Summary: Study compares two forms of cognitive training used to help those with mild cognitive impairment to improve memory and learning.

Source: University of Michigan

Whats the best way to improve your memory as you age? Turns out, it depends, a new study suggests. But your fourth-grade math teacher may have been onto something with that phrase to help you remember how to work out a complicated problem: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

A new study led by researchers from the University of Michigan and Penn State College of Medicinecompared two approaches for people with an early form of memory loss.

The two are mnemonic strategy training, which aims to connect what someone is trying to remember to something else like a word, phrase or song (such as the Dear Aunt Sally mnemonic), and spaced retrieval training, which gradually increases the amount of time between tests of remembering something.

People with mild cognitive impairment, which can but does not always lead to a later Alzheimers disease diagnosis, were better able to remember information when using one of these cognitive training approaches. However, the data, and brain scans that revealed which areas of the brain were more active, showed each activity works differently.

Our research shows that we can help people with mild cognitive impairment improve the amount of information they learn and remember; however, different cognitive training approaches engage the brain in distinct ways, said lead and corresponding authorBenjamin Hampstead, Ph.D. Hampstead is a professor of psychiatry at Michigan Medicine and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

He directs theResearch Program on Cognition and Neuromodulation Based Interventionsand leads the Clinical Core and co-leads the Neuroimaging Core at the federally fundedMichigan Alzheimers Disease Research Center.

Mnemonic strategy training increased activity in brain areas often affected by Alzheimers disease, which likely explains why this training approach helped participants remember more information and for longer, Hampstead said.

In contrast, those completing rehearsal-based training showed reduced brain activity, which suggests they were processing the information more efficiently.

Hampstead and his team worked with Krish Sathian, MBBS, Ph.D., professor and chair of Penn States Department of Neurology and director of Penn State Neuroscience Institute. Sathian noted that cognitive training approaches are likely to become increasingly important in synergy with the new pharmacological treatments on the horizon for those with neurodegenerative disorders.

Moving forward, Hampstead said researchers and clinicians can use this type of information to help identify the best-fit non-pharmacologic treatments for their patients with memory impairment.

Additional authors include Anthony Y. Stringer, Ph.D. of Emory University, and U-M team members Alexandru D. Iordan, Ph.D. and Rob Ploutz-Snyder, Ph.D.

Author: Kara GavinSource: University of MichiganContact: Kara Gavin University of MichiganImage: The image is in the public domain

Original Research: Closed access.Towards rational use of cognitive training in those with mild cognitive impairment by Benjamin Hampstead et al. Alzheimers Disease & Dementia

Abstract

Towards rational use of cognitive training in those with mild cognitive impairment

The term cognitive training includes a range of techniques that hold potential for treating cognitive impairment caused by neurologic injury and disease.

Ourcentral premiseis that these techniques differ in their mechanisms of action and therefore engage distinct brain regions (or neural networks).

We support this premise using data from a single-blind randomized-controlled trial in which patients with mild cognitive impairment were randomized to either mnemonic strategy training (MST) or spaced retrieval training (SRT) as they learned ecologically relevant object-location associations.

Both training approaches were highly effective in the short term, but MST demonstrated a clear advantage after days to weeks. MST also increased activation in and functional connectivity between frontal, temporal, and parietal regions as well as the hippocampus.

In contrast, patterns of reduced activation and functional connectivity were evident following SRT. These findings support the rational development of cognitive training techniques.

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