Cognitive Training, Gait Speed, and Brain Fitness

An article in this weeks’ Journal of Gerontology, provides some interesting information on how cognitive training can actually affect someone’s physical status. The article, titled “Effect of Cognitive Remediation on Gait in Sedentary Seniors,” reports on a small group of elders who completed 8 weeks of computer-based cognitive training. The authors found that the elders who completed cognitive training actually showed an increase in walking speed (even though that wasn’t part of the training).

This is significant for several reasons. First, it suggests that a mental activity can have positive effects on someone’s physical status. Said this way, this isn’t all that surprising — we’ve known for many years that relaxation can help to control blood pressure, and that stress management training can help to reduce the risks of heart attacks. The leap to something as basic as walking speed, however, is new.

Second, the study suggests (at least to me) that the link between mental and physical decline may work both ways. We’ve known for some time that exercise, for example, can have positive effects on cognition. This study suggests that the reverse may be true: that cognition can have a positive effect on physical status.

One more reason for all of us to continue to be both mentally and physically active.

Reference:

Verghese J, et al.(2010). Effect of cognitive remediation on gait in sedentary seniors. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, 65A, 1338-1343.

Brain Fitness Tip: Dual n-Back

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.