Regional gray and white matter volume associated with Stroop interference: evidence from voxel-based morphometry

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroimaging

Background:

• The Stroop task measures cognitive interference, commonly used to assess attention deficits and frontal lobe functions.
• Previous research has not identified whole-brain regional gray and white matter volume correlates of Stroop interference in healthy adults.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the regional gray matter volume (rGMV) and regional white matter volume (rWMV) associations with Stroop interference in healthy young adults.
• To identify the neural underpinnings of performance on the widely used Stroop paradigm.

Main Methods:

• Employed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) on neuroimaging data from right-handed healthy young adults.
• Analyzed the relationship between Stroop interference rate and whole-brain rGMV/rWMV.

Main Results:

• Found significant negative relationships between Stroop interference rate and rGMV in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right inferior frontal gyrus, and cerebellum.
• Identified relationships between Stroop interference rate and rWMV in bilateral frontal white matter regions.

Conclusions:

• These findings represent the first whole-brain identification of rGMV/rWMV correlates underlying Stroop task performance.
• Results support the role of the ACC in Stroop performance and implicate frontal regions involved in response inhibition and attention.