February 11, 2009
Computerized Brain Exercises Improve Memory
A study in the upcoming April 2009 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society demonstrated that computerized brain exercises can improve memory and processing speed. Researchers from the University of Southern California and the Mayo Clinic used a commercially available software program to study cognitive changes via computer exercises.
The Improvement in Memory with Plasticity-based Adaptive Cognitive Training (IMPACT) study was funded by the Posit Science Corporation, which owns the rights to the Brain Fitness Program, tested in the study.
487 healthy adults over the age of 65 participated in a randomized controlled trial, half used the Brain Fitness Program for 40 hours over the course of eight weeks. The other half of participants spent an equal amount of time learning from educational DVDs followed by quizzes.
Those who trained on the Brain Fitness Program were twice as fast in processing information with an average improvement in response time of 131 percent. The active control group did not show statistically significant gains. According to the researchers, participants who used the Brain Fitness Program also scored as well as those ten years younger, on average, on memory and attention tests for which they did not train.
Many participants also reported significant improvements in everyday cognitive activities such as remembering names or understanding conversations in noisy restaurants.
The researchers commented that the changes seen in the experimental group significantly larger than the gains in the control group. Not only did people get better at the tasks trained but "those improvements generalized to standardized measures of memory and people noticed improvements in their lives. What this means is that cognitive decline is no longer an inevitable part of aging. Doing properly designed cognitive activities can enhance our abilities as we age."
Improvement in Memory with Plasticity-based Adaptive Cognitive Training (IMPACT) study
Posted by rsk at February 11, 2009 02:32 PM