Diffusion MRI Study of Cortical Plasticity Induced by a Short Linguistic Task

Shir Hofstetter¹, ², Naama Friedmann¹, ³, Yaniv Assaf¹, ²

Recent DTI study found changes in diffusion indices after 2 hour training. Whether short learning experiences can induce microstructural alterations in the neocortex is unclear and requires high scanning resolution. Here we used diffusion MRI to study cortical plasticity by a short (less than 1 hour) language task (introducing new lexical items to the lexicons). Changes in diffusion were found in specific cortical region involved in language and reading. These results provide first indication of micro-structural changes in the cortex induced by a short task with high cognitive demands, and the ability of diffusion MRI to reveal such rapid modifications.