Systematic research is needed on the potential effects of lifelong technology experience on cognition: a mini-review and recommendations

Digital technology now occupies a fundamental space in human life. Increasingly sophisticated access to information and social interactions has enabled a sort of offloading of many aspects of cognition, and for many people, this technology use has been lifelong. While the global development of technologies advances exponentially as part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, researchers have not yet fully characterized the human effects of this technology-centric revolution at the same pace. In this mini-review, we consider three important higher-level cognitive functions: creativity, adaptability, and decision-making, and discuss their potential relationship to lifelong digital technology experience, which here includes both passive exposure and active use of electronic devices. We then articulate the gaps in related literature and knowledge, and outline general considerations, suggestions, and challenges for future research avenues. In general, we found that prior research has investigated uses of specific technology products on lower-level cognition (e.g., how does the use of online search engines affect memory?), but there is a lack of research assessing the overall effects of technology experience on cognitive functioning, particularly complex cognition

Neuroenhancement in Military Personnel::Conceptual and Methodological Promises and Challenges

Military personnel face harsh conditions that strain their physical and mental well-being, depleting resources necessary for sustained operational performance. Future operations will impose even greater demands on soldiers in austere environments with limited support, and new training and technological approaches are essential. This report highlights the progress in cognitive neuroenhancement research, exploring techniques such as neuromodulation and neurofeedback, and emphasizes the inherent challenges and future directions in the field of cognitive neuroenhancement for selection, training, operations, and recovery

Regulating amyloid precursor protein synthesis through an internal ribosomal entry site

Expression of amyloid precursor protein (APP) is critical to the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Consequently, regulating APP expression is one approach to block disease progression. To this end, APP can be targeted at the levels of transcription, translation, and protein stability. Little is currently known about the translation of APP mRNA. Here, we report that endogenous APP mRNA is translated in neural cell lines via an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) located in the 5′-untranslated leader. The functional unit of the APP IRES is located within the 5′ 50 nucleotides of the 5′-leader. In addition, we found that the APP IRES is positively regulated by two conditions correlated with AD, increased intracellular iron concentration and ischemia. Interestingly, the enhancement of APP IRES activity is dependent upon de novo transcription. Taken together, our data suggest that internal initiation of translation of the APP mRNA is an important mode for synthesis of APP, a mechanism which is regulated by conditions that also contribute to AD

Neuroenhancement in Military Personnel: Conceptual and Methodological Promises and Challenges

Military personnel are subjected to prolonged operations in harsh and undesirable conditions characterized by severe environmental exposures, resource scarcity, and physical and mental encumbrance. Prolonged military operations under these conditions can degrade the already limited perceptual, cognitive, and emotional resources necessary to sustain performance on mission-related tasks. The complex multi-domain operations of the future battlespace are expected to further increase demands at even the lowest levels of the military echelon. These demands will be characterized with increasingly prolonged operations of small units in austere environments with limited resupply and degraded technological capabilities. It is therefore critical to identify new training and technological approaches to enable sustained, optimized, and/or enhanced performance of military personnel. Research in the international defence science community, academia, and industry has developed several promising neuroscientific strategies for pursuing this goal, including neuromodulatory and neurofeedback techniques. The present paper reviews the state of the art in cognitive neuroenhancement research and development from six participating nations: Canada, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Six neuromodulation techniques are reviewed, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS), transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), transcutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation (tPNS), photobiomodulation, and cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES). Three neurofeedback techniques are considered, including the use of electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for monitoring brain states, with feedback loops enabled through machine learning and artificial intelligence. Participating nations summarize basic and applied research leveraging one or more of these neuromodulation and neurofeedback technologies for the purposes of enhancing Warfighter cognitive performance. The report continues by detailing the inherent methodological challenges of cognitive neuroenhancement and other considerations for conducting research, development, and engineering in this domain. The report concludes with a discussion of promising future directions in neuroenhancement, including biosensing, improved mechanistic and predictive modelling and software tools, developing non-invasive forms of deep-brain stimulation, testing emerging theoretical models of brain and behavior, and developing closed-loop neuroenhancement and humanmachine teaming methods. Emphasis is placed on the conceptual and methodological promises and challenges associated with planning, executing, and interpreting neuroenhancement research and development efforts in the context of Warfighter selection, training, operations, and recovery

What Is Targeted When We Train Working Memory? Evidence From a Meta-Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Working Memory Training Using Activation Likelihood Estimation

Working memory (WM) is the system responsible for maintaining and manipulating information, in the face of ongoing distraction. In turn, WM span is perceived to be an individual-differences construct reflecting the limited capacity of this system. Recently, however, there has been some evidence to suggest that WM capacity can increase through training, raising the possibility that training can functionally alter the neural structures supporting WM. To address the hypothesis that the neural substrates underlying WM are targeted by training, we conducted a meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of WM training using Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE). Our results demonstrate that WM training is associated exclusively with decreases in blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses in clusters within the fronto-parietal system that underlie WM, including the bilateral inferior parietal lobule (BA 39/40), middle (BA 9) and superior (BA 6) frontal gyri, and medial frontal gyrus bordering on the cingulate gyrus (BA 8/32). We discuss the various psychological and physiological mechanisms that could be responsible for the observed reductions in the BOLD signal in relation to WM training, and consider their implications for the construct of WM span as a limited resource