Studies evaluating the association between the n-back task and Continuous Performance Test and brain structure
| Study | No. patients | Diagnosis | No. controls (relatives) | MRI analysis (Tesla) | Regions evaluated | Cognitive measures | Main results* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piras et al.130 | — | — | 181 | ROI (3 T) | Caudate, putamen, pallidum, thalamus, hippocampus and amygdala | N-back task | No association |
| Crespo-Facorro et al.136 | 142 | Psychosis
| 83 | Automated segmentation global volumes and ROIs (1.5 T) | Volumes of whole brain, total grey matter, total white matter, cortical CSF and lateral ventricles, grey matter volumes of cortical (occipital, parietal, temporal and frontal lobes) and subcortical (caudate nucleus, thalamus and putamen) regions | CPT | Controls: ↑ CPT, ↓ lateral ventricle volume Patients: no association |
| Laywer et al.135 | 71 | Schizophrenia | 65 | Semiautomated and fully manual (1.5 T) | Frontal, occipital, parietal, temporal and occipital lobes, subcortical region, CSF volume of the ventricles I, II and III, intracranial volume, corpus callosum, caudate, putamen, hippocampus, cerebellum, the posterior superior, posterior inferior and anterior vermis, and cerebellar tonsil | CPT | Controls/patients: association with putamen volumes and vermis regions |
| Salgado-Pineda et al.134 | 13 | Antipsychotic-naive schizophrenia | 13 | Automated VBM and ROI (1.5 T) | Whole brain grey matter, white matter and CSF, thalamus | CPT | Controls: no association Patients: ↑ CPT (d′ scores), ↑ grey matter density in the left thalamic nucleus, left angular, supramarginal gyrus, left inferior frontal and postcentral gyri, grey matter density of the left and right thalamus |
| Antonova et al.8 | 45 | Schizophrenia | 43 | Automated VBM (1.5 T) | Whole brain volume and grey matter | CPT | Controls/patients: no association |
| Goldberg et al.137 | 14 | Schizophrenia | (14 co-twins) | Automated (1.5 T) | Hippocampus, third ventricle and a large section of the lateral ventricles | CPT | Patients/relatives: no association |
CPT = Continuous Performance Test; CSF = cerebrospinal fluid; MRI = magnetic resonance imaging; ROI = region of interest; VBM = voxel-based morphometry.
↵* ↑ (neuropsychological task) = better performance.