Browsing by Author "Tolonen, Tuija"

Working memory (WM), the ability to hold information in mind for short periods of time without active presentation of sensory stimuli is a crucial skill for goal-directed behaviour. WM is related to many other higher cognitive skills and specific neuropsychiatric conditions are associated with related deficits. Attempts have been made to improve WM by systematic cognitive training, and through this influence also other related cognitive skills. In this thesis, the behavioural and neuronal effects of WM training are reviewed. Based on current studies, both verbal and visual WM can be improved by training and the effects will last for several months. However, the effects of training on other cognitive skills outside WM, like reasoning and intelligence, have been moderate at best. On neural level, WM training changes the activation in brain areas related to WM, mainly frontal and parietal cortical regions and striatum. WM training also affects the functional and structural connections between these brain regions. WM training seems to improve executive functions rather than affect the size of working memory storages. Improvements in other than trained tasks seem to be based on cognitive functions that are shared between the tasks. On neural level, similar activation patterns between the tasks is related to these transfer effects.