The effectiveness of adaptive working memory training on EEG and cognitive performance in Alzheimer disease

Due to the progressive aging of population, the prevalence of dementia and age-related cognitive impairment, and in particular Alzheimer’s disease, is highly increasing, and becoming one of the important problems bearing on the health system. Recently, the diagnostic tools and pharmacological treatments have shown a rising potential. Yet, non-pharmacological interventions have attracted significant interest. However, the effectiveness of such interventions has remained controversial. The aim of this study was to investigate whether working memory training changes the EEG and cognitive performance at resting state in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Twenty patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease were recruited and randomly divided into training and control groups. The training group received twenty-five sessions of adaptive n-back training. Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE), digit span, and EEG were assessed before and after the intervention period. Working memory training led to a significant increase in MMSE score and alpha power over the frontal and parietal- occipital regions. Nonsignificant increase of the log EEG power was shown for beta, theta, and delta concerning the entire regions. Adaptive n-back training is effective on quantitative EEG in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.