High level of evidence for cognitive training

A recently published report funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reviews the extensive literature on cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease in search of factors that might delay or prevent these age-related conditions. Of all the factors reviewed, including diet and dietary supplements, physical exercise, social engagement, and other leisure activities, only cognitive training was found to have a high level of evidence for being associated with a decreased risk of cognitive decline. So, if you want to engage in activities that are known to be associated with a reduced risk of cognitive decline, this report says that cognitive training is the only thing that currently fits the bill.

The nearly 800-page manuscript was prepared by the Duke Evidence-based Practice Center for the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This exhaustive report was created to support the NIH State-of-the-Science Conference “Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Decline.” The conference brought together health experts with specific expertise in aging and age-related changes in cognition to discuss the current state of knowledge related to treatments for age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. The report takes a very conservative approach to its evaluation of risk factors and potential treatments for age-related problems of cognition. In fact, only cognitive training was found to have a high degree of evidence for reducing the risk of age-related cognitive decline. Hundreds of studies were reviewed, and while many studies offered evidence that was suggestive of reducing risks, most were correlational, rather than experimental, in nature. For instance, some studies showed a relationship between eating a “Mediterranean diet” and reduced risk of cognitive decline. But these studies typically just ask people about their diet and correlate these factors to cognitive performance. Conversely, there have been several randomized, controlled trials that have shown improved cognitive performance through cognitive training. This higher degree of rigor earned cognitive training the “high degree of evidence” designation in this report.

Of course, that’s not to say you shouldn’t take care of yourself in other ways. Other factors such as a diet high in vegetables and omega-3 fatty acids, physical activity, and some leisure activities were found to be associated with a decreased risk of cognitive decline, albeit with a low level of evidence. In other words, these things are likely good for your brain, but the authors did not feel there was enough evidence to say so definitively. Given that most of these lifestyle factors are good for you in other ways, there’s certainly no harm in eating better, getting more exercise, or spending more time with friends and family. If you want to see how your lifestyle may be affecting your brain health, take our Brain Grade test.

This report is just another reason to make cognitive training — like Lumosity.com — a regular part of your brain health routine.

Even mice benefit from brain training!

Working memory training has been shown to be effective in improving fluid intelligence in humans. Now, research out of Rutgers has shown a similar effect in mice. This finding in mice reinforces the idea that brain enhancement through neuroplasticity is generally possible among mammals, and it opens up exciting possibilities for future research.

Researchers trained mice on a task that exercised working memory and attention, and measured their ability to perform a range of mentally challenging tasks before and after training. The mice that received focused brain training improved on measures of generalized cognitive function compared to control mice with no training. The researchers, who recently published this work in the prestigious journal Current Biology, imply that you can think of these tests as IQ tests for mice. In other words, working memory training seems to have actually made these mice smarter!

For training, the mice needed to simultaneously remember two maze configurations, and be able to make their way through either one. The mice then completed several tests to measure the effect of the training on their intelligence and ability to learn. The training made the mice better at tests that didn’t involve mazes at all, like learning how to avoid an unpleasant stimulus.

So, as in brain training studies in humans, the mice didn’t just get better at what they were practicing – they also became generally more intelligent. This transfer of training is the gold standard in assessing the effectiveness of brain training. Transfer implies that underlying brain systems are fundamentally changed by the learning, and it’s not just that the subject learned how to take the test.

This kind of transfer has been shown many times in human studies — including transfer from speed of processing training to driving ability, auditory processing training to memory performance, and working memory training to fluid intelligence — but, this is the first such result demonstrated in a non-human animal. This is significant for a few reasons. First of all, it implies that improvement in general cognitive function with brain training is a fundamental capacity of the mammalian brain, not just a human trait. Also, this paradigm allows for research that is difficult to perform on humans. The environment of mice can be very carefully controlled, eliminating many of the confounding variables inherent in research on humans. Researchers can breed mice to have certain characteristics and even knock out certain genes and replace them with others. This opens up the possibility of testing the effects of brain training on conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease, for which there are mouse models. Many new avenues of research are opened by the demonstration of this effect in mice.

This result represents an important milestone in study of brain training! It reinforces what we already know — the brain is highly adaptable and can be improved with training, and it gives us new avenues to explore. We’re looking forward to seeing what this team comes up with next.

Joe Hardy, PhD

Two New Math Storm Games

Ready to give your arithmetic and quantitative reasoning skills a workout? Think you’ve mastered Addition Storm and Subtraction Storm? Make sure you’ve got an umbrella handy, and get ready for our two new Math Storm games.

For a limited time, Division Storm and Multiplication Storm are free to play for all members. What are you waiting for?

Rev up your arithmetic with Subtraction Storm

It’s raining cupcakes! But don’t worry, we brought enough to share. In Subtraction Storm, you’ll train arithmetic by solving subtraction equations and keeping the cupcakes from hitting the ground.

Give it a try and send some feedback our way; it’s free to all members for a limited time only!

Improve your Planning skills with Route to Sprout

What are you planning for? Whether you’re making arrangements for a trip to the grocery store, a weekend getaway, or a year abroad, chances are you’re making plans for something. But if we plan ahead so frequently, why do our best laid plans so often go awry?

From a cognitive perspective, “planning” can actually involve several brain attributes, including working memory, spatial recall, and logical reasoning. With all of these things in play, it’s no wonder that choosing your next few moves in a game of chess can seem like a monumental task.

That’s why we’ve designed Route to Sprout, a new game that challenges you to move a seed to its planting hole using the most efficient path you can find. If you take the time to figure out the optimal route, you’ll earn extra points and give your planning skills a workout at the same time.

Give it a try, and let us know what you think!

The power of brain plasticity

This article was contributed by Paul Li, who teaches cognitive science at UC Berkeley.

The human brain is quite remarkable. It does not remain static, but instead ceaselessly changes throughout life. Everything you learn or experience impacts the biology of your brain.

Though some cognitive abilities typically begin to decline in the third decade of life, cortical plasticity renews our hope that new connections can be willfully forged. For example, there was a little girl who was born with very little cortical tissue. Doctors did not see much of a future for her because she did not have a “normal” brain; however, because of cortical plasticity and the brain’s ability to reorganize itself, she learned to function quite well (Distelmaier et al., 2007).

The article highlighted that this “case teaches us that clinicians and parents should not give up in the face of an apparently hopeless case!”

In a previous post, Almost No Brain, a man managed to lead a normal life despite having minimal gray matter inside his skull. These two cases show how amazingly adaptable the brain is. The ability to shift the nature-nurture tension toward the nurture side is empowering for us, and provides hope even in the face of serious abnormalities of the brain.

References:
Distelmaier et al., “How Much Brain Is Really Necessary?” A Case of Complex Cerebral Malformation and Its Clinical Course, J Child Neurol 2007; 22; 756

Special thanks to Bradley Voytek, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Berkeley, for his assistance.

Working memory training changes the brain

By Gregory Kellett, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at SFSU and science writer for Lumos Labs .

It seems that working memory training may work by physically altering the brain. Stockholm Brain Institute researchers put healthy people through working memory exercises for 35 minutes per day over a period of 5 weeks. Changes in dopamine receptor density were measured with positron emission tomography (PET) before and after the training.

Following working memory training, they found:

• An increase in the density of dopamine receptors.
• An improvement in working memory performance.

The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a central role in working memory. This research implies that improving working memory performance through several weeks of training might work by increasing the quantity of dopamine receptors in the brain.

References:
Buschkuehl, M., Jaeggi, S. M., Hutchison, S., Perrig-Chiello, P., Däpp, C., Müller, M., et al. (2008). Impact of working memory training on memory performance in old-old adults. Psychology and Aging, 23(4), 743-53.

Dahlin, E., Neely, A. S., Larsson, A., Bäckman, L., & Nyberg, L. (2008). Transfer of learning after updating training mediated by the striatum. Science (New York, N.Y.), 320(5882), 1510-2.

McNab, F., Varrone, A., Farde, L., Jucaite, A., Bystritsky, P., Forssberg, H., et al. (2009). Changes in cortical dopamine D1 receptor binding associated with cognitive training. Science (New York, N.Y.), 323(5915), 800-2.

Work your Memory with the New Familiar Faces Game

You know those awkward moments when you’re supposed to know someone’s name but don’t… or where you have to ask someone to repeat themselves because you weren’t paying attention?

Well Lumos Labs has devised a new brain game to help you avoid those embarrassing situations. Its called Familiar Faces, and as the title implies, it involves remembering people’s faces, along with their names and food orders. Big tips and job promotions are the goal, and those are achieved by improving your service with practice.

Keeping in mind who ordered what will exercise both your working memory and attention, while possibly helping to make your social life a tad more comfortable. Check it out, and as always, feel free to give us your feedback.