A coordinate-based meta-analysis of the n-back working memory paradigm using activation likelihood estimation

• Published in: Brain and cognition Vol. 132; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Wang, Hui, He, Weijiang, Wu, Jingting, Zhang, Junjun, Jin, Zhenlan, Li, Ling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.06.2019; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Anterior insula (aI); Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Cerebral Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Chinese languages; Cortex (parietal); Frontal cortex; Frontal gyrus; Frontal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Frontal Lobe - physiology; Functional Neuroimaging; Humans; Likelihood Functions; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Mental task performance; Meta-analysis; N-back task; Neuroimaging; Parietal cortex; Parietal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Quantitative meta-analysis; Short term memory; Task Performance and Analysis; Thalamus; Thalamus - diagnostic imaging; Thalamus - physiology; Working memory; N-back task; Quantitative meta-analysis; Working memory; Frontal cortex; Anterior insula (aI); Parietal cortex
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.01.002
• ISSN: 0278-2626; 1090-2147

•Data was pooled from 96 studies of n-back (120 experiments and 2846 subjects).•The results showed consistent activation of the frontal-parietal cortices and aI.•Compared with 1-back, 2-back increased activation in left MFG, left IFG and left aI.•Compared with object location, object identity increased activation in right aI.•Young showed more activity in frontal, parietal lobule and right aI than elder. The n-back task is a classical paradigm for functional neuroimaging studies of working memory (WM). The frontal and parietal cortical regions are known to be activated during the task. We used activation likelihood estimation (ALE) to conduct a quantitative meta-analysis of 96 primary studies of n-back task variants based on four conditions: memory loads (1-back, 2-back), object (identity, location), age (younger, older) and gender (male, female). Six cortical regions were consistently activated across all the studies: bilateral middle frontal gyrus (BA 10); bilateral inferior parietal lobule (BA 40); bilateral precuneus (BA 7); left superior frontal gyrus (BA 6); left anterior insula (aI) (BA 13); bilateral thalamus. Further meta-analyses revealed that different regions were sensitive to different conditions: compared with 1-back, 2-back increased activation in left middle frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus and left aI; compared with object location, object identity increased activation in right aI; young, compared with older subjects showed increased activation in frontal, parietal lobule, and right aI; the comparison between male and female showed no differences. Thus, our findings, showed consistent activation of frontal and parietal cortical regions, while other regions such as the aI, showed different activation patterns depending on varying experimental classification conditions.