Memory training expert Ron White recommends this fascinating article on memory and addicts.
Researchers know that people with addictions to stimulants tend to choose instant gratification or a smaller but sooner reward over a future benefit, even if the future reward is greater.
The perception of a reduced value for a future reward is termed “delayed discounting,” and overcoming it is one of the major challenges for treatment of addiction.
A new study in the journal Biological Psychiatry presents a strategy for increasing the value of future rewards in the minds of addicts.
“The hope is for a new intervention to help addicts,” said Warren K. Bickel, Ph.D., director of the Center for Substance Abuse at Virginia Tech.
Bickel and colleagues decided to test the possibility that increasing an individual’s ability to remember would decrease the discounting of future events. “In other words, we asked whether improved memory could result in a greater appreciation of a future reward,” said Bickel.
The results of a series of experiments presented a happy answer: Yes. “A change in discounting resulted from reinforced working memory training,” the researchers reported.
In this study, participants undergoing treatment for their stimulant use received either experimental or control memory training.
Experimental training consisted of working memory tasks with monetary reinforcement for performance – such as remembering a phone message and memorizing a list of words. Control Training consisted of the same tasks, but with answers provided so there was no memorization required.
Experimental participants received monetary rewards for their performance and the control participants received monetary rewards independent of their performance.
The researchers believe the study may be the first to demonstrate that neurocognitive training of working memory can decrease delay discounting.
The research article reports, “These findings support the competing neurobehavioral decision systems hypothesis of addiction (that) decisions are made on the basis of two decision systems.
“One, referred to as the impulsive decision system, is embodied in the limbic and paralimbic brain regions and is associated with the acquisition of more immediate reinforcers. The other, referred to as the executive system, is embodied in the prefrontal cortex and is associated with planning and deferred outcome.
“According to this hypothesis, addiction results from a hyperactive impulsive system and a hypoactive executive decision system. … (O)ur observed decrease in the rate of discounting following working memory training is consistent with an increase in relative activation of the executive system.”
The researchers conclude, “These changes in executive function are consistent with the notion of neuroplasticity and suggest that at least some of the neurocognitive deficits related to addiction might be reversible.”
They suggest future research address the durability of memory training, the ceiling effects of training, and the extent of improvement in treatment outcome.
In the journal’s Commentary, Bruce Wexler, of the Yale Department of Psychiatry, suggested the improvement in placing value on a future reward may be connected to the reward rather than working memory.
He endorsed treatment strategies that strengthen normally occurring processes — whether memory or the executive decision system — rather than simply address symptomatic behavior directly.
He wrote, “One goal of future studies will be to build on the valuable foundation provided by Bickel et al. in reporting the benefits of a (cognitive remediation treatment) approach for an addiction disorder.
“New studies should make explicit the cognitive process they aim to target—whether it is working memory, executive function more broadly, or control over financial reward— and include measures, as did Bickel et al., of the effects of treatment on the putative mediators.
“Future studies must also demonstrate reduction in the clinically problematic behavior to establish the value of the treatment.”
article source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/28/memory-training-addiction-recovery_n_815439.html
