Training and transfer effects of working memory updating training in male abstinent long-term methamphetamine users.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Zhao X
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8664865 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ObjectiveHeroin abuse is associated with cognitive deficits. These might play a role in relapse after abstinence, which could be reduced by cognitive trainings. A previous study assessed effects of working memory (WM) training on executive functioning (EF) in heroin addicts undergoing methadone treatment, potentially limiting training effects. The present study assessed WM training effects in abstinent heroin addicts currently no longer receiving pharmacological treatment.MethodInpatients were randomly assigned to a WM training or active control condition and performed EF tasks before and after training.ResultsTrained participants improved their performance on the trained task. Using the control group as reference, they showed short-lived beneficial near- but no far-transfer effects to non-trained cognitive tasks. Participants with a strong baseline WM showed stronger training but smaller transfer effects than participants with a weak baseline WM.ConclusionThe combined results suggest limited cognitive transfer effects of WM training in heroin addicts irrespective of current methadone treatment status. They also suggest individual differences in training and transfer benefits dependent on baseline EF.
| S-EPMC7752720 | biostudies-literature
Project description:During the past decade, working memory training has attracted much interest. However, the training outcomes have varied between studies and methodological problems have hampered the interpretation of results. The current study examined transfer after working memory updating training by employing an extensive battery of pre-post cognitive measures with a focus on near transfer. Thirty-one healthy Finnish young adults were randomized into either a working memory training group or an active control group. The working memory training group practiced with three working memory tasks, while the control group trained with three commercial computer games with a low working memory load. The participants trained thrice a week for five weeks, with one training session lasting about 45 minutes. Compared to the control group, the working memory training group showed strongest transfer to an n-back task, followed by working memory updating, which in turn was followed by active working memory capacity. Our results support the view that working memory training produces near transfer effects, and that the degree of transfer depends on the cognitive overlap between the training and transfer measures.
| S-EPMC4583509 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundPrevious studies of brain structure in methamphetamine users have yielded inconsistent findings, possibly reflecting small sample size and inconsistencies in duration of methamphetamine abstinence as well as sampling and analyses methods. Here we report on a relatively large sample of abstinent methamphetamine users at various stages of long-term abstinence.MethodsChronic methamphetamine users (n = 99), abstinent from the drug ranging from 12 to 621 days, and healthy controls (n = 86) received T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging brain scans. Subcortical and cortical gray-matter volumes and cortical thickness were measured and the effects of group, duration of abstinence, duration of methamphetamine use and onset age of methamphetamine use were investigated using the Freesurfer software package.ResultsMethamphetamine users did not differ from controls in gray-matter volumes, except for a cluster in the right lateral occipital cortex where gray-matter volume was smaller, and for regions mainly in the bilateral superior frontal gyrui where thickness was greater. Duration of abstinence correlated positively with gray-matter volumes in whole brain, bilateral accumbens nuclei and insulae clusters, and right hippocampus; and with thickness in a right insula cluster. Duration of methamphetamine use correlated negatively with gray-matter volume and cortical thickness of a cluster in the right lingual and pericalcarine cortex.ConclusionsChronic methamphetamine use induces hard-to-recover cortical thickening in bilateral superior frontal gyri and recoverable volumetric reduction in right hippocampus, bilateral accumbens nuclei and bilateral cortical regions around insulae. These alternations might contribute to methamphetamine-induced neurocognitive disfunctions and reflect a regional specific response of the brain to methamphetamine.
| S-EPMC7146984 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study analyzed the mechanisms involved in possible transfer effects for two different working memory updating (WMU) training programs administered to young adults and based on two updating paradigms: n-back and arithmetical updating. The influence of practice distribution on transfer effects was also explored by including two training regimens: massed and spaced practice. Performance on different WMU tasks more or less structurally similar to the tasks used in the training was assessed to analyze the nearest transfer effects. Near and far transfer effects were tested using complex working memory (WM) and fluid intelligence tasks. The results showed that the WMU training produced gains in only some of the WMU tasks structurally similar to those used in the training, not in those lacking the same structure, or in WM or fluid intelligence tasks. These limited nearest transfer effects suggest that gains could be due to the acquisition of a specific strategy appropriate for the task during the training rather than to any improvement in the updating process per se. Performance did not differ depending on the training regimen.
| S-EPMC6373913 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Previous work demonstrates that working-memory (WM) updating training results in improved performance on a letter-memory criterion task, transfers to an untrained n-back task, and increases striatal dopamine (DA) activity during the criterion task. Here, we sought to replicate and extend these findings by also examining neurochemical correlates of transfer. Four positron emission tomography (PET) scans using the radioligand raclopride were performed. Two of these assessed DAD2 binding (letter memory; n-back) before 5 weeks of updating training, and the same two scans were performed post training. Key findings were (a) pronounced training-related behavioral gains in the letter-memory criterion task, (b) altered striatal DAD2 binding potential after training during letter-memory performance, suggesting training-induced increases in DA release, and (c) increased striatal DA activity also during the n-back transfer task after the intervention, but no concomitant behavioral transfer. The fact that the training-related DA alterations during the transfer task were not accompanied by behavioral transfer suggests that increased DA release may be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for behavioral transfer to occur.
| S-EPMC5540932 | biostudies-other
Project description:Long-term memory (LTM) associations appear as important to cognition as single memory contents. Previous studies on updating development have focused on cognitive processes and components, whereas our investigation examines how contents, associated with different LTM strength (strong or weak), might be differentially updated at different ages. To this end, we manipulated association strength of information given at encoding, in order to focus on updating pre-existing LTM associations; specifically, associations for letters. In particular, we controlled for letters usage frequency at the sub-lexical level. We used a task where we dissociated inhibition online (i.e., RTs for updating and controlling inhibition from the same set) and offline (i.e., RTs for controlling inhibition from previously updated sets). Mixed-effect analyses were conducted and showed a substantial behavioural cost when strong associations had to be dismantled online (i.e., longer RTs), compared to weak ones; here, in primary school age children. Interestingly, this effect was independent of age; in fact, children from 7-8 to 9-10 years were comparably sensitive to the strength of LTM associations in updating. However, older children were more effective in offline inhibitory control.
| S-EPMC6544283 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveThe aim of the study is to evaluate the long-term near-transfer effects of computerized working memory (WM) training on standard WM tasks in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).MethodSixty-seven children aged 10-12 years in Vestfold/Telemark counties (Norway) diagnosed with F90.0 Hyperkinetic disorder (ICD-10) were randomly assigned to training or control group. The training group participated in a 25-day training program at school, while the control group received treatment-as-usual. Participants were tested one week before intervention, immediately after and eight months later. Based on a component analysis, six measures of WM were grouped into composites representing Visual, Auditory and Manipulation WM.ResultsThe training group had significant long-term differential gains compared to the control group on all outcome measures. Performance gains for the training group were significantly higher in the visual domain than in the auditory domain. The differential gain in Manipulation WM persisted after controlling for an increase in simple storage capacity.ConclusionSystematic training resulted in a long-term positive gain in performance on similar tasks, indicating the viability of training interventions for children with ADHD. The results provide evidence for both domain-general and domain-specific models. Far-transfer effects were not investigated in this article.Trial registrationControlled-Trials.com ISRCTN19133620.
| S-EPMC3857172 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The mechanisms underlying working memory training remain unclear, but one possibility is that the typically limited transfer effects of this training reflect adoption of successful task-specific strategies. Our pre-registered randomized controlled trial (N?=?116) studied the early effects of externally given vs. internally generated strategies in an updating task (n-back) over a 5-day period with a single 30-minute training session. Three groups were employed: n-back training with strategy instruction (n?=?40), n-back training without strategy instruction (n?=?37), and passive controls (n?=?39). We found that both external and internal strategy use was associated with significantly higher posttest performance on the trained n-back task, and that training with n-back strategy instruction yielded positive transfer on untrained n-back tasks, resembling the transfer pattern typically seen after the ordinary uninstructed 4-6-week working memory training. In the uninstructed participants, the level of detail and type of internally generated n-back strategies at posttest was significantly related to their posttest n-back performance. Our results support the view that adoption of task-specific strategies plays an important role in working memory training outcomes, and that strategy-based effects are apparent right at the start of training.
| S-EPMC5840432 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We assessed the transfer effects of training working memory strategies to a novel problem-solving task. Previous WM training studies have produced little evidence for transfer across contexts. In the current study, 64 6- to 9-year-olds were randomly assigned to one of four training conditions: semantic and rehearsal training, semantic training only, rehearsal training only, and treated control group. All training groups performed significantly better on the transfer task than the control group, but training groups did not differ significantly from each other. Implications of the findings for cognitive interventions and future WM training studies are discussed.
| S-EPMC6558153 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Anxiety and depression are the most common withdrawal symptoms of methamphetamine (METH) abuse, which further exacerbate relapse of METH abuse. To date, no effective pharmacotherapy exists for METH abuse and its withdrawal symptoms. Therefore, understanding the neuromechanism underlying METH abuse and its withdrawal symptoms is essential for developing clinical strategies and improving patient care. The aims of this study were to investigate brain network abnormalities in METH abusers (MAs) and their associations with affective symptoms. Forty-eight male abstinent MAs and 48 age-gender matched healthy controls were recruited and underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The severity of patient anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured by Hamilton anxiety and depression rating scales, which decreased across the duration of abstinence. Independent component analysis was used to investigate the brain network functional connectivity (FC) properties. Compared with healthy controls, MAs demonstrated hypo-intra-network FC in the cerebellar network and hyper-intra-network FC in the posterior salience network. A whole-brain regression analysis revealed that FC strength of clusters located in the right rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) within the ventromedial network (VMN) was associated with affective symptoms in the patients. Importantly, the intra-network FC strength of the rACC in VMN mediated the association between abstinence duration and the severity level of affective symptoms. Our results demonstrate alterations in brain functional networks underlying METH abuse, and that the FC of rACC within VMN serve as a neural substrate in the association between abstinence length and affective symptom severity in the MAs.
| S-EPMC8249885 | biostudies-literature