Working memory training can improve emotional regulation and behavioral health

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BrainTrainingMas­ter­ing 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.”

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