Neural efficiency in working memory tasks: The impact of task demand

摘要

Studies of human intelligence provide strong evidence for the neural efficiency hypothesis, which suggests more efficient brain functioning (i.e., less or more focused activation) in more intelligent individuals. Recent studies have specified the scope of the neural efficiency hypothesis by suggesting that the relationship between brain activation and intelligence only holds true for problems of moderate difficulty and can be altered through training and is only found in frontal brain regions. We investigated the moderating roles of task difficulty and training on the neural efficiency phenomenon in the context of working memory (WM) training.