
Cognitive training helps regain a younger-working brain - prostoalex
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180123112606.htm?utm_medium=email&utm_source=other&utm_campaign=opencourse.GdeNrll1EeSROyIACtiVvg.announcements~opencourse.GdeNrll1EeSROyIACtiVvg.vZLR7wKNEei_JBLBh0UxWA
======
hprotagonist
It is critical to note that this study does not address the transfer of
learning or performance on _one_ task and show that it improves performance
(or in this case, energy efficienty) on _any other_ task.

Put another way: lumosity makes you good and efficient at lumosity, but not
anything else.

Transfer learning is a bugbear for neuroscientists as well as ML people,
sadly.

~~~
tremendulo
Is there any kind of learning that improves performance on other tasks? (What
about language? What about if the 'other tasks' include learning?)

~~~
eutectic
There is some evidence that meditation can improve cognitive performance.

~~~
Godel_unicode
I was actually just looking for scholarly research on this subject, link?

~~~
fny
If you dig around, you'll find a lot of studies that are focused on a
particular outcome (e.g. effects of mindfulness on the Stroop test, effects of
mindfulness on athletic performance.) The quality of these studies is, of
course, all over the place. Most of the research seems to come from journals
dedicated to mindfulness in some capacity. For example, would you trust a
study done by PhDs at reputable universities if they published in "The Journal
of Alternative and Complementary Medicine"[0]?

The best research I ever found was a metastudy in Clinical Psychology Review:
"Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of
neuropsychological findings"[1] concludes that there's enough evidence that
further investigation is warranted.

There's also a lot of downstream research (citing articles) from both
publications that are worth investigating.

Transferability though, is still an open question. Even in this meta study,
the author's admit that certain types of mindfulness training may be
beneficial to certain outcomes.

So perhaps you'll be more mindful and less distracted, but you won't be any
"smarter."

[0]:
[http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2007.7022](http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2007.7022)
[1]:
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581000173X)

------
ghostcluster
> In a randomized clinical study involving adults age 56 to 71, researchers
> found that after cognitive training, participants' brains were more energy
> efficient, meaning their brain did not have to work as hard to perform a
> task.

So if you play a game over and over, you don't have to actively think as hard
to play it? A bit far from a "younger working brain"

~~~
conistonwater
If I understand correctly from the abstract, the task they measured was done
inside an MRI scanner, and was a different task from the training games. I
know that it's been a question for a while now whether any of this training
transfers to anything else, so it makes sense that that's what they would be
studying.

------
nicolashahn
Would have been nice if they went more into the actual training, all I see is
"The cognitive training utilized the Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning
Training (SMART) program developed at the Center for BrainHealth" but they
don't go on to say exactly what that program entails.

~~~
ksaho
I think they are referring to this app:
[https://brainhealth.utdallas.edu/brainhealth-
app/](https://brainhealth.utdallas.edu/brainhealth-app/)

~~~
vermooten
I downloaded the app in the hope of getting back my fizz from my 20s .... but
it just seems to be a timer.

------
vannevar
Color me skeptical until someone evaluates these claims who was _not_ involved
with coming up with the training program in question.

------
plg
brain training as such has been widely debunked by working neuroscientists,
those without a personal stake in brain training products

tldr: you improve on the tasks you train on, but generalization to other tasks
is extremely limited at best

------
dghughes
I was contemplating getting an MRI scan of my brain before I went to college.
At age 48 I can only assume it is good for my brain to stress it learning
something useful.

This isn't my first time going to school old. At age 34 I started University
but for various reasons dropped out early.

I have to say going to school now even compared to age 34 just 14 years ago is
quite different socially and technologically.

Maybe my brain will benefit from all this learning.

------
sitkack
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2017.10.003

~~~
matwood
And another paper showing playing 3d video games causes brain matter to
increase (or at least not deteriorate) in older people:
[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187779)

~~~
sitkack
Cool.

I'd be interested in a study where an additional group replaced games/music
with walking outside in the natural environment for 1 hr a day. Or since we
know "exercise" increases brain mass, what specifically about exercise causes
the response. Are the effects additive? Can we exercise, play music and video
games for more than 1x the matter growth?

[http://www.pnas.org/content/108/7/3017](http://www.pnas.org/content/108/7/3017)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3039208/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3039208/)

[https://www.nature.com/articles/srep03457](https://www.nature.com/articles/srep03457)

------
maxander
For those who come directly to the comments for the paper link:
[http://www.neurobiologyofaging.org/article/S0197-4580(17)303...](http://www.neurobiologyofaging.org/article/S0197-4580\(17\)30342-1/fulltext)

Its worth noting that, from a brief look, the "cognitive training" program
looks like a fairly intensive and detailed course, _not_ some brain-app-like
game. I don't know if I've seen something similar offered commercially.

------
sidcool
What sort of cognitive tasks would aid this? Something like Lumosity?

~~~
daniel_iversen
They were referring to this "SMART" app by the Center for BrainHealth, but I'd
be a bit dubious about the actual result here (see above postings, which has
been a debate for a long time):

[https://brainhealth.utdallas.edu/brainhealth-
app/](https://brainhealth.utdallas.edu/brainhealth-app/)

...on the other hand It can't (really) hurt much, and the mind is a weird
thing :)

~~~
sidcool
Thanks. Seems like it's only an iOS app.

