Behavioral correlates of changes in hippocampal gray matter structure during acquisition of foreign vocabulary.
(2016) In NeuroImage 131. p.205-213- Abstract
- Experience can affect human gray matter volume. The behavioral correlates of individual differences in such brain changes are not well understood. In a group of Swedish individuals studying Italian as a foreign language, we investigated associations among time spent studying, acquired vocabulary, baseline performance on memory tasks, and gray matter changes. As a way of studying episodic memory training, the language learning focused on acquiring foreign vocabulary and lasted for 10weeks. T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive testing were performed before and after the studies. Learning behavior was monitored via participants' use of a smartphone application dedicated to the study of vocabulary. A whole-brain... (More)
- Experience can affect human gray matter volume. The behavioral correlates of individual differences in such brain changes are not well understood. In a group of Swedish individuals studying Italian as a foreign language, we investigated associations among time spent studying, acquired vocabulary, baseline performance on memory tasks, and gray matter changes. As a way of studying episodic memory training, the language learning focused on acquiring foreign vocabulary and lasted for 10weeks. T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive testing were performed before and after the studies. Learning behavior was monitored via participants' use of a smartphone application dedicated to the study of vocabulary. A whole-brain analysis showed larger changes in gray matter structure of the right hippocampus in the experimental group (N=33) compared to an active control group (N=23). A first path analyses revealed that time spent studying rather than acquired knowledge significantly predicted change in gray matter structure. However, this association was not significant when adding performance on baseline memory measures into the model, instead only the participants' performance on a short-term memory task with highly similar distractors predicted the change. This measure may tap similar individual difference factors as those involved in gray matter plasticity of the hippocampus. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8148956
- author
- Bellander, Martin ; Berggren, Rasmus ; Mårtensson, Johan LU ; Brehmer, Yvonne ; Wenger, Elisabeth ; Li, Tie-Qiang ; Bodammer, Nils C ; Shing, Yee-Lee ; Werkle-Bergner, Markus and Lövdén, Martin
- organization
- publishing date
- 2016
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- NeuroImage
- volume
- 131
- pages
- 205 - 213
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:26477659
- scopus:84963943962
- wos:000374635200021
- pmid:26477659
- ISSN
- 1095-9572
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.10.020
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- First published Online, 23 October 2015
- id
- d9e5bf3f-a9d4-4ee3-8bbd-6cd9573648c1 (old id 8148956)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 09:57:52
- date last changed
- 2022-04-19 21:20:53
@article{d9e5bf3f-a9d4-4ee3-8bbd-6cd9573648c1,
abstract = {{Experience can affect human gray matter volume. The behavioral correlates of individual differences in such brain changes are not well understood. In a group of Swedish individuals studying Italian as a foreign language, we investigated associations among time spent studying, acquired vocabulary, baseline performance on memory tasks, and gray matter changes. As a way of studying episodic memory training, the language learning focused on acquiring foreign vocabulary and lasted for 10weeks. T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging and cognitive testing were performed before and after the studies. Learning behavior was monitored via participants' use of a smartphone application dedicated to the study of vocabulary. A whole-brain analysis showed larger changes in gray matter structure of the right hippocampus in the experimental group (N=33) compared to an active control group (N=23). A first path analyses revealed that time spent studying rather than acquired knowledge significantly predicted change in gray matter structure. However, this association was not significant when adding performance on baseline memory measures into the model, instead only the participants' performance on a short-term memory task with highly similar distractors predicted the change. This measure may tap similar individual difference factors as those involved in gray matter plasticity of the hippocampus.}},
author = {{Bellander, Martin and Berggren, Rasmus and Mårtensson, Johan and Brehmer, Yvonne and Wenger, Elisabeth and Li, Tie-Qiang and Bodammer, Nils C and Shing, Yee-Lee and Werkle-Bergner, Markus and Lövdén, Martin}},
issn = {{1095-9572}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{205--213}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{NeuroImage}},
title = {{Behavioral correlates of changes in hippocampal gray matter structure during acquisition of foreign vocabulary.}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.10.020}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.10.020}},
volume = {{131}},
year = {{2016}},
}