Boulet-Craig A, et al. - Among survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), researchers assessed aberrations in visual short-term memory (VSTM) brain activation using magnetoencephalography. A total of 40 ALL survivors and 26 controls were asked to complete a VSTM task. During the retention period of the task (400-1,400 milliseconds), evaluation of VSTM capacity (Cowan K) and brain activation was done using a standard minimum norm source localization method. During the task, ALL survivors showed atypical brain activation, including overactivation of areas usually implicated in VSTM (lateral occipital, precentral gyrus, and postcentral gyrus), recruitment of areas that typically are not involved in VSTM (superior/middle temporal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus), and lower activation of frontal brain areas (inferior frontal gyrus), and activity was lower among those who were younger at diagnosis. Overall, ALL survivors exhibited a pattern of neural inefficiency and compensatory activity during VSTM.