What else can cognitive training do? Benefits of cognitive training
Control emotions, overcome pain, and possibly even cope with post-traumatic stress.
Brain training will help achieve much more than just the development of cognitive functions. For centuries, various meditation practices have helped to cope with pain and signs of depression, as well as to find the state of calm.
The fact is that the amygdala is responsible for our emotion state, and if we learn to control the activity of this area of the brain, we can manage our own states. This was confirmed by the study of Talma Hendler from the University of Tel Aviv: control allows you to control not only nervous but also emotional states.
The impetus to the scientific discovery of this phenomenon was the technology of neurofeedback - this is an opportunity to get feedback from the brain in response to any impact (visual, auditory, etc.).
Neural feedback is monitored by a neural interface based on the principles of an electroencephalograph (EEG).
With the help of sensors attached to a person's head, it is possible to measure the electrical activity of the brain at one time or another. For the study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was also used, which determined the active region. During the experiment, the test subjects were shown certain sound and video sequences and were asked to slow down these events mentally. MRI showed that the amygdala was involved in the process, and the EEG recorded the electrical activity of the brain at that moment. After such a training, research participants were provoked to certain emotions. As a result, it turned out that simple visual or auditory signals helped to change the activity of the brain - to reduce the activity of the amygdala. Thus, the subjects were able to control their emotions.
Today, only 2 years after the research, the technology of neurofeedback is available in everyday life. So, in order to learn to enter the state of tranquility, which (returning to the practice of meditation) is able to reduce negative states, it is enough to exercise regularly. Specially designed software that allows you to perform “mental” tasks with a simple visual range — for example, getting the balloon to rise as high as possible — will help you find your own optimal ways of entering the state of calm. The interface reads the alpha rhythm of the brain, which is an indicator of this state. By tracking your own progress and applying various techniques, you can learn to manage the activity of your brain at any time, if necessary. Scientists believe that in the future it may help to cope with post-traumatic stress, but studies on patients with this diagnosis have not yet been conducted.