{"id":916,"date":"2017-10-18T02:16:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T02:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebeta.com\/dual-n-back-memory\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:38:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T18:38:46","slug":"dual-n-back-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciencebeta.com\/dual-n-back-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"Dual N-back Cognitive Training Improves Working Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dual n-back training, one of the two methods most scientists use in cognitive training<\/a> research, is significantly better in improving memory and attention, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found. It also results in more significant changes in brain activity.<\/p>\n

The exercise didn\u2019t make anyone smarter, but it did greatly improve skills people need to excel at school and at work. These results suggest it\u2019s possible to train the brain like other body parts, with targeted workouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say cognitive training either works or doesn\u2019t work. We showed that it matters what kind of training you\u2019re doing. This one task seems to show the most consistent results and the most impact on performance and should be the one we focus on if we\u2019re interested in improving cognition through training,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

said lead author Kara J. Blacker, a former Johns Hopkins post-doctoral fellow in psychological and brain sciences.<\/p>\n

Testing Brain Exercise Types<\/h2>\n

Scientists trying to determine if brain exercises improve cognitive performance have had mixed luck. Johns Hopkins researchers suspected the problem wasn\u2019t the idea of brain training, but the type of exercise researchers chose to test it.<\/p>\n

They decided to compare directly the leading types of exercises and measure people\u2019s brain activity before and after training; that had never been attempted before, according to Blacker, now a researcher at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for Advancement of Military Medicine Inc.<\/p>\n

First, the team assembled three groups of participants, all young adults. Everyone took an initial battery of cognitive tests to determine baseline working memory<\/a>, attention and intelligence.<\/p>\n

Everyone also got an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure brain activity. Then, everyone was sent home to practice a computer task for a month.<\/p>\n

One group used one leading brain exercise while the second group used the other. The third group practiced on a control task.<\/p>\n

The training programs Johns Hopkins compared are not the commercial products available sold to consumers, but tools scientists rely on to test the brain\u2019s working memory.<\/p>\n

Everyone trained five days a week for 30 minutes, then returned to the lab for another round of tests to see if anything about their brain or cognitive abilities had changed.<\/p>\n

Complex Span Vs. Dual N-back<\/h2>\n

The researchers found that the group that practiced what\u2019s known as a \u201cdual n-back\u201d exercise showed a 30 percent improvement in their working memory. That was nearly double the gains made by the group working with the other common task, known as \u201ccomplex span.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dual n-back group also showed significant changes in brain activity in the prefrontal cortex<\/a>, the critical region responsible for higher learning.<\/p>\n

The \u201cdual n-back\u201d is a memory sequence test in which people must remember a constantly updating sequence of visual and auditory stimuli.<\/p>\n

The Johns Hopkins participants saw squares flashing on a grid while hearing letters. They had to remember if the square they just saw and the letter they heard were both the same as one round back.<\/p>\n

As the test got harder, they had to recall squares and letters two, three, and four rounds back. It\u2019s a bit like the children\u2019s electronic game Simon, but instead of just recalling sounds and colours, you have to remember the current sequence and the one a few rounds back.<\/p>\n

The other test, called \u201ccomplex span,\u201d also involves remembering items in a sequence. There\u2019s a distraction for people between items, but they don\u2019t need to continually update the items in their mind.<\/p>\n

Sequencing And Updating<\/h2>\n

The findings demonstrate that the \u201cdual n-back\u201d is a better regimen to train working memory, which is what people rely on to temporarily hold details in their mind like phone numbers and directions.<\/p>\n

These skills are vital to how people perform in school and at work, when tasks are new and you can\u2019t just rely on old knowledge and habits, says co-author Susan Courtney<\/a>, a Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and professor of psychological and brain sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe findings suggest that this particular task is changing something about the brain,\u201d Courtney said. \u201cThere\u2019s something about sequencing and updating that really taps into the things that only the pre-frontal cortex can do, the real-world problem-solving tasks.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The next step, the researchers say, is to figure out why \u201cdual n-back\u201d is so good at improving working memory<\/a>, and then figure out how to make it even more effective so that it can become a marketable, or even clinically useful, brain training program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest lesson here was that – yes – intensive training strengthens cognition and the brain, but we still don\u2019t understand why and how. We can\u2019t just jump onto a video game and expect that\u2019s going to cure all of our cognitive problems. We need more targeted interventions,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Courtney said.<\/p>\n

Blacker, K.J., Negoita, S., Ewen, J.B. et al.
\nN-back Versus Complex Span Working Memory Training<\/a>
\nJ Cogn Enhanc (2017). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s41465-017-0044-1<\/a><\/p>\n

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