Working memory training can improve emotional regulation and behavioral health
Mastering emotions by sharpening memory? It just might work (Los Angeles Times):
“Emotional regulation — the ability to take negative feelings and recognize, accept and channel them properly — is an Achilles’ heel for many people, but especially for those with anxiety-related disorders, eating disorders and some personality disorders. It can take years of psychotherapy to strengthen one’s powers of emotional regulation. Or, says a new study, it might take a few weeks of brain training aimed at strengthening one’s short-term memory…The results underscore that, if brain-training programs are to have positive effects away from the computer keyboard — say, in a classroom — neuroscientists will first have to identify life skills that share neural circuitry with narrower cognitive skills that can be strengthened with repeated exercise. This may be a first step toward that.”
The article includes market numbers from our recent market report and a quote from us: “Working-memory training is emerging as a key ingredient of broader efforts to improve emotional self-regulation and academic performance among at-risk groups,” said Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive of SharpBrains.com. “What we need now is better ways to screen for students who may benefit from such an intervention, and better ways to deliver and support it.”
To Learn More:
- Mastering emotions by sharpening memory? It just might work (Los Angeles Times)
- Study: Training the Emotional Brain: Improving Affective Control through Emotional Working Memory Training, The Journal of Neuroscience, March 20, 2013•33(12):5301–5311 (not online yet)
- The Emotional Life of Your Brain: One Brain Does Not Fit All
- Study: Adaptive Working Memory Training Can Reduce ADHD-related Off-Task Behavior