Train Working Memory to Improve Brain Fitness

Learning about what kinds of cognitive training can actually help to maintain and improve your brain fitness can be confusing. Several websites promise to improve your brain fitness with online games or by way of software that you can order.

What kinds of cognitive training actually make a difference in someone’s brain functioning? Research to answer this question is in its infancy, but a number of studies have suggested that there is something special about training working memory. You use working memory when you have to keep several things in your mind and once, and then do something with them.

Think about adding two numbers that each have two digits, like 98 and 33. Remember, this problem is read aloud to you, so you can’t see the numbers, except possibly in your mind. You may know to add the 8 and 3 to get 11, but then you have to keep the 1 in mind while you add 1 (carried over) to 9 and 3. That’s working memory.

Why are people interested in working memory and brain fitness? We know it declines with age, and at least one study has shown that it can be improved with training (Jaeggi et al., 2008). Further, training working memory has been related to improvements in fluid intelligence, a key ability that underlies new learning and problem solving. And some researchers believe that working memory ability is a key part of general intelligence.

Another study showed that working memory training could change the density of neurotransmitter receptors in a part of the brain that is important for attention (McNab et al., 2009).

My colleagues and I are working on a study of working memory in older persons who are cognitive normal. Tomorrow I’ll list ways you can train working memory for little or no money.

References:

Jaeggi SM et al. (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 6829-6833.

McNab F et al. (2009). Changes in cortical dopamine D1 receptor binding associated with cognitive training. Science, 323, 800-802.

5 Ways to Focus on Brain Fitness

For pretty much all of us, developing brain fitness means doing something different. Either we have to do something we don’t do now, such as exercise or eat antioxidant-rich foods, or we have to do less of something we already do, such as eating high fat foods or just eating too much.

As a neuropsychiatrist, I often work with people who want to change something about themselves or their lives. And wanting to change raises the paradox we all face at times: we want to change, but we don’t.

The psychoanalysts used to have complex theories about why people do things that appear self-defeating. I think there’s a better answer: lack of focus. This may seem too simple, but attention is a complicated ability that is affected by things inside and outside of us.

When cognitive psychologists says that attention is a limited resource, they mean that you can only focus on a limited number of things at one time. Research has shown that even people who believe they are good at doing more than one thing at a time actually aren’t.

What does that have to do with change? In order to change, you have to be able to pay attention to what you’re doing and remember that you want to do something different. If you’re watching TV, it’s easy to eat an entire bag of chips. If you really pay attention to what you’re doing and at the same time remember that you want to lose 10 pounds, the chances are you will eat less. But when your attention is spent on the TV, your behavior becomes almost automatic (and probably outside of your awareness).

What can you do? Here are 5 ways to develop focus on what you want to change:

• Start every day with 10 minutes of focused thinking or meditation. Break up the morning rush for just a few minutes so that you’ll have the change to reflect on your goals for the day.
• Help yourself remember to pay attention. Recognize that you will forget or become distracted from your goals, and do something about it. In Aldous Huxley’s novel Island, birds were trained to help people to remember this point by repeatedly saying “Attention!” You may not have a mynah bird, but you can put a note on the bathroom mirror or a picture on the refrigerator to help you remember your goals.
• Schedule a reminder in your phone or computer. Set it to pop up at a particular time or interval to remind you to stop for a few moments and review your goals, to meditate, or to relax.
• Schedule time once a week for a more complete review of your goals at a time when you won’t feel rushed. Take some time to think about how well you’ve done during the preceding week, and focus on your goals for the coming week.
• Try writing down personal brain fitness goals and keep the list somewhere that you will see without making a specific effort, such a door you walk through every day.

If you want to achieve something – whether it’s weight loss, increased exercise, or consistent brain training – you have to deploy some of your limited resource, attention. Finding ways to keep your goals in mind, every day, is a key.