Improvement Through Practice

Many individuals with cognitive impairments have a difficult time trying to lead a regular life. They are also more likely to have antisocial activity and abuse drugs. Arielle Baskin-Sommers came to discuss her research in a new treatment strategy for these individuals, called cognitive remediation. Cognitive remediation trains individuals in certain cognitive skills they are deficit in due to their disability. These skills may be taught through computer simulations or simple tasks and activities. Cognitive remediation aims to use the brain’s plasticity, the brain’s ability to change neural pathways and synapses, creating stronger neural circuits in areas where individuals may have impairments in. The study concluded that after receiving cognitive remediation, individuals with cognitive impairments improved both on trained and non-trained tasks that dealt with challenges they face due to their disability. The study concluded in stating that, “individuals with psychopathy have long been considered among the most dangerous and difficult to treat individuals, however, the present results suggest that their cognitive-affective dysfunctions may be trained and rehabilitated” (Baskin-Sommers, 2014). The study found that this treatment does in fact prevent problematic behavior and can help individuals with disorders that have been difficult to treat in the past.

Many scientists are now looking into cognitive remediation to treat other psychopathological conditions such as schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a life-long mental disorder in which an individual has difficulty recognizing what is real and what is not. Individuals with schizophrenia cannot be cured from this disorder but are rather treated, primarily by medication. However, recovery is rarely achieved from only the use of medication. A study done by Christopher Bowie and colleagues aimed to treat individuals with schizophrenia through the use of cognitive remediation to see the effectiveness of this treatment. They had participants that included people within 5 years of their first episode to more than 15 years of the illness, to see if the length of time with the illness impacted the treatment’s effectiveness.

The treatment lasted 12 weeks and used computer-based exercises which included tasks and skills that related to real life situations and behaviors. There were two groups tested, individuals that experienced their first schizophrenic episode within 5 years, and individuals who have had the illness for more than 15 years. The study found that there were many improvements in neurocognition which included “occupational functioning, emotional management, and had neuroprotective effects against grey matter loss in the brain implicated in learning and memory” (Bowie, 2014). Not only did individuals have a change in behavior, the actual structure and function of their brains were improving as well. There were significant improvements in cognitive function. Although both groups improved greatly, there were larger improvements in individuals that were in the early stages of psychosis. This suggests that if cognitive remediation is something that will be used to treat psychosis, it should be used as soon as possible to bring about the best results.

Baskin-Sommers, Arielle R., Curtin, John J., Newman, Joseph P. (2014). Altering the Cognitive-Affective Dysfunctions of Psychopathic and Externalizing Offender Subtypes with Cognitive Remediation. Clinical Psychological Science.

Bowie, C. R., Grossman, M., Gupta, M., Oyewumi, L. K. and Harvey, P. D. (2014), Cognitive remediation in schizophrenia: efficacy and effectiveness in patients with early versus long-term course of illness. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 8: 32–38. doi: 10.1111/eip.12029