This is a cognitive task consisting of colored spheres in 3 stacks. The goal is to match the given state to the model by rearranging the spheres in the minimum amount of moves. The spheres can only be moved in the order in which they appear in the stacks.

Tower of London task

- total of 12 right-handed men (n=6) and women (n=6)
- Age range: 51 to 69 years
- Education: 11 to 20 years
- healthy individuals: no history of neurological, psychological, or cardiovascular problems
 - All subjects were tested using the Modified Mini Mental State examination and the Corsi Block Tapping task. Those receiving abnormally low scores were excluded from the study.

Subjects of the TOL task

- total testing session: about 2 hours
- Before the main test, the participants were asked to complete 5 practice problems of increasing difficulty (one move, two moves, etc.) to ensure participants understood the rules. 

Main task:
- 10 blocks of 9 TOL problems each (90 TOL problems total) were administered, where the order of the blocks were randomly generated for each participant.
- Order of difficulty: 3-move problem, then 5-move problem, then 4-move problem, etc.
- Subjects were instructed to plan their moves before moving any circles.
- Subjects had no time limit, but were limited to a maximum amount of moves (2 times the min. number of moves plus 4).

Testing Procedure of the TOL task

Although participants were scanned 11 times over the course of the session, only 6 PET scans were used in the analysis:
- 4 experimental scans
- 2 control scans

Imaging Procedures of the TOL task

- Subjects
- Tower of London Task
- Testing Procedure
- Imaging Procedures


University of California, Davis

This study uses PET scans to measure active brain regions in cognitive skill learning during the Tower of London (TOL) planning task. The subjects were scanned 11 times over a span of solving 90 TOL problems to understand dynamic functional changes.

Dynamic functional changes associated with cognitive skill learning of an adapted version of the Tower of London task

Beauchamp, M., Dagher, A., Aston, J., & Doyon, J. (2003). Dynamic functional changes associated with cognitive skill learning of an adapted version of the Tower of London task. NeuroImage, 20(3), 1649-1660. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.07.003

Data was collected in two areas:
- Behavioral performance
- Cerebral Blood Flow (from the PET scans)

Results of the TOL task

Over the course of the study, an increase in neural efficiency was found rather than a change in cognitive processes. This is indicated by a lack of shift to new brain regions and the decreased activation in frontal regions. 

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