Lifestyle and Cognition: A Large Scale Intervention Approach

整体认知功能是生活质量的最佳预测指标之一，包括学业和工作上的成功、幸福感甚至预期寿命；一个人在认知测试中的表现越好，他们的生活质量就越好。因此，毫不奇怪，人们强烈希望找到生活方式因素和认知改善之间的联系，尽管在提出联系的地方，承诺往往超过科学证据。到目前为止，最令人鼓舞的研究途径是指出更好的睡眠和更多的锻炼是预测因素，但关于许多其他假设(例如，饮食、冥想、认知训练)的证据是混合的。此外，这一领域的大多数研究都局限于实验室，只检查了特定人群(如老年人)中的单一生活方式因素(如锻炼)。要真正了解生活方式因素和认知之间的关系，需要进行大规模研究，而这不能在实验室环境中进行。*通过最近发表的几项研究，我们已经证明，在线认知测试为在普通人群中大规模探索人类认知提供了前所未有的机会。我们已经使用我们的在线认知测试平台剑桥脑科学来评估超过150万用户的认知，他们已经完成了800万次测试，此外还提供了关于他们的背景、人口统计和生活方式的全面信息。在这项提案中，我们概述了我们现在将如何利用这个数据库来测试关于特定生活方式因素(如睡眠、锻炼和认知训练)与认知之间的关系的大量主流假说。我们还将挖掘这些数据，以确定新的关系，并进行基于干预的后续研究，以确定这些影响的有效性、可靠性和大小。最后，我们将使用磁共振成像(MRI)进行大脑成像研究，以检验生活方式因素和认知之间的关系是如何通过大脑结构和功能的适应性变化来支撑的。*教育工作者、政策制定者、人力资源专业人士、心理学家、认知神经学家以及任何对认知和大脑感兴趣的人都会对这项研究计划的结果感兴趣。我们的发现可能会为科学验证的干预措施和计划铺平道路，以帮助个人优化或改善他们的认知功能。最后，我们概述了这一研究计划的结果将如何为未来的科学家探索人类认知提供一个全新的范式。

One of the best predictors of life quality, including academic and work success, happiness and even life expectancy is overall cognitive functioning; the better an individual performs on tests of cognition, the better their quality of life. Unsurprisingly then, there is a strong drive to find associations between life-style factors and improvements in cognition, although where associations are suggested, the promise frequently exceeds the scientific evidence. To date, the most encouraging avenues of research have pointed to better sleep and more exercise as predictors, but evidence is mixed about numerous other hypotheses (e.g., diet, meditation, cognitive training). Moreover, most studies in this field have been confined to the laboratory, and have examined only a single life-style factor (e.g., exercise) within a specific population (e.g., the elderly). To really understand the relationship between life-style factors and cognition, large-scale studies are required, which cannot be conducted in a laboratory setting. ******Through several recently published studies, we have demonstrated that online cognitive testing provides unprecedented opportunities for exploring human cognition on a massive scale among the general population. We have used our online cognitive testing platform, Cambridge Brain Sciences, to assess cognition in more than 1.5 million users who have completed 8 million tests, in addition to providing comprehensive information about their background, demographics, and lifestyle. In this proposal, we outline how we will now leverage this database to test a multitude of mainstream hypotheses about the relationship between specific life-style factors, such as sleep, exercise, and cognitive training, and cognition. We will also mine these data to identify novel relationships, and conduct intervention-based follow-up studies to determine the validity, reliability, and size of these effects. Finally, we will conduct brain imaging studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), to examine how the relationship between life-style factors and cognition is underpinned by adaptive changes in brain structure and function. ******The results of this research program will be of interest to educators, policy makers, human resource professionals, psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists and anyone in the general population with an interest in cognition and the brain. Our findings are likely to pave the way for scientifically validated interventions and programs to help individuals optimize or improve their cognitive functioning. Finally, we outline how the results of this research program will provide an entirely new paradigm for future scientists to explore human cognition.