Brain Training as a New Treatment for Addictions

Sub­stance abuse can have dra­mat­ic con­se­quences on the brain and behav­ior. The tra­di­tion­al way of pre­vent­ing drug abuse is often edu­ca­tion. Aware­ness pro­grams do work with peo­ple who can pic­ture long-term reper­cus­sions of abus­ing drugs. Oth­er peo­ple, most often those vul­ner­a­ble to addic­tions, do not ben­e­fit from such pro­grams. It seems that they tend to deval­ue both rewards and pun­ish­ments that will hap­pen in the future, a behav­ior known as delay dis­count­ing. This leads them to opt for imme­di­ate rewards, such as those pro­vid­ed by drugs, and ignore future consequences.

Would it be pos­si­ble then to train the brain of these peo­ple so that they show less delay dis­count­ing? Would that help them stay away from addic­tive substances?

Delay dis­count­ing is a brain func­tion that involves the frontal lobes of the brain (behind the fore­head). It builds upon work­ing mem­o­ry, our men­tal work­space where infor­ma­tion nec­es­sary for the task at hand is hold and used.

Dr. Bikel and col­leagues thus designed a study in which stim­u­lants abusers par­tic­i­pat­ed in either a work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing or a con­trol train­ing. They found that work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing trig­gered a decrease in delay dis­count­ing. In oth­er words, work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing reduced the sub­stance abusers’ deval­u­a­tion of long-term rewards.

It is not known so far whether train­ing work­ing mem­o­ry would indeed help in reduc­ing the abuse itself but this is a very promis­ing study. It may open the door to new sub­stance abuse treat­ments, based on brain training.

Relat­ed post: What is Work­ing Mem­o­ry? Can it Be Trained?