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Similar prefrontal cortical activities between general fluid intelligence and visuospatial working memory tasks in preschool children as revealed by optical topography

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Abstract

General fluid intelligence (gF) is a major component of intellect in both adults and children. Whereas its neural substrates have been studied relatively thoroughly in adults, those are poorly understood in children, particularly preschoolers. Here, we hypothesized that gF and visuospatial working memory share a common neural system within the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) during the preschool years (4–6 years). At the behavioral level, we found that gF positively and significantly correlated with abilities (especially accuracy) in visuospatial working memory. Optical topography revealed that the LPFC of preschoolers was activated and deactivated during the visuospatial working memory task and the gF task. We found that the spatio-temporal features of neural activity in the LPFC were similar for both the visuospatial working memory task and the gF task. Further, 2 months of training for the visuospatial working memory task significantly increased gF in the preschoolers. These findings suggest that a common neural system in the LPFC is recruited to improve the visuospatial working memory and gF in preschoolers. Efficient recruitment of this neural system may be important for good performance in these functions in preschoolers, and behavioral training using this system would help to increase gF at these ages.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX), part of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Japan. The authors thank J. Tsunada, S. Tsujimoto, and K. Wajima for their valuable comments on this study. We are grateful to G. Hirano, T. Tanase, K. Kaneko, and H. Yanaka for their technical assistance and encouragement throughout this study. We thank Y. Endo and other Kannami-Sakura Nursery School teachers, as well as M. Shigematsu, T. Uchiyama, and other Sapporo International School teachers. We also thank M. Watanabe for his helpful discussion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Cognitive Neurobiology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, N15W7, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8638, Japan

    Mariko Kuwajima & Toshiyuki Sawaguchi

  2. Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Otemachi 1-1-2, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0004, Japan

    Mariko Kuwajima & Toshiyuki Sawaguchi

  3. Humanity Neuroscience Institute, Yamanote 1-6-5, Nishi-ku, Sapporo, 063-0001, Japan

    Toshiyuki Sawaguchi

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  1. Mariko Kuwajima
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Correspondence to Toshiyuki Sawaguchi.

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Kuwajima, M., Sawaguchi, T. Similar prefrontal cortical activities between general fluid intelligence and visuospatial working memory tasks in preschool children as revealed by optical topography. Exp Brain Res 206, 381–397 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2415-z

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