Abstract
Non-invasive interventions, such as cognitive training (CT) and physical exercise, are gaining momentum as ways to augment both cognitive and brain function throughout life. One of the most fundamental yet little studied aspects of human cognition is innovative thinking, especially in older adults. In this study, we utilize a measure of innovative cognition that examines both the quantity and quality of abstracted interpretations. This randomized pilot trial in cognitively normal adults (56–75 years) compared the effect of cognitive reasoning training (SMART) on innovative cognition as measured by Multiple Interpretations Measure (MIM). We also examined brain changes in relation to MIM using two MRI-based measurement of arterial spin labeling (ASL) to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) and functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) to measure default mode and central executive network (CEN) synchrony at rest. Participants (N = 58) were randomized to the CT, physical exercise (physical training, PT) or control (CN) group where CT and PT groups received training for 3 h/week over 12 weeks. They were assessed at baseline-, mid- and post-training using innovative cognition and MRI measures. First, the CT group showed significant gains pre- to post-training on the innovation measure whereas the physical exercise and control groups failed to show significant gains. Next, the CT group showed increased CBF in medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) and bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), two nodes within the Default Mode Network (DMN) compared to physical exercise and control groups. Last, significant correlations were found between innovation performance and connectivity of two major networks: CEN (positive correlation) and DMN (negative correlation). These results support the view that both the CEN and DMN are important for enhancement of innovative cognition. We propose that neural mechanisms in healthy older adults can be modified through reasoning training to better subserve enhanced innovative cognition.
Highlights
Innovative cognition is widely recognized as a vital capacity, undergirding adaptive and flexible thinking
All control (CN, n = 20), physical training (PT, n = 19) and cognitive training (CT, n = 19) participants completed the neurocognitive assessments at each time point
Averaging the sustained change over the two control groups (i.e., CN and PT), we find that the sustained increase for the CT group is marginally larger than the average change of the controls and PT groups (t109 = 1.69, p = 0.047)
Summary
Innovative cognition is widely recognized as a vital capacity, undergirding adaptive and flexible thinking. Most aging evidence has focused largely on insidious cognitive declines in areas such as executive function, cognitive control and memory as well as losses in both structural and functional aspects of brain systems (Raz et al, 1997; Kennedy and Raz, 2009; Lu et al, 2011). Declines in these domains reportedly accumulate with increasing age even in the absence of frank dementia. Other researchers have shown that divergent thinking, one facet of innovative thinking, stabilizes in middle-age and is preserved across the lifespan (Palmiero, 2015) especially when controlling for processing speed (Elgamal et al, 2011)
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