Category: Psychomotor Speed
While many of us are enthusiastic about computer-based brain training, studies of how well it works in the real world have been uninspiring. It’s possible to train people to do better on cognitive tasks, but it’s not clear that the training carries over into the real world. Does brain training really work? A new study of more than 10,000 people says: Maybe not.
One of the most interesting findings in the field of computer-based cognitive training is based on a study by Susanne Jaeggi and her colleagues that showed that a specific kind of mental exercise can improve fluid reasoning ability. This finding is important and exciting for several reasons. One is the effect of a very small amount of training (as little as 20 minutes a day) on what many people think is a basic mental ability. The other is the idea that any kind of basic ability can be improved.
The computer-based training involves a procedure called n-back training. It’s been used for a long time in neuropsychological or cognitive assessment activities as a way to evaluate working memory. In single n-back, you have to remember, for example, the position of an object that appears intermittently in various positions on a computer screen. If you’re doing the task, you have to press a key on the computer when the object appears in the same place. In single n-back, you would watch to see if the object appears in the same two times in a row. If you are doing 2 n-back, then the object has to appear once in a specific place, then can appear somewhere else on the screen, and then appears again in the first position. The number refers to how many positions back you have to keep track of. It can go up to as many as 6 back.
In dual n-back, you have to do two n-back tasks at the same time. The other one can be auditory, for example. One task asks you to listen to numbers played on the computer’s speakers, with the same basic task. You have to remember whether a number you hear is the same as the one you just heard, or heard before the last one, and so on. It’s easier to understand if you try it out.
You can try it out in several places for free. It can be pretty challenging, but the original study showed that how well a person did the task didn’t matter so much as that the person did the task at the level that worked for them. Doing the task is a great way of training your attention, and another study has shown that this kind of training can make changes in the brain’s chemistry.
You can find try the task out at Soak Your Head (this site requires a browser plug-in called Silverlight, so you may see a message about installing it) and you can download a version for your own computer (free) at Brain Workshop. Another free online version is at The Mindflow.
One of the most publicized issues in brain fitness is computer-based training to help you improve your mental functions. Several companies advertise computer software programs to increase brain abilities. Some of these programs are pretty expensive, and when I’ve given talks to consumers I’m often asked whether they’re worth it.
Several studies have shown that computer training can improve mental abilities. It’s not clear that any one program is better than any other. Having worked with a number of these programs, I see some elements in common that I think are likely make them helpful.
Working with computers seems to help people develop sustained attention. When a computer is giving you new tasks like math problems every few seconds, you have to pay close attention for as long as you’re working. Some programs promote sustained attention to what you hear and others do it for what you see. Both modalities may be helpful.
Another cognitive ability that is improved by computer training is processing speed. Processing speed may be a key ability that underlies other mental abilities. We slow down as we age, but training is clearly effective in speeding us up.
One widely-cited study showed that a particular kind of working memory training (dual n-back task) improved performance on a measure of fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence is the kind that declines most drastically with age, so this finding is especially intriguing.
So if you’re interested in maintaining and improving your brain fitness, it makes sense to spend some time every day in computer-based activities that engage your attention and demand that you think quickly. You can use one of the expensive computer packages, but I think you are likely to get similar effects from less expensive and even free programs. See my computer training page for links to computer training programs, with my comments on each. Click here to go to the computer training page.
Positive Science’s brain fitness software is the subject of a paper in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The paper presents results of the IMPACT study, a test of the effects of their software on elders’ cognitive functioning. The study is noteworthy for having been carried out at three sites by reputable scientists, and its design made it a genuine test of the effects of Posit’s program.
For those of you not familiar with Posit’s programs, they are based on key ideas developed by the company’s president Dr. Michael Merzenich. He has argued that it’s possible to change the functioning of the brain through targeted computer training, and the software focuses on key abilities such as the ability to detect rapidly-changing sounds and following lengthy sets of directions. Users of the software are encouraged to use it for about one hour a day, five days a week, for eight weeks.
One of the best things about this study is the control group used by the investigators. People in the control group (the one compared) were asked to do cognitive stimulation activities that are similar to those many people believe might be helpful — viewing an educational video and answering questions about it.
The IMPACT study showed that people who completed the computer-based training did better on outcome measures than the people in the control group. These outcome measures were neuropsychological measures in a battery given to participants both before and after they either used the program or were in the control group.
Statistical analyses showed that people who used the computer program scored better on these measures than the people in the control group. The authors conclude that the program may be helpful.
The differences between the groups were statistically significant, and that’s important for all of us to know. But it’s also important to look at how big the effect of using the program was. One measure, the Auditory Verbal Learning Test or AVLT, showed a significant difference. The AVLT asks someone to remember a list of 15 words. In this study, the people who used the computer program remembered, on average, about six tenths of a word more after using it.
This doesn’t mean the program isn’t useful. This amount of improvement is similar to that seen with some prescription medications used for Alzheimer’s disease, for example, and some people may have done much better than the average. It also doesn’t tell us how much change would occur for people who use the program over longer periods, too. But it seems to me that most people would want a clear idea of how well the program works before investing in it.
“Life goes by pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
One ability that is usually measured in studies of cognitive aging is “psychomotor speed.” It’s often considered as a separate ability and has been shown to decline with increasing age. What is it, and why is it important?
Psychomotor speed means being able to coordinate thinking fast with doing something fast. Driving a car is an obvious example. You have to move your eyes and your head to know what’s going on around you. You have to think about what your car is doing, and what other drivers, pedestrians, and animals are going to do. And you have to respond to what you see by doing something such as pressing the brake or accelerator pedals, turning the steering wheel, or using the turn signal. The “psycho” in psychomotor refers to the thinking part of this skill, while the “motor” part refers to doing something with your muscles, like hitting the break when you see a ball bouncing into the street. When you’re younger, you’re generally able to do this sort of thing much more quickly than you can as you get older. Some studies show that psychomotor speed starts declining in someone’s 20s, and continues to decline with age.
Like Ferris Bueller says, “life goes by pretty fast.” A lot of things go by pretty fast, and declines in psychomotor speed affect more than just driving ability. Another example that isn’t quite as obvious is your ability to understand conversations. You may not think about it this way, but understanding what people are saying requires that you take in all sorts of sounds, sort out what’s meaningful from what’s noise, and then figure out what a speaker is saying based on this complex of sound and meaning. And you have to do all of this pretty quickly, before the next volley of sound comes at you. Some people believe that this is one of the issues that causes older people to say they have trouble understanding conversation. It’s not just having problems in hearing (that can often be helped with a hearing aid) but also with speed of processing or psychomotor speed.
Since psychomotor speed is something that can be improved with training, it may be possible for older people to improve it in ways that might help in everyday life. Both auditory (hearing) and visual speed training are included in many computer brain training programs.
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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.
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. (more…)
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.