Children and Adolescents Show Altered Visual Working Memory Related Brain Activity More Than One Decade After Arterial Switch Operation for D-Transposition of the Great Arteries.

This pilot study investigated neural correlates of visual working memory using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in seven patients more than one decade after neonatal arterial switch operation for surgical correction of d-transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA, aged 10-18 years, 1 female). Compared with age and sex matched healthy controls patients showed similar visual working memory performance and a smaller increase in brain activity in the posterior parietal cortex with higher visual working memory load. These findings suggest that patients exhibit altered neural activity within a network that is known to support visuospatial memory and cognition.