Verbal Working Memory Training in Health and Disease : Outcomes and Underlying Mechanisms

Arbetsminnesträningens positiva effekter svagare än vad som tidigare påvisats Arbetsminnesträningens effekter har varit kontroversiella och deras mekanismer oklara. Daniel Fellmans doktorsavhandling som fokuserar på det verbala arbetsminnet visar att träningseffekterna är mycket begränsade både hos friska vuxna och hos neurologiska patienter. En potentiellt viktig mekanism för den i och för sig begränsade träningsframgången är de strategier som man använder. Deltagare som tog i bruk minnesstrategier visade bättre framgång. Resultaten i avhandlingen ger inget stöd för den rådande kapacitetshypotesen enligt vilken arbetsminnets begränsade kapacitet kan utvidgas genom intensiv och utmanande träning. Fynden talar snarare för strategiförmedlingshypotesen, enligt vilken kapaciteten inte ökar men man börjar använda sina minnesresurser mer effektivt genom tillämpandet av strategier under träningsperioden. Trots att det idag finns ett stort antal kommersiella arbetsminnesträningsprogram till salu tyder föreliggande resultat på att de positiva effekterna av dessa träningsprogram sannolikt är minimala och deras nytta kunde ifrågasättas. Träningsstudierna i avhandlingen använde sig av nätbaserad arbetsminnesträning som utfördes i deltagarnas hemmiljö vilket visade sig vara tillämpbart både hos friska vuxna och patienter som hade Parkinsons sjukdom. Studierna utfördes inom projektet BrainTrain som hör till Åbo Akademis interna spetsforskningsenheter. Avhandlingsarbetet finansierades av Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi och Signe och Ane Gyllenbergs stiftelse. ---------------------------------------------- Työmuistitreenauksen myönteiset vaikutukset luultua niukemmat Työmuistin harjoittamisen vaikutukset ovat olleet kiistanalaisia ja niiden mekanismit epäselviä. Daniel Fellmanin kielelliseen työmuistiin keskittyvä väitöskirja osoittaa, että treenausvaikutukset ovat hyvin rajallisia sekä terveillä aikuisilla että neurologisilla potilailla. Mahdollinen tärkeä mekanismi näiden rajoitettujen harjoitusvaikutusten taustalla on käytetty strategia. Muististrategioita käyttäneet koehenkilöt menestyivät paremmin kuin ne jotka eivät käyttäneet strategioita. Väitöskirjan tulokset eivät tue vallitsevaa kapasiteettihypoteesia jonka mukaan treenaus kasvattaa työmuistin kapasiteettia. Ne tukevat pikemminkin vaihtoehtoista strategiahypoteesia, jonka mukaan työmuistin käyttö tehostuu treenauksen aikana käyttöön otettujen strategioiden myötä. Vaikka työmuistia harjoittavia kaupallisia ohjelmia on runsaasti tarjolla, viittaavat Fellmanin väitöskirjan tulokset siihen, että tämänkaltaisten treenausohjelmien positiiviset vaikutukset ovat minimaalisia ja niistä saatava hyöty siten kyseenalaista. Treenaustutkimukset toteutettiin nettipohjaisella ohjelmalla, jota koehenkilöt käyttivät kotitietokoneittensa kautta ja joka osoittautui toimivaksi sekä terveillä aikuisilla että Parkinsonin tautia sairastavilla potilailla. Tutkimukset tehtiin osana BrainTrain-projektia, joka on Åbo Akademin sisäinen huippututkimusyksikkö. Väitöskirjatyön rahoittivat Åbo Akademin säätiö sekä Signe ja Ane Gyllenbergin säätiö

The early effects of external and internal strategies on working memory updating training

The mechanisms underlying working memory training remain unclear, but one possibility is that the typically limited transfer effects of this training reflect adoption of successful task-specific strategies. Our pre-registered randomized controlled trial (N = 116) studied the early effects of externally given vs. internally generated strategies in an updating task (n-back) over a 5-day period with a single 30-minute training session. Three groups were employed: n-back training with strategy instruction (n = 40), n-back training without strategy instruction (n = 37), and passive controls (n = 39). We found that both external and internal strategy use was associated with significantly higher posttest performance on the trained n-back task, and that training with n-back strategy instruction yielded positive transfer on untrained n-back tasks, resembling the transfer pattern typically seen after the ordinary uninstructed 4-6-week working memory training. In the uninstructed participants, the level of detail and type of internally generated n-back strategies at posttest was significantly related to their posttest n-back performance. Our results support the view that adoption of task-specific strategies plays an important role in working memory training outcomes, and that strategy-based effects are apparent right at the start of training

Beginning of the pandemic: COVID-19 elicited anxiety as a predictor of working memory performance

Increasing evidence indicates that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is associated with adverse psychological effects, including heightened levels of anxiety. This study examined whether COVID-19-related anxiety levels during the early stage of the pandemic predicted demanding working memory (WM) updating performance. Altogether, 201 healthy adults (age range, 18-50) mostly from North America and the British Isles were recruited to this study via the crowdsourcing site www.prolific.co. The results showed that higher levels of COVID-19-related anxiety during the first weeks of the pandemic outbreak were associated with poorer WM performance as measured by the n-back paradigm. Critically, the unique role of COVID-19-related anxiety on WM could not be explained by demographic factors, or other psychological factors such as state and trait anxiety or fluid intelligence. Moreover, across three assessment points spanning 5-6 weeks, COVID-19-related anxiety levels tended to decrease over time. This pattern of results may reflect an initial psychological "shock wave" of the pandemic, the cognitive effects of which may linger for some time, albeit the initial anxiety associated with the pandemic would change with habituation and increasing information. Our results contribute to the understanding of cognitive-affective reactions to a major disaster.</p

Spontaneous memory strategies in a videogame simulating everyday memory tasks

People can use different internal strategies to manage their daily tasks, but systematic research on these strategies and their significance for actual performance is still quite sparse. Here we examined self-reported internal strategy use with a 10-block version of the videogame EPELI (Executive Performance in Everyday LIving) in a group of 202 neurotypical adults of 18-50 years of age. In the game, participants perform lists of everyday tasks from memory while navigating in a virtual apartment. Open-ended strategy reports were collected after each EPELI task block, and for comparison also after an EPELI Instruction Recall task and a Word List Learning task assessing episodic memory. On average, 45% of the participants reported using some strategy in EPELI, the most common types being grouping (e.g., performing the tasks room by room), utilising a familiar action schema, and condensing information (e.g., memorising only keywords). Our pre-registered hypothesis on the beneficial effect of self-initiated strategy use gained support, as strategy users showed better performance on EPELI as compared with no strategy users. One of the strategies, grouping, was identified as a clearly effective strategy type. Block-by-block transitions suggested gradual stabilisation of strategy use over the 10 EPELI blocks. The proneness to use strategies showed a weak but reliable association between EPELI and Word List Learning. Overall, the present results highlight the importance of internal strategy use for understanding individual differences in memory performance, as well as the potential benefit for internal strategy employment when faced with everyday memory tasks

Disentangling the Role of Working Memory in Parkinson's Disease

Working memory (WM) represents a core cognitive function with a major striatal contribution, and thus WM deficits, commonly observed in Parkinson's disease (PD), could also relate to many other problems in PD patients. Our online study aimed to determine the subdomains of WM that are particularly affected in PD and to clarify the links between WM and everyday cognitive deficits, other executive functions, psychiatric and PD symptoms, as well as early cognitive impairment. Fifty-two mild-to-moderate PD patients and 54 healthy controls performed seven WM tasks tapping selective updating, continuous monitoring, or maintenance of currently active information. Self-ratings of everyday cognition, depression, and apathy symptoms, as well as screenings of global cognitive impairment, were also collected. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Of the three WM domains, only selective updating was directly predictive of PD group membership. More widespread WM deficits were observed only in relation to global cognitive impairment in PD patients. Self-rated everyday cognition or psychiatric symptoms were not linked to WM performance but correlated with each other. Our findings suggest that WM has a rather limited role in the clinical manifestation of PD. Nevertheless, due to its elementary link to striatal function, the updating component of WM could be a candidate for a cognitive marker of PD also in patients who are otherwise cognitively well-preserved

The Pursuit of Effective Working Memory Training: a Pre-registered Randomised Controlled Trial with a Novel Varied Training Protocol

Working memory (WM) training, typically entailing repetitive practice with one or two tasks, has mostly yielded only limited task-specific transfer effects. We developed and tested a new WM training approach where the task paradigm, stimulus type, and predictability of the stimulus sequence were constantly altered during the 4-week training period. We expected that this varied training protocol would generate more extensive transfer by facilitating the use of more general strategies that could be applied to a range of WM tasks. Pre-post transfer effects following varied training (VT group, n = 60) were compared against traditional training (TT group, training a single adaptive WM task, n = 63), and active controls (AC, n = 65). As expected, TT evidenced strong task-specific near transfer as compared to AC. In turn, VT exhibited task-specific near transfer only on one of the measures, and only as compared to the TT group. Critically, no evidence for task-general near transfer or far transfer effects was observed. In sum, the present form of VT failed to demonstrate broader transfer. Nevertheless, as VT has met with success in other cognitive domains, future studies should probe if and how it would be possible to design WM training protocols that promote structural learning where common features of specific tasks would be identified and utilised when selecting strategies for novel memory tasks. </p

African Linguistics in Central and Eastern Europe, and in the Nordic Countries

Non peer reviewe