Table 2.
Evidence for white matter plasticity in selected human imaging studies
| Subject | Study Type | Intervention | Results | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48 healthy adults (Scholz et al., 2009) | Longitudinal | Juggling (6 weeks of training) | Increased FA in the posterior intraparietal sulcus and increased density in adjacent occipital/parietal gray matter 0 and 4 weeks post-training | No correlation of structural changes with juggling performance |
| 8 adult concert pianists and 8 non-musicians (Bengtsson et al., 2005) | Cross-sectional | History of piano practicing (retrospective) | Increased FA in the internal capsule, corpus callosum, and frontal lobe fibers | Degree of childhood practicing correlated with degree of FA change |
| 11 healthy adults (Takeuchi et al., 2010) | Longitudinal | Computer-based working memory task (2 months, daily ~25 minute sessions) | Increased post-training FA in intraparietal sulcus white matter and anterior corpus callosum | Amount of working memory training correlated with degree of FA change |
| 18 older adults (aged 65–80) and 21 younger adults (aged 19–32) (Yotsumoto et al., 2014) | Longitudinal | Texture discrimination task (3 daily sessions) | Increased post-training FA in the white matter underlying visual association cortex | Effect only present in older subjects |
| 70 healthy adults (Hofstetter et al., 2013) | Longitudinal | Car racing video game (2 hours) | Immediate post-training decrease in MD in the fornix | Rats that underwent 1 day of water maze training also exhibited decreased MD in the fornix |
| 40 healthy adults (Caeyenberghs et al., 2016) | Longitudinal | Adaptive working memory training (40 45 minute sessions over 2 months) | Increase in the intrinsic longitudinal relaxation rate within the frontoparietal network | No change in myelin water fraction or other MR metrics |
| 17 right-handed healthy adults (Lakhani et al., 2016) | Longitudinal | Visuomotor training (10 sessions over 4 weeks) | Increased post-training MWF signal in the left intraparietal and parieto-occipital sulci. | Negative correlation between the rate of motor skill acquisition and change in MWF. |
Abbreviations: FA, fractional anisotropy; MD, mean diffusivity; MWF, myelin water fraction.