Working Memory Capacity Predicts Dopamine Synthesis Capacity in the Human Striatum

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Figure 1.
The correlation between listening span and K_i values from the left caudate nucleus.
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Figure 2.
The mean raw axial (MR coregistered) whole-brain FMT PET K_i images from the high-span group (left) and from the low-span group (right) overlaid on a normalized MR image. Data represent K_i values. The right is right according to neurological conventions.

Table 1.

Neuropsychological data

Test	Low-span	High-span
Listening span^*	2.8 (0.6)	4.0 (0.0)
Age	21.5 (0.8)	23.0 (2.8)
NAART errors	13 (1.4)	11 (3.2)
BDI	2.5 (2.0)	6.2 (4.0)
Forward digit span	8.8 (1.5)	10.4 (1.7)
Spatial span	20.6 (3.2)	22.6 (0.9)
WCST, % perseverative errors	6.8 (2.1)	7.0 (0.8)
WCST, % nonperseverative errors	8.8 (4.2)	5.8 (2.1)
Letter fluency	43.0 (8.6)	48.8 (7.1)
MoCA	28.0 (2.0)	28.8 (1.1)
Barratt score	60.2 (15.4)	74.0 (12.6)

↵*Significantly different between the low- and high-span groups. There were no significant differences in performance on any of the background measures. NAART, North American Adult Reading Test (Nelson, 1982); BDI, Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961); WCST, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Grant and Berg, 1948); MoCA, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (Nasreddine et al., 2005).