Publications

@article{Soderqvist2012a,
title = {Computerized training of non-verbal reasoning and working memory in children with intellectual disability},
author = {Stina Söderqvist and Sissela B Nutley and Jon Ottersen and Katja M Grill and Torkel Klingberg},
doi = {10.3389/fnhum.2012.00271},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
journal = {Frontiers in Human Neuroscience},
volume = {6},
number = {October},
pages = {1--8},
abstract = {Children with intellectual disabilities show deficits in both reasoning ability and working memory (WM) that impact everyday functioning and academic achievement. In this study we investigated the feasibility of cognitive training for improving WM and non-verbal reasoning (NVR) ability in children with intellectual disability. Participants were randomized to a 5-week adaptive training program (intervention group) or non-adaptive version of the program (active control group). Cognitive assessments were conducted prior to and directly after training and 1 year later to examine effects of the training. Improvements during training varied largely and amount of progress during training predicted transfer to WM and comprehension of instructions, with higher training progress being associated with greater transfer improvements. The strongest predictors for training progress were found to be gender, co-morbidity, and baseline capacity on verbal WM. In particular, females without an additional diagnosis and with higher baseline performance showed greater progress. No significant effects of training were observed at the 1-year follow-up, suggesting that training should be more intense or repeated in order for effects to persist in children with intellectual disabilities. A major finding of this study is that cognitive training is feasible in this clinical sample and can help improve their cognitive performance. However, a minimum cognitive capacity or training ability seems necessary for the training to be beneficial, with some individuals showing little improvement in performance. Future studies of cognitive training should take into consideration how inter-individual differences in training progress influence transfer effects and further investigate how baseline capacities predict training outcome.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Westerberg2007,
title = {Changes in cortical activity after training of working memory - a single-subject analysis},
author = {Helena Westerberg and Torkel Klingberg},
doi = {10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.05.041},
issn = {00319384},
year = {2007},
date = {2007-01-01},
journal = {Physiology and Behavior},
volume = {92},
number = {1-2},
pages = {186--192},
abstract = {Working memory (WM) capacity is an important factor for a wide range of cognitive skills. This capacity has generally been assumed to be fixed. However, recent studies have suggested that WM can be improved by intensive, computerized training [Klingberg T, Fernell E, Olesen P, Johnson M, Gustafsson P, Dahlström K, et al. Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD - a randomized, controlled trial. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psych 2005;44:177--86]. A recent study by Olesen, Westerberg and Klingberg [Olesen P, Westerberg H, Klingberg T. Increased prefrontal and parietal brain activity after training of working memory. Nat Neurosci 2004;7:75--9] showed that group analysis of brain activity data show increases in prefrontal and parietal cortices after WM training. In the present study we performed single-subject analysis of the changes in brain activity after five weeks of training. Three young, healthy adults participated in the study. On two separate days before practice and during one day after practice, brain activity was measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during performance of a WM and a baseline task. Practice on the WM tasks gradually improved performance and this effect lasted several months. The effect of practice also generalized to improve performance on a non-trained WM task and a reasoning task. After training, WM-related brain activity was significantly increased in the middle and inferior frontal gyrus. The changes in activity were not due to activations of any additional area that was not activated before training. Instead, the changes could best be described by small increases in the extent of the area of activated cortex. The effect of training of WM is thus in several respects similar to the changes in the functional map observed in primate studies of skill learning, although the physiological effect in WM training is located in the prefrontal association cortex. textcopyright 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}