Computer Training and Memory Problems
It’s a really “hot” topic, and an often-discussed topic: Can cognitive training on computer software help you improve your memory and stave off Alzheimer’s?
I think the answer to the first question may turn out to be at least a partial yes. I think it’s pretty clear that computer-based training can improve your memory. A lot of research has shown that older people can learn new things, just as younger people do. Sometimes the way older people who are taught may have to change, and sometimes older people need a little more help, but older people can learn new things. My colleague, Dr. Sara Czaja at the Center on Aging here at the University of Miami, has shown that older adults can learn how to do diverse jobs such as entering data on a computer or working with a computer to answer customers’ questions about their insurance policies. Another colleague in the Center, Dr. David Loewenstein, has also shown that even people with memory problems can improve their memory.
A large, multi-center (done at several different locations) trial sponsored by the National Institute on Aging showed that certain kinds of cognitive training had significant effects on reasoning, memory, and psychomotor speed. Perhaps most exciting was the demonstration that some of these training effects were still evident after five years. More recently, several of the companies who sell cognitive or brain fitness software for brain gyms have shown that people who use the software may show improvements in memory and other abilities. I think it’s pretty safe to conclude that older adults can benefit from cognitive training.
Will doing the training keep you from getting Alzheimer’s disease, or from getting memory problems if you don’t already have them? That’s really a good question, but as in many cases, there isn’t a very good answer. Just as cognitive reserve (see my post from April 25 for more about cognitive reserve: click here) may mean it takes longer for someone to have recognizable memory problems, cognitive training may work in much the same way. We know that a lot of the people who participate in cognitive training activities feel that they are helpful.
I think computer-based cognitive training may be very useful in helping participants feel that they understand how their mind works and better able to cope with daily challenges to remember things and solve problems. And as far as we know, there are few or no side effects of computer-based training.
Latest
- Meditation as Brain Training
- Brain Fitness and The Mind of a Monk
- Brain Fitness Tip: Training Without a Computer
Mindfulness meditation as practiced over a long period by experts makes clear changes in someone’s brain function. But what about those of us who don’t have a few years to sit in a monastery in the Himalayas? A new study shows that even brief meditation practice can improve attention.
Researchers at Wake Forest University studied whether just four days of training (at just 20 minutes a day) could make a difference in participants’ mood, energy, and cognition. Undergraduate students (average age 22 years) either participated in the meditation sessions or spent a similar amount of time sitting quietly and listening to an audio book.
Participants in the meditation condition showed decreases in anxiety and improvements in several mental processing tasks compared to those in the audio book group. The meditators’ performance on one aspect of a working memory task (how many answers they got correct in a row) suggested that they may have improved their attention.
This is a small and very preliminary study that extends others’ work on meditation and the brain.It shows that even brief meditation practice can make a difference. you don’t have to be a Buddhist monk to learn to still your mind and pay better attention. Paying attention may be one of the most important things you can do to improve your brain’s functioning.
Reference:
Zeidan F et al.(in press) Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training. Consciousness and Cognition, doi:10.1016/j.concog.2010.03.014
I saw an interesting blog post yesterday evening on the site of the Huffington Post about the potential benefits of meditation – or at least about what one woman thinks might be the benefits. Priscilla Warner writes about the contrast between Tibetan monks’ apparent calm, evident even on brain scans, and her own anxiety disorder. Ms. Warner says that she suffers from panic disorder, a severe form of anxiety in which a person can have multiple anxiety attacks every day, even in the middle of the night. Her post is titled “I Want the Brain of a Monk” Although most people don’t suffer from anxiety this severe, many people have symptoms of anxiety. And research has consistently shown that higher levels of anxiety are related to more memory problems.
What’s the relation to brain fitness? In my brain fitness class, I often mention the usefulness of meditation in helping reduce stress and anxiety, both of which have negative effects on memory. You don’t have to go to Tibet to get the benefits of meditation. If you simply take 10 minutes several times a day to break in to the ongoing rush of getting things done, you’ve made a start. Use those 10 minutes to sit quietly, relax your muscles, and breathe deeply.
If you do that every day for two weeks, I think you’ll notice that you feel calmer and better able to focus. And if you’re better able to focus, you will be better able to pay attention and remember things.
Although many people are excited about the potential for using computers to train their brains, we shouldn’t forget that other techniques have been used to the train the brain for many centuries. I’m thinking about the large number of techniques for meditation. While free computer software still requires an investment in a computer, meditation only asks you to sit or lie quietly and focus your mind.
A recently-published study shows parts of the brain in long-term meditators are larger than the same parts of the brain in people who don’t meditate. The article by Eileen Luders and her colleagues appeared in a recent issue of the journal Neuroimage (Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 672-678, April 15, 2009). The study showed that portions of the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus were larger in persons who had been regular meditators for 5 or more years. The study is interesting because the parts of the brain that were larger are often thought to be important in helping people keep themselves emotionally balanced.
A number of strategies are likely to be helpful for meditators. There has been a great deal of interest over the last several years in mindfulness meditation. Researchers have studied how it can be used in reducing anxiety and depression. Mindfulness is based on Buddhist meditation (for a brief article, click here) but you don’t have to be a Buddhist to practice meditation. In fact, one of the most important persons who has promoted mindfulness is Jon Kabat-Zinn, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts. You can see a video presentation by him on YouTube by clicking here.
Leave a Reply