van Muijden, J. 1, 2 , Band, G. P. 1, 2 , Colzato, L. 1, 2 & Hommel, B. 1, 2
1 Leiden University, Faculty of Social Sciences
2 Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC)
The number of people over age 65 is increasing rapidly worldwide. The social and economic consequences of large-scale cognitive aging have instigated increasing commercial and scientific interest in prevention and reduction of cognitive decline. The goal of our research is to understand individual differences in susceptibility to specific cognitive interventions. We have been developing custom brain training games for over two years. The games are partly inspired by commercially available brain training games, but specifically designed to tax executive functions. Transfer of training is typically assessed in a randomized controlled trial by means of an extensive cognitive test battery. Some limited transfer effects have already been found. The games were more effective as compared to quizzes in improving task set shifting, inhibition of automatic response tendencies and working memory updating (Van Muijden et al., in prep.). Moreover, the BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) Valine homozygous genotype was associated with a larger positive transfer effect to divided attention than the Methionine/-carrying genotype (Colzato et al., submitted). These findings support the notion that the success of cognitive interventions depends not only on the quality of an intervention, but also on the suitability of the intervention for an individual.