Van Vleet Thomas M, DeGutis Joseph M, Merzenich Michael M, Simpson Gregory V, Zomet Ativ, Dabit Sawsan
Department of Veteran Affairs, VA Medical Center, Martinez, CA, United States; Posit Science, San Francisco, CA, United States.
Department of Veteran Affairs, VA Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Cortex. 2016 Sep;82:100-118. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.05.015. Epub 2016 Jun 2.
Efficient self-regulation of alertness declines with age exacerbating normal declines in performance across multiple cognitive domains, including learning and skill acquisition. Previous cognitive intervention studies have shown that it is possible to enhance alertness in patients with acquired brain injury and marked attention impairments, and that this benefit generalizes to improvements in more global cognitive functions. In the current preliminary studies, we sought to test whether this approach, that targets both tonic (over a period of minutes) and phasic (moment-to-moment) alertness, can improve key executive functioning declines in older adults, and enhance the rate of skill acquisition. The results of both Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that, compared to active control (AC) training, alertness training significantly enhanced performance in several validated executive function measures. In Experiment 2, alertness training significantly improved skill acquisition compared to AC training in a well-characterized speed of processing (SOP) task, with the largest benefits shown in the most challenging SOP blocks. The results of the current study suggest that targeting intrinsic alertness through cognitive training provides a novel approach to improve executive functions in older adults and may be a useful adjunct treatment to enhance benefits gained in other clinically validated treatments.
随着年龄增长，警觉性的有效自我调节能力下降，这加剧了包括学习和技能获取在内的多个认知领域正常的表现衰退。先前的认知干预研究表明，提高后天性脑损伤和明显注意力障碍患者的警觉性是可能的，而且这种益处可以推广到更全面的认知功能改善上。在当前的初步研究中，我们试图测试这种针对持续性（数分钟内）和阶段性（瞬间）警觉性的方法，是否能改善老年人关键的执行功能衰退，并提高技能获取的速度。实验1和实验2的结果均表明，与主动控制（AC）训练相比，警觉性训练在多项经过验证的执行功能测量中显著提高了表现。在实验2中，在一项特征明确的加工速度（SOP）任务中，与AC训练相比，警觉性训练显著改善了技能获取，在最具挑战性的SOP模块中显示出最大的益处。当前研究的结果表明，通过认知训练针对内在警觉性提供了一种改善老年人执行功能的新方法，并且可能是一种有用的辅助治疗方法，以增强在其他经过临床验证的治疗中获得的益处。
