Task-Switching Training and Transfer

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 106-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsófia Anna Gaál ◽  
István Czigler
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Difficulty Level ◽  
Training Procedure ◽  
Far Transfer ◽  
Near Transfer ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Transfer Tasks

Abstract. We used task-switching (TS) paradigms to study how cognitive training can compensate age-related cognitive decline. Thirty-nine young (age span: 18–25 years) and 40 older (age span: 60–75 years) women were assigned to training and control groups. The training group received 8 one-hour long cognitive training sessions in which the difficulty level of TS was individually adjusted. The other half of the sample did not receive any intervention. The reference task was an informatively cued TS paradigm with nogo stimuli. Performance was measured on reference, near-transfer, and far-transfer tasks by behavioral indicators and event-related potentials (ERPs) before training, 1 month after pretraining, and in case of older adults, 1 year later. The results showed that young adults had better pretraining performance. The reference task was too difficult for older adults to form appropriate representations as indicated by the behavioral data and the lack of P3b components. But after training older adults reached the level of performance of young participants, and accordingly, P3b emerged after both the cue and the target. Training gain was observed also in near-transfer tasks, and partly in far-transfer tasks; working memory and executive functions did not improve, but we found improvement in alerting and orienting networks, and in the execution of variants of TS paradigms. Behavioral and ERP changes remained preserved even after 1 year. These findings suggest that with an appropriate training procedure older adults can reach the level of performance seen in young adults and these changes persist for a long period. The training also affects the unpracticed tasks, but the transfer depends on the extent of task similarities.

scholarly journals Working Memory Training Does Not Enhance Older Adults’ Cognitive Skills: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Sala ◽  
N Deniz Aksayli ◽  
Kemal Semir ◽  
Yasuyuki Gondo ◽  
Fernand Gobet
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Far Transfer ◽  
Near Transfer ◽  
Analytic Review ◽  
Meta Analyses

In the last two decades, considerable efforts have been devoted to finding a way to enhance cognitive function by cognitive training. To date, the attempt to boost broad cognitive functions in the general population has failed. However, it is still possible that some cognitive training regimens exert a positive influence on specific populations, such as older adults. In this meta-analytic review, we investigated the effects of working memory (WM) training on older adults’ cognitive skills. Three robust-variance-estimation meta-analyses (N = 2,140, m = 43, and k = 698) were run to analyze the effects of the intervention on (a) the trained tasks, (b) near-transfer measures, and (c) far-transfer measures. While large effects were found for the trained tasks (g ̅ = 0.877), only modest (g ̅ = 0.274) and near-zero (g ̅ = 0.121) effects were obtained in the near-transfer and far-transfer meta-analyses, respectively. Publication-bias analysis provided adjusted estimates that were slightly lower. Moreover, when active control groups were implemented, the far-transfer effects were null (g ̅ = -0.008). Finally, the effects were highly consistent across studies (i.e., low or null true heterogeneity), especially in the near- and far-transfer models. While confirming the difficulty in obtaining transfer effects with cognitive training, these results corroborate recent empirical evidence suggesting that WM is not isomorphic with other fundamental cognitive skills such as fluid intelligence.

THE POSSIBILITY OF LINKING SPONTANEOUS AND INDUCED NEUROCOGNITIVE PLASTICITY: CAN COGNITIVE TRAINING INFLUENCE COMPENSATORY BRAIN ACTIVITY IN OLDER ADULTS? THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL PREMISES

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-523
Author(s):  
Ludmiła Zając-Lamparska
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Study Design ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Reference Group ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Theory Of Aging

One of the most important determinants of successful aging is cognitive ability. Although cognitive decline is a well-documented phenomenon characteristic of aging, it is acknowledged that aging can also be related to cognitive neuroplasticity that allows one to compensate the decline and adapt to it. Cognitive neuroplasticity may be spontaneous or induced by external influences. An example of the former is compensatory brain activity in older adults, and the latter – improvement in cognitive functioning under the influence of cognitive training. Both the compensatory brain activity of older adults and the effectiveness of cognitive training in this age group have already been extensively studied. However, it has not yet been examined whether they can be linked. The article indicates theoretical and empirical premises for the possibility of influencing compensatory brain activity in older adults by cognitive training. In the most comprehensive way the phenomenon of compensatory brain activity in older adults is addressed by the STAC model – the Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition, which also provides the theoretical grounds for the possible impact of cognitive training on compensatory brain activity. There are also empirical arguments in favour of such an impact, but they are quite limited in nature. The reason for this is the lack of research directly addressing the problem of the consistency of brain activity changes resulting from cognitive training with the assumptions of compensatory brain activity models, such as STAC. The theoretical grounds for the linkage of compensatory brain activity in older adults with the influence of cognitive training are clear. However, the analysis of the studies discussed in the article suggests that failing to embed the study design within the theoretical framework of compensatory brain activity in older adults may lead to the exclusion of factors important in drawing conclusions about this phenomenon. The following elements of the study design were identified as necessary to include: participation of young adults in the study as a reference group, usage of tasks in different difficulty levels during the measurement of brain activity and consideration of the relation between brain activity and cognitive performance, and comparison of brain activity in relation to cognitive performance before and after training in both, older and young adults.

scholarly journals Temporal Dynamics of Event-Related Potentials during Inhibitory Control Characterize Age-Related Neural Compensation

Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2323
Author(s):  
Elizabeth R. Paitel ◽  
Kristy A. Nielson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Right Hemisphere ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Aging is accompanied by frontal lobe and non-dominant hemisphere recruitment that supports executive functioning, such as inhibitory control, which is crucial to all cognitive functions. However, the spatio-temporal sequence of processing underlying successful inhibition and how it changes with age is understudied. Thus, we capitalized on the temporal precision of event-related potentials (ERPs) to assess the functional lateralization of N200 (conflict monitoring) and P300 (inhibitory performance evaluation) in young and healthy older adults during comparably performed successful stop-signal inhibition. We additionally used temporal principal components analysis (PCA) to further interrogate the continuous spatio-temporal dynamics underlying N200 and P300 activation for each group. Young adults demonstrated left hemisphere-dominant N200, while older adults demonstrated overall larger amplitudes and right hemisphere dominance. N200 activation was explained by a single PCA factor in both age groups, but with a more anterior scalp distribution in older adults. The P300 amplitudes were larger in the right hemisphere in young, but bilateral in old, with old larger than young in the left hemisphere. P300 was also explained by a single factor in young adults but by two factors in older adults, including distinct parieto-occipital and anterior activation. These findings highlight the differential functional asymmetries of conflict monitoring (N200) and inhibitory evaluation and adaptation (P300) processes and further illuminate unique age-related spatio-temporal recruitment patterns. Older adults demonstrated lateralized recruitment during conflict processing and bilateral recruitment during evaluation and adaptation, with anterior recruitment common to both processes. These fine-grained analyses are critically important for more precise understanding of age-related compensatory activation.

scholarly journals Near and Far Transfer in Cognitive Training: A Second-Order Meta- Analysis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Sala ◽  
N Deniz Aksayli ◽  
K Semir Tatlidil ◽  
Tomoko Tatsumi ◽  
Yasuyuki Gondo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Working Memory Training ◽  
Memory Training ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Far Transfer ◽  
Near Transfer ◽  
Meta Analyses

Theory building in science requires replication and integration of findings regarding a particular research question. Second-order meta-analysis (i.e., a meta-analysis of meta-analyses) offers a powerful tool for achieving this aim, and we use this technique to illuminate the controversial field of cognitive training. Recent replication attempts and large meta-analytic investigations have shown that the benefits of cognitive-training programs hardly go beyond the trained task and similar tasks. However, it is yet to be established whether the effects differ across cognitive-training programs and populations (children, adults, and older adults). We addressed this issue by using second-order meta-analysis. In Models 1 (k = 99) and 2 (k = 119), we investigated the impact of working-memory training on near-transfer (i.e., memory) and far-transfer (e.g., reasoning, speed, and language) measures, respectively, and whether it is mediated by the type of population. Model 3 (k = 233) extended Model 2 by adding six meta-analyses assessing the far-transfer effects of other cognitive-training programs (video-games, music, chess, and exergames). Model 1 showed that working-memory training does induce near transfer, and that the size of this effect is moderated by the type of population. By contrast, Models 2 and 3 highlighted that far-transfer effects are small or null. Crucially, when placebo effects and publication bias were controlled for, the overall effect size and true variance equaled zero. That is, no impact on far-transfer measures was observed regardless of the type of population and cognitive-training program. The lack of generalization of skills acquired by training is thus an invariant of human cognition.

scholarly journals Plasticity of inhibition in old age: durability, practice and transfer effects

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea J. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Far Transfer ◽  
Single Task ◽  
Near Transfer ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Inhibition Training

Empirical research indicates age-related declines in three sub-functions of inhibition: access (keeping irrelevant information outside one's focus of attention), deletion (ridding working memory of no longer relevant information), and restraint (withholding automatic responses that are not appropriate for the task at hand). Although single-task inhibition training has been previously explored using a six-session Stroop task program, no research has been done to examine long-term durability of the practice gains or the impact of a multi-task approach to inhibition training in older adults. This dissertation fills these gaps in the literature with three studies. The first study evaluates the maintenance of Stroop training one and three years following initial training and finds evidence in support of long-term durability of single-task inhibition training in older adults. The remaining two studies explored the benefits of training all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults. First, study 2 seeks to confirm the presence of age differences in all three sub-functions of inhibition - supporting a rationale for training these abilities in older adults. Last, study 3 examines the plasticity of all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults across six retest practice sessions, and three levels of associated transfer: near-near (transfer to the tasks used at training, but with varying items), near (transfer to tasks that were not trained, but tap the same abilities as the training tasks), and far (transfer to tasks that were trained and tap abilities different from those trained). The findings indicate the older adults show retest practice gains in all three sub-functions of inhibition. Furthermore, strong evidence supports near-near transfer, while there is limited support for near transfer and no support for far transfer effects in older adults following three sub-functions of inhibition training. Taken together these studies contribute to the cognitive aging literature by evaluating several key features of plasticity in inhibition, including durability of training effects, retest practice and transfer effects. These findings have implications for the development of effective cognitive training programs in older adults.

scholarly journals Subjective Memory Complaints and Decision Making in Young and Older Adults: An Event-Related Potential Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Garrido-Chaves ◽  
Vanesa Perez ◽  
Mario Perez-Alarcón ◽  
Isabel Crespo-Sanmiguel ◽  
Tiago O. Paiva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Subjective Memory Complaints ◽  
Subjective Memory ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Memory Complaints ◽  
Related Potentials

Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) may affect decision-making processes. This study aimed to investigate the neuronal correlates of feedback processing during a decision-making task in young and older adults with and without SMCs. Event-related potentials and behavioral performance during the Iowa gambling task were recorded in a total of 136 participants (65 young adults, 71 older adults). The participants were divided into two groups according to their SMCs (with SMCs: n = 60, without SMCs: n = 76). Feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3 were analyzed in the feedback stage of the decision-making process. Older adults with SMCs scored worse in the ambiguity phase than older adults without SMCs. The FRN latency was longer for losses in older people with SMCs than in older people without SMCs in the first block. No significant differences between young and older adults with and without SMCs were observed in the other ERP measures. Compared to young adults, older adults showed delayed latency in the FRN component and reduced amplitudes and delayed latency in the P3 component. In conclusion, older people with SMCs present deficits in the decision-making process. These deficits are observed at the behavioral level, but also in neural mechanisms of early feedback processing of negative outcomes.

scholarly journals Training and Transfer of Cue Updating in Older Adults Is Limited: Evidence From Behavioral and Neuronal Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta Kray ◽  
Nicola K. Ferdinand ◽  
Katharina Stenger
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Treatment Group ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Behavioral Level

Cognitive control processes, such as updating task-relevant information while switching between multiple tasks, are substantially impaired in older adults. However, it has also been shown that these cognitive control processes can be improved by training interventions, e.g., by training in task switching. Here, we applied an event-related potential (ERP) approach to identify whether a cognitive training improves task-preparatory processes such as updating of relevant task goals. To do so, we applied a pretest-training-posttest design with eight training sessions. Two groups of older adults were either trained in task switching (treatment group) or in performing single tasks (control group) and we compared their performance to a group of untrained younger adults. To foster cue updating in the treatment group, we applied a cue-based switching task in which the two task cues were randomly selected prior to target presentation so that participants had time to prepare for the upcoming task. In contrast, the control group also received task cues but those were redundant as only one task had to be performed. We also examined whether training in cue updating during task switching can be transferred to a similar cognitive control task measuring updating of context information, namely a modified version of the AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT). The results revealed training-specific improvements in task switching, that is, a larger improvement in blocks requiring switching in comparison to single tasks at the behavioral level. In addition, training specific-effects were also found at the neuronal level. Older adults trained in cue updating while switching showed a reduction in mixing costs in the cue-related P3, indicating an improvement in preparatory updating processes. Additionally, P3 topography changed with training from a very broad to a parietally focused scalp distribution similar to the one found in younger adults. However, we did not obtain training-specific improvements in context updating in the AX-CPT neither at the behavioral level nor at the neuronal level. Results are discussed in the context of the ongoing debate on whether transfer of cognitive training improvements is possible.

scholarly journals Age-related Differences in Prestimulus Subsequent Memory Effects Assessed with Event-related Potentials

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 829-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D. Koen ◽  
Erin D. Horne ◽  
Nedra Hauck ◽  
Michael D. Rugg
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Memory Effects ◽  
Late Time ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Study Item ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Related Potentials

Prestimulus subsequent memory effects (preSMEs)—differences in neural activity elicited by a task cue at encoding that are predictive of later memory performance—are thought to reflect differential engagement of preparatory processes that benefit episodic memory encoding. We investigated age differences in preSMEs indexed by differences in ERP amplitude just before the onset of a study item. Young and older adults incidentally encoded words for a subsequent memory test. Each study word was preceded by a task cue that signaled a judgment to perform on the word. Words were presented for either a short (300 msec) or long (1000 msec) duration with the aim of placing differential benefits on engaging preparatory processes initiated by the task cue. ERPs associated with subsequent successful and unsuccessful recollection, operationalized here by source memory accuracy, were estimated time-locked to the onset of the task cue. In a late time window (1000–2000 msec after onset of the cue), young adults demonstrated frontally distributed preSMEs for both the short and long study durations, albeit with opposite polarities in the two conditions. This finding suggests that preSMEs in young adults are sensitive to perceived task demands. Although older adults showed no evidence of preSMEs in the same late time window, significant preSMEs were observed in an earlier time window (500–1000 msec) that was invariant with study duration. These results are broadly consistent with the proposal that older adults differ from their younger counterparts in how they engage preparatory processes during memory encoding.

scholarly journals Event-Related Potentials, Inhibition, and Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease Among Cognitively Intact Elders

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Kathleen H. Elverman ◽  
Elizabeth R. Paitel ◽  
Christina M. Figueroa ◽  
Ryan J. McKindles ◽  
Kristy A. Nielson
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Symptom Onset ◽  
Stop Signal ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Stop Signal Task ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Cognitively Intact

Background: Despite advances in understanding Alzheimer’s disease (AD), prediction of AD prior to symptom onset remains severely limited, even when primary risk factors such as the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 allele are known. Objective: Although executive dysfunction is highly prevalent and is a primary contributor to loss of independence in those with AD, few studies have examined neural differences underlying executive functioning as indicators of risk for AD prior to symptom onset, when intervention might be effective. Methods: This study examined event-related potential (ERP) differences during inhibitory control in 44 cognitively intact older adults (20 ɛ4+, 24 ɛ4-), relative to 41 young adults. All participants completed go/no-go and stop-signal tasks. Results: Overall, both older adult groups exhibited slower reaction times and longer ERP latencies compared to young adults. Older adults also had generally smaller N200 and P300 amplitudes, except at frontal electrodes and for N200 stop-signal amplitudes, which were larger in older adults. Considered with intact task accuracy, these findings suggest age-related neural compensation. Although ɛ4 did not distinguish elders during go or no-go tasks, this study uniquely showed that the more demanding stop-signal task was sensitive to ɛ4 differences, despite comparable task and neuropsychological performance with non-carriers. Specifically, ɛ4+ elders had slower frontal N200 latency and larger N200 amplitude, which was most robust at frontal sites, compared with ɛ4-. Conclusion: N200 during a stop-signal task is sensitive to AD risk, prior to any evidence of cognitive dysfunction, suggesting that stop-signal ERPs may be an important protocol addition to neuropsychological testing.

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