Lumosity Brain Games

t is now recognized that MS may cause problems with memory, planning, foresight, and judgment. Studies have shown that minor defects in cognition are quite common (up to 70%), even in early MS (up to 50%) . Approximately 10% of people with MS will have fairly serious cognitive difficulties. Dementia can be an accompaniment of severe disabling MS of long-term duration.

The most frequent cognitive abnormalities in MS are subtle defects in abstraction, memory, attention and word finding. They are usually associated with emotional lability and decreased speed on information processing. Thought processes of the brain are interconnected to the conscious areas of the brain via myelinated nerves. There can be problems transporting memories to consciousness and processing of thoughts%u2026. creating difficulties with concentration and reasoning..

Occasionally, a person experiences severe cognitive difficulties and is said to have "cerebral MS." Persons who have relatively minor levels of cognitive problems are aware of them but if the form is "cerebral," the person often appears to lack clear insight into the problem.

Recent surveys have shown that mood disorders are frequent in people with MS. An association may exist between MS and manic-depressive disease (bipolar disorder). Reactive depression is common in MS.

A number of compensatory techniques can help with the cognitive problems of MS. First, the difficulties need to be identified and their extent measured and considered in the context of the person's individual circumstances. This is done through testing, either by a speech pathologist or more formally by a neuropsychologist. It should be remembered that some tasks and occupations need an excellent memory while others do not. Nobody's memory is perfect and everyone suffers from memory lapses and occasional confusion. Stress, anxiety, and fatigue all decrease cognition, especially memory. Poor concentration may add to the problem. Depression must be treated. A person with MS often does not recognize his or her depression but may respond to medication and therapy. Psychological tests may be necessary to make the diagnosis of depression.

The following strategies have been found to be helpful in managing cognitive problems:

1. Make lists - shopping lists, lists of things to do, and so forth.

2. Use a calendar for appointments and reminders of special days.

3. Establish a memory notebook to log daily events, reminders, and/or messages from family and friends.

4. Use a tape recorder to help remember information or make up lists.

5. Organize your environment so that things remain in familiar places.

6. Carry on conversations in quiet places to minimize environmental distractions.

7. Ask people to keep directions simple.

8. Repeat information and write down important points.

9. Establish good eye contact during any discussion.

In this age of computers, both electronic and non-electronic organizers may be very helpful in helping to bring better order to one's daily life. Cognitive rehabilitation has not been well established for MS as yet but there are preliminary research findings suggesting that computer retraining can help attentional problems in MS.

Cognitive problems may be minimized in everyday life if a person with such a problem can be made aware of the problem and is willing to manage them constructively. The quality of interaction with family and friends relies on awareness and understanding of all parties involved. It is important that family and carers are aware of the cognitive problems and help in minimising or overcoming them. Cognitive aspects of MS are also important in determining a person's capacity to work and to remain in employment. Expert advice is available for both rehabilitation and counselling options. Most national MS Societies have publications addressing cognitive problems in MS.

References

Schapiro R. Symptom Management in Multiple Sclerosis 3rd Edn. 1998 Demos Medical Publishing Co, New York pp103-105

Paty DW & Ebers GC (Editors). Multiple Sclerosis 1998 F.A Davis Co Philadelphia pp159-160

The capacity of the human brain to make new associations and acquire new knowledge has been appreciated for hundreds of years. However, the brain's ability to fundamentally reorganize itself when confronted with new challenges is a relatively recent discovery. In response to these challenges, the brain will adapt and change. Given the right kind of exercise, it will reshape itself to be more efficient and effective. This power of reshaping is referred to as neuroplasticity. Lumosity has adapted this cutting edge research in neuroscience and cognition to an accessible, enjoyable training program which will stimulate the brain and lead to improved cognitive ability and health. For more information on neuroplasticity and cognitive research.

Working Memory: What it is and how it works

The cognitive process of "attention" allows the brain to manage the surfeit of the world's information by selecting only the most relevant information at any one time. What happens to this information once it successfully passes through the attentional funnel?

If cognitive processing ended at attention, you would conduct your life strictly from information received at the present instant, without any internal state of the mind or abstract thought. The words of this sentence would dart ephemerally in and out of your brain, becoming wholly devoid of perceptible meaning.

Instead of this mercifully unlikely scenario, however, your attention grants the words access to your brain's working memory, which briefly holds and evaluates them for the duration of their relevance (i.e. until you have finished the sentence or idea).

Working memory, though operating over a timescale of mere seconds, is central to human thought processes. It allows you to temporarily hold and evaluate information in your mind, whether from the environment, stored memories, or internal state, thus allowing you to process the world within your personal context. Thus, working memory not only allows you to remember a phone number and find your way home, but is also central to language, reasoning, and most of the mental functions associated with human intelligence.

So what is the neural manifestation of this extraordinary ability? Working memory requires cooperation between multiple brain areas (depending on whether the information comprises locations, objects, or words), but the critical orchestrating structure is the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Lying directly behind the forehead at the front of the brain, the PFC contains neurons that exhibit the special properties of working memory; that is, they are activated by a specific stimulus, and remain activated for the duration of the stimulus's relevance.

Consider, for example, the Lumosity Birdwatching game. When the bird flashes onto the screen, a certain population of neurons in your PFC will experience a surge in electrical activity. Importantly, these neurons will continue to fire at this elevated rate even after the bird disappears, allowing you to maintain a memory of the location while you move your mouse cursor to the proper location and "take a picture." Moreover, in a different location of your PFC, another set of neurons remembers the letter that flashed in the middle of the screen, remaining electrically activated during the same time period.

The activity of these neurons allows you to maintain the bird's location in your mind even when the visual stimulus is gone, exploiting the basic, fundamental mechanisms of your working memory. In your daily life, these mechanisms allow you to evaluate and manipulate select information from the world in the framework of your internal state and stored memories. Accordingly, working memory is crucial for effective decision-making and for the elaboration of goals and intentions; it enables you to manipulate abstract ideas, form coherent lines of reasoning, and overall act like the intelligent being you are.

Michael Scanlon (Stanford University), David Drescher (Lumos Labs, Inc.), Kunal Sarkar (Lumos Labs, Inc.), Gregory Kellett (San Francisco State University), Mark W. Geisler (San Francisco State University)

Prior research has revealed cognitive abilities to be adaptive and capable of improvement via targeted cognitive behavioral training methods; however, use of these methods is limited outside of research and clinical settings. Our objective was to investigate the efficacy of a web-based cognitive training program in improving the attention and memory of healthy adults. Volunteer participants (n=23, mean age=54) were given initial cognitive assessments, a training (or control) intervention and then cognitive assessments again post-training. Both training and testing were conducted online at each participant's home. Trained subjects completed twenty-minute online cognitive exercise sessions once daily for five weeks, while control participants received no training. Exercises consisted of one visual attention and three working memory tasks. Results and compliance data were captured online automatically. The trained group improved significantly in measures of visual attention and working memory (p<0.01) while the control group did not. Training reduced the average error in localization of transient and non-central visual stimuli while improving performance on measures of spatial working memory. There were no significant performance shifts in the control group. Results indicate that improving cognitive abilities such as working memory and visual attention is possible via the use of web-based applications outside of a clinical setting.