Review of the Neural Processes of Working Memory Training: Controlling the Impulse to Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Smartphone technology has enabled the creation of many working memory training (WMT) Apps, with those peer-reviewed described in a recent review. WMT claims to improve working memory, attention deficits, hyperactivity and fluid intelligence, in line with plasticity brain changes. Critics argue that WMT is unable to achieve "far-transfer"-the attainment of benefits to cognition from one taught context to another dissimilar context-associated with improved quality of life. However, brain changes after a course of WMT in frontoparietal and striatal circuits-that often occur prior to behavioral changes-may be a better indicator of far-transfer efficacy, especially to improve impulse control commonly dysregulated in those with addictive disorders, yet not commonly examined in

SUBMITTER: Brooks SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7511702 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature