Working Memory Training in Older Adults

 描述(申请人提供)：有越来越多的证据表明，针对工作记忆的认知干预是有益的，因为它们显示出超出专门训练的泛化效应，即迁移效应。尽管与年轻人或儿童相比，在老年人中观察这种转移效应似乎更难， 我们和其他人发现，一些干预措施确实在老年人口中显示出了希望。尽管结果令人振奋，但还需要进行更多研究，以使我们的干预措施更有效、更强大，并揭示人口老龄化中培训的潜在机制。对于我们提出的研究，我们设想了两条不同目标的研究路线：首先，我们的目标是解决语用学问题。我们的目标是使我们的干预对参与者更容易获得和更具吸引力，从而增加他们有效参与训练方案的动力。此外，我们将调查干预的最佳时间安排(即练习间隔)，并探索改进是否延伸到日常功能测量，最后，调查培训完成后一年内的纵向影响及其轨迹。这些都是我们的实用目标。其次，我们建议解决任何干预研究中最重要的问题：对潜在的认知和神经改善机制的调查。此外，我们将阐明个体差异是影响培训成功的因素。这些是我们机械化的目标。鉴于有效的认知干预措施的稀缺性，以及对其对日常生活应用措施的普遍影响的有限了解，拟议的工作将具有重要意义，因为它将更多地揭示老年认知可塑性的机制，并作为未来大规模随机临床试验的基础，并为未来研究有针对性的干预措施在痴呆风险人群中的有效性提供信息。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): There is accumulating evidence that cognitive interventions targeting working memory are beneficial in that they show generalizing effects that go beyond what has been specifically trained, i.e. transfer effects. Although it seems more difficult to observe such transfer effects in older adults as compared to young adults or children, we and others have found that some interventions do show promise in older populations. Despite the promising results, more research is needed to make our interventions more effective and more robust, and to uncover the underlying mechanisms of training in an aging population. For our proposed studies, we envision two lines of research with different goals: First, we aim to address questions of pragmatics. Our goal here is to make our intervention more accessible and inviting for participants, thus increasing their motivation to participate effectively in training regimens. In addition, we will investigate the intervention's optimal scheduling (i.e., spacing of practice), and explore whether the improvements extend to measures of everyday functioning, and finally, investigate longitudinal effects and their trajectories over the course of one year after training completion. These are our applied goals. Second, we propose to address the most important questions of any intervention research: The investigation of the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms of improvement. Furthermore, we will shed light on individual differences as moderating factors for training success. These are our mechanistic goals. Given the sparse availability of effective cognitive interventions, and the limited knowledge about their generalizing effects to applied measures of daily living, the proposed work will have important implications in that it will shed more light on the mechanisms of cognitive plasticity in old age, and serve as groundwork for future large-scale randomized clinical trials and inform future research investigating the efficacy of targeted interventions in populations that are at risk for dementia.