A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA) has discovered that a brain training method that is frequently used in scientific studies can help improve our working memory.
Working memory is what we use on a day-to-day basis, especially at school or in the workplace, and refers to our ability to obtain new information and adapt our responses accordingly, for short periods of time. It is key to the learning process, hence it is not surprising, that scientists have been investigating whether there are “recipes for success” when it comes to improving working memory.
So far, scientific studies have not conclusively identified an effective method of brain training to increase cognitive abilities. However, scientists at Johns Hopkins University have used a new approach to test the effectiveness of different brain training methods. And they have discovered, for the first time, that specific exercise can significantly improve working memory.
“People say that cognitive training sometimes works and sometimes it doesn’t. We show that it matters what type of training you’re doing. This task seems to show the most consistent results and the biggest impact on performance and should be the one we should focus on. if we are interested in improving cognition through training, “explains Kara J. Blacker, leader of the work.
Brain training through memory tasks
Experts hypothesized that previous studies may not have focused on the most effective brain training tasks when trying to address the question, “Can we improve some of our cognitive abilities?” Therefore, they compared two main types of cognitive training activity and measured the brain activity of the participants before and after they had participated in these exercises, using electroencephalograms (EEG).
The team recruited 136 young adults (44 of them men), who were divided into three groups. All of them were subjected to the same tests at the baseline, in order to determine the capacities of working memory, attention and intelligence levels.
Two types of brain training exercises were addressed in this study: “dual n-back” and “span complex”. Dual N-Back: join 2 simultaneous tasks and get the brain to remember both; we can reduce the tasks and use only one, or increase them and work with 3; that is, it implies receiving visuospatial and auditory information simultaneously. In Span-Complex, “the participant’s task was to remember the order and locations of red squares presented in a 4 x 4 grid.” This exercise does not require constantly updating the information received as in the previous exercise.
Divided into three groups, the participants had to do the Dual N-Back task, the complex expansion task or a control task for a month, spread over 5 days a week for 30 minutes per session.
After the final EEG scans, the scientists found that the working memory of the participants who had participated in the Dual N-back test had improved their working memory by 30% , which is almost double the improvement shown in participants who had been assigned the second type of brain training.
The same participants also showed changes in the activity of the prefrontal cortex , a region of the brain highly involved in attention and memory.
“ The findings suggest that this particular task [dual n-back] is changing something in the brain. There is something about sequencing and updating that really goes into the things that only the prefrontal cortex can do, solving the world’s problems. real, “explains Susan Courtney, study co-author.
Experts would like to adapt this exercise to be consumer-oriented or even commercially distributed in a clinical context.
“The biggest lesson here was that yes, intensive training strengthens cognition and the brain, but we still don’t understand why and how. We can’t just jump into a video game and hope that it will cure all of our cognitive problems. We need more interventions. specific, “says Courtney.
Referencia: N-back Versus Complex Span Working Memory Training. Blacker, K.J., Negoita, S., Ewen, J.B. et al. J Cogn Enhanc (2017). Journal of Cognitive Enhancement DOI: doi.org/10.1007/s41465-017-0044-1
