Working memory (WM) for facial identity and WM for facial expressions of emotions is important in everyday functioning and seems to have different neurobiological correlates. We investigated the level of neural activation in three regions of interest (ROI): the fusiform face area (FFA), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and amygdala; and how they are related to behavioral performance during an n-back task involving face stimuli with a complex background figure within an fMRI-paradigm. Participants performed three different 2-back tasks, one for facial expressions of emotions (EMO), one for the facial identity (ID), and one for a background figure presented behind the face (FIG). We hypothesized that the FFA would activate more in ID, the amygdala would activate more during EMO, and that the dlPFC would activate in all n-back tasks. An ROI analysis was done to extract mean activation values from the participants (N = 32) in the fusiform gyrus area 2 (FG2), the laterobasal amygdala (amygdala lb), and dlPFC in the different tasks. A one way repeated measures ANOVA revealed a similar activation in FG2 and amygdala lb in both ID and EMO. During the FIG task higher activation in FG2 was shown in comparison with ID and EMO, and lower activation in amygdala lb was shown in comparison to ID. dlPFC was activated in all tasks. Furthermore, there was a negative correlation between amygdala lb activation and reaction time in the FIG task, where an abstract figure was kept in WM and facial information was to be ignored. These results indicate that the activation in FG2 and amygdala lb might not differ between WM for facial identity and WM for facial expressions of emotions, which is unexpected in comparison to perception studies where a difference in these nodes has been reported for processing these two different types of information. This might suggest that the role of these neural nodes differ depending on WM load and task irrelevant features.

The study seeks to bring together literature on decision-making, the effects of work-related demands and stress, and individual differences in trait anxiety on near and far transfer effects of emotional working memory training (eWM). A sample of 31 students and working participants underwent emotional working memory training through an adaptive dual n-back method or a placebo face match training task for 14 days. Pre- and post-training measures were taken of a near transfer task, digit span, medium transfer measure of executive control, emotional Stroop, and a far transfer task of decision-making under uncertainty, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). In line with previous studies, eWM was expected to show gains in transfer task performance between pre- and post-training, and, especially for those scoring high on trait anxiety and workplace measures of stress demands (taken from COPSOQ), for whom there is more scope for improvement in emotional regulation. Gains in emotional Stroop specifically were further expected to show support for the effects of eWM training on emotional well-being in addition to decision-making. Results fell short of replicating previous work on transfer gains, though interference effects in Stroop did lessen in the eWM training group. Relationships between work demands, anxiety, stress and performance in the training itself, reinforce previous research showing that work stress and anxiety lead to cognitive failures, highlighting the importance of intervention studies in the organizational field, but they were not linked to benefits of the training. Resource and methodological limitations of the current study are considered, especially those involved in conducting pre-post designs and cognitive testing online.

Ce travail a porté sur les remaniements corticaux précoces des circuits moteurs et extramoteurs dans la SLA grâce à l'étude des activations IRMf issues de tâches motrices et cognitives. La première partie de nos travaux nous a permis de montrer grâce des tâches simples d'activation motrice en IRMf (1) qu'alors que les patients SLA présentaient un déficit moteur discret, une augmentation des activations corticales est apparue dans les aires sensorimotrices bilatérales du cerveau. (2) Ces modifications précoces de l'activité neuronale étaient corrélées à la latéralisation du déficit moteur du membre ou la prédominance manuelle et surtout, (3) au taux de progression de la maladie à un an et à la survie, suggérant que ce remaniement de l'activité qui correspond probablement à de la plasticité cérébrale a des implications fonctionnelles. Enfin, (4) ce phénomène apparaissait actif puisqu'il s'est poursuivi pendant au moins onze mois. Dans la deuxième partie, nous avons montré lors d'une tâche de fluence verbale silencieuse que (1) les SLA présentaient une suractivation initiale des aires dévolues au processus sémantique avec un renforcement de la connectivité fonctionnelle entre les réseaux (CFR). (2) Au bout de onze mois et alors que l'atteinte des fluences était stable, ce phénomène de compensation s'épuisait avec une diminution conjointe de l'activation des réseaux et de la CFR. La tâche de 2-Back, réalisée alors que les patients ne présentaient pas d'atteinte de la mémoire de travail lors des tests psychométriques, nous a permis de montrer en outre que certains circuits non-moteurs se réorganisaient très précocement chez les patients, alors même qu'ils étaient asymptomatiques

ADHD affects executive functions and pharmacological treatment is the most common intervention. Medication is ineffective for some and psychosocial interventions are scarcely available. CBT that teaches organizational skills for managing ADHD-symptoms has shown promising results. Smartphones can help individuals perform executive tasks such as planning and organizationand they could beefficacious as a support tool for ADHD patients. The current study is aRCT that compares an online course (n=29) based on previouslyeffective CBT treatments for ADHD to a wait-list control (n=29). Theintervention focused on teaching the use of an online calendar and smartphone apps. The intervention brought significant improvement (p < 0.001) to participants regarding ADHD symptoms and 38% of participants were considered clinically significantly improved. This indicates that online treatments using IT-tools for ADHD is effective and that smartphones can be used as a tool for aiding individuals with impairments in executive functions.

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Ce travail a porté sur les remaniements corticaux précoces des circuits moteurs et extramoteurs dans la SLA grâce à l’étude des activations IRMf issues de tâches motrices et cognitives. La première partie de nos travaux nous a permis de montrer grâce des tâches simples d’activation motrice en IRMf (1) qu’alors que les patients SLA présentaient un déficit moteur discret, une augmentation des activations corticales est apparue dans les aires sensorimotrices bilatérales du cerveau. (2) Ces modifications précoces de l’activité neuronale étaient corrélées à la latéralisation du déficit moteur du membre ou la prédominance manuelle et surtout, (3) au taux de progression de la maladie à un an et à la survie, suggérant que ce remaniement de l’activité qui correspond probablement à de la plasticité cérébrale a des implications fonctionnelles. Enfin, (4) ce phénomène apparaissait actif puisqu’il s’est poursuivi pendant au moins onze mois. Dans la deuxième partie, nous avons montré lors d’une tâche de fluence verbale silencieuse que (1) les SLA présentaient une suractivation initiale des aires dévolues au processus sémantique avec un renforcement de la connectivité fonctionnelle entre les réseaux (CFR). (2) Au bout de onze mois et alors que l’atteinte des fluences était stable, ce phénomène de compensation s’épuisait avec une diminution conjointe de l’activation des réseaux et de la CFR. La tâche de 2-Back, réalisée alors que les patients ne présentaient pas d’atteinte de la mémoire de travail lors des tests psychométriques, nous a permis de montrer en outre que certains circuits non-moteurs se réorganisaient très précocement chez les patients, alors même qu’ils étaient asymptomatiques / In this work we used motor and cognitive tasks in an fMRI study to explore the early cortical reorganizations of the motor and extra-motor circuits in ALS patients. In a first part, using a simple motor task, we demonstrated (1) that increased cortical BOLD signal changes occurred in specific regions of the brain of ALS patients when their motor deficit was still moderate, and that this early signal changes correlated with (2) the lateralisation of the motor deficit or hand predominance and, more importantly, (3) with the rate of disease progression at one year and survival time, suggesting that modulations of cerebral activity in ALS may have functional implications. Furthermore, (4) this brain plasticity was maintained with time and disease progression during at least eleven months. In a second part, we demonstrated during a silent verbal fluency task (1) that ALS patients presented initially an increased cortical activation of areas devolved to the semantic process with an intensification of the functional network connectivity (FNC). (2) After eleven months and while their performance in tests of verbal fluency was stable, this cerebral compensation ran out with a decrease of the previous cerebral activations and the FNC. A N-back working memory paradigm, realized while the patients did not present any deficit of their working memory, allowed us to show that certain non-motor circuits were reorganized prematurely while patients were still asymptomatic

<div>Vehicle automation is developing at a rapid rate worldwide. However, even lower levels of automation, such as SAE Level-1, are expected to reduce drivers’ workload by controlling either speed or lane position. At the same time, however, drivers’ engagement in secondary tasks may make up for this difference in workload displaced by automation. Previous research has investigated the effects of adaptive cruise control (ACC) on driving performance and workload, but little attention has been devoted to Lane Keeping Systems (LKS). In addition, the influence of secondary cognitive tasks on Level-1 driving performance is also not well understood.</div><div><br></div><div>The first goal of this thesis study was to examine the effects of secondary cognitive tasks and driving condition on driving performance. The second goal was to examine the effects of secondary cognitive tasks and driving condition on heart rate related measurements that reflect changes in workload. Both a novel nano-sensor and a commercial ECG sensor were used to measure heart rate. Thus, the third goal was to compare the capability of a nano-sensor in detecting changes in heart rate and heart rate variability with a commercially available ECG sensor. Twenty-five participants drove a simulated vehicle in manual, ACC and LKS driving conditions, while performing a secondary cognitive (N-back) task with varying levels of difficulty.</div><div><br></div><div>Results showed that more difficult cognitive secondary tasks were beneficial to driving performance in that a lower standard deviation of lane departure (SDLD) and a lower standard deviation of vehicle speed (SDVS) were both observed. Heart rate and NASA-TLX workload scores were significantly higher in the most difficult secondary task and in the manual driving conditions. However, heart rate variability measures (SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, LF Power and HF Power) indicated lower variability under more difficult secondary tasks. This thesis suggests that nanotechnological devices may serve as a potential alternative to other heart rate measuring technology. Limitations in detecting minor heart rate changes between different driving conditions and in heart rate variability measuring were also acknowledged.</div>

ADHD affects executive functions and pharmacological treatment is the most common intervention. Medication is ineffective for some and psychosocial interventions are scarcely available. CBT that teaches organizational skills for managing ADHD-symptoms has shown promising results. Smartphones can help individuals perform executive tasks such as planning and organization and they could be efficacious as a support tool for ADHD patients. The current study is a RCT that compares an online course (n=29) based on previously effective CBT treatments for ADHD to a wait-list control (n=29). The intervention focused on teaching the use of an online calendar and smartphone apps. The intervention brought significant improvement (p &lt; 0.001) to participants regarding ADHD symptoms and 38% of participants were considered clinically significantly improved. This indicates that online treatments using IT-tools for ADHD is effective and that smartphones can be used as a tool for aiding individuals with impairments in executive functions.

Working memory training improves performance on trained and untrained working memory tasks, but there is little consistent evidence that these gains benefit everyday tasks that rely on working memory. Evidence has shown that transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) may be an effective tool for enhancing cognitive training and promoting transfer. In the first study, participants completed Cogmed working memory training with either active or sham transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS). Training was associated with substantial gains on the training activities and on transfer measures of working memory with common processing and storage demands to the training tasks. tRNS did not enhance gains on trained or untrained activities. The second study systematically investigated the boundary conditions to training transfer by testing whether gains following backward digit recall (BDR) training transferred within- and across-paradigm to untrained backward recall and n-back tasks with varying degrees of overlap with the training activity. A further aim was to test whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhanced training and transfer. Participants were allocated to one of three conditions: (i) BDR training with active tDCS, (ii) BDR training with sham tDCS, or (iii) visual search control training with sham tDCS. The results indicated that training transfer is constrained by paradigm, but not by stimuli domain or stimuli materials. There was no evidence that tDCS enhanced performance on the training or transfer tasks. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 provide no evidence that tES enhances the benefits of working memory training. The absence of transfer between backward recall training and n-back in Study 2 suggested the tasks might tap into distinct aspects of working memory. Consequently, the final study used a latent variable approach to explore the degree of overlap between different forms of backward recall and n-back tasks containing digits, letters, or spatial locations as stimuli. The best-fitting factor model included two distinct but related (r = .68) constructs corresponding to backward recall and n-back. Both categories of task were linked to a separate fluid reasoning construct, providing evidence that both are valid measures of higher-order complex cognition. Overall, the experiments in this thesis suggest that working memory tasks tap into separate processes and that training may be targeting and improving these distinct processes, explaining the absence of cross-paradigm transfer.

It is well established that repeated testing is more beneficial for durable learning than repeated studying of the same material, a phenomenon known as the testing effect. This study sought to investigate the role of working memory capacity (WMC) in relation to the learning process and the difficulty of the material to be learned when using a test-enhanced learning method. As between subject manipulation, participants (n = 99, M = 25.62 years of age) were divided into two groups, one using repeated studying and one using alternated testing and studying. A material of two difficulty levels, as well as immediate and delayed retention tests, was used in each condition as within subject manipulation. Further, an n-back task was used to measure WMC. Results from mixed model ANOVAs showed no significant impact of WMC on either the learning process or retention in relation to the difficulty of the material. The testing condition performed significantly higher than the studying condition on the retention tests. The testing effect is further cemented as a promising method for practical application in the educational sector regardless of both WMC and difficulty level. / Det är väl etablerat att upprepad testning är mer fördelaktigt för hållbar inlärning än upprepad instudering av samma material, ett fenomen känt som testeffekten. Denna studie ämnade undersöka arbetsminnets roll i relation till inlärningsprocessen och svårighetsgrad av material med testbaserat lärande som metod. Som mellangruppsmanipulation delades deltagare (n = 99, M = 25.62 år gamla) in i två grupper, en som upprepade gånger studerade materialet och en som alternerade studerande med tester. Ett material med två svårighetsgrader och ett direkt samt fördröjda retentionstester användes som inomgruppsmanipulation. Vidare användes ett n-backtest som mått på arbetsminneskapacitet. Resultat visade ingen signifikant inverkan av arbetsminne på varken inlärningsprocessen eller retention i relation till svårighetsgrad av material. Testbetingelsen presterade signifikant högre på retentionstest än studiebetingelsen. Testeffekten fastställs ytterligare som lovande metodik för praktisk applikation i utbildningssektorn oberoende av både arbetsminneskapacitet och svårighetsgrad.