# Short- and long-term cognitive and electrophysiological effects of a brief working memory training in older adults: a pilot study

## TL;DR

This pilot study explores how working memory training affects cognitive performance and brain activity in older adults, both immediately and after six months.

## Contribution

The study introduces new evidence on the long-term neural and behavioral effects of working memory training in older adults.

## Key findings

- Working memory training improved performance and induced lateralized brain activity in older adults.
- Electrophysiological transfer effects were observed six months after training.
- Results suggest working memory training can sustain cognitive function and cortical plasticity in aging.

## Abstract

Working memory (WM) training in aging promotes an individual’s more flexible use of their resources. Conversely, WM training neural correlates have been rarely examined. In this pilot study, we aimed to assess both behavioral and neural correlates of WM training of trained and untrained (transfer effects) tasks in the short and long term.

With a double-blind, repeated-measures experimental design, 30 community-dwelling older adults (aged from 64 to 75) were randomly assigned to a training group (TG) or an active control group.

For the trained task, behavioral data indicated an improved WM performance, and electrophysiological data showed a lateralized event-related potential activation after training and 6 months later (follow-up) in the TG only. Clear transfer effects (n-back task) maintained at the follow-up appeared only on the electrophysiological level.

These results suggest that WM training can represent a promising approach to sustain older adults’ cognitive functioning and to modulate cortical plasticity, inducing long-lasting left-lateralized activation.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-025-06507-2.