Cognitive Training Improves Neural Efficiency:An FNIRS Study

Understanding how the brain allocates neural resources is important to improve human performance,and how to construct neural features for optimal processing is still a controversial topic.One of the prominent models is the neural efficiency model,which proposes that improvement in performance should be associated with reduced activations to reflect the increased efficiency of the underlying neural circuits(that is,less energy is consumed to perform tasks).Adult neuroimaging studies have shown that specialized skills training has a positive effect on the neural efficiency of the brain.However,no neuroimaging studies have examined the neuroprocessing of preschool children so far.In this study,bilingual children are used as an example.Bilingual experience can be considered as a long-term training for cognitive shifting.A group of bilingual children were sampled to perform a classic cognitive shifting task,the dimensional change card sort(DCCS),and their brain activity was recorded during the task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy(f NIRS)to examine whether the children’s bilingualism is related to the performance of the cognitive shifting task and the activation of the prefrontal cortex.Results showed that when performing DCCS tasks,the middle-frontal activation of children who performed well was significantly lower than that of children who performed poorly.The children’s bilingual ability was significantly negatively related to brain activation.The results showed that bilingual experience had a positive effect on cognitive shifting ability of preschool children,and improved the neural efficiency of prefrontal lobe in young children,proving that the neural efficiency model is also effective in preschool children.Further,the application of neural efficiency to laparoscopic skill training was examined,to explore whether multitasking training promotes surgical skill automation.We took the laparoscopic peg transfer task as the pending learning task,and randomly divided 30 medical students into two groups.The experimental group used a multi-task training strategy and the control group used a single-task training strategy.Participants were trained in groups on the first day,and their performance after the training(retention test and secondary test)was tested the next day,and behavioral and functional neuroimaging data of the two groups were compared.We found that participants in the single-task training group had significantly increased prefrontal activation under secondary test conditions,while the activation levels of the multi-task training group in the retention test and the secondary test were not significantly different,but the multi-task training group performed better than the single task training group.The results showed that the neural efficiency of the subjects in the multi-task training group was higher.The neuroimaging evidence showed that multi-task training was an effective way to improve the training effect of laparoscopic surgery.Our research provides neuroimaging evidence that bilingual experience promotes young children’s cognitive conversion ability and multi-task training facilitates surgical skill automation.We believe that special training in early childhood can improve neural efficiency,and strategic training can more effectively improve the neural efficiency of the brain.Compared with the basic laparoscopic training,multitask training may be more economic and efficient.It is feasible to use f NIRS to measure brain activity and neural efficiency to evaluate the effect of skill training in laparoscopic training.