Childhood Cognitive Control Training Does Not Alter Brain or Behavior
Post by Meagan Marks
The takeaway
Cognitive control training – a well-funded and widely-used form of childhood intervention – does not change the brain or behavior of children over time.
What's the science?
Cognitive control – an umbrella term for the processes that guide our thoughts, feelings, and actions to help us achieve goals – is crucial for healthy and productive development. It includes functions like working memory, impulse control, and attention, and predicts later-life success in areas like academic performance, mental health, and sociality. This makes it a prime target for intervention.
Early childhood is a critical period for cognitive control development, during which the underlying neurocircuitry is especially malleable. For this reason, cognitive control interventions are often conducted in children. The current theory is that training one basic function of cognitive control will not only enhance that specific function but will transfer to enhance all domains of cognitive control over time, thus increasing chances of later-life success. However, the data regarding this type of training is inconsistent. This week in Nature Neuroscience, Ganesan and colleagues put cognitive control training to the test, observing how it affects both brain and behavior in children up to a year after intervention.
How did they do it?
To see how cognitive control training influences short and long-term brain and behavior, the authors conducted an 8-week intervention with 235 children aged 6-13. An experimental group completed an 8-week training targeting response inhibition (impulse control), a cognitive control function that regulates the suppression of actions. Specifically, the training consisted of a set of stop-signal response tasks. An active control group completed alternative training on response speed.
Prior to the 8-week training, baseline measurements were taken to evaluate participant development in response inhibition, additional domains of cognitive control, and factors predicted by cognitive control. In addition, MRI images were taken to capture changes in brain structure, cortical thickness, and neural connectivity over time. These same elements were measured directly after the 8-week training to evaluate short-term influences, as well as one year later to evaluate long-term changes.
What did they find?
After the completion of training, the authors found that both groups improved in the targeted task over time. When similar follow-up tasks were administered, participants in the experimental group also stopped more sufficiently, suggesting improvements in response inhibition post-training. However, when it came to other domains of cognitive control, like working memory and cognitive flexibility, there were no significant short-term or long-term changes after the training period. In addition, no short-term or long-term changes were observed in factors predicted by cognitive control, including academic achievement, decision-making, fluid reasoning, mental health, and creativity. Brain structure, cortical thickness, and neural connectivity also remained unchanged. These findings suggest that, while the cognitive control training did enhance performance on the targeted function, the training did not improve any other aspect related to cognitive control.
What's the impact?
This study found that cognitive control training improves the performance of its targeted function over time, but does not improve any other aspects related to cognitive control, including its other functions, brain structure, and the factors that it predicts. The results of this study will have an immense impact, especially as substantial amounts of time and money are spent to better support cognitive control development. Moving forward, it is imperative to search for alternative ways to enhance cognitive control in children, especially given its influence on later-life success and well-being.