Cogmed Working Memory Training (RoboMemo) Founder: Award for Dr. Torkel Klingberg

We want to con­grat­u­late Dr. Torkel Kling­berg, pro­fes­sor of cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science at the Karolin­s­ka Insti­tute and one of the founders of our part­ner Cogmed, on receiv­ing the Philip’s Nordic Prize for his research on work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing for chil­dren diag­nosed with Atten­tion Deficit Hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty Dis­or­der (ADHD).

The prize rec­og­nizes out­stand­ing research in the field of neu­ropsy­chi­a­try and was pre­sent­ed by the Nor­we­gian roy­al princess Martha Louise at the Rik­shos­pi­tal in Oslo, Nor­way. Trans­lat­ing his research into an active train­ing pro­gram, Kling­berg co-found­ed Cogmed, a devel­op­er of soft­ware-based work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing prod­ucts head­quar­tered in Stock­holm. Cogmed’s rig­or­ous and reward­ing pro­gram com­bines com­put­er-based train­ing and per­son­al coach­ing to help peo­ple with atten­tion deficits strength­en their work­ing mem­o­ries. More than 80 per­cent of chil­dren who have com­plet­ed Cogmed’s inten­sive five-week pro­gram have demon­strat­ed dra­mat­ic and last­ing improve­ments to their atten­tion, impulse con­trol and prob­lem solv­ing skills.

“I am hon­ored and deeply grate­ful to receive this award, said Kling­berg. “It is a source of per­son­al joy to see these advances pos­i­tive­ly affect the lives of chil­dren who strug­gle with atten­tion deficits. This award will help con­tin­ue the impor­tant research on work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing being con­duct­ed at the Karolin­s­ka Institute.

Fur­ther Reading

• Kling­berg T, Fer­nell E, Ole­sen PJ, et al. Com­put­er­ized train­ing of work­ing mem­o­ry in chil­dren with ADHD–a ran­dom­ized, con­trolled tri­al. J Am Acad Child Ado­lesc Psy­chi­a­try. 2005;44:177–86.
• Inter­view with Dr. Klingberg
• Train­ing the Brain: Cog­ni­tive Ther­a­py as an Alter­na­tive to ADHD Drugs by Gun­jan Sin­ha at Sci­en­tif­ic American