The Transfer Effects of Cognitive Training on Working Memory Among Chinese Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Wenqi Weng,Jiayu Wang,Shulin Chen,Jiang Xue,Tingfei Zhu,Yuxing Jiang,Jiaming Liang

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2019.00212

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the transfer effects of cognitive training on working memory among older Chinese adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).Methods: Sixty-two MCI participants aged more than 60 years old were recruited by holding recruitment sessions in communities in China [33 for cognitive training, and 29 for mental leisure activities (MLA) control]. Cognitive functions, including working memory, execution function, reasoning ability, verbal ability, ability of daily living, were measured at three time-points (baseline, post-training and 3 months after training).Results: Compared to the MLA control, the cognitive training group showed significant effects in both the trained (working memory) and untrained (execution function and ability of daily living) domains. The effects of cognitive training on overall cognitive function, working memory and daily life ability of daily living of MCI could be maintained for at least 3 months, even without the cognitive training. Besides, complete mediating effects of cognitive training were found in executive function through working memory and working memory in ability of daily living though executive function, which suggests the presence of transfer effect of cognitive training.Conclusions: The present study supported that cognitive training could effectively improve working memory in elders with MCI. The training effects on working memory could transfer to other untrained areas (such as executive function), which also improved the comprehensive ability (ability of daily living). And the effects of training could largely persist for 3 months.

Highlights

The average age of populations is rising—an irreversible trend all over the world, along with which comes the increasing mental health needs of the elderly
By independent-sample t-test and χ2 test, there were no significant differences in comprehensive cognitive function (MoCA), working memory, executive function, verbal ability (VFT), logic reasoning ability, ADL between the cognitive training group and the control group at baseline
It is worth mentioning that the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and ADL scores of the cognitive training group remained at a specific level from T2 to T3, but the MoCA and ADL scores of the control group continued to decrease. These results indicate that the cognitive training mainly focused on working memory did not improve global cognitive function and ability of daily living, but there might be a long-term transfer effect

Summary

Introduction

The average age of populations is rising—an irreversible trend all over the world, along with which comes the increasing mental health needs of the elderly. The subsequent increasing number of Alzheimer’s and related dementias cause a heavier burden to society, which is a significant problem. Cognitive Training for MCI nearly 50 million globally, and the incidence of dementia is predicted to rise to 50%, while the number will reach 75 million by 2030 (Prince et al, 2015). As mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a pre-phase of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in most cases (Albert et al, 2011; Vos et al, 2015; Klimova and Maresova, 2017), elderly people and their families are seeking effective ways to delay or ameliorate MCI in order to prevent AD. Cognitive training is a more effective and economical method compared to pharmacological approaches (Dresler et al, 2013)

Objectives

Results

Conclusion