Researchers reveal how to boost brain power

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have found that one brain-training method often used in scientific studies can help to improve working memory.

How can we train our brains to improve working memory? An existing cognitive task may be the answer, researchers say.
Our working memory is what we use on a day-to-day basis, especially at school or in a work context. It refers to our ability to pick up new information and adapt our responses accordingly, over brief periods of time.

Working memory is a key part of the learning process, and it has been linked to literacy and numeracy abilities. It is no surprise, then, that scientists have been investigating whether there are any “recipes for success” when it comes to improving working memory.

So far, studies have not conclusively pinpointed an effective method of training the brain to boost its cognitive abilities. But now, researchers based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, have used a fresh approach to test the effectiveness of different brain-training methods.

They have found, for the first time, that one exercise can significantly enhance working memory.

“People say cognitive training either works or doesn’t work. We showed that it matters what kind of training you’re 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’re interested in improving cognition through training.”

Lead study author Dr. Kara J. Blacker

The researchers’ findings were published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement earlier this week.


Brain training through memory tasks
Dr. Blacker and colleagues hypothesized that previous studies may not have focused on the most effective brain-training tasks when attempting to address the question, “Can we improve some of our cognitive abilities?”

Thus, in their own study, the researchers compared two main types of brain-training activity. They also measured the participants’ brain activity both before and after they had engaged in these exercises, using electroencephalograms (EEG).

The team recruited 136 young adults (of whom 44 were male), who were then split into three groups. All the participants were subjected to the same tests at baseline, in order to ascertain working memory abilities, attention, and intelligence levels. Brain activity was also measured by EEG at baseline.

Two types of brain-training exercise were tackled in this study: “dual n-back” and “complex span.”

Dual n-back training involves receiving visuospatial and auditory information simultaneously. In this case, as explained in the paper, “[p]articipants saw a blue square on a gray background in one of eight spatial locations on a computer screen and at the same time heard one of eight letter sounds.”

The information was continuously updated, and they were asked to remember sequences that they were exposed to 1 minute ago, 2 minutes ago, or a few minutes back as the difficulty of the task increased.

In the other brain-training exercise, complex span, “[t]he participant’s task was to remember the order and locations of red squares presented in a 4 x 4 grid.” This exercise, however, did not require constantly updating the “store” of information they had just received.

‘Sequencing and updating’ task effective
Split up into three groups, the participants had to do the dual n-back task, the complex span task, or a control task. They engaged in these tasks for a month, spread across 5 days per week for a total of 30 minutes each time.

After the final EEG scans, the scientists found that the working memory of participants who had engaged in the dual n-back task had improved by 30 percent — which is almost twice as much as the improvement shown in participants who had been assigned the complex span exercise.

The same participants also displayed changes in the activity of the prefrontal cortex, which is a brain region highly implicated in attention and memory.

“The findings suggest that this particular task [dual n-back] is changing something about the brain. There’s 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,” explains study co-author Prof. Susan Courtney.

Following this study, the researchers are interested in understanding what makes this particular task an effective exercise for enhancing working memory. They would also like to adapt this exercise to make it more consumer-oriented, or marketable in a clinical context.

“The biggest lesson here was that — yes — intensive training strengthens cognition and the brain, but we still don’t understand why and how. We can’t just jump onto a video game and expect that’s going to cure all of our cognitive problems. We need more targeted interventions,” comments Prof. Courtney.

For an example of a dual n-back task similar to that which the study participants were given, have a look at the video below.

Neurology / Neuroscience

The aging brain: New research paves way for treating memory loss
Written by Hannah Flynn on May 24, 2022 — Fact checked by Catherine Carver, MPH
New research in mice could pave the way for treating age-related memory loss. bedya/Getty Images
The activity of the brain changes throughout a human lifetime, and one risk associated with old age is loss of memory and dementia.
A new study in mice published in Nature has revealed that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) could hold the key to understanding how and why the brain changes as we age.
Understanding the biochemistry that underlines brain aging could help identify treatments for dementia.
Just 3 years ago the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issuedTrusted Source a warning against using plasma from young people in unproven treatments marketed at older people.

The existence of these unproven therapies was due to rumours based on misunderstood results from research in mice. One such studyTrusted Source found that blood plasma infusions from young mice improved the memories and function of older mice.

Further experimentation in humans has also failed to show an effect. A 2017 trial showed infusions of blood plasma from young people did not reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms in older people, for example.

CSF bathes the brain and serves three key functions: cushioning it from knocks, providing it with nutrients, and removing waste.

This new study in Nature aimed to study whether transferring CSF, rather than plasma, from younger to older mice might affect brain aging.


Transferring CSF between mice
To start this experiment researchers had to condition the mice to remember an event so they could test this memory later. Twenty-month-old mice were given 3 electric shocks on their foot at the same time as being exposed to a tone and a flashing light, to help create an association.

These older mice then had cerebrospinal fluid from 10-week-old mice injected into them for a week. A control group received artificial CSF.

Three weeks later, the researchers tried to ascertain how this affected the mice’s memory. To do this, they exposed the mice to the same tone and flashing light but without the electric shocks, and many froze with fear.

However, mice that received CSF from young mice froze in fear almost 40% of the time, compared to 18% of the time in mice given artificial CSF.

This suggested the CSF from young mice was having a rejuvenating effect on the older brains, which improved their memory.

Growth factors and differentiation of cells
Further experiments showed that the CSF of young mice was boosting the proliferation and differentiation of cells that turn into a type of central nervous system cell called oligodendrocytes. Repeated experiments with human CSF showed a similar, but lesser effect.

A key role of oligodendrocytes is to produce a fat-rich substance called myelin. Myelin forms a protective sheath around nerves, which insulates them and therefore allows the nerves to rapidly communicate electrical impulses.

In addition to more oligodendrocytes, mice receiving young CSF had more myelin coated nerves in their hippocampus, a part of the brain essential for memory. The authors suggest this led to improved nerve conduction in the hippocampus and therefore improved memory in the treated mice.

Further analysis to understand the changes pointed to the role of fibroblast growth factor 17, a protein that is commonly expressed in the brain but declines with age. The study showed this growth factor was necessary and sufficient to create more oligodendrocytes and to improve memory and cognition in mice.


Implications for treating dementia
Dr. Rebecca Edelmayer, senior director of scientific engagement at the Alzheimer’s Association told Medical News Today in an email that the paper was “intriguing but very preliminary.”

She said: “For those of us working on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, there is much we can learn from the process of normal aging by studying the natural changes that occur in the brain over time. For example, can replenishing factors that naturally diminish over time be used to protect against or reverse neurodegenerative disease processes like Alzheimer’s?”

She added: “The idea of replenishing growth factors to support cellular health is not new. Research studying cellular growth factors is a common area of neuroscience, and it is being investigated for multiple diseases.”

Dr. Rosa Sancho, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research U.K. agreed that the findings were interesting, but that the research was very early stage. She told Medical News Today in an interview: “What was nice in the studies is that they’ve identified a couple of proteins that could be involved in this mechanism.”

“And it’s really important actually, that we identify these new avenues for translational research. As you know, there are no disease-modifying treatments in the U.K. for people with dementia. At the moment, they only have access to symptomatic treatments.”

Identifying molecules that could be treatment targets could be key to developing drugs in future, she explained.

“It’s very early-stage research in mice, but I think it does have a lot of interest and a lot of potential to be further replicated and developed.”

– Dr. Sancho