smith et al, 2013;Geier, Garver, Terwilliger, & Luna, 2009;Tsujii, Yamamoto, Masuda, & Watanabe, 2009;Ciesielski, Lesnik, Savoy, Grant, & Ahlfors, 2006;Klingberg, 2006). Despite these similarities, there are also important differences in patterns of activation across adults and children, and both the specific pattern and source of these differences are currently unresolved.…”

Alterations in development of hippocampal and cortical memory mechanisms following very preterm birth

“…Preliminary evidence of a catch‐up of activation patterns comes from a study by Murner‐Lavanchy et al 46. who showed that VPT children (7–12y) may have increased activation in superior frontal cortex to compensate for persistent functional deficits in the adjacent middle frontal gyrus 46. The most recent, and to date the largest, fMRI working memory study of VPT individuals found no working memory deficits in adulthood 47.…”