In this paper, published in Clinical Neurophysiology, Dr. Woltering and the team investigated whether brain training programs actually change activation patterns in the brains of college students with ADHD. Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, Liu, Glizer, Tannock, and Woltering (2015) showed weak and suggestive evidence that intensive working memory training changes the neural correlates of working memory functioning. The working memory task that was used was not identical to but resembled the training tasks used in the working memory training program. The weak effects were attributed to the fact that the improvements caused by the brain training itself had not proven to transfer to other cognitive tasks or everyday life measures of functioning (see also, Mawjee, Woltering, & Tannock, 2015). This is one of the first clinical RCT studies published that is directly testing brain-changes after treatment. The findings increase our understanding of the underlying mechanisms that mediate changes in our learning.

Check out a copy of the paper in our publication section!