Aandagafleibaarheid

Navorsing by die Sweedse mediese universiteit Karolinska Institutet het bewys dat oefening van werkende geheue ('working memory') sigbare veranderinge teweegbring in die aantal dopamien reseptors in die menslike brein.

Werkende geheue is kritiek vir onder andere

konsentrasievermoë,
die vermoë om te kan organiseer,
om instruksies te kan volg,
leesbegrip, en
om vraestelle te beantwoord.

Dié navorsingstudie, wat in die tydskrif Science gepubliseer is, is uitgevoer met behulp van PET-skanderings en bied dieper insig in die komplekse wisselwerking tussen kognisie en die brein se biologiese struktuur. Die studie is relevant vir Edublox aangesien werkende geheue een van die geheuetipes is wat aktief in ons klinieke geoefen word:

"Brain biochemistry doesn't just underpin our mental activity; our mental activity and thinking process can also affect the biochemistry," says Professor Klingberg, who led the study.

The neurotransmitter dopamine plays a key part in many of the brain's functions. Disruptions to the dopamine system can impair working memory, making it more difficult to remember information over a short period of time, such as when problem solving. Impaired working memory has, in its turn, proved to be a contributory factory to cognitive impairments in such disorders as ADHD.

Professor Klingberg and his colleagues have previously shown that the working memory can be improved with a few weeks' intensive training. Through a collaborative project conducted under the Stockholm Brain Institute, the researchers have now taken a step further and monitored the brain using PET scans, and have confirmed that intensive brain training leads to a change in the number of dopamine D1 receptors in the cortex.

Their results can be of significance to the treatment of cognitive impairments, such as ADHD.