Brain training reverses age-related cognitive decline

August, 2010

A month's training in sound discrimination reversed normal age-related cognitive decline in the auditory cortex in old rats.

A rat study demonstrates how specialized brain training can reverse many aspects of normal age-related cognitive decline in targeted areas. The month-long study involved daily hour-long sessions of intense auditory training targeted at the primary auditory cortex. The rats were rewarded for picking out the oddball note in a rapid sequence of six notes (five of them of the same pitch). The difference between the oddball note and the others became progressively smaller. After the training, aged rats showed substantial reversal of their previously degraded ability to process sound. Moreover, measures of neuron health in the auditory cortex had returned to nearly youthful levels.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/uoc--btr071910.php

Reference: 

[1672] de Villers-Sidani, E., Alzghoul L., Zhou X., Simpson K. L., Lin R. C. S., & Merzenich M. M.
(2010).  Recovery of functional and structural age-related changes in the rat primary auditory cortex with operant training.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107(31), 13900 - 13905.

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