{"id":{"repo_id":"minho-thes","oai_identifier":"oai:repositorium.uminho.pt:1822/76490"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/minho-thes/oai:repositorium.uminho.pt:1822/76490","repository":{"repo_id":"minho-thes","name":"Universidade do Minho","base_url":"http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Working memory and neuroplasticity in older people: a behavioural and neurofunctional approach","abstract":"Working memory training (WMT) has been used to promote neuroplasticity in older people and tDCS has been proposed to boost WMT effects. Nevertheless, there is not robust evidence of WMT effectiveness and the few studies assessing the combination of tDCS with WMT used cognitive tasks as endpoints. However, the use of different markers, as the event-related potentials (ERPs), can be useful to better understand the combined or individual effects of these interventions. Thus, the studies presented in this dissertation aimed to assess WMT effects, as well as, the add-on effects of tDCS. Given the need to use different endpoints to measures WMT-induced neuroplasticity, an additional aim was to assess if the ERPs can be used as indexes of fluid intelligence (Gf), a commonly assessed constructed to infer generalization of WMT. In the first study, we presented a meta-analysis on the effects of WMT in healthy elderly. Small significant and long-lasting gains were observed in working memory (WM), but not in short-term memory (STM) and Gf tasks. Type of training tasks, the adopted outcome measures, the training duration, and the total number of training hours moderated WMT effects. In the second study, we performed a systematic review on the uses of tDCS to boost WM in healthy older adults. The studies suggest that tDCS may modulate WM in this population, improving the accuracy and shortening the reaction time. In the third study, we performed a randomized double-blind controlled experiment to evaluate the effects of 5-day WMT coupled with tDCS in healthy older adults. Fifty-four participants were assigned to one of three groups: 1) WMT (dual n-back task)+active tDCS (atDCS); 2) WMT+sham tDCS (stDCS); or 3) sham task + sham tDCS. During the training, both groups that performed the dual n-back task (WMT+atDCS; WMT+stDCS) improved throughout sessions, with no significant differences between them. However, the “WMT+atDCS” was the only group that presented gains in Gf and verbal STM after training (i.e., next day after the intervention) and at follow-up (i.e., 15 days follow-up). Finally, in the fourth study, we explored whether ERP components (i.e., P2, P3b and the LPC - late positive complex) are associated with Gf in the elderly. Fifty-seven participants performed a continuous performance task and a visual oddball paradigm while EEG was recorded. They were divided into high-performance (HP) and low performance (LP) groups according to their performance in the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices test (RAPM). HP group presented significant higher LPC amplitudes in the CPT and shorter P3b latencies in the oddball task when compared to the LP group.","abstract_html":"Working memory training (WMT) has been used to promote neuroplasticity in older people and tDCS has been proposed to boost WMT effects. Nevertheless, there is not robust evidence of WMT effectiveness and the few studies assessing the combination of tDCS with WMT used cognitive tasks as endpoints. However, the use of different markers, as the event-related potentials (ERPs), can be useful to better understand the combined or individual effects of these interventions. Thus, the studies presented in this dissertation aimed to assess WMT effects, as well as, the add-on effects of tDCS. Given the need to use different endpoints to measures WMT-induced neuroplasticity, an additional aim was to assess if the ERPs can be used as indexes of fluid intelligence (Gf), a commonly assessed constructed to infer generalization of WMT. In the first study, we presented a meta-analysis on the effects of WMT in healthy elderly. Small significant and long-lasting gains were observed in working memory (WM), but not in short-term memory (STM) and Gf tasks. Type of training tasks, the adopted outcome measures, the training duration, and the total number of training hours moderated WMT effects. In the second study, we performed a systematic review on the uses of tDCS to boost WM in healthy older adults. The studies suggest that tDCS may modulate WM in this population, improving the accuracy and shortening the reaction time. In the third study, we performed a randomized double-blind controlled experiment to evaluate the effects of 5-day WMT coupled with tDCS in healthy older adults. Fifty-four participants were assigned to one of three groups: 1) WMT (dual n-back task)+active tDCS (atDCS); 2) WMT+sham tDCS (stDCS); or 3) sham task + sham tDCS. During the training, both groups that performed the dual n-back task (WMT+atDCS; WMT+stDCS) improved throughout sessions, with no significant differences between them. However, the “WMT+atDCS” was the only group that presented gains in Gf and verbal STM after training (i.e., next day after the intervention) and at follow-up (i.e., 15 days follow-up). Finally, in the fourth study, we explored whether ERP components (i.e., P2, P3b and the LPC - late positive complex) are associated with Gf in the elderly. Fifty-seven participants performed a continuous performance task and a visual oddball paradigm while EEG was recorded. They were divided into high-performance (HP) and low performance (LP) groups according to their performance in the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices test (RAPM). HP group presented significant higher LPC amplitudes in the CPT and shorter P3b latencies in the oddball task when compared to the LP group.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Teixeira Santos, Ana Carolina"],"institution":"Universidade do Minho","degree_name":"Tese de doutoramento em Psicologia Básica","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Sampaio, Adriana","Carvalho, Sandra"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-06-16","date_published":"2020-06-16","updated_at":"2026-08-21T16:46:36Z","subjects":["Fluid intelligence","Late positive complex","Older adults","P3b","tDCS","Working memory training","ETCC","Idosos","Inteligência fluída","LPC","Treino da memória operatória"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["openAccess"],"rights_urls":["http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/1822/76490","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"source_record":{"url":"http://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepositorium.uminho.pt%3A1822%2F76490","prefix":"dim"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Sampaio, Adriana","Carvalho, Sandra"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Teixeira Santos, Ana Carolina"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2022-03-11T15:19:27Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2022-03-11T15:19:27Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2020-06-16"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["doctoralThesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Tese de doutoramento em Psicologia Básica"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Universidade do Minho"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Fluid intelligence","Late positive complex","Older adults","P3b","tDCS","Working memory training","ETCC","Idosos","Inteligência fluída","LPC","Treino da memória operatória"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["openAccess"]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/1822/76490"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Working memory training (WMT) has been used to promote neuroplasticity in older people and tDCS has been proposed to boost WMT effects. Nevertheless, there is not robust evidence of WMT effectiveness and the few studies assessing the combination of tDCS with WMT used cognitive tasks as endpoints. However, the use of different markers, as the event-related potentials (ERPs), can be useful to better understand the combined or individual effects of these interventions. Thus, the studies presented in this dissertation aimed to assess WMT effects, as well as, the add-on effects of tDCS. Given the need to use different endpoints to measures WMT-induced neuroplasticity, an additional aim was to assess if the ERPs can be used as indexes of fluid intelligence (Gf), a commonly assessed constructed to infer generalization of WMT. In the first study, we presented a meta-analysis on the effects of WMT in healthy elderly. Small significant and long-lasting gains were observed in working memory (WM), but not in short-term memory (STM) and Gf tasks. Type of training tasks, the adopted outcome measures, the training duration, and the total number of training hours moderated WMT effects. In the second study, we performed a systematic review on the uses of tDCS to boost WM in healthy older adults. The studies suggest that tDCS may modulate WM in this population, improving the accuracy and shortening the reaction time. In the third study, we performed a randomized double-blind controlled experiment to evaluate the effects of 5-day WMT coupled with tDCS in healthy older adults. Fifty-four participants were assigned to one of three groups: 1) WMT (dual n-back task)+active tDCS (atDCS); 2) WMT+sham tDCS (stDCS); or 3) sham task + sham tDCS. During the training, both groups that performed the dual n-back task (WMT+atDCS; WMT+stDCS) improved throughout sessions, with no significant differences between them. However, the “WMT+atDCS” was the only group that presented gains in Gf and verbal STM after training (i.e., next day after the intervention) and at follow-up (i.e., 15 days follow-up). Finally, in the fourth study, we explored whether ERP components (i.e., P2, P3b and the LPC - late positive complex) are associated with Gf in the elderly. Fifty-seven participants performed a continuous performance task and a visual oddball paradigm while EEG was recorded. They were divided into high-performance (HP) and low performance (LP) groups according to their performance in the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices test (RAPM). HP group presented significant higher LPC amplitudes in the CPT and shorter P3b latencies in the oddball task when compared to the LP group.","O treino da memória de trabalho (WMT) tem sido usado para promover neuroplasticidade em idosos e a ETCC tem sido adotada para potencializar seus efeitos. No entanto, não há evidências robustas da eficácia do WMT e os poucos estudos que avaliaram a combinação da ETCC com o WMT usaram tarefas cognitivas como medidas. O uso de diferentes marcadores, como os potenciais evocados (ERPs), pode ser útil para entender melhor os efeitos dessas intervenções. Assim, os estudos desta dissertação objetivaram avaliar os efeitos do WMT, bem como, os efeitos adicionais da ETCC. Dada a necessidade de usar diferentes parâmetros para mensurar a neuroplasticidade induzida pelo WMT, um objetivo adicional foi avaliar se os ERPs procedem como índices de inteligência fluida (Gf), um construto comumente avaliado para inferir generalização do WMT. No primeiro estudo, apresentamos uma meta-análise sobre os efeitos do WMT em idosos. Foram observados pequenos e duradouros ganhos na memória de trabalho (WM), mas não na memória a curto prazo (STM) e Gf. O tipo de tarefas treinadas, as medidas adotadas e a duração/número total de horas de treino moderaram os efeitos. No segundo estudo, realizamos uma revisão sistemática sobre o uso de ETCC para melhorar a WM em idosos saudáveis. Os estudos sugerem que a ETCC pode modular a WM nessa população, aumentando a precisão e reduzindo o tempo de reação. No terceiro estudo, foi realizado um experimento aleatório duplo-cego para avaliar os efeitos do WMT associados à ETCC. Cinquenta e quatro idosos foram designados para um de três grupos: 1) WMT (tarefa dual n-back) + ETCC ativa (aETCC); 2) WMT + sham ETCC (sETCC); ou 3) tarefa placebo + sham ETCC. Durante o treino, os dois grupos que realizaram a tarefa dual n-back (WMT+aETCC; WMT+sETCC) melhoram ao longo das sessões, sem diferenças significativas entre eles. No entanto, o \"WMT + aETCC\" foi o único grupo que apresentou ganhos na Gf e STM após o treino e no seguimento de 15 dias. Por fim, no quarto estudo, exploramos se os componentes dos ERPs (P2, P3b e LPC – late positive complex) estão associados à Gf. Cinquenta e sete idosos realizaram uma tarefa de desempenho contínuo (CPT) e um oddbball visual enquanto o EEG era gravado. Participantes foram divididos em grupos de alto desempenho (HP) e baixo desempenho (LP) de acordo com seu desempenho na Matrizes Progressivas Avançadas de Raven (RAPM). O grupo HP apresentou amplitudes superiores no LPC evocado pela tarefa CPT e latências mais curtas na P3b evocada pela oddball quando comparado com o grupo LP."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Working memory and neuroplasticity in older people: a behavioural and neurofunctional approach"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Sampaio, Adriana","Carvalho, Sandra"],"dc:creator":["Teixeira Santos, Ana Carolina"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2022-03-11T15:19:27Z"],"dc:date.available":["2022-03-11T15:19:27Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2020-06-16"],"dc:description.abstract":["Working memory training (WMT) has been used to promote neuroplasticity in older people and tDCS has been proposed to boost WMT effects. Nevertheless, there is not robust evidence of WMT effectiveness and the few studies assessing the combination of tDCS with WMT used cognitive tasks as endpoints. However, the use of different markers, as the event-related potentials (ERPs), can be useful to better understand the combined or individual effects of these interventions. Thus, the studies presented in this dissertation aimed to assess WMT effects, as well as, the add-on effects of tDCS. Given the need to use different endpoints to measures WMT-induced neuroplasticity, an additional aim was to assess if the ERPs can be used as indexes of fluid intelligence (Gf), a commonly assessed constructed to infer generalization of WMT. In the first study, we presented a meta-analysis on the effects of WMT in healthy elderly. Small significant and long-lasting gains were observed in working memory (WM), but not in short-term memory (STM) and Gf tasks. Type of training tasks, the adopted outcome measures, the training duration, and the total number of training hours moderated WMT effects. In the second study, we performed a systematic review on the uses of tDCS to boost WM in healthy older adults. The studies suggest that tDCS may modulate WM in this population, improving the accuracy and shortening the reaction time. In the third study, we performed a randomized double-blind controlled experiment to evaluate the effects of 5-day WMT coupled with tDCS in healthy older adults. Fifty-four participants were assigned to one of three groups: 1) WMT (dual n-back task)+active tDCS (atDCS); 2) WMT+sham tDCS (stDCS); or 3) sham task + sham tDCS. During the training, both groups that performed the dual n-back task (WMT+atDCS; WMT+stDCS) improved throughout sessions, with no significant differences between them. However, the “WMT+atDCS” was the only group that presented gains in Gf and verbal STM after training (i.e., next day after the intervention) and at follow-up (i.e., 15 days follow-up). Finally, in the fourth study, we explored whether ERP components (i.e., P2, P3b and the LPC - late positive complex) are associated with Gf in the elderly. Fifty-seven participants performed a continuous performance task and a visual oddball paradigm while EEG was recorded. They were divided into high-performance (HP) and low performance (LP) groups according to their performance in the Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices test (RAPM). HP group presented significant higher LPC amplitudes in the CPT and shorter P3b latencies in the oddball task when compared to the LP group.","O treino da memória de trabalho (WMT) tem sido usado para promover neuroplasticidade em idosos e a ETCC tem sido adotada para potencializar seus efeitos. No entanto, não há evidências robustas da eficácia do WMT e os poucos estudos que avaliaram a combinação da ETCC com o WMT usaram tarefas cognitivas como medidas. O uso de diferentes marcadores, como os potenciais evocados (ERPs), pode ser útil para entender melhor os efeitos dessas intervenções. Assim, os estudos desta dissertação objetivaram avaliar os efeitos do WMT, bem como, os efeitos adicionais da ETCC. Dada a necessidade de usar diferentes parâmetros para mensurar a neuroplasticidade induzida pelo WMT, um objetivo adicional foi avaliar se os ERPs procedem como índices de inteligência fluida (Gf), um construto comumente avaliado para inferir generalização do WMT. No primeiro estudo, apresentamos uma meta-análise sobre os efeitos do WMT em idosos. Foram observados pequenos e duradouros ganhos na memória de trabalho (WM), mas não na memória a curto prazo (STM) e Gf. O tipo de tarefas treinadas, as medidas adotadas e a duração/número total de horas de treino moderaram os efeitos. No segundo estudo, realizamos uma revisão sistemática sobre o uso de ETCC para melhorar a WM em idosos saudáveis. Os estudos sugerem que a ETCC pode modular a WM nessa população, aumentando a precisão e reduzindo o tempo de reação. No terceiro estudo, foi realizado um experimento aleatório duplo-cego para avaliar os efeitos do WMT associados à ETCC. Cinquenta e quatro idosos foram designados para um de três grupos: 1) WMT (tarefa dual n-back) + ETCC ativa (aETCC); 2) WMT + sham ETCC (sETCC); ou 3) tarefa placebo + sham ETCC. Durante o treino, os dois grupos que realizaram a tarefa dual n-back (WMT+aETCC; WMT+sETCC) melhoram ao longo das sessões, sem diferenças significativas entre eles. No entanto, o \"WMT + aETCC\" foi o único grupo que apresentou ganhos na Gf e STM após o treino e no seguimento de 15 dias. Por fim, no quarto estudo, exploramos se os componentes dos ERPs (P2, P3b e LPC – late positive complex) estão associados à Gf. Cinquenta e sete idosos realizaram uma tarefa de desempenho contínuo (CPT) e um oddbball visual enquanto o EEG era gravado. Participantes foram divididos em grupos de alto desempenho (HP) e baixo desempenho (LP) de acordo com seu desempenho na Matrizes Progressivas Avançadas de Raven (RAPM). O grupo HP apresentou amplitudes superiores no LPC evocado pela tarefa CPT e latências mais curtas na P3b evocada pela oddball quando comparado com o grupo LP."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/1822/76490"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:rights":["openAccess"],"dc:rights.uri":["http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"],"dc:subject":["Fluid intelligence","Late positive complex","Older adults","P3b","tDCS","Working memory training","ETCC","Idosos","Inteligência fluída","LPC","Treino da memória operatória"],"dc:title":["Working memory and neuroplasticity in older people: a behavioural and neurofunctional approach"],"dc:type":["doctoralThesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Tese de doutoramento em Psicologia Básica"],"thesis:institution_name":["Universidade do Minho"]},"updated_at":"2026-08-21T16:46:36Z"}