Effects of Game and Game-like Training on Neurocognitive Plasticity


Book Description

Cognitive training is not always effective. This is also the case for the form of cognitive training that this Research Topic focuses on: prolonged performance on game-like cognitive tasks. The ultimate goal of this cognitive training is to improve ecologically-valid target functions. For example, cognitive training should help children with ADHD to stay focused at school, or help older adults to manage the complexity of daily life. However, so far this goal has proven too ambitious. Transfer from trained to non-trained tasks is not even guaranteed in a laboratory, so there is a strong need for understanding how, when and for how long cognitive training has effect. Which cognitive functions are amenable to game training, for whom, and how? Are there mediating factors for success, such as motivation, attention, or age? Are the improvements real, or can they be attributed to nonspecific factors, such as outcome expectancy or demand characteristics? Are there better strategies to improve cognitive functions through game training? This Research Topic of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience charts current insights in the determinants of success of game training.




Serious Games


Book Description

Learn how to take the skills and knowledge you use to make games for entertainment to make serious games: games for education, training, healing, and more. "Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform" teaches game developers how to tap into the rapidly expanding market of serious games. Explore the numerous possibilities that serious games represent such as the ability to teach military training in a non-lethal environment and the ability to convey a particular political viewpoint through a game's storyline. You'll get a detailed overview of all of the major markets for serious games, including the military, educators, government agencies, corporations, hospitals, non-profit organizations, religious groups, and activist groups. Discover the goals of each market, the types of games on which they focus, and market-specific issues you need to consider. Case studies of how professionals in these various markets utilize games provide ideas and inspiration as well as credibility for serious games. "Serious Games" shows you how to apply your game development skills to a new and growing area and also teaches you techniques to make even entertainment-based games richer and more meaningful.




Cognitive Training


Book Description

This book brings together a cutting edge international team of contributors to critically review the current knowledge regarding the effectiveness of training interventions designed to improve cognitive functions in different target populations. There is substantial evidence that cognitive and physical training can improve cognitive performance, but these benefits seem to vary as a function of the type and the intensity of interventions and the way training-induced gains are measured and analyzed. This book further fulfills the need for clarification of the mechanisms underlying cognitive and neural changes occurring after training. This book offers a comprehensive overview of empirical findings and methodological approaches of cognitive training research in different cognitive domains (memory, executive functions, etc.), types of training (working memory training, video game training, physical training, etc.), age groups (from children to young and older adults), target populations (children with developmental disorders, aging workers, MCI patients etc.), settings (laboratory-based studies, applied studies in clinical and educational settings), and methodological approaches (behavioral studies, neuroscientific studies). Chapters feature theoretical models that describe the mechanisms underlying training-induced cognitive and neural changes. Cognitive Training: An Overview of Features and Applications will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, students, and professors in the fields of psychology and neuroscience.




The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance


Book Description

In this book, some of the world's foremost 'experts on expertise' provide scientific knowledge on expertise and expert performance.




Cognitive Enhancement in Schizophrenia and Related Disorders


Book Description

A practical guide on how to assess and treat schizophrenia and related disorders using cognitive rehabilitation.







Ageless Brain


Book Description

Breakthrough research has revealed that through living a brain-healthy lifestyle, we can reduce our “brain age” to improve memory, hone sharpness, and reduce health risks as we age. It’s normal for the brain to short-circuit every now and then—you put your keys in the fridge, or can’t find the pair of glasses on top of your head. But what if there was a way to eat, exercise, and live that could eliminate these “senior moments?” Ageless Brain offers a plan to sharpen your memories and mind so that at 40, you have the quick, agile brain you had at 30. Based on groundbreaking scientific research, this plan is filled with brain-healthy foods, exercises, and little ways you can positively impact your most vital organ every day by de-stressing, adjusting your attitude, and constantly interacting with the world through play. Scientists have discovered that the human brain continually generates new neurons—forging new pathways and connections in our minds—well into old age, as long as we pursue brain-healthy lifestyles from what we eat and how much we sleep, to how we exercise and handle stress. Exercising and nourishing our brains just like we do any other ailing organ encourages this growth—improving not only our mental fitness but also our physical fitness as a side effect. With Ageless Brain, you will: · Discover the 10 Commandments of an ageless brain · Reduce key risk-factors for Alzheimer’s · Identify and avoid brain poisons lurking in food, medicines, and home · Learn to play and engage your brain more in everyday life · Drop unsafe levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar—as well as belly fat · Keep your brain nourished with 45 recipes




Control of Cognitive Processes


Book Description

The thirty-two contributions discuss evidence from psychological experiments with healthy and brain-damaged subjects, functional imaging, electrophysiology, and computational modeling.