Active training of one's working memory alters the biochemistry of the brain

More dopamine!

The most interesting thing about science is how slow and steady it is, only proceeding to Step B after Step A has been well mapped out, which is why you'll often see people responding to the results of a study in the newspaper with "well duh, I already knew that", because a lot of the time it's just a confirmation of common sense, using experimentation to make sure that what seems to be true actually is. Sometimes however, as with the case of Galileo's experiment from the Tower of Pisa, science will end up disproving something that otherwise would be thought of as common sense.

In this study however, we have another confirmation of something a lot of us have felt: that we feel smarter after intense periods of study. It turns out that yes, it does alter the biochemistry of the brain. The article states:

"Brain biochemistry doesn't just underpin our mental activity; our mental activity and thinking process can also affect the biochemistry," says Professor Torkel Klingberg, who led the study. "This hasn't been demonstrated in humans before, and opens up a floodgate of fascinating questions."

There's also a proverb related to this, attributed I think to Benjamin Franklin or Thomas Jefferson (but I could be wrong as I can't find it) that goes something along the lines of "if you can't obtain a certain state of mind, then just act that way anyway".

Back to the article - how much intensive training is needed?

Professor Klingberg and his colleagues have previously shown that the working memory can be improved with a few weeks' intensive training. Through a collaborative project conducted under the Stockholm Brain Institute, the researchers have now taken a step further and monitored the brain using Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans), and have confirmed that intensive brain training leads to a change in the number of dopamine D1 receptors in the cortex.

"Intensive training" - not sure exactly what this refers to, but I assume it has something to do with various tasks like remembering and identifying patterns, making calculations and whatnot. I assume that a few weeks of intensive training in a language or musical instrument would accomplish the same thing and would give the students an applicable new skill too.