Enhancement of cognitive and neural functions through complex reasoning training: Evidence from normal and clinical populations

Sandra B. Chapman, Raksha A. Mudar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Public awareness of cognitive health is fairly recent compared to physical health. Growing evidence suggests that cognitive training offers promise in augmenting cognitive brain performance in normal and clinical populations. Targeting higher-order cognitive functions, such as reasoning in particular, may promote generalized cognitive changes necessary for supporting the complexities of daily life. This data-driven perspective highlights cognitive and brain changes measured in randomized clinical trials that trained gist reasoning strategies in populations ranging from teenagers to healthy older adults, individuals with brain injury to those at-risk for Alzheimer's disease. The evidence presented across studies support the potential for Gist reasoning training to strengthen cognitive performance in trained and untrained domains and to engage more efficient communication across widespread neural networks that support higher-order cognition. The meaningful benefits of Gist training provide compelling motivation to examine optimal dose for sustained benefits as well as to explore additive benefits of meditation, physical exercise, and/or improved sleep in future studies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalFrontiers in Systems Neuroscience
Volume8
Issue numberAPR
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 28 2014

Keywords

  • Brain plasticity
  • Cognition
  • Cognitive training
  • Gist reasoning
  • Neural

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neuroscience (miscellaneous)
  • Developmental Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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